London's Underworld

by Thomas Holmes, Iain Sinclair (Introduction)

Both a thrilling exposé and a considered anthropological review, 'London’s Underworld' is driven by the author's conflicting feelings of admiration for the rebellious spirit which frees these criminals from the laws of reserved Victorian Society and also pity for the restless, violent attitudes which leave them stranded there alone.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, British Literature, London

198 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

Thomas Holmes (1846-1918) was a police-court missionary, criminologist and philanthropist, secretary to the Howard Association for the reform of prisons and criminal law.

There are other writers with the same name.

Reviews

[Kayla Tornello · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was quite interesting to read about London's underworld from a contemporary source. The personal stories of destitute Londoners really shed some light on how people lived. However, the author's viewpoints are now very outdated and honestly somewhat offensive. The book is interesting if you are willing to overlook those parts.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh those wacky Victorians!

Not recommended for a serious social historian, but there are vignettes which are touching and amusing, and much of what Holmes has to say could be said about the poor today. (Albeit none of us would seriously recommend permanent internment camps for vagabonds as a possible solution.)

I greatly enjoyed when he left off his diatribes of why things were wrong in English society and how to fix them and instead focused on describing the poor of his acquaintance. I especially liked one bit where an old man expressed his dour opinion of the poets of the day: Tennyson and Brown and like were all declared to be unfit of the name poet - unlike the good poets of years past. Yeah, okay, that was just personally vindicating as a modern university student who was inundated with Victorian poetry. :)