"In Darkest London," A Window on Urban Life and Misison in Victorian England

[0:00] What I want to do is to talk to you about this book that I've written. It was published a few months ago. It's been about 33 years in the making. It's sort of been a project in the back of my mind for a very long time.

[0:13] But what I want to do is introduce you to a diary kept by a remarkable person who worked in an extremely difficult place during a very remote period of time.

[0:24] The diary, its author, his mission, and his time were all very remote to us in the 21st century. So you'll have to engage your imagination to appreciate all four, the diary, the person, the place, and the period.

[0:42] And I hope you'll come to share some of my fascination with this manuscript journal and with the mid-Victorian German Jew, Joseph Oppenheimer, who kept the journal.

[0:53] The book which I've written is based on a single document, a small diary, about three inches wide and five inches long, which was kept by a lay evangelist who worked in an area of London which was known as the worst slum of the mid-Victorian period.

[1:12] He kept it as he went door to door as an evangelist working for the London City Mission, which was a large, and still is today, a very large urban mission, seeking to talk to the desperately poor and read portions of scripture to them and talk to the Christian faith.

[1:32] Although hundreds, probably thousands of journals were kept in the 19th century by such workers, because the London City Mission, even in the 1850s, had roughly 350 people working like this.

[1:44] There were other missions as well that we'll talk about, similar workers laboring in the poorest areas of urban cities in Britain. But this journal is important not only for religious historians such as myself, but also for social historians, cultural historians, people interested in the Victorian city, the Victorian slums, people interested in the attitudes of people who often don't have a voice in those history texts.

[2:16] And it's important because it drives us with a first-hand account of what life was like in what was regarded as one of London's worst slums.

[2:27] This is a very famous picture drawn by Gustave Doré. Doré was a French engraver who moved to Britain and became very famous for his Scenes of London.

[2:43] This is his work called Dudley Street. This is actually the street that Oppenheimer worked on. He worked on this street for about eight years as a late evangelist.

[2:54] So you can see here the actual sort of place that he worked in. Now, when I gave this electric region in the summer, I had a little pointing device that would enlarge different things.

[3:14] Here there's a sign. You can't, but if you actually enlarge it, you'll see that the writing is Hebrew. And there were four or five Jewish families on the street that he records in his diary.

[3:27] He had to visit it. It's quite interesting. Here you see these... This is really a place in the city where the poorest of the poor came to sell their used goods, things that pawnbrokers would not take because they were too cheap.

[3:48] They worked... Many people worked in these underground cellars here, you can see. What they did was they translated shoes. One of the colorful descriptions of this period is talking to the translators here.

[4:02] People think that they're talking about people actually translating language. They'll know they're taking worn-out shoes and making them barely sellable. And then you can see the shoes down here on sale.

[4:14] The other thing that was sold here very often was used clothing. So this street in particular was known as one of the places that people came to sell, or dolly is the term, the dolly shops, where the dolly was actually a symbol, a place that was an old doll and represented this...

[4:36] was a shop kept by somebody who was selling clothes. You can see this is populated by children, small children. The only place to have plays over on the street. But at the same time you have a handsome cab charging down the same street, about to run over these children if they don't get out of the way.

[4:53] Again, the poverty here is really quite unspeakable. You can see various men here just standing, watching the scene. I'll be...

[5:04] Coming back to this photo a number of times during this lecture, this is to give you an impression of what this is like. And this is the actual journal itself.

[5:14] Wow. So this is on this very small book. It's about 140 pages long, and it details his work in the slum from September 1861 until about April 1862, interrupted by times when he didn't keep the journal because he was off sick.

[5:34] He's back in quite a bit. So, let me just begin by talking about four things. My interest in the journal, who I've written this book for, two other similar works, and then I'm going to talk about the controlling motif.

[5:50] So first, why did... or how did I become interested in this topic? Well, I did my doctorate on the evangelization of London in the mid-19th century, trying to figure out how did Christians respond to the new frontier that was emerging, which was the urban city.

[6:08] People could not, by the 1830s, believe that there could be a city of a million people. There's a book published in the early 1850s, 30s, titled The Million People City. People were aghast that such concentration of humanity could occur.

[6:21] It had occurred at other times in history that they weren't aware of. But during this time, Christians began to strategize as to how to deal with the modern city, with its congestion, its poverty, its overcrowding, and the alienation of many poor people from the Christian faith as they move into the city.

[6:46] Much of my book, which was published a long time ago, entitled In Darkness... No... Lighten Their Darkness... Lighten Their Darkness... There's actually a phrase from the prayer book.

[7:00] Lighten Their Darkness, O Lord... That was the title of the book, which focused on how these Christians responded. When I presented my book for publication, one of the reviewers of the Graff Manuscript made the suggestion that I considered looking at this journal, which I didn't know existed, which was held by a church in London.

