New Survey of London Life & Labour

Poverty Maps from the New Survey of London Life and Labour, edited by Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith and issued between 1930 and 1931. Commissioned by the London School of Economics, the survey was conceived as a comprehensive update to Charles Booth’s seminal Life and Labour of the People in London. Llewellyn Smith, who had served as one of Booth’s original assistants, brought continuity and insight to this ambitious interwar study of London’s housing, employment, and living conditions. These maps offer a rich visual account of social and economic life in the capital during a time of profound change, capturing everything from overcrowded tenements to emerging suburban growth. We also have a unique selection of the working draft maps used by Smith in the preparation of this work at the London School of Economics—preliminary documents marked and annotated by survey staff. These drafts provide a behind-the-scenes view of the research process and the development of cartographic categories used in the final publication. Together, the published and working maps form an extraordinary record of early 20th-century London and the evolution of social science. The Booth archive, now housed at LSE, remains a cornerstone of this legacy.