Discover the seamy history of nineteenth-century England that has inspired countless crime novels and films.
Victorian London: All over the city, watches, purses, and handkerchiefs disappear from pockets; goods migrate from warehouses, off docks, and out of shop windows. Burglaries are rife, shoplifting is carried on in West End stores, and people fall victim to all kinds of ingenious swindles. Pornographers proliferate and an estimated eighty thousand prostitutes operate on the city’s streets. Even worse, the vulnerable are robbed in dark alleys or garroted, a new kind of mugging in which the victim is half-strangled from behind while being stripped of his possessions.
This history takes you to nineteenth-century London’s grimy rookeries, home to thousands of the city’s poorest and most desperate residents. Explore the crime-ridden slums, flash houses, and gin palaces from a unique street-level view—and meet the people who inhabited them.

Gilfillan, Ross

Pen & Sword Books Limited

Pen & Sword Aviation

Pen & Sword Military

Pen & Sword Social

Pen and Sword

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

Place of publication not identified, 2014

2, 2014-03-03

2022

'Crime loomed large in the minds of Victorian Londoners. All over the city, watches, purses and handkerchiefs disappear from pockets, goods migrate from warehouses, off docks and out of shop windows. Burglaries are rife, shoplifting is carried on in West End stores and people fall victim to all kinds of ingenious swindles.#8232;#8232;'Pornographers proliferate and an estimated 80,000 prostitutes operate on London's streets. The vulnerable are robbed in dark alleys or garroted, a new kind of mugging in which the victim is half-strangled from behind while being stripped of his possessions...'#8232;#8232;Discover Victorian London's grimy rookeries, home to thousands of the city's poorest and most desperate residents. Explore the crime-ridden slums, flash houses and gin palaces from a unique street-level view and meet the people who inhabited them. #8232;#8232;Ross Gilfillan uncovers London's lost criminal past in this fascinating account of nineteenth century low-life. Come face to face with pickpockets snatching pocket watches; pornographers peddling guides to lewd London; swindlers deluding the unwary and murderers whose deeds made the headlines and shocked their readers; right through to the consequences of their crimes prison, transportation, or the gallows!#8232;#8232;As featured in the East Anglian Daily Times and Iceni Magazine. [Elib]

Crime loomed large in the minds of Victorian Londoners. All over the city, watches, purses and handkerchiefs disappear from pockets, goods migrate from warehouses, off docks and out of shop windows. Burglaries are rife, shoplifting is carried on in West End stores and people fall victim to all kinds of ingenious swindles. 'Pornographers proliferate and an estimated 80,000 prostitutes operate on London's streets. The vulnerable are robbed in dark alleys or garroted, a new kind of mugging in which the victim is half-strangled from behind while being stripped of his possessions ... ' Discover Victo

2023-08-29