[7:21] And after looking at it, it became the basis for a chapter in which I dealt with the diary in that book.

[7:33] The journal is fascinating and provides us with this unique window on life in the Victorian slum. And the writer, Joseph Oppenheimer, is equally fascinating.

[7:44] One of my research assistants who worked with me, checking over the transcription of the journal, said to me that after working on it for a while, that the longer he spent time with the journal, the more he became fascinated with this man.

[7:57] And if you spend time with Oppenheimer and reading the journal as he goes about his daily work, he eventually begins to haunt your imagination as you accompany him in his daily encounters with a desperate pool.

[8:09] Others are fascinated with the area they worked in, and evaluate for the important insights that Oppenheimer provides into the social life of this area. I met a secular historian, David Green, a professor of geography at the University of London.

[8:23] And he has long been intrigued with this area of London, the slums, and has become an expert on it. And expressed with me his eagerness to have a full transcription of the diary published so that undergraduates can study it on their own and analyze it in their research, because it provides this first step behind the camera of the slum by a thoughtful observer.

[8:45] And it was Professor Green who also suggested me that the BBC might want to do an hour-long program on Oppenheimer and his work. It's interesting, I had the same response from Baylor University Press when I talked to them about publishing.

[8:59] The woman who talked to me said, Oh, PBS should really do an hour-long series on this. I thought, well, that's interesting to get the same reaction from two very different people. Who then is my intended audience?

[9:15] Authors always have to ask themselves this important question, Who am I writing for? Well, my conscious audience has been the general reader, but with an eye to students of Victorian cities and popular religion to help them understand how religion was expressed and experienced on the ground.

[9:32] John Walsh, the respected historian at Oxford, once commented to me that historians of Victorian religion have generally been far more interested in what Edward Bouverie Pusey, the leader of the High Church movement, might have said to John Henry Newman, the most famous convert to Rome, as they walked across the quadrangle at Oriel College in Oxford.

[9:55] Far more interested in that than what ordinary people actually believed in how they experienced religion at the various of time. So this book tries to bring to life how religion was expressed and experienced by the great unwashed, those people who rarely ever make it into history books.

[10:12] This is a history from below, rather than a history of the elites. In thinking about who my intended audience is, I go back my mind to a conversation I had about ten years ago in Jerusalem.

[10:27] The person I was talking with was a secular historian, a professor of literature at Ben Gurion University. But he'd done his doctorate at Oxford, and he actually had studied under Sarah Williams, my colleague at Regent.

[10:40] She had put me in touch with him. We met together for a copy. I was actually researching those books on Christian Zionism at that point.

[10:51] We had an interesting conversation about that. But then he said something to me that, probably the most striking thing I've ever been said, ever been said to me with my own research. He said, you know, when I was an undergraduate at Oxford, I, you know, and I'm Jewish, a secular Jew, I decided to do a concentration, what is called a paper. So he read for a paper, the most popular paper for Oxford undergraduates, is the 19th century paper on church and state, the relationship between the British government and the church.

[11:23] And he said, something I didn't know, he said, the reading list for that concentration included your book, Lighten Their Darkness. And so I read that, and he said, for the first time, I actually began to understand what Christianity was actually about.

[11:39] I, as a secular Jew, had known about Christianity, but it was only reading your book and hearing about the attempts to evangelize people, that I came to understand what Christianity was about. Well, you certainly weren't my intended audience, but I'm really glad you read it.

[11:54] And the same thing with this book. I'm hoping that it will be adopted by secular historians for reading by undergraduates, such as Professor Green, a Mr. Geographer at University of London, who read the diary, but wants to have it available, because it really does give you a snapshot of what evangelicals believed and what they were trying to do.

[12:19] So too with this book. My hope is that it will be read by undergraduates and others interested in understanding the efforts of the hundreds of men and women who worked in the 19th century, trying to explain and recommend the Christian faith to the poor, to the poor.

[12:33] So, let me say something here about the manuscript itself. The journal itself, back here, this picture of the books, here we are.

[12:50] The journal itself is a small booklet about three inches wide and five inches long, about the size of a book that would fit into a gentleman's, quote, pocket. It was issued by the London City Mission to his workers and was meant as a way of keeping, a way of the reporting by the worker to his clerical supervisor what he was doing, what was he observing, how his work was proceeding.

[13:15] His task was for six days a week, 50 weeks a year, to go from door to door in a very small area of London and talk to the same people week in week out about the Christian Gospel and read scriptures to them.

[13:29] In the journal, the worker was to record the names of each person whom he met, to describe what he saw, what he heard, even what he smelled.

[13:41] People often ask how the diary ended up in the hands of the church where it was held, or it is still held, St. Giles and the Field in London, which was the church, the Anglican church that often time never attended, and it was a cure to that church who supervised his work to pull on the City Mission.

