| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Wise is too clever and considered a historian simply to give us a lurid, one-dimensional Victorian melodrama. Through painstaking archival work and readable empathetic prose, she has instead sought to evoke the texture of life here.' --Sinclair Mackay, Daily Telegraph, 28 June 2008
"Sarah Wise animates the horrors in fascinating detail" --Saturday Telegraph Review
`A brilliant social history.' --Robert Peston, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year:
`An excellent and intelligent investigation.' --Peter Ackroyd, The Times:
`Revelatory... scrupulously researched and eye-opening.' --John Carey, Sunday Times:
"Sarah Wise animates the horrors in fascinating detail" --Saturday Telegraph Review
`A brilliant social history.' --Robert Peston, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year:
`An excellent and intelligent investigation.' --Peter Ackroyd, The Times:
`Revelatory... scrupulously researched and eye-opening.' --John Carey, Sunday Times:
Review
'A brilliant social history... a reminder that our enlightened society was built on an inhumanity only just beyond living memory.'
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
60 of 64 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have seldom read such an affecting book. It is a model of accessible, informative and gripping social history. Through meticulous research, it tells the lives of those people who lived in the area known as "The Nicol" in East London in the late 19th c. there are countless individual stories of heartbreaking poverty, set against the bigger picture of social, political and religious reforms and the history of urban victorian slums. Contemporary photographs and etchings are really illustrative and help bring the area to life. I have ancestors who lived in the area and it provided a fascinating and humbling glimpse of their lives but this book is so well written and informative, in a very accessible style that anyone interested in history will enjoy it. It is a real page turner - I was completely caught up in the day to day lives of the people of the Nicol. Utterly compelling and highly recommended. My book of the year so far.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I first picked up on the Old Nichol when researching family history and getting a map of Shoreditch circa 1890 when the areas was being 'cleared'. Curiously, I bought the two maps before and after this time and saw the horrendous labyrinth of streets that made up the Old Nichol and the tidy Arnold Circus that replaced it and still exists today. Little seemed to be known about the Old Nichol until this book (save Arthur Morrisons seminal 'A Child of the Jago' where Jago meant Nichol).
This book paints a good picture of what life was like in the Old Nichol and the events that led to its demolition. Revd Osbourne Jay, who was vicar in the Parish in its latter years is given quite a sympathetic portrayal although in hindsight his motives are a little flawed perhaps.
The book is a little heavy going in its middle sections and there are too many number references to appendices which I could not keep flicking back and fourth to. Also, my interest was in a relative born in Old Nichol Street in the 1840s but there is little reference to whether life would have been as harsh then as it was in the late 1880s. The lack of photos is frustrating but I guess there are none; there was nothing really photogenic about the area. The biggest revelation for me was that the landlords of these shameful properties were respected and wealthy folk.
This book is recommended for anyone with an East End family background or a curiosity in a forgotten area of shame.
This book paints a good picture of what life was like in the Old Nichol and the events that led to its demolition. Revd Osbourne Jay, who was vicar in the Parish in its latter years is given quite a sympathetic portrayal although in hindsight his motives are a little flawed perhaps.
The book is a little heavy going in its middle sections and there are too many number references to appendices which I could not keep flicking back and fourth to. Also, my interest was in a relative born in Old Nichol Street in the 1840s but there is little reference to whether life would have been as harsh then as it was in the late 1880s. The lack of photos is frustrating but I guess there are none; there was nothing really photogenic about the area. The biggest revelation for me was that the landlords of these shameful properties were respected and wealthy folk.
This book is recommended for anyone with an East End family background or a curiosity in a forgotten area of shame.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am enjoying this book because it has shed new light on my own family's story as they lived in Bethnal Green at the end of the 19th century. The use of personal stories especially those of Arthur Harding is very effective and one of the best things about the book. I have struggled with its over-wordiness in places and the insertion of several numerical facts one after the other but on the whole it's very readable and an important historical record of a largely ignored problem.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Social History at its best
This book is a fantastic insight into the poverty & squalor in Victorian Britain. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Social history. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. W. Davidson
what the big society looked like
i loved this book. the story of how victorian britain obfuscated and avoided taking effective action to reduce cronic poverty in an area of east london. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Nickreview
Couldn't put the book down!
Absolutely enjoyed reading this book, it has done the rounds between friends who all have ancestors from the London areas covered. Read more
Published 12 months ago by supercrutch
Carried to Another Time
I always knew of the Nicol but had never unearthed why it had such a significance.
Reading it I was transported to the times of its formation and occupancy, finally... Read more
Reading it I was transported to the times of its formation and occupancy, finally... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Glyn White
Most interesting and impressive book
Beautifully written and impressively researched. It's scholarly and very readable at the same time. Most original look at behind the scenes workings of Victorian beaurocrats and... Read more
Published 21 months ago by K. Brent
not what it seems
I had bought this book thinking it would be a true life story of life in the victorian slum. i was sadly dissapointed to find it was a book filled with endless facts and figures... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2010 by F. Appleby
THE BLACKEST STREETS
DEAR TEAM,
THIS BOOK ILLUSTRATES HOW FAR WE HAVE COME IN THE WAY OF IMPROVEMENT OF OUR LIVING CONDITIONS IN THE PAST 120 YEARS. Read more
THIS BOOK ILLUSTRATES HOW FAR WE HAVE COME IN THE WAY OF IMPROVEMENT OF OUR LIVING CONDITIONS IN THE PAST 120 YEARS. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2009 by P. J. DOBSON
The Blackest Streets
I love Victorian London books but this one left me bored and is not a good read unless you want factual historical notes lacking in atmosphere. Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2009 by A. Arnold
enthralling
This book gives a captivating insight into life for the poor in Victorian London and is backed up with a good understanding of the causes and [lack of] structure for provision for... Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2009 by Anya S.
Armchair Slumming
Slumming has always been an agreeable pastime. In the present day it has to be enjoyed vicariously, since the last of the true slums were cleared away by the beginning of the 20th... Read more
Published on 13 Sep 2009 by Howard Somerville
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
