History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Charles Booth’s ‘Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People in London’ undertaken between 1886 and 1903, was conducted as a series of interviews. Liverpool-born Booth was a shipowner and sociologist. He financed and devised one of the most comprehensive oral surveys of London life, covering poverty, industry and religious influences. It included the creation of a series of ‘poverty’ maps. These were coloured to show the status of the residents, street by street, from the poorest to the very wealthiest. Here is an example of the local poverty map, but it is not possible to see the detail in this blog. The interviews included talking to the local clergymen, and their comments in 1898 and 1899 form the basis of this blog story, with additional material from policemen who walked the investigators around their beats. Locally, it was Inspector Wayman who described some of the streets and their residents. He had been based in West Hampstead for four years, and was described as a ‘melanc...