[14:00] When I first visited the church in around 1983 or 1984, the custodian, the verger, told me that a couple of years earlier, probably in the late 60s, early 1970s, a couple had come in from off the street and said that they had had this diary in their family for many years, didn't know what to do with it, and they thought it should be returned to the church that's mentioned in it.

[14:23] Surprisingly, the couple said they were from Vancouver, Columbia. I know. Now, the name Oppenheimer, Vancouver, Oppenheimer Park, the first mayor of Vancouver, David Oppenheimer, in 1885, was from southern Germany, in fact, from the same area of Germany that my Oppenheimer was from.

[14:47] And so I began to try to look for a connection between my Oppenheimer and the five Oppenheimer brothers, who ran a very successful business here in Vancouver, basically a hardware business, but they were the major provider of everything that the CPR needed as it came through the Rockies.

[15:07] Well, lo and behold, there was another Joseph Oppenheimer in Portland, same name, Joseph Oppenheimer, who worked with the Oppenheimer brothers in Vancouver.

[15:19] He provided all of the goods needed for the CPRs that came through the Rockies from the east, and he brought all the supplies up to the Columbia River to meet the needs of the CPR coming this way.

[15:30] So one way it was Joseph Oppenheimer providing, and the other way it was these other Oppenheimers in Vancouver. So I was convinced this must be the Oppenheimer. Somehow the Oppenheimer in Portland must be a cousin of the Oppenheimers from the same area, born about the same time, etc., etc.

[15:47] Well, I was wrong. And the reason I discovered I was wrong is that I finally, after having had this diary for years, I realized at the very end of it there's a name of another missionary, another city missionary, who took over this district, and it must have been his family, the Irish name, that made its way to Vancouver.

[16:08] So I was disproved in my supposition. It would have been really fun to associate the two Oppenheimers. And they may well have been related.

[16:20] Oppenheimer himself became very ill right at the end of the diary. You can see his handwriting disintegrate, and he left the mission entirely.

[16:32] So who is this man, Joseph Oppenheimer? Oppenheimer was born in 1833, the son of a Jewish shopkeeper near Frankfurt on Mainz in southwestern Germany.

[16:47] He apparently trained to become a rabbi, and was able to read and write in Hebrew, German, and English. He emigrated to England at about the age of 20, and converted to Christianity shortly thereafter through the work of a Magneton society, the London Jewish Society, which is often referred to.

[17:07] which provided housing and employment for Jewish converts, who were often ostracized because of their conversion of Christianity.

[17:18] He began to work at the age of 24 for the London City Mission. He married in 1859, and together he and his wife had four daughters and one son. Descendants of the Oppenheimers can be found in England, Australia, and New Zealand.

[17:33] I've actually been in touch with one of his great-great-granddaughters. And I've been looking desperately for a picture of this man. By the 1880s, middle-class families generally had family portraits done, but I'm not the only one to come up with one.

[17:49] The family knows there was one in the past, but they don't know where it is. We know that during his time at the mission, his health broke down several times as he was sick, and on sick leave was months at a time.

[18:02] This wasn't at all unusual for the city missionaries. Several earlier workers in the area where Oppenheimer worked had died from diseases contracted with his lungs, and in 1862 his health broke down completely, and he went to the country to recuperate, and therefore he disappeared from the city mission's records.

[18:20] However, from his obituary in 1890, he died at age 57, and his wife's will, which was probated in 1907, and it appears that he did very well financially after leaving the mission.

[18:34] We know that his father was a shopkeeper in Germany, and Joseph, leading a new career, became a shopkeeper as well. In fact, he became a tobacconist and sold tobacco in a shop that he established across from Victoria to Victoria Station in London.

[18:55] Interestingly, the tobacco trade in the 19th century London was dominated by Jews, as even today many businesses in large cities are dominated by civic ethnic groups.

[19:07] Can you find an Irish taxi driver in Vancouver? Not unless he speaks Punjabi. It's interesting talking to friends in New York City and they said, oh yeah, you go to a restaurant, the people who wash dishes are from one ethnic group, the people who serve tables from another, the people who make the food from another.

[19:26] This is a very typical thing of ethnic groups, if somebody starts off in something they were able to do at home, and then they provide the network for other people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oppenheimer is probably not typical of one of the city mission agents.

[19:39] He was a foreigner and a Jew and probably much better educated than most fluent in free languages. And he had only recently acquired his knowledge of Christianity, which he worked so hard to share in this difficult context.

[19:52] I think we'll say something here about making sense of his mission. There are two books in particular that have been helpful to me in writing this.

[20:13] One is a fascinating book by Owen Chadwick, a leading 20th century historian who taught at Cambridge for many years in modern history. He has a fascinating work, if you're a book reader, entitled A Victorian Miniature.

