Descriptive Map of East End Poverty, Compiled from School Board Visitors' Report in 1887.; Booth's Seminal 'Poverty Map' by BOOTH, Charles - 1889

London: Charles Booth, 1889. Map. Original hand coloring. Sheet measures 14" x 19" Map. Original hand coloring. Sheet measures 14" x 19". This important map 1889 was the first to be published in Charles Booth's seminal work, 'Labour and Life of the People in London, volume I: East London'. The incredibly detailed map includes Whitechapel, St. George's-in-the-East, Stepney, Mile End Old Town, Bethnal Green, most of Shoreditch, and part of Poplar. An early example of social cartography, the map is color coded to present the income and social class of the city's population. The 'general condition of the inhabitants' include the 'Well-to-do, Fairly comfortable, Mixed with poverty, Poor, Very poor, lowest class vicious, semi criminal'. Individual buildings, landmarks, parks, railroads, canals, etc. are labeled. The East London part of the map (the area shown in this map), was prepared in 1887 based on the information from the School Board Visitors' Reports. The full survey was published in 1891 and included the 'Wealthy Class', which does not appear on this map. According to Booth, over a third of London's inhabitants lived on or below the margin of poverty. This can mainly be attributed to the overcrowded housing and surplus of labor. in 1891 John Henry Mackay wrote ' The East End of London is the hell of poverty. Like one enormous black, motionless giant kraken, the poverty of London lies there in lurking silence and encircles with its mighty tentacles the life and wealth of the City'. Dissected into 8 parts and mounted on linen. The map is in good condition with minor wear along the fold lines and minor staining. Narrow left margin. Charles James Booth (1840 - 1916) was an English social reformer and researcher famous for documenting working class life in London during the later part of the 19th century. As a response to a Pall Mall Gazette article in 1886, which claimed that 25% of Londoners lived in poverty, Booth hired a team of volunteer researchers to investigate the poverty of London and to prove that the figure stated by the Gazette was highly exaggerated. His research however showed that 35% of the population was living in abject poverty a figure higher than the original estimated by the Gazette. He published his research in a multi-volume survey. His 'Poverty Maps' are perhaps the most distinctive product of his 'Inquiry into Life and Labor of the People'.