Hampstead & St John's Wood from Booth's Poverty Map of London

BOOTH, Charles.

Map G Hampstead and St John's Wood (1900). [&] Map E. - Inner North West (1900).
London, 1900. Lithographic map with original hand colour. Two sheets conjoined, total 470 x 525mm.

Binding folds flattened, keys placed at bottom margin, laid on linen.

Two sections (of twenty) of the 1900 edition of Booth's Poverty Map joined, showing Hampstead, St John's Wood, Primrose Hill, Kilburn, Kenish Town, Camden Town and Old St Pancras. All of Regent's Park is included. The keys give seven colour codes for the degree of wealth of the inhabitants (ranging from black - 'Lowest class', through shades of blue and purple - 'Poor', 'Mixed', 'Fairly Comfortable', to red - 'Well to do' and yellow - 'Wealthy').
Booth (1840-1916), owner of the Booth Shipping Line, acted in response to an 1886 Pall Mall Gazette article that claimed that 25% of Londoners lived in poverty. Booth regarded this figure as wildly exaggerated, so recruited a team of volunteer researchers to compile an analysis of social conditions based on field visits and interviews with local police, clergy and employers. The first volume of 'Life and Labour' (1889), covering the East End, showed that 35% lived in poverty. The second series, covering the rest of the city (1891) showed that no less than 30 per cent of the city's total population could be classed as poor.

See HYDE: Victorian Maps of London, 252.
Stock ID : 17459