The London Underworld in the Victorian Period: Authentic First-Person Accounts by Beggars, Thieves and Prostitutes: v. 1

by Mayhew, Henry

  If a young woman is so unfortunate as to come among them and to keep herself reserved, the others bully her out of it, unless she go to the same excess of dissipation as themselves.

  Their mode of stealing is to get people to their houses, where they plunder them. A sober man seldom thinks of going to their infamous abodes. In most cases the persons who go are the worse for liquor. On their way home they go into a public-house with the girls, after which they accompany them to their room, where they get some more liquor.

  The companions of a girl may see her coming home with a man, and may suppose him, from his appearance, to have money. They come into the house, and get a portion of the drink. In some instances the drunken person gives the woman money to go out for drink, when she decamps, and gets some of the prostitutes in the adjoining room to bully him out of the place. In other instances the girls wait their time till he goes to sleep, when they plunder him.

  There are seldom fastenings on their doors, which are never locked. There is an understanding between parties in the same house, and some persons in the adjoining rooms enter while the man is in bed, and carry away his clothes and money. He cannot accuse the girl in the room, as she is lying in bed beside him.

  In some cases the girl disappears during the night, and leaves the man naked in the room. She may remove to some other neighbourhood if the booty is of value, and live in some other part of Westminster. The dupe is seldom or never able to identify her, as he may have been much the worse for liquor while in her company.

  These prostitutes chiefly look out for drunken men, whom they decoy to their houses, and afterwards plunder. They prowl along Parliament Street and Whitehall Place, and other streets in the vicinity. A great number of them go as far as Knightsbridge, where there are concert rooms. They loiter about these localities till these places close, and are to be seen about the doors of those public-houses where persons resort after leaving the concert rooms. When they pick up a drunken man they bring him home in the manner already described.

  Many of these girls come from different parts of the country, and have formerly been servants in town. A good number have been orphans left without friends, and have been basely seduced. The relatives of some have taken them home into the provinces, but they have come back again to London.

  The police constables often find as many as four girls in one small room at night—two lying on a miserable bed, and two lying on the hard floor, with scarcely any covering but their petticoat thrown over them. Two soldiers are frequently found lying in the room with them, or one is seen lying between two girls.

  It is surprising that any soldiers, however poor, who have an ordinary regard to decency, should lie down among such heaps of filthy rags; far less should we expect such base and unmanly conduct from the Queen’s Foot Guards, when we look to the fine appearance and manly bearing of many of them on parade. It kindles our indignation when we learn that not a few of those poor degraded females were formerly in the service of respectable families, and were there seduced and driven to open prostitution by some of these unprincipled soldiers, who still add to their villainy the despicable crime of basely plundering the poor girls they have ruined of the wretched earnings of their dishonour and crime.

  To the honour of the regiments of Foot Guards, we are happy to say there are many noble and excellent men in their ranks, who reflect high credit on our army by their exemplary character, and who are as benevolent in heart as they are brave on the battle-field. Some of these go to the other side of the street to avoid meeting with their fellow-soldiers when associated with degraded women. The others we refer to are heartless ruffians in their conduct, and a disgrace to the British service.

  Sailors’ Women.—There are two classes of prostitutes termed sailors’ women to be found in Ratcliff Highway, near the London Docks, at the east end of the metropolis. These belong to the third and fourth classes in our classification of the prostitutes of London.

  The better of the two classes are generally composed of younger and more respectable-looking girls, most of them residing in the neighbourhood, others coming from a distance. The generality of them reside in the Highway and in Palmer’s Folly, Albert Square, Albert Street, Seven Star Alley, and other adjacent streets and alleys. A few strange girls come occasionally from the Surrey side, such as Kent Street and other localities in the Borough, and remain for a few days only, as they may have committed some depredation in their own district, and wish to be away for a short time from the surveillance of the police. In like manner some of the girls residing in the neighbourhood of Ratcliff Highway, when they have plundered a sailor, leave the locality for a short time, till the ship to which he belonged has set sail, when they return again. There are a number of very good-looking girls of this class, most of them Irish cockneys. There are also a few German and Dutch prostitutes who frequent the Highway who live in Albert Street. These foreign girls do not have bullies or fancy men. Some of them are good looking, and some are not. They generally frequent the German and Dutch music and dancing saloons in Ratcliff Highway. Both of them attend the public-house with the Swedish flag. This class of girls frequents the various saloons in the Highway. They do not generally steal money or watches when they are well paid, and but few steal the sailor’s clothes.

  They dress tolerably well, in silk and merino gowns with crinolines, and bonnets gaily attired with flowers and ribbons. Many of them have velvet stripes across the breast and back of their gowns, and large brooches with the portrait of a sailor encased in them. They generally lay their hair back in front in the French style.

  Some of them have fancy men, and others have not. Their fancy men in many cases are watermen, but being lazy in inclination they hang about as loafers, and live on the prostitution and crime of the girls they cohabit with. These females take their dupes to their own houses or into low coffee-houses and brothels, or other houses of accommodation. Some of them allow the sailors to have connexion with them; others who cohabit with watermen and others, pretend to be prostitutes, and allow men to take indecent liberties with them, but seldom or never allow them to proceed farther.