[20:29] What he does in this book is he takes two diaries. One diary is from an earnest evangelical minister in a small town near Norfolk, in Eastern England.

[20:43] And it's his own very personal account of life and ministry in this parish. And he takes the diary of the local lord of the manor, the man who was wealthy and had to be dealt with, whether you liked it or not, because the lord of the manor usually, in these contexts, controlled the naming of the minister.

[21:07] This minister had been named before the lord had acquired his property. And so you hear the morning conversation, or the morning feelings of the minister as he's preparing to preach, and then his experience of preaching that morning and having to say hard things to the assembled congregants, including the lord of the manor.

[21:31] And then you hear what the lord of the manor, and his diary thought of that this morning, and how the lunchtime conversation went around the lord of the manor's table, and what it was like when the minister actually came to dinner, and how everybody had to be very polite, and the warfare was continued in a much more subtle way.

[21:48] Absolutely fascinating book, but it's an excellent example of the use of this sort of diary literature. The other is a book recommended to me by George Morrison, leading the American historian.

[22:02] The other is a book entitled A Midwife's Tale, The Life of Martha Ballard.

[22:16] Ulrich builds her deeply insightful work on the basis of a diary kept by a midwife in rural Maine in the turn of the 19th century, in the 1790s through the early 1800s.

[22:31] For 27 years, Martha Ballard recorded her midwifery career, during which she delivered just under 1,000 babies, to be exact, 996 babies, which works out to about 37 babies a year, or three a month for 27 years.

[22:47] It makes for fascinating reading and opens up so much about rural life in America at the turn of the 19th century. So if you're a reader interested in the nitty-gritty of life from below, through diaries, these two gems are worthy of your consideration for your reading.

[23:06] I felt that I needed a motif that would help me to organize the book, and the motif that I chose is the motif of the sower.

[23:18] You know the passage from the Gospel that speaks of Jesus speaking, the sower opening of the sower's seed. So this became the controlling motif as I tried to organize the whole book.

[23:33] So I begin with the sower's work, the sower and the sower's feel. So I talk about what he was up to, the mission, then I talk about the missionary, the sower, and then I talk about the feel, that is this area of London and Dudley Street.

[23:52] And then in the next section, I go on to the sower's words, and I actually have a transcription of the full manuscript, so if somebody wants to just read the manuscript on the phone, they can, which is a great assignment for undergraduates, read all the entries over a certain period of time, and it comes to your own conclusions.

[24:15] And then I continue with this metaphor of the sower, but I switch the focus from the sower and the seed to the soil.

[24:28] And I have four chapters describing four different types of soil that he was working with. So the Irish Catholic soil.

[24:40] The area that he worked with was about a third Irish. The Irish were flooded into England in the 1840s, given the Irish potato family, where millions of people died of starvation in Ireland.

[24:51] So Liverpool, Manchester, and London, and Scotland as well were flooded with these desperately poor people. If they came from London, this is where they ended up, starting off in St. Giles, and so he deals a lot with Irish Catholics.

[25:08] Another chapter on the Jewish families, five or six Jewish families he established was very good rapport with in his conversations. Another chapter on the unfortunates, that is the prostitutes in the area, so a profile of what the prostitute was like, the age they started the business, their response, their politics.

[25:29] You know that the average Victorian prostitute voted conservative, and had learned to read in a Sunday school. It was really quite interesting. I thought, wow, this is something, information I'd never known, never thought to know.

[25:43] But he has regular conversations with women working as prostitutes, and then a whole chapter on the stony ground, the motif in Scripture.

[25:56] The people really resistant to his message, not really much political opposition, but more certain degree of ethnic opposition from the Irish Catholics.

[26:08] And then the final section is on the sowers' harvest, so looking at the most responsive, the good soil in the sense that he worked.

[26:21] So let me just walk you through some of this material here. I was aided in doing this work by the fact that just a few months before, England had taken its annual, every ten years, Britain had a census, so just a few months before the journal begins, there was a recording of everybody who lived on every street, every place, and it gives their names, where they were born, their age, and their occupation.

[26:55] So I can take the names that he mentions of people in the diary, and I can say, okay, for instance, here, this is the Mary Colopy, this is Monmouth Court, October 1861, second back, an old woman named Colopy, said, you always come here, and I told you the last time, I was not of your persuasion, I'm not one of your people, and I never go to any of your people, for nothing at all, and I don't want to be revisited, I know all you can tell me, Father Kelly, bless his soul, is my priest, et cetera, et cetera.

[27:48] From the census record, we know this woman is 57 years old, the wife of William Colopy, he was Irish born, she was actually born in England, three children lived with him, Mary, 28 years old, William, 22, and Richard, 15, all children born in London.

