In the nineteenth century, the social investigator was a prominent feature of society, with the increase of government intervention and middle-class charity being notable signifiers of this. Inquiries into the conditions of the working-class or pauper class were common occurrences, with the focus often being on the “moral and intellectual condition” of the population; these findings were generally then published in reports and accompanied by statistical tables.^[1] This focus on the moral condition of the slum influenced the level of help they received from both charities and the Poor Laws. It was mutually dictated that any and all help provided to the poor must be done with the aiming of improving the poor character, with “cash subsidy” be provided only when nothing further can be done.^[2] However, this aid was not to be provided by the social investigator, their primary role was to investigate conditions, such as the “educational, physical and criminal conditions” of the slum, not provide relief.^[3] In order to explore the role of the social investigator to the fullest extent, the following will be considered: the role of gender, crime in the slum, family identity, substance abuse and class distinctions.

Femininity and gender were at the centre of the social investigation in the late nineteenth century. In the Victorian era, this work was dependent on the voluntary work of female ‘visitors’, more commonly known as social investigators.^[4] Female social investigators were essential to investigative work as shown as it was suggested that in the nineteenth century deferring one’s own desire to enhance the lives of others was at the centre of the middle-class female’s domestic life.^[5] The work of female social investigators, and how social investigators as a whole depicted gender in the slum will be explored more fully in this section of the exhibition.

Crime was a prevalent aspect of the slums in London. Occupants of Clerkenwell slums in London were described as ‘receivers of stolen goods, which … are openly spread out for sale’, highlighting the openness of the crime that took place by the inhabitants of the slums in Victorian England.^[6]  Often seen as easier to let crime take place as opposed to control it, there were few limitations to the spread of crime as the issue was overcrowding as ‘overcrowding was the most obvious characteristic of urban housing’, which saw an abundance in crime, with petty theft and burglary being the most common occurring.^[7]  Poverty was high in slums, but more so in areas such as dock cities and slums central to cities.

Substances abuse and alcoholism were a cause of moral panic in the Victorian period; as a result social investigators were increasingly interested in the cause of substance dependency which was rife within the working class.^[8] However, when trying to comprehend how readily available alcohol and drugs where in the victorian slums, social investigators proved useful insight. The main point of observation when studying substance abuse in the Victorian period is the road to reformation, and the impact of social investigators, relating to the level of substance abuse in the Victorian working class, interlinking the high trends of female alcoholism and the correlation to crime.

Family life in the British slums was one of poverty and squalor, with the cramped housing conditions leading to overcrowding and spread of diseases such as Cholera. This social problem, amongst others discussed within our blog ultimately established the work of social investigators and resulted in several different reforms to improve Britain’s slums. The conditions in which families were subjected to had an immediate effect on how they lived as a whole, with their homes often described to be ‘…built in narrow streets, alleys and courts, lacking street paving, street lighting and adequate water supply, sewerage and all the amenities which make life decent for the citizen of society’, leading to family housing becoming a prominent issue for social investigators.^[9] Housing and life for lower class families will be the main focal point of this section, allowing other avenues such as disease and community spirit to be explored further too.

An element of class boundaries is evident throughout Nineteenth Century society and this has a clear impact on how the role of the social investigator was conducted. Middle class elites viewed the slums as a form of entertainment; a spectacle of how the lower classes lived and worked.[10] Social investigators such as Booth combated the sensationalism that had previously shrouded the slums, and aimed to challenge not only how different classes viewed the slums, but to report in a way that would allow the middle classes to engage with the slum through methods such as “social cartography”.[11]  The research completed around issues within the slums such as prostitution and crime became an inspiration for the publication of Booth’s poverty maps. These poverty maps not only naturally conclude previous research, but highlight how class influenced their role within society as they portray a geographical summary of poverty. The role of class within the slums and how class boundaries and stereotypes were broken by the social investigators and their work will be explored further. A conclusion of how reports, such as the poverty maps, will be made in order to evaluate the social impact of class within the slums.

References

^[1] Thompson, E. P., and Yeo, E., The Unknown Mayhew, (London: Merlin Press, 1971), p. 53

^[2] Summers, S., ‘A Home Form Home – Women’s Philanthropic Work in the Nineteenth Century’, in Burman, S., Fit Work for Women, (London: Croom Helm in association with Oxford University Women’s Studies Committee, 1979), p. 53

^[3] McGregor, O. R., ‘Social Research and Social Policy in the Nineteenth Century’, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Jun., 1957), p. 147

^[4] Summers, S., ‘A Home Form Home – Women’s Philanthropic Work in the Nineteenth Century’, in Burman, S., Fit Work for Women, (London: Croom Helm in association with Oxford University Women’s Studies Committee, 1979), p. 33

^[5] Brooke-Cameron, S. and Dunleavy, M., ‘Angels of the Slum: Women and Slumming in Margaret Harkness’s In Darkest London’, Papers on Language and Literature, Vol. 51, Issue 2 (2015), p. 130

^[6] Trollope. T. A., ‘What I Remember’, (London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1887), p.11

^[7] Anthony Wohl – ‘The Eternal Slum – Housing and Social Policy in Victorian London’, (Transaction Publisher: Piscataway, 2001)

^[8] Mervyn London, “History Of Addiction: A UK Perspective”, The American Journal On Addictions,, 14.97 (2005).

^[9] Anon, Manuscripts and special collections: overcrowding and disease, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, available online: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/learning/healthhousing/theme1/overcrowding.aspx Date accessed: 19 November 2018.

[10] Vaughan, L., Mapping Society: The Spatial Dimensions of Social Cartography (London: UCL press, 2018) page 27-29

[11] LSE library: Charles Booth London, ’What were the poverty maps’, available online: https://booth.lse.ac.uk/learn-more/what-were-the-poverty-maps date accessed: 29/11/2018

Illustrations

Figure 1: ‘The Earl of Shaftesbury exploring the slums of London 1840’ Available online: https://www-bridgemaneducation-com.ezproxy.derby.ac.uk/en/asset/583340/summary?context=%7B%22route%22%3A%22assets_search%22%2C%22routeParameters%22%3A%7B%22_format%22%3A%22html%22%2C%22_locale%22%3A%22en%22%2C%22filter_text%22%3A%22slums%22%7D%7D      Date Accessed: 29/11/18

Figure 2: Anon, Field Lane Lodging-House, British Library, London. Available online: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/slums Date accessed: 29/11/18