Sinks of London Laid Open | Page 3

and wherein are portrayed, with
such faithfulness, the plodding manners and steady characters of
shop-keepers, instead of the high-toned conversation of polished

society or the homely but innocent simplicities of a country life--that
old ground-work of fiction. The same may be said of those "Essays on
the Condition of the People,"--"Household Servants,"--the "Old Bailey
Experience," and those equally instructive articles on the "Machinery
of Crime in England, or the Connection between the Thieves and the
Flash Houses," which all owe their origin to the same cause. It
therefore can scarcely excite surprise that the Common Lodging House
and Cadger should have remained so long without notice, when, if we
take but a little time to reflect, we shall easily perceive that this work of
observation is but just now going on, and that the very period in which
we now live, is what with justice may be called but--the Age of
Inquiry.
The Common Lodging House, as the reader no doubt understands, is a
house of accommodation for all classes--no matter what may be their
appearance or character--only provided that they can procure, when
required, the necessary quantity of coins. In every considerable village
in the kingdom there is a lodging-place called the "Beggars' House;"
and in every town, more or less, according to its size or population. In
London there are hundreds and thousands of houses of this description,
from the poor tenant of a room or cellar, with its two or three
shake-down-beds upon the floor, to the more substantial landlord with
his ten or twenty houses, and two or three hundred beds. Among these
the houseless wanderer may find shelter, from a penny to three
halfpence, twopence, threepence, fourpence, and sixpence a night, on
beds of iron, wood, and straw, or on that more lofty couch a hammock;
and some (that is, the penny-a-night lodger) have often no softer resting
place than the hard floor. This common lodging-house business is a
thriving trade; only small capital is required, for an old house will do,
no matter how the rain beats in, or the wind whistles through, in a back
street or filthy lane, for the more wretched the neighbourhood, the
better; old bedsteads and beds, clothes of the coarsest description, with
a few forms, and a table or so, for the kitchen, are all that is necessary
for the concern. The front room, or what is usually termed the parlour,
is generally fitted up into a shop, or, when this is not the case, there is
always some accommodating neighbour, who has the following articles
for sale: viz., bacon, butter, cheese, bread, tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco,

potatoes, red and salt herrings, smuggled liquors, and table-beer. Some
add the savoury profession of the cook to that of the huckster, and dish
up a little roast and boiled beef, mutton, pork, vegetables, &c. The
whole of these, the reader may be assured, are of a very moderate
quality: they are retailed to the lodgers at very profitable prices, and in
the smallest quantities, such as a halfpenny worth of butter, bacon,
cheese, tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, &c.; and, for the trifling sum of one
penny, the poor epicure may gratify his palate with a taste of beef,
mutton, and so on. Very little credit is given in those creditable places,
and that only to those who are well-known; they who have not that
advantage, often are compelled to take the handkerchief off their necks,
the coat, and even the very skirts off their backs, to give to the cautious
housekeeper, before they can procure a night's lodging, or a morsel of
food; indeed, in the country, it is a common thing, when a traveller
(which is the respectable appellation by which the alms-seeking gentry
designate themselves) seeks for a night's lodging, for the landlord to
refuse admittance, unless the applicant carries a bundle, which is
looked upon as a kind of security, should he not have the desirable in
his pocket.
It may naturally be supposed that, where there are such little outlays
and such large returns, that good round sums must be produced; indeed,
there are few who commence this kind of life, but soon secure to
themselves an independency. There are many whom we could mention,
who have accumulated such large fortunes by the encouragement of
vagrancy, as now to be the proprietors of vast property in houses, and
who still carry on large establishments by means of deputies, and in
their deputies' names, while they themselves live in fashionable style
on the borders of the town. The servants that are kept in those houses
are in general men, they being considered better adapted to keep peace
and quietness than women. It is customary with lodgers, who have
anything of value, to deposit it with the landlord, and, in