'Across the Bridges': Representations of Victorian South London

Abstract

The rapid expansion of areas south of the Thames over the course of the Victorian period was paralleled by the construction of new urban identities for 'South London'. Drawing primarily upon newspaper and other written sources, this article explores emerging representations of Victorian south London. It focuses on two key periods: from the mid-1850s to the mid-1860s, when it is possible to trace the birth of a local consciousness of 'South London' as a distinct entity, with its own significant shared challenges and interests over and against the rest of the city; and the 1890s, when south London was 'discovered' and constituted as a particular problem by social investigators and external agencies eager to differentiate it from competing arenas of intervention in the metropolis. The article suggests that a 'South London consciousness' failed to emerge as a sufficiently cohesive force to reshape urban development in the 1850s and 1860s and to wrestle resources from the remainder of London. It is argued that the consequences of this were central to representations of south London in the 1890s and that they continued to haunt depictions of London 'across the bridges' well into the twentieth century.