[28:04] this gives you a bit of an idea, this is actually where, a picture of where in Germany, so, he's from near Frankfurt, and Frankfurt Online is here, in this picture, he's from just outside of Frankfurt, this is the place, where, the London Jews Society, had its headquarters, London Jews Society, was very well organized, very well financed, British evangelicals, were convinced, that the gospel, was to be offered first, to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, the Palestine place, was the name of their headquarters, in East London, that had a chapel, that had a sort of Bible school, that had workshops, to help people obtain work, because they've been disowned, by their families, all the apparatus, of the work of converting British Jews, was here, and this is where,

[29:10] Hoppenheimer himself, was in the early 1850s, before he started working, for the London City Mission, this is the church, St. Giles in the Fields, you can see it, this is a 19th century picture, but this is the church today, that you can visit, now, a little bit about, the Mission Field, Thomas Beams, in the Rookery of London, 1852, in common parlance, St. Giles and Billingsgate, are types, the one, of the lowest conditions, under which human life is possible, that is, St. Giles where he worked, and the other, of the lowest point, to which the English language, can descend, gives you an idea, of his estimate, of the very area, I wanted to show you, exactly where he worked, here you see, this is London, here is the London Eye, right here, the British Museum, up here, and this is St. Giles Church, right here,

[30:16] I'm going to show you this, in much more luck, and then this area, right here, is the two block stretch, of Dudley Street, so just south, of the British Museum, what is, this is the northern end, of what is now, St. Chastroire Avenue, in the theatre district, of London, what's the Coca-Cola thing, about what, because we have, that's the London Eye, the huge, it's like Ferris wheel, like, nothing to do, with Coca-Cola part, well they, yeah, they own it, they built, the brand name on it, Tottencourt Road, is the nearest tube station, to this, again here's, the Tottencourt Garden, and here you can see, not very well, this is, what is Chastroire Avenue now, but this is where he worked, and you, you can see on the next map, why this area, is called the Seven Dials, what you have, is seven streets, coming together, and this sort of, the radius, like a, a clock dial, Dudley Street, the street that he worked on, is this area here, so this is the, northwest side, of this square here, which is known as Seven Dials, the Seven Dials, was regarded as, incredibly dangerous place, to go, to go to, even during the day, if you read,

[31:34] Victorian novels, this is the area, of Jack the Ripper, this is the area, where if you want, to visit the course, of where you go, I read a, a novel a few weeks ago, and they, this woman, writes about, the Seven Dials, and, the Seven Dials, and, so here, is the same area today, Seven Dials here, Shastbury Avenue, which is again, this is this area, where, he worked, again, one more picture here, scenes, scenes, but I want to show you now, oh yeah, what I wanted to show you, this, I'm going to show you, a modern day picture, of this street, this is, where, Gustave Gauré, would have stood, as he sketched, the picture, that I showed you earlier, he was looking, northeast, along Dudley Street, and the title, is where Dudley Street, so he's standing, right here, and, so this is what he's seeing, this is what you see today, so the area, has been, torn, everything that was, existed there, in the 1860s, was torn down, in the 1880s, and, it would be rebuilt, several times, so this is, he's at Shott's Ray Avenue, here's the little, maps, and off to the right, here, there's a street, coming in,

[32:58] Earl Street, which was, it was called, the 19th Central Baptist, and here, is another picture, from above, again, here, looking for, this is the area, very small area, that he visited, as he worked, here, here's another picture, of the seven dials, in, the 19th century, this is right at the center, where there was, a sundial, at the center, called, the 10th century, and seven dials, we have a number, of written descriptions, of Dudley Street, from the pens, of social commentators, it was the place, as I've mentioned, where the poorest, of the poor, came to sell, their worn out clothing, to people, even yet, poorer, than themselves, many people, worked in the, shoe repair business, in the basements, of attendance, along the street, and here, is another sketch, that catches, some of the atmosphere, of the poorer sections, of London, London, was remarkable, in the very poor areas, as in Vancouver, co-existed, with sections, of great affluence, only a few blocks away, but in the 19th century, many middle, and upper, people, middle and upper classes, lived in worlds, completely apart, and there was, a little awareness, often of a lot of the poor, much of that, was dispelled, by the work, of London City, missionaries, and by novelists, like Charles Dickens,

[34:23] I think, was called, mentioned Dickens, a little later, one of the, certainly, by the middle, of the, by the early 1840s, there was something, called, the condition of England, question, a major, issue of discussion, about the state of England, and how the poor, was doing so badly, the solution, very often, was that, of slum clearances, David Green, the professor of geography, I mentioned, this is a, his own sketching, of the, the number of paupers, these are people, who are, eligible for parish relief, in the 1840s, this area here, the very worst area, was basically, subjected to, slum clearances, and the people, who were there, you'll notice, they've disappeared, in this later, in the 1850s, they've disappeared, but what has happened, is they simply moved, elsewhere in the parish, the parish, so they, it isn't really, solving the problem, it's actually making, the problem worse, for people, making this situation, worse, was the operation, of what are called, the poor laws,

