Comments on: John Thomson’s Street Life

By: Boudica Redd

Boudica Redd — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 13:18:42 +0000

Great pics this was a always said it if you had a chimney sweep at you’re wedding it would bring you luck

By: David Green

David Green — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 00:02:33 +0000

“The “Crawlers” – “old women reduced by vice and poverty to that degree of wretchedness which destroys even the energy to beg.”

Or perhaps she was just poor? Or mentally ill? Or a victim of the inhumane ‘justice’ system of the day, with as a woman, no rights to speak of?

The moralising tone of so many of these captions, denigrating people for being poor, is really appalling.

By: David Green

David Green — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 23:54:29 +0000

“Itinerant Photographer on Clapham Common”

Interesting indeed. Having been an art photographer in the days of film, trotting about with my 4×5 camera and tripod, sheet film holders, dark cloth, it was cumbersome albeit a rewarding pastime. Imagine those itinerant men, with not film even, but tintype in this gentleman’s case; where he had to coat the plate on site with emulsion, place it still wet in the camera, estimate the optimum exposure, and then process it on site, using mercury vapour no less!

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 15:47:11 +0000

This is a towering grouping of photos. I looked through the first time to observe the people, the second time for the conveyances and things-with-wheels, the third time for the backgrounds, the fourth time for the typography……Well, you get the idea.

Surely, this is visible evidence of the grand quote: “The man who is tired of London is tired of life.” Why, this is life itself.

Amazing. GA, you spoil us every day.

By: paul loften

paul loften — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 13:30:38 +0000

You have cut us a slice of London life that only a traveller in time could observe. Thank you GA , John Thomson and the Bishopsgate Institute for carrying us back into this era and coming face to face with the people.

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 12:43:05 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, what a fabulous collections of old London photos. Well said, “When I look at these vivid pictures, I am always startled by the power of the gaze of those who look straight at the lens and connect with us directly, while there is a plangent sadness to those with eyes cast down in subservience, holding an internal focus and lost in time.”

Had to look up “plangent” – melancholy.

Makes us appreciate modern life, especially a handy washer and dryer, eh? Life was so hard then…

By: Richard Smith

Richard Smith — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 12:32:28 +0000

Clearly life was very, very hard for ordinary folk with a daily struggle to survive. The good old days? I think not. Thank you GA.

By: Achim

Achim — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 10:01:39 +0000

Fascinating insight into the late 19th century in London. Life, work and poverty were omnipresent, but even today these kinds of contexts still exist.

Love & Peace
ACHIM

By: Bob Ball

Bob Ball — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 09:39:36 +0000

Really enjoyed this GA. Especially, like you, imagining the lives they were leading at the time these fleeting images were taken. Noticing that the “street doctor” had a massively built up right shoe. Something I remember seeing years ago but not recently. The chimney sweep who preached sobriety. The house I live in was built in 1870 and these pictures bring back a world that I am sitting in 150 years later

By: Greg T

Greg T — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 09:28:28 +0000

I’m reminded of “Mayhew”
IIRC: – “London Life & London Poor”