"Icursed every minute I gave to it," Charles Booth complained of his monumental survey of life and labour in London. It is easy to see why: from 1886 to 1903, while running a leather dealership and a steamship line, Booth pursued a crazily ambitious private scheme to chart the socioeconomic condition of every street in what was then the biggest city in the world. To find out how many Londoners were poor—and why—he and his squad of investigators accompanied policemen on patrols, and conducted interviews in pubs and sweatshops. Their observations of housing and habits, plus the data they received from school-board visitors, were transmuted into colour-coded maps. Like illuminated manuscripts, they are mesmerising in their detail and diligence.
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