[35:33] Britain had a, a series of laws, which required, a parish, if people were, absolutely desperate, to be cared for, by the parish, but in order, to be eligible, for such relief, entrance into a workhouse, where you're given, work to do, eligible, for that, was dependent upon, being able to prove, that you lived, in the parish, for two years, the parish, so if your, hobble, even the hobble, your, your people paid, actually to live, in a fall space, under buildings, if that building, was demolished, you were, you really were forced, to move somewhere else, within the parish, because if you moved, out of the parish, then you were no longer, eligible for, charitable work, or support, or basic, basic social, support from the parish, so these poor people, were aware of that, and they, they very much, knew that it was, in their best interest, if they were forced to move, so what you did, was simply relocate, the poverty, within a very, short distance, of where you would be living, let me show you, this is a, example of, his interactions, with this Irish, with the Irish here, an Irish family, extremely poor, no scriptures, occasionally attend,

[36:58] Lexington Packers Cathedral, their five children, in number, are not going to school, at all, for they are all, for they are all, but naked, two of them, running around the room, with nothing about them, but an old rags, in the shape, of a shirt, I wish we were all dead, says the mother, I don't care, we could not be worse off, than we are now, I don't believe, that there is a God, at all, if there is, he don't care much, about us, I know, maybe we have not, tried him, but I don't think, it would be any use, I wish he would, send us a local bread man, and then another, these are instances, of the poverty, that we saw, another Lee, but no relation, to the above, James Lee, has four children, ill, the poor little creatures, are laying on the floor, there being no bed, in the room, they seem to, more in want of food, than anything else, the father having, no work, they are all starving, read the word, and explained it, and promised to recommend, their case, to the proper authorities, so there were, the other places, he mentions that, he can obtain, blankets, etc, for a very poor family, or point them, to the parish officials, who can address their case, in the 19th, in the 1830s,

[38:17] London became, the new missionary frontier, of 19th century England, the work, as I mentioned, is headed up, by the London City Mission, who in the 1830s, used government maps, to divide, the whole of London, up into very small sections, and each of those sections, starting with the forest areas, he wants to appoint, a missionary, to work in that area, doing this sort of, evangelistic work, this comprehensive plan, is shown here, in their journal, their London City Mission magazine, which they circulated, throughout Great Britain, they would actually have people, color in specific areas, where they wanted, financial support, to send in new missionaries, and, this approach, really is replacing, a voluntary approach, known as, the district visiting societies, these were, societies began in the 1820s, using lay people, to visit the desk, before, but by the 1830s, it was realized, that this is very dangerous work, and it requires, a lot more time, than the lay volunteers, are able to give, and hence, the use of paid workers, you'll see the explosion, of this approach, between, beginning, this graph, shows, the number of London City, missionary workers, in 1840, there was a similar, strictly,

[39:42] Anglican Indian, doctor of society, called the Scripture Readings, Association, which, had a fair number of workers, all over 100 by 1860, but it really is, the, approach of London City, missionary, London City Mission, which is interdenominational, and appeals, to a very broad cross section, works with Anglicans, and non-performers, but by 1860, there are, 370, London City, Mission workers, there are about, just over 100, a Scripture Readings, society, workers, and, there's another society, begun, only in 1857, by a remarkable woman, by the name of, Ellen Ranyard, who had worked very closely, with the Bible Society, she, had the idea, that she would employ, working class women, to evangelize, working class women, first by getting, working class women, to commit, to, putting aside, a half penny, a week, towards the purchase, of the Bible, but also gathering, these women, in small self-help groups, teach them, how to take care, of their own families, how to cook, inexpensive meals, that would be nourishing, and, within, three years, this society, comes from out, from out of nowhere, 1857, by 1860, it has, about 130 workers, and it grows, throughout the century, in 1867,

[41:10] Ellen Ranyard, has another idea, these women, have been so well, received in the Psalms, that she begins, to train them, as nurses, Bible nurses, they're called, they really are, the background, to what becomes, preventative health care, the Victorian order, of nurses, this is where the idea, comes from, from Ellen Ranyard, by the late 1860s, she has, many women, working in London, with, one story, put it, treading, treading along, the streets of London, with the New Testament, one pocket, and Florence Nightingale's, hints on nursing, the other, and offering, primary preventative, health care, to women, very often, staying up all night, with a woman, she's sick, but again, focused on the, course of the poor, fascinating quote, here from, Professor Young's, Porter with AIDS, written way back, in the 1860s, but it's an, amazing quote, there are beat up, work among us, the non-conformist preacher, told his people, three great social agencies, the London City Mission, the novels of Mr. Dickens, and the cholera, cholera solves, a lot of social problems, because the people, who are no longer, they're no longer needy, because they're all dead, it's interesting here though, the realization, the London City Mission, is hugely important, it's also very important, for government, knowledge of the slums, the leading, social comitator,

[42:45] Henry Mayhew, who writes a lot, of the slums, in the 1880s, and others, get their knowledge, of the slums, by going through the slums, with London City Missionaries, the reports, that are talked about, in the most common, like our Chatsby, history, and in fact, in Oppenheimer's journal, there's actually, the case of a, a leading conservative, member of parliament, who accompanies him, one day, on his visits, just to see, he feels like, this is a way in, this is a man, who's known, and understood, and appreciated, in the, in this, in the slums.

