The Lady On The Step - The Crawlers Of Victorian London.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- One of the best known, and oft used, portraits depicting poverty in Victorian London is the haunting image of a destitute lady sitting on a step.
In this video we take a close look at the photograph, exploring some of the artefacts that feature in it, and revealing what part they played in the lady's daily battle for survival on the streets of the 19th century metropolis.
We also learn how the photograph came to be taken, and tell the story of the "crawlers", a specific set of destitute poor that were to be found on the streets of London in the reign of Queen Victoria.
The video ends with a look at the life story of the lady on the step.
00:00 - Introduction To The Lady On The Step
00:02:12 - The Photograph Taken By John Thomson
00:02:30 - John Thomson and Adolphe Smith’s “Street Life In London”
00:04:40 - The “Crawlers” of St Giles
00:09:07 - A Biography of the woman on the step
00:11:07 - How she can “redeem” herself
00:12:00 - The child on her lap
00:13:23 - Conclusion
00:14:57 - A slideshow of images from “Street Life In London”
00:16:12 - Closing Credits
Like many, I have seen this photograph many times and was always struck by the sheer misery and despair of the poor lady. Thank you for giving her some of her identity, despite not having her name.
Even in dire poverty ,she has dignity . She is indeed a Lady .
Well done video . Thank you .
Just cannot imagine what life was like for these people. No wonder they all looked years older than they were at the time of the photo.
In a way we have lived those times ,or at least our genes have with our ancestors
Sickness and poverty can age people real quick, tooth loss, lack of body fat, filth. This is why modern society have state welfare programs to allow people the minimum. But growing homeless population in USA is just the latest iteration of poverty creating subhuman conditions.
Every time someone talks about how life was better in the old days I wish I had copies of some of these photos. Even in the 20th century life was not idyllic.
I grew up in a working class society in the N W of England in the 1950s. We children did not realise how bad things were. We didnt have tv ads to show us what we didnt have but our parents struggled and just had to look at things they would have liked to buy for us.
Good grief! The disparity between the face of Victorian England that was presented to the world and that which it so guardedly hid from view is so jarring. You are remembered here, dear lady. RIP 🌹
The suffering of these people... After all this time their pain still hits me like a dagger and brings tears to my eyes, man is an animal and should be judged for how it treats it's poor and disadvantaged, and to think that some religious people see poverty as being pre-ordained and deserved, it sickens me.
A lesson from the past that society has yet to progress beyond to this day.
RIP Beautiful Victorian lady😥💔🙏💋🌹
The photograph reminds me of Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother from 1936 in the US Dustbowl (or the other way round). The role of 'mother' and child clearly resonates when shown in poverty.
Thank you for another excellent video. I’ve seen this image many times but not heard the background. So poignant to realise how poor these people were and how they were seen by others.
I can’t believe how Queen Victoria didn’t care about her people in England but she had her castle. While her people go hungry and the children have work in those warehouses and dying in the streets of London.
Victoria was a narcissistic sociopath. She wrecked her own kid lives, so she wasn't going to care about ordinary people. She preferred to believe they didn' exist. There is a famous tale in my area that when she had to come through on her fancy train, she would have all the blinds lowered so that she didn't have to look at the poverty and squalor she was being carried through. Vile woman.
I am continually impressed that your videos can be so bluntly honest and yet deeply compassionate at the same time.
For years I was familiar with this particular photo..... so wonderful to finally learn more about it. Thank you so much. I truly appreciate it.
Our current 'Leaders' in the UK are aiming for the same.
That's true, the Tories would say she'd chosen to embrace 'outdoor living!' It reminds me of the 'Cardboard City' days of the late 80's and early 90's!!
Only for the British. The foreigners here are living a happy life full of free food,money,homes and health care.
I was nursing on a hospital ward in the late 1980s. An elderley lady was sobbing uncontrollably. She was being sent to Xxxxx Park. A peripheral rehabilitation unit housed in the old work house. The younger nurses just did not know enough history. Not only had my O level history covered the period from 1850 but my parents had told us (in the days before TV) of life in their 1920s childhoods as well as stories from their parents and grandparents.
The younger nurses had no idea of the horror and shame associated with workhouses so just did not understand this poor elderley lady's extreme reaction. I was able to explain to her that although the old workhouse tower was still there looming over the countryside, the buildings were now a rehab hospital. Luckily I had worked a short time on the ward she was going to so could put her mind at rest. But still remember her racking sobs.
Thank you for this great video. I can't even fathom how these people struggled to survive. That they didn't have a roof over their heads or even food. It's heartbreaking to see the photo of the woman on the step looking so old. She might only be in her 30's or 40's but look like she is around 80😢. Thank you for giving her some of her dignity back even if she remains nameless 😢❤. Greetings from Norway 😊
Nice work as per usual good sir.
