Seven Dials in Central London Near the British Museum, Ca. 1875.
Factory chimneys like the one in the central background here were a common feature of British slums. The mix of commercial, industrial and residential land uses allowed people to live, shop and work in the same neighbourhood, a convenience when working days were long and transportation was beyond the means of labouring people. It was also a hazard because families lived their lives in crowded quarters under the pall of industrial wastes. The British children who emigrated to Canada came almost without exception from large cities where high death rates created many orphans and widespread unemployment forced parents to surrender their children to workhouses or charitable homes. The children here are playing out on the cobblestone streets. In the 1870s, when this photograph was taken, many youngsters known as "street arabs" slept out of doors, under baskets or wagons in the markets or on roofs near chimneys for warmth. In this photograph boys and girls of age seven and upwards are dressed in the same clothing and headwear as adults, an indication of the role they played in the economic and social life of their families.
