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THE CASUAL POOR AND THE CITY OF LONDON POOR LAW UNION, 1837–1869

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1999

ANDREA TANNER
ANDREA TANNER
Affiliation:
Centre for Metropolitan History, Institute of Historical Research
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Abstract

The City of London Poor Law Union in the early to mid-Victorian period was the richest and least populated of all the metropolitan Poor Law districts. A wide range of parochial, livery, and other charities within the City not only attracted vast numbers of applicants for assistance, but influenced the quality and nature of the care given by the local union. This not only meant that provision for the outdoor poor, children, and the elderly tended to be more liberal than elsewhere in the capital, but that vagrants, many of whom took up winter residence in the City, also experienced a higher standard of pauper treatment than that offered by the surrounding unions. The combination of high Poor Law receipts from a low poor rate base, civic pride, competition from City charities, and the willingness of neighbouring unions to off-load this most troublesome class of pauper on to their rich neighbour gave an unparalleled level of choice to those who were truly at the bottom of the heap in Victorian London.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 1999 , pp. 183 - 206
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I should like to thank Dr John Tanner of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Dr Dorothy Porter and Dr David Feldman of Birkbeck College, London, for their helpful comments during the writing of this article, in addition to the anonymous referees.