3-101-316 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

The Devil's Acre, Westminster, 1872. View of a notorious slum or rookery with a high population density - multiple families crowded into single households. The area was noted as being exceptional for crime such as prostitution and vagrancy even when compared to other slums. Its location near the seat of government as well as Westminster Abbey, whose towers were said to be visible from any point within it, made the area a spectacle for observers - a display of destitution in contrast with nearby wealth. From "London: a pilgrimage", with illustrations by Gustave Doré and text by Blanchard Jerrold, [London: Grant & Co., 1872] (p.43).