Under the arches

An illustration of destitute people, sitting under a bridge, from 'London: a Pilgrimage' by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré, 1872. The image is reminiscent of the title page illustration of the book.

Jerrold writes that 'London is all too charged with misery. The mighty capital comprehends whole townships of the almost hopeless poor. You step out of the Strand into Drury Lane or Bedfordbury: out of Regent Street by the East, into the slums of the shirtless: out of the Royal Exchange into Petticoat Lane: nay, out of the glittering halls of Parliament into the Alsatia that - diminished, but not destroyed - lies, a shame and scandal, behind Westminster Abbey.'