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79
found mostly amongst classes a, b, c, and d, for simple and obvious
reasons.
The Royal Commission, reporting in 1889, wrote as follows
concerning the class of persons who find it necessary to live in
central London, and are therefore affected dhectly or indirectly by
overcrowding:—
"For a large class of labourers it is necessary to live as nearly as
"possible in the middle of the town, because they then command the
"labour market of the whole metropolis from a convenient centre.
"Sometimes they hear of casual work to be had at a certain place
"provided they are there by 6 o'clock the next morning, so they
"must choose a central position from which no part of the town is
"inaccessible Then there is the extensive and hardworking
"population of costermongers. They are found in large numbers in
"the dense thoroughfares of St. Luke's, Clerkenwell, &c. There are
"strong reasons for their living on the spot where their wares find a
"ready sale. The poor form their own market, and there is the same
"difficulty of moving a market that there is of moving an industry,
"and both of these facts increase the pressure of overcrowding . .
". . . . Nor are there wanting instances of skilled artizans who
" likewise must live close to their work; for instance, there are the
"watchmakers of Clerkenwell, because the apparatus required in
"their trade is so costly that no man can afford to have the whole of
"it; he therefore borrows from his friends, and they have to borrow
"three or four times in the course of the day. Then there are the
" women who must take their work home, such as those who work
" for the city tailors, and the girls who are employed in small
"factories, such as those for artificial flowers This
" precarious element in the struggle for employment is thus a most
"powerful cause of the pressure upon habitable space
"The subsidiary employment of wife and children has to be taken
"into consideration when the poor choose a place of residence.
"Whatever the contributions of these members of a family may be
"to the maintenance of the household, there is no doubt that the
"work of charwoman, of seamstress, and the labour in which
,,children are employed, attract great numbers to the densely