Nuisances

Abstract

Abstract The book having established street sellers’ importance to London’s economy and culture, this chapter offers a new perspective on their relationship to the city’s government and police. It examines hawkers’ relationship to the different layers of metropolitan authority, arguing that they were generally allowed to carry on trading, as long as they were not causing specific or localized problems. To begin, it recounts two famous episodes of street seller regulation, which help explain why the number of prosecutions against hawkers remained low and why police and magistrates tended to be lenient. Then it discusses hawkers’ association with various forms of wrongdoing, such as prostitution, gambling, selling poor quality food, and Sunday trading. Finally, it considers how street sellers could always be charged with obstructing the streets, particularly when they were accused of causing a nuisance, but even then police and officeholders were reluctant to intervene.