It is continually being said⁠—with that fatal facility which obscures the truth beyond all hope of recognition⁠—that for a woman who is willing to work, employment can always be found. Dislike of effo...

London is a city of sudden and violent contrasts. You can step from comfort and security of existence into destitution within a few minutes. This sounds incredible; but it can be done as I have proved...

The steps of Number 259, Mare Street, Hackney, are worn down with the countless feet that have trod them in search of succour. None have been turned empty away. It is the end of a pilgrimage of infini...

I went straight from the Shelter to the Hackney Labour Exchange. There is something about a Government department that casts a shadow on the freeborn spirit. You may tell yourself that you are indepen...

Somewhere at the back of the Holborn Restaurant⁠—out of one of those queer streets that seem off the map of London⁠—there is a paved court. Tumbledown dwellings surround it, swarming with humanity, an...

The young, pretty prostitute of the humbler walks of harlotry is a growing problem. The older women, who have long graduated in the profession, are of a different category; with these I did not come i...

When I left the lodging house in Kennedy Court I had no money, and my sole stock-in-trade consisted of the two boxes of matches, which, soaked by the last night’s rain, were now dry. I got them off my...

It is confidently assumed that the doss house is extinct. The Public Lodging House for women, licensed by the London County Council, is supposed to have taken its place. This is not so. There are doss...

I first went to the casual ward under very melancholy conditions. I was dispirited to find that my entry into commerce had been postponed. I had high hopes as to what I should achieve in the sale of c...

What is it that drives women to the Casual Ward? The unthinking will answer at a venture, drink, depravity, or in exceptional cases, persistent misfortune. The class of women which seeks the shelter o...

To spend a whole night in the streets is an experience that has a permanent effect on the psychology. My first adventure of this kind found me unprepared. I was compelled to walk about, not from lack ...

Sunday is a meagre day for the street seller. No one likes to be asked to buy matches, at any rate, in the earlier part of the day. There is a general feeling that the unpleasant things of life should...

I found myself in an unexpected world that morning. It might have been a continental city, it was so early astir. Whitechapel was already going to work; foreign faces gleamed brightly in the street. E...

When I began this account of my experiences, I made the point that it was impossible for a woman without a reference or a friendly recommendation to find employment of a regular and recognised descrip...

The refuge in Crispin’s Street was founded sixty years ago by one John Gilbert, D.D. It is supported entirely by voluntary contributions, and the work of administration and general management is perfo...

There are two other shelters run on much the same lines as the Providence Night Refuge in Crispin Street, though their accommodation is much smaller. I have already referred to the Refuge in Union Str...

London Receiving Home (259, Mare Street, Hackney). The women come for various reasons; a large number of them are either homeless or destitute, some have become estranged from their friends or relativ...