A Pound. One Quid. To change a life. This one, though excellent, was hard to watch Richard. The misery of the poor in Victorian Britain is a shameful stain. Not that it improved much in the Edwardian period. So very, very sad.
One pound back then was a lot of money, more money than most people had to their name at any given time.
Anyone moved by this should read George Orwell's 'Down and Out in Paris and London!'
You did an amazing job on this video, so beautifully well done. Thank you so much for making this heart wrenching tale, we all need to see it 👍✌️🙏❤️✨
What a sad story, thanks for sharing and your narrating this story was beautiful
Very sad story. RIP unknown lady.
amazing video because of how sad it was, up there with the video you made about the lives and deaths of the victims
To think of the difference that a simple thing like a decent pair of eyeglasses or a nutritious daily breakfast could have made for so many of those people!😮
There are still people in our world who don't have access to those luxuries.😢
Thank you for another interesting and well made video Richard, I hope the poor lady rests in peace.
Very haunting, we ourselves have lived these times with our ancestors passing down their genes through the decades and centuries. To think our family lived through all the disasters otherwise we wouldn't be here .
Astonishingly, middle class ladies could, as a form of entertainment, go into the poorer parts of the town and goggle at the poor and there terrible lives-nice! 😳
What a wonderful piece. Thank you.
A very difficult time. Shame there is no name or further information on her.
Lovely tribute Richard 🇦🇺👍🏻
There is an old cemetery near me, started by a Southern family, for themselves and their slaves, around 1850. The family has carved stones, the slaves just stones, but that isn't the poignant part. Late in the last century, the county took over management of the cemetery, keeping it mowed and somewhat cared for, but, at the front of the cemetery, a section has been set aside for the indigent of the area. Those buried in the 20th century have graves, probably wooden coffins and metal markers. Those of the 21st century have all been cremated and have about two square feet of space and a small concrete block with a metal plate on it, to show that they ever lived. For the poor, have things changed that much? Mind you, this is in the United States, where you will find Homeless enclaves around any city, dirty, hungry and reviled by the fortunate. There are even Zombies, made with mind stripping drugs, to make life no different from death. There are many pictures taken of them. If the "Neo-Conservatives" of our age, just like back in the 19th century, get their way, I too will have a two foot space and a little metal tag as reward for the work I did to make this a better world.
A fantastic film that breaks your heart
Thanks as ever for this video, Richard.
Fascinating and thought-provoking. Thank you so much.
Beautiful and heartbreaking 🙏❤️
I find it upsetting that through her suffering and torment she has been transported through time. Hopefully she found peace before she passed. R.I.P
Love your channel Richard great to watch 👍
I bet she was only in her early forties but looks twenty five years older..bless her.
Seen this picture before. Very moving.
Brilliant as always Richard, forever my hero 🎩🔪
Thank you Richard , will watch this tonight 👍
Think we are heading this way again pretty soon.
A very sad story, indeed! :(
Lovely video 🌠
Poor woman.
This was very interesting thank you
Nothing has changed we still have large amount of homeless living on the streets due to poverty
🖤
These are the same cruel conditions that Charles Dickens railed against in his novels.
Great video.Shame theres no name.Would be nice to know where she was buried also.
Low volumed audio again but the rest, very interesting.
Every time I pass a homeless person on the street or holding a sign ,will work for food. I wonder if I could be passing God watching to see just how I react to his children in need. you never know .
I wonder what year this is from and whether she would have been in the census. Hopefully she got to the hopping and was able to improve her lot.
Hopping wasn't the dream they thought it was It was poorly paid hard work, and depended on the crops. It says something about their conditions when that was their 'gateway to a better life' A pound would not have gone as far as she thought either. Maybe she was angling for a gift from the gentlemen. Doesn't look like she got one. How was she going to get to Kent in her condition? Poor soul, it was her forlorn dream. There is something so sad in that. her dream was to be able to work in slave conditions, to somehow be 'better off' This constant idea that they somehow 'deserved' to be in that situation makes me so angry. 'Their lives of vice and degradation had led them to this! How the hell did they know what lives they had led. All of the Rippers victims had been perfectly respectable women until fate took them down. . A working class woman who fell on hard times had little or no chance.
it makes you think
The Tory party’s dream !
We must go back to Victorian times. Quote: David Brexit Cameron.
Nothing would please them more.
Expose the profits of the distilleries that created the squalor of Bedlam and Whitechapel- who got all the money that caused the depravity?
Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother.
😊 P r o m o s m
"Poor" people in 2023 have $100.00 + sneakers, smartphones, and 65 inch tvs, for the most part.