Coster Girls & Mudlarks

A fascinating anthology of voices from Victorian London, from crossing sweepers and watercress girls to flower sellers and acrobats. Hollyer has chosen a wide range of extracts from the books of the newspaper journalist Henry Mayhew, who interviewed hundreds of people, mostly the poor, on the streets and in their homes. Some are poignant, others funny, but all give an extraordinary insight into how life was lived 150 years ago. An introduction and footnotes help the reader to understand the historical context and Victorian attitudes to the poor. There are also helpful notes about money and what it was worth. Scattered throughout are cartoons from Punch, engravings and best of all photographs, especially those of children. We learn what a street boy might eat for supper (eels or pickled whelks, hot potatoes and ginger beer) or what a penny might buy (a glass of sherbet), and the range of items to be bought in Leather Lane (from crabs and combs to eggs and eels). We hear the street cries, the songs and hurdy gurdy. But it is the children’s voices that resonate: ‘I do dread the winter’, ‘our stomachs used to ache with the hunger and we would cry’, ‘If I was sick, there’s only the parish for me’. A marvellous resource for history projects or just for dipping into.