Baildon Street: The Blackest Street in Deptford?

Tools

Price, John. 2024. Baildon Street: The Blackest Street in Deptford? The London Journal, 49(2), pp. 167-187. ISSN 0305-8034 [Article]

No full text available

Text
Price_AAM_Baildon_Street_London_Journal.pdf - Accepted Version
Permissions: Administrator Access Only until 22 October 2025.
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.
Download (376kB)

Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/03058034.2024.2354080

Abstract or Description

In 1899, one of Charles Booth's investigators, George Arkell, visited Deptford to revise the classifications provided on Booth's Descriptive Map of London Poverty 1889. Arkell was more shocked and offended by Baildon Street than any other street he visited in Deptford. He was scathing in his comments and assessment of the street, and decided that it should remain coloured black, meaning ‘Lowest class. Vicious, semi-criminal’—an assessment that Booth agreed with. This article takes issue with Booth's assessment of Baildon Street and, in particular, with George Arkell's comments and the picture he painted of the lives and living conditions of those who resided there. The article shows that Baildon Street was not a chaotic place of social transience, nor was it a place systemically rife with prostitution, crime, violence, and child neglect. It also reveals the surprising ideas and factors that influenced Arkell in his investigative work.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1080/03058034.2024.2354080