Booth’s London survey south of the river

Last night’s Who Do You Think You Are? kicked off with Len Goodman checking out his Bethnal Green roots, and the area’s living conditions through Booth’s survey into life and labour in London (1886-1903). I’ve had the start of a short item on Booth’s survey lurking here for months, so a good time to get it out and give it some attention.

Len Goodman’s episode was available on iPlayer.

For starters, a link to the London School of Economics website on Booth’s survey. You can can browse and search his 1898/9 map of what we might call central/inner London, and various survey notebooks.

The Miller line of my brother’s wife, not previously featured on Cutlock and Co, {1} came from Bermondsey, a place I knew well when living in London, SE1. This was included in the survey. With a bit of luck {2} here’s a direct link to the notebook entry for Cranham Street/Road, where Charles Henry Miller, great grandfather to my in-law, was living at the 1881 census, age about 3. This map link should have the the street in the centre of the frame, off Rotherhithe New Road between the railway lines. This is our connection to the world of theatricals – in 1901 the grown-up Charles Henry’s occupation is given as Comedian, but in 1911 the job of ‘Bill poster, electric theatres’ doesn’t seem so promising.

An index of pages to this notebook (reference B365) {2}.

I’m probably breaching copyright, but here’s a snapshot image of the Cranham Road notebook linked above.

Update

A BBC 2 series based on Booth’s survey kicks off 6th June 2012 – The Secret History of Our Streets. First programme Deptford, a Beasor and Howes family location.

Notes

1. There is now ( Jan 2012) a Beasor family page on this website. Maude Florence Miller, who married a Beasor, is a daughter of Charles, as is Constance Lilian Kezia Miller, who is also a direct ancestor of the current Beasor line.
2. The survey website had major changes Dec. 2016, when there were problems using Firefox, further changes 2024. There’s no way of searching within the notebooks it seems, instead thee various notebooks available to view or download are split into categories. Cranham Road entry is under ‘Police notebooks’, page ref BOOTH/B/365, p. 229.