Any south London ancestors?

[Teddy Eagle]

I'm reading a book called Round About a Pound a Week by a Maud Pember Reeves after work carried out by the Fabian Society's Women's group . It was published in 1913 about living conditions in Kennington. It's quite heartbreaking to read about how hard they had it, families of 8 or more living in one bug and vermin infested room and literally having to account for every penny of the pound a week the husbands earned. The author is keen to stress these are not "slum people" but respectable working class families so God knows how the really poor were living when these folk were spending as much on burial insurance for their children as they were on food for them.
It's well worth a look even if you have no connection to the area.

 

[cryrst]

And poverty now is very similar if we believe what we read. NOT!!!

 

[Teddy Eagle]

And poverty now is very similar if we believe what we read. NOT!!!

And we should all be grateful for that fact. I've said before how my granddad used to go and pay my nan's 1d a week burial insurance which carried on from when she was a kid. He only did it to get a day out and to annoy the insurance company who kept offering to close the account.
What's notable about those days is the pride so many took in how they paid their bills even though many women would do their shopping in the evening so no one could see they didn't have any boots to wear.

 

[becky]

And we should all be grateful for that fact. I've said before how my granddad used to go and pay my nan's 1d a week burial insurance which carried on from when she was a kid. He only did it to get a day out and to annoy the insurance company who kept offering to close the account.
What's notable about those days is the pride so many took in how they paid their bills even though many women would do their shopping in the evening so no one could see they didn't have any boots to wear.

Also, by shopping in the evening, the market stallholders would be flogging anything that was close to 'going off' that bit cheaper