  There is another class of prostitutes to be found in Ratcliff Highway, more dissipated and abandoned than those we have noticed. They reside in or near Bluegate Fields, Angel Gardens, and other streets and lanes in that neighbourhood. Many of them have a robust, coarse, masculine frame, some of them with great protruding breasts. A few of the same class come from a distance, followed by a low, brutal man. The latter are termed “cross-girls.” They pick up a sailor, take him into some dark by-street as if for the purpose of prostitution, get all the money they can from him, and seldom allow carnal connexion. If possible, so soon as they have effected their purpose, they run away; this is termed “bilking.”

  The rough-looking prostitutes of this class seldom attend the music saloons, as they would be far outshone in personal appearance by the younger girls of the other class referred to. We see them late in the evening skulking about the dark lanes, or patrolling the streets, on the watch for drunken sailors, whom they take into low coffee-houses and beer-shops, and sometimes drug by putting snuff, or other ingredients—sometimes laudanum—in his liquor. They look out for north country sea-captains and sailors just come ashore, and sometimes visit their ships lying in the river, at King James’s Stair, Wapping, Ratcliff Cross, Horseferry, Regent’s Canal Dock, Stone Stairs, or New Crane Stairs, Shadwell.

  Some of these brutal women have bullies, convicted thieves, who are sometimes dressed as sailors; some of them are river pirates, and from their childhood have led a criminal life.

  The average age of these prostitutes is from twenty to thirty-four. Many are slovenly dressed, and very dissipated and callous in appearance. Some of them are women of colour, whom we have seen brought to the police station at King David’s Lane, charged with plundering coloured sailors of their money and clothes.

  Number of felonies in the metropolitan districts, by prostitutes, during 1860 692


  Ditto, ditto, in the City 102

  794

  Value of property thereby abstracted in the metropolitan districts £ 2,651

  Ditto, ditto, in the City 323

  £ 2,974

  FELONIES ON THE RIVER THAMES.

  THERE ARE a great number of robberies of various descriptions committed on the Thames by different parties. These depredations differ in value, from the little ragged mudlark stealing a piece of rope or a few handfuls of coals from a barge, to the lighterman carrying off bales of silk several hundred pounds in value. When we look to the long lines of shipping along each side of the river, and the crowds of barges and steamers that daily ply along its bosom, and the dense shipping in its docks, laden with untold wealth, we are surprised at the comparatively small aggregate amount of these felonies.

  The Mudlarks.

  They generally consist of boys and girls, varying in age from eight to fourteen or fifteen; with some persons of more advanced years. For the most part they are ragged, and in a very filthy state, and are a peculiar class, confined to the river. The parents of many of them are coalwhippers—Irish cockneys—employed getting coals out of the ships, and their mothers frequently sell fruit in the street. Their practice is to get between the barges, and one of them lifting the other up will knock lumps of coal into the mud, which they pick up afterwards; or if a barge is ladened with iron, one will get into it and throw iron out to the other, and watch an opportunity to carry away the plunder in bags to the nearest marine-storeshop.

  They sell the coals among the lowest class of people for a few halfpence. The police make numerous detections of these offences. Some of the mudlarks receive a short term of imprisonment, from three weeks to a month, and others two months with three years in a reformatory. Some of them are old women of the lowest grade, from fifty to sixty, who occasionally wade in the mud up to the knees. One of them may be seen beside the Thames Police-office, Wapping, picking up coals in the bed of the river, who appears to be about sixty-five years of age. She is a robust woman, dressed in an old cotton gown, with an old straw bonnet tied round with a handkerchief, and wanders about without shoes and stockings. This person has never been in custody. She may often be seen walking through the streets in the neighbourhood with a bag of coals on her head.

  In the neighbourhood of Blackfriars Bridge clusters of mudlarks of various ages may be seen from ten to fifty years, young girls and old women, as well as boys.

  They are mostly at work along the coal wharves where the barges are lying aground, such as at Shadwell and Wapping, along Bankside, Borough; above Waterloo Bridge, and from the Temple down to St. Paul’s Wharf. Some of them pay visits to the City Gasworks, and steal coke and coal from their barges, where the police have made many detections.

  As soon as the tide is out they make their appearance, and remain till it comes in. Many of them commence their career with stealing rope or coals from the barges, then proceed to take copper from the vessels, and afterwards go down into the cabins and commit piracy.

  These mudlarks are generally strong and healthy, though their clothes are in rags. Their fathers are robust men. By going too often to the public-house they keep their families in destitution, and the mothers of the poor children are glad to get a few pence in whatever way they can.

  Sweeping Boys.

