Updated 22 August 2024: Just to highlight this blog post is still a work-in-progress, published early in draft form for my MA history project assessment. The post will be completed and re-published in the coming months. Thank you for your patience. Do please get in touch via the Comments section below or Contact me directly if you have any questions or comment about this topic in the meantime.
Walking south from Royal Mint Street (Rosemary Lane renamed in 1850) to East Smithfield in London E1, you can cut through one of the last of the GLC's public housing developments, the Royal Mint Estate built in the early 1980s. It's difficult today to envisage the jumble of small courts and alleyways which once defined this heart of poor Irish Whitechapel. By 1851, there were more Irish-born residents of Whitechapel than any other London district, with 8,988 Irish-born making up 11.3% of Whitechapel's population. There were also more Irish-born people in London than any other city in Britain but the size of the metropolis meant 108,548 Irish-born people made up just 4.6% of the overall population of London.
The Victorians produced a vast array of social commentary about London's working poor but we rarely hear their voices directly. In this blog post, I'm using the writings of investigative journalist Henry Mayhew (1812-1887) to bring Irish Rosemary Lane to life. But how much should we treat Mayhew as a reliable narrator?
Featured locations:
"The Homes of the Street-Irish"
"Perhaps there is no quarter of London where the habits and habitations of the Irish can be better seen and studied than in Rosemary-lane, and the little courts and alleys that spring from it on each side....the locality is a perfect labyrinth of “blind alleys;” and when once in the heart of the maze it is difficult to find the path that leads to the main-road".
Locating Rosemary Lane
"Rosemary-lane, which has in vain been re-christened Royal Mint-street, is from half to three-quarters of a mile long—that is, if we include only the portion which runs from the junction of Leman and Dock streets (near the London Docks) to Sparrow-corner, where it abuts on the Minories..."
The Irish at home
The Irish at work
![Black &white illustration titled 'The Irish Street-Seller. “Sweet Chany! Two a pinny Or-r-ranges—two a pinny!” [From a Daguerreotype by Beard]' in London Labour and the London Poor, Vol.1 by Henry Mayhew (first edition 1851), p. 97. Image source: Public domain, via Project Gutenberg.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6048a3_4221c9554a2b4748956d2dcf521e1347~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_567,h_800,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/6048a3_4221c9554a2b4748956d2dcf521e1347~mv2.jpg)
Reading Henry Mayhew
An important historical source which gives a rare insight into the everyday life of the Irish poor when migration from Famine-wracked Ireland to London was at its height. But it also demonstrates the need to read these historical sources with a critical eye.
'Mayhew’s ambivalence to Irish migration speaks to the widespread fears within Britain of the spread of disease, overpopulation, and increased pressures on wages and employment, but also expresses empathy for the Irish at a time when British sympathies were waning' - Lesa Scholl, ‘Irish Migration to London During the c.1845-52 Famine: Henry Mayhew’s Representation in London Labour and the London Poor’, BRANCH.
Coming soon - closing reflection :
What do you think?
Blog sources & further resources
From Rag Fair & Rosemary Lane to the Royal Mint Estate
The architectural history Survey of London, managed by UCL's Bartlett School of Architecture, now includes Whitechapel. You can read here how seventeenth-century Rosemary Lane became the Royal Mint Estate shown in the photograph at the top of this blog post.
Henry Mayhew and London Labour and the London Poor
You can find a comprehensive analysis of Mayhew's life and motivations for his work in Anne Humphreys, Travels into the Poor Man's Country: The Work of Henry Mayhew (London: Caliban, 1982) - available online here.
More resources - coming soon
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