London Labour and the London Poor, Vol. 2

by Henry Mayhew

"London Labour and the London Poor, Vol. 2" by Henry Mayhew is a work of Victorian journalism published in 1851. Through extensive street-level reporting, Mayhew documented the lives of London's working poor with forensic detail. He conducted candid interviews with thousands—from rat catchers to street sellers to mudlarks scavenging the Thames—revealing their trades, habits, and precarious existence. Combining vivid descriptions with statistical analysis, Mayhew captured a teeming metropolis where countless people survived through now-forgotten occupations driven by poverty and obsolete markets.