[43:18] Another historian, Sheridan Gilley, speaks to the, the City Mission, indeed, it's difficult to exaggerate, the City Mission's, social importance, it was inevitably, responsible, more than any other body, for the multiplication, of even, of the social agencies, of all kinds, in the 1840s, especially, the Ragged Schools, and the Ragged School Union, which was founded, in the Commission's, auspices, in 1844, while the London City Mission, Journal reports, gave the recurring, millions of public, a wealth of information, pitted to, unavailable, a new source, of urban destination, and thereby, aroused, the enthusiasm, to suffer the poor, while saving souls.

[43:54] Gilley mentions, there, the Ragged Schools, these were, schools begun, by City Mission workers, in the poorest areas, of London, in the 1840s, and basically, offering the, children who were running, wild, in the streets, of London, there were a lot of, orphans, who made their living, guys, scrounging, for food, by, crawling through the sewers, to try to find, anything of value, that might have fallen in, here is one of the schools, here you can see, these children, learning, skills, they were taught, to read and write, but they were also, taught vocational skills, posters on the wall, the book would read, thou God, seest me, and thou shalt not steal, silent reminders, to students, that those concerned, with their vocational education, were equally, if not more concerned, because of their, fiction morality, this is from the one, illustrated one of the news, in the early 1850s, this is the motif, that I was talking about, and how it works, but let me just look, at a few of these groups, firstly, the Irish Catholics, this is the, portion of the diary, that I showed earlier, an old woman, named Collier, you always come here, and I told you the last time,

[45:16] I wasn't of your persuasion, I'm not one of your people, I never goes to any of you people, at all, I don't want to be visited, I know all you can tell me, Father Kelly, blessed soul, is my priest, and I knows him, and he knows me, he's a good soul, as ever breathed, and I will never listen, to nobody else, yes, he told me, it's Jesus, blessed be his name, and his blessed brother, and here, take me crucifix, out of her pocket, he gave me that, and told me, never to part with it, which I never shall, have been permitted, the speaker of Jesus, as the only mediator, between God and men, I have a section, actually in the diary, following up on Father Kelly, who was a fascinating person, had a very large church, about four or five miles, east of here, and represents a new form, of Catholicism, very much influenced, by the Romantic movement, and the re-flowering, or the flowering, of Catholicism, in the continent, very much opposed, by many of it, in the Catholic hierarchy, who really were not, very happy, with the arrival, of all these, desperately poor Irish, disrupting, staid Catholic worship, to a certain degree, of class conflict, that he reads, of Catholicism, or another one, a very bigoted,

[46:34] Irish woman Catholic, named Riley, told me to go to the devil, where he would knock, my brains out, if I did not leave his room, at once, but after a few minutes, he got a little calmer, and amidst, a great many interruptions, I was nevertheless, permitted to him, to flee, from the wrath, to come, refuse the track, or, the agent rejected, was refused admittance, by a Roman Catholic, Irishman, who used very bad language, and threatened, to push me down the stairs, if I was not off at once, etc., but still, I've been permitted, to deliver my message, to him, while standing at the door, and then, another conversation, but a more hopeful one, another Irish family, Roman Catholic, where they received, my visit very kindly, and the husband, and the toddler, asked me to sit down, found him, pretty well versed, in scripture, and when I spoke to him, the nature of sin, and God's righteousness, and saving the sinners, in Jesus Christ, he said, I know that God, is a holy God, and he will punish sin, there is a hell,

[47:35] I believe there is, I have no doubt about it, in my mind, yes, we all deserve to go there, I know that you know it, yes, I believe Christ has died for me, he is a sufficient savior, I know he is the way to heaven, I trust in no other, for salvation, I don't do as I ought, but I try to do my best, and the rest I lead to Christ, he alone can save me, and I pray that he will save me, that's the fact, I promise to fall again, so, a much more positive response, by at least, a few Catholics, in the neighborhood, or, a few examples, of positive responses, in my final chapter, on the good soil, top back, called upon old cook, who said, thank God, I am able to get out, and go to church, next Sunday, if I am spared, and intend to attend, the Lord's Supper, he is still a great sufferer, but when I alluded to it, he said, oh my dear sir, what would have come of thee, if God had not visited me, with this affliction,

