This cartoon from the issue of Punch for 26 January 1856 (p. 34), shows the presence of crossing-sweepers who swept horse manure and other filth out of the way so men and especially women of the prosperous classes (who wore dresses that swept the ground) would not soil their clothes when stepping off sidewalks. It also provides contemporary context for Jo in Dickens's Bleak House.
Related material
- Jo, The Crossing-Sweeper from Charles Dickens’s Bleak House
- Metropolitan mud, filthy streets, and “A Thaw in the Streets of London (1865)”
- Sanitation and Its absence
- Ideas of Childhood in Victorian Children's Fiction: Orphans, Outcasts and Rebels
[Scanned image (from a volume in the Athenæum Club Library) and text by George P. Landow You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Last modified 3 September 2007