Walking with Booth: Deptford 1899

A walking tour exploring Victorian Deptford through the eyes of social investigator Charles Booth and his famous poverty map. In the late nineteenth century, Charles Booth undertook a systematic investigation of the social, cultural and economic conditions that shaped Londoners’ everyday lives. A striking feature of Booth’s work were the Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, where one of seven colours were attributed to individual streets depending upon the level of poverty of the inhabitants; yellow for the wealthy, down to black for the vicious and semi-criminal. Drawing directly from Booth’s original notebooks, this walk was a partial re-creation of one of the walks around Deptford in 1899. Walking the route today not only provides a valuable opportunity to reengage with the historical context, it also highlights the developing and ever-evolving nature of the modern city.