London illustrations by Gustave Doré
In 1869 the journalist Blanchard Jerrold (1826-1884) joined forces with the famous French artist Gustave Doré (1832-1883) to produce an illustrated record of the ‘shadows and sunlight’ of London. As Jerrold later recalled, they spent many days and nights exploring the capital, often protected by plain-clothes policemen. They visited night refuges, cheap lodging houses and the opium den described by Charles Dickens in the sinister opening chapter of The Mystery of Edwin Drood; they travelled up and down the river and attended fashionable events at Lambeth Palace, the boat race and the Derby. The ambitious project, which took four years to complete, was eventually published as London: a pilgrimage with 180 engravings.
Contemporary critics had severe reservations about the book. Doré disliked sketching in public so there were many errors of detail; it showed only the extremes of society, and Jerrold’s text was superficial. Both were transfixed by the deprivation, squalor and wretchedness of the lives of the poor, even though they realised that London was changing and some of the worst social evils were beginning to be addressed. Despite these criticisms, Doré’s work has become celebrated for its dramatic use of light and shade, and the power of his images to capture the atmosphere of mid-Victorian London.
Victorian London - Publications - Social Investigation/Journalism - London : A pilgrimage, by Gustave Dore and Blanchard Jerrold, 1872
This work is available with the excellent pictures, but broken down into tiny sections, at
Text only version below :
CHAPTER 1 London Bridge
CHAPTER 2 The Busy River-Side
CHAPTER 3 The Docks
CHAPTER 4 Above Bridge to Westminster
CHAPTER 5 All London at a Boat Race
CHAPTER 6 The Race
CHAPTER 7 The Derby
CHAPTER 8 London on the Downs
CHAPTER 9 The West End
CHAPTER 10 In the Season
CHAPTER 11 By the Abbey
CHAPTER 12 London, Under Green Leaves
CHAPTER 13 With the Beasts
CHAPTER 14 Work-a-day London
CHAPTER 15 Humble Industries
CHAPTER 16 The Town of Malt
CHAPTER 17 Under Lock and Key
CHAPTER 18 Whitechapel and Thereabouts
CHAPTER 19 In the Market Places
CHAPTER 20 London at Play
CHAPTER 21 London Charity
CHAPTER 2 The Busy River-Side
CHAPTER 3 The Docks
CHAPTER 4 Above Bridge to Westminster
CHAPTER 5 All London at a Boat Race
CHAPTER 6 The Race
CHAPTER 7 The Derby
CHAPTER 8 London on the Downs
CHAPTER 9 The West End
CHAPTER 10 In the Season
CHAPTER 11 By the Abbey
CHAPTER 12 London, Under Green Leaves
CHAPTER 13 With the Beasts
CHAPTER 14 Work-a-day London
CHAPTER 15 Humble Industries
CHAPTER 16 The Town of Malt
CHAPTER 17 Under Lock and Key
CHAPTER 18 Whitechapel and Thereabouts
CHAPTER 19 In the Market Places
CHAPTER 20 London at Play
CHAPTER 21 London Charity
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- Nov 25, 2014
304 p., 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
40 b/w illus.
ISBN: 9780300192056
Cloth: $38.00 sc - SEE OTHER ONLINE VENDORS
- ALSO AVAILABLE IN PAPER: $22.00
Dirty Old London
The Victorian Fight Against Filth
- Lee Jackson
| REVIEWS | PREVIEW | CONTENTS | EXCERPTS |
In Victorian London, filth was everywhere: horse traffic filled the streets with dung, household rubbish went uncollected, cesspools brimmed with "night soil," graveyards teemed with rotting corpses, the air itself was choked with smoke. In this intimately visceral book, Lee Jackson guides us through the underbelly of the Victorian metropolis, introducing us to the men and women who struggled to stem a rising tide of pollution and dirt, and the forces that opposed them.
Through thematic chapters, Jackson describes how Victorian reformers met with both triumph and disaster. Full of individual stories and overlooked details—from the dustmen who grew rich from recycling, to the peculiar history of the public toilet—this riveting book gives us a fresh insight into the minutiae of daily life and the wider challenges posed by the unprecedented growth of the Victorian capital.
Through thematic chapters, Jackson describes how Victorian reformers met with both triumph and disaster. Full of individual stories and overlooked details—from the dustmen who grew rich from recycling, to the peculiar history of the public toilet—this riveting book gives us a fresh insight into the minutiae of daily life and the wider challenges posed by the unprecedented growth of the Victorian capital.
Lee Jackson is a well-known Victorianist and creator of a preeminent website on Victorian London (www.victorianlondon.org).
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