Shoe shiner

Vincent St George shining the shoes of a city worker in 1963. City workers could stop and in 5 minutes have their shoe's waxed and polished to a high shine. Often workers were young boys because pay was low and the work was outside in all weather, however work was readily available and so there were also many older men working as shoe shiners. Known as Shoeblacks the shiners favoured particular locations and there was often competition to claim a prime shoe shine position. This Shoeblack with the distinctive St George's shield on his box worked on the same corner in Piccadilly everyday.