  This class of boys sail about the river in very old boats, and go on board empty craft with the pretext of sweeping them. They enter barges of all descriptions, laden with coffee, sugar, rice, and other goods, and steal anything they can lay their hands on, often abstracting headfasts, ropes, chains, &c. In some instances they cut the bags and steal the contents, and dispose of the booty to marine-store-dealers. They are generally very ragged and wretched in appearance, and if pursued take to the water like a rat, splashing through the mud, and may be seen doing so when chased by the police. In general they are expert swimmers. Their ages range from twelve to sixteen. They are dressed similar to the other ragged boys over the metropolis. The fathers of most of them are coalwhippers, but many of them are orphans. They are strong, healthy boys, and some of them sleep in empty barges, others in low lodging-houses at 3d. a night. Some live in empty houses, and many of them have not had a shirt on for six months, and their rags are covered with vermin.

  In the summer many sleep in open barges, and often in the winter, when they cover themselves with old mats, sacks, or tarpaulins. Their bodies are inured to this inclement life. They never go to church, and few of them have been to school.

  Two little boys of this class, the one nine and the other eleven years of age, lived for six months on board an old useless barge at Bermondsey, and for other five months in an old uninhabited house, and had not a clean shirt on during all that time. At night they covered themselves with old mats and sacks, their clothes being in a wretched state. Seeing them in this neglected condition, an inspector of police took them into custody and brought them before a magistrate, with the view to get them provided for. The magistrate sent them to the workhouse for shelter.

  These boys are of the same class with the mudlarks before referred to, but are generally a few years older.

  Sellers of Small Wares.

  Felonies are occasionally committed by boys who go on board vessels with baskets containing combs, knives, laces, &c., giving them in exchange for pieces of rope, sometimes getting fat and bones from the cooks. In many instances the owners are robbed by the crew giving away ropes belonging to the ship for such wares. These parties occasionally pilfer any small article they see lying about the ship, sometimes carrying off watches when they have an opportunity. They generally try to get on board foreign vessels about to sail, so that when robberies are committed the parties do not remain to prosecute them, and the thieves are consequently discharged.

  They are generally from fourteen to eighteen years of age, and many of them reside with their parents in Rosemary Lane and other low neighbourhoods about the East-end.

  This is a peculiar class of boys who confine their attention to the ships, barges, and coasting vessels, and do not commit felonies in other parts of the metropolis.

  Labourers on Board Ship, &c.

  These men are employed to discharge cargoes on board steam vessels arriving from the coast, and also foreign vessels. They are frequently detected pilfering by the police, and secreting about their clothes small quantities of tallow, coffee, sugar, meat, and other portable goods. These parties abstract articles from the hold, but do not go down into the cabins. They have ample opportunity of breaking open some of the boxes and packages, and of extracting part of the contents. As they have no facility to get large quantities on shore, they confine themselves to petty pilfering. Most of their booty is kept for their own consumption, unless they succeed in carrying off a large quantity, which rarely occurs. In these cases they dispose of it at a chandler’s shop.

  Dredgemen or Fishermen.

  These are men who are in the habit of coming out early in the morning, as the tide may suit, for the purpose of dredging from the bed of the river coals which are occasionally spilled in weighing when being transferred into the barges. If these parties are not successful in getting coals there, they invariably go alongside of a leaded barge and carry off coals and throw a quantity of mud over them, to make it appear as if they had got them from the bed of the river. The police have made numerous detections. Some have been imprisoned, and others have been transported. The same class of men go alongside of vessels and steal the copper funnels and ropes, and go to the nearest landing place to sell them to marine-store-dealers, who are always in readiness to receive anything brought to them. The doors are readily opened to them, early and late.

  To deceive the police these unprincipled dealers have carts calling every morning at their shops to take away the metals and other goods they may have bought during the previous day and night.

  Smuggling.

  Numerous articles of contraband goods are smuggled by seamen on their arrival from foreign ports, suc
h as tobacco, liquors, shawls, handkerchiefs, &c.

  Several years ago an officer in the Thames police was on duty at five in the morning. While rowing by the Tower he saw in the dusk two chimney sweeps in a boat leaving a steam vessel, having with them two bags of soot. He boarded the boat along with two officers, and asked them if they had anything in their possession liable to Custom-house duty. They answered they had not. Upon searching the bags of soot he found several packages of foreign manufactured tobacco, weighing 48lbs. The parties were arrested and taken to the police station, and were fined 100l. each, or six months’ imprisonment. Not being able to pay, they were imprisoned.

  These two sweeps had no doubt carried on this illegal traffic for some time, being employed on the arrival of the boats to clean the funnels and the flues of the boilers.

  Some time ago a sailor came ashore late at night at the Shadwell Dock, who had just arrived from America. According to the usual custom he was searched, when several pounds of tobacco were found concealed about his person. He was tried at the police court, and sentenced to pay a small fine.

  In July, 1858, about midnight, a police constable was passing East Lane, Bermondsey, when he saw a bag at the top of a street, containing something rather bulky, which aroused his suspicions. On proceeding farther he saw a man carrying another bag up the street from a boat in the river. He got the assistance of another constable, and apprehended the man carrying the bag, and also the waterman that conveyed it ashore. The two bags were found to contain 229 lbs. of Cavendish tobacco. Both persons were detained in the Thames police station, and taken before a magistrate at Southwark police court. Prosecution was ordered by the Board of Customs, and both were fined 100l. each, and in default sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Being unable to pay the fine, they suffered imprisonment.