Charles Booth’s detailed poverty maps of Victorian London vividly depict the city’s stark social and economic divisions in the late 19th century, using a colour-coded system to represent the living conditions of its residents. Streets marked in black and dark blue signified areas of “very poor” inhabitants living in “chronic want,” while light blue indicated poorer sections with modest incomes, pink denoted those “fairly comfortable,” and yellow represented wealthier neighbourhoods. These maps are considered pioneering social research tools, comparable to modern indices of deprivation that assess socio-economic disadvantage across the United Kingdom.
An exhibition titled "A Place to Call Home," currently on display at Senate House library in London, explores the evolution of housing and poverty in the city over the past 200 years, using Booth’s maps as a foundational reference. The display highlights how London’s housing landscape has changed since Victorian times, noting the clearance of historic slums and overall improvements in housing quality, while emphasising persistent disparities where extreme poverty and wealth continue to exist side by side.
The exhibition, a collaborative effort between the University of London and the London School of Economics (LSE), also examines key moments in housing history, including wartime and postwar redevelopment, the emergence of social housing estates, shifts in housing policy, as well as issues of eviction and squatting. Visitors can compare Booth’s maps with contemporary deprivation indices via interactive displays, enabling them to trace how social conditions in specific postcodes have transformed—or endured—over time.
Curators have incorporated individual stories from Booth’s research notebooks, which contain interviews with working-class Londoners. One such narrative chronicles a chorus girl from Drury Lane Theatre discussing the costs of everyday items, reflecting the personal experiences behind broader statistical data. According to Indy Bhullar, a curator from LSE, these personal accounts help bridge the gap between past and present, giving visitors a human connection to the city’s history.
Among the exhibition’s rarer artifacts is a collection of pamphlets from the Hampstead Tenants’ Defence League, dating from 1936 to 1939. These pamphlets document early examples of tenant activism, including protests, rent strikes, and opposition to slum clearances, showcasing community resistance to local council policies. The pamphlets shed light on a lesser-known chapter of London’s housing history, underscoring ongoing struggles around housing rights and tenant protections.
The exhibition underscores a continuous thread through London’s history: while the forms of deprivation may have evolved, issues of housing inequality and social disadvantage remain entrenched in the city’s fabric. As Mura Ghosh, an academic librarian and curator, observes, the exhibition highlights a continuum of change and persistence in the city’s housing conditions from the Victorian era to the present day.