[48:36] I would have died like a fool, for I did not know Christ, before I was afflicted, but now I thank God, I can say, I know the Bible, where he who lives, when a portion is a word, not for the prayer, or, a blind woman, who he has, ongoing conversations with, called upon poor blindness, Tyler, who is very glad to see me, read the word, and offered up a prayer, Miss Tyler, is one of those who, know, in whom they believe, it is very comforting, for the missionary, to have such bright jewels, in a district full of sin and misery, where he can go, for a short space, and find to hear, from the lips of one, surrounded by all the evil influence, what the Lord can, and does do, for those who receive, Lord Jesus Christ, and look at him, as your Savior, and this here, is the entry, from the, census record, related to, this title, this title's closest friend, was 27 year old, Mary Day, from Lincolnshire, who was also blind, from birth, she was married, to a 26 year old,

[49:39] James Day, who was employed, as a Gilder, they had two daughters, May and Elizabeth, who was three in one, the census form, says that it was James Day, who had been blind, from birth, but this seems, to be a terrible error, where we meet Mary Day, on members next, in January 1862, called upon poor blind, Miss Tyler, who was very glad to see me, read and explained, the 23rd Psalm, and offered up a prayer, the poor blind woman, is one of the happiest Christians, I've ever seen, and each time I visit her, I really feel, that it does me good, front room Mrs Day, likewise, a blind woman, is still in a different, state of mind, and through the influence, of Miss Tyler, her friend, she was being induced, to attend, to the Outer Forms, religion, but is still, as far as, that recognition, in heaven, his persistence, and his, couldn't believe, when she went out, it began, to change, the word, the changing Mary Day, which is probably, 18th, February, and, top and back, called again, upon Mrs Day, and had Tyler, both blind, read and explained, the word to them, and never, to confess upon, Mrs Day, the duty, and purpose of prayer,

[50:42] Miss Tyler, the sincere, and faithful Christian woman, who though blind, yet sees, with the IFA, him who has loved her, and didn't use that for her, and then, this final, let me set up, my final example, who is indeed, related to, Miss Day, and Miss Tyler, visited only, a few special cases today, was gladly received, and the poor people, were very much pleased, to see me again, who were poor, blind, and Tyler, of 59, and Dublin Street, told me, that she had prayed, for me twice every day, since she heard, I was ill, and sent to church, several times, to inquire, after my count, I read, in between her, and Mrs Day, who was present, the 23rd Psalm, after which, we knelt down, in prayer, to have me, thrown in heaven, of grace, and the image, of the missionary, with two blind women, kneeling together, in prayers, in such a hollow, it's hard to imagine, when one contemplates, Christoph's glory, image of Dublin Street, and then, this is my final, example, the positive response, found a young man, very willing, to listen, to the message, used to attend, his Sunday school, when he was a boy, but still got a Bible, which was given to him, as a prize, for regular attendance, has not been to a place, of worship, since last Christmas, 12 months, has not got tidy clothes, now which are fit, to go in, knows God looks, into the heart, and not at the clothes, reads his Bible, occasionally, had a long talk, with the other man, his name is Tannenton, found very teachable, he seemed to be impressed, when I read, and explained, a portion of the word, and when I left, he asked me to call again, so this is a, a fascinating window, into a very remote time, amongst desperately poor people, and yet, the level of, of his ability, of Offenheim's ability, to reach these people, is really quite remarkable,

[52:35] I always wonder, how, in the world, looking at that picture, moving back to that picture, of, this was your, seeing of your daily work, how would you have, the strength and courage, to get up, walk the four or five walks, to this street, and do the work, that he's going to do, for day after day, week after week, month after month, for about eight years, some of these, city missionaries, stayed in their position, for 30, 40 years, as lay evangelists, it's interesting, in the 1880s, when the, Salvation Army began, there was often, strong resistance, in the slums, to the Salvation Army, because people said, you guys are interlopers, what are you doing, coming onto this turf, this, this area, belongs to the city missionary, who's been working here, faithfully, he's our pastor, he's our slum pastor, what are you, what are you guys doing here, we already know, what Christianity is about, because these guys, have been telling us, this for 40, 50 years, so it's interesting, that often, the resistance, of the Salvation Army, is not so much, in some cases, opposition, to what they're saying, but the idea, that these people, or other Christians, would be working, faithfully, for decades, amongst us, the sort of person, they return to, in time to be, for help, and assurance, and I think, in terms of, how this mission, really shaped, religious life, and culture, like in Brittany Lee, in the late 19th, or 20th century, is hugely important, for understanding, what religion, was for the popular level, in this period.

[54:17] So, I've said to you, I've said no. So, and you're, being like, for the bull, being like, after the world, you've Tub, you've set it up, and you're, you've exercised,