"One of the most significant and far-reaching photobooks in the medium's history."

John Thomson's pioneering work of social documentary photography in its earliest state, issued in 12 monthly parts with 37 Woodburytype photographs on 36 plates.

Thomson and Smith's aim was to document the working class and poor inhabitants of London, building on the collaborative work done by Richard Beard and Henry Mayhew on Mayhew's study of London Labour and the London Poor (1851-1862). In the preface, they discuss their use photography: "we have sought to portray [the] harder phases of life of bringing to bear the precision of photograph in illustration of our subject. The unquestionable accuracy of this testimony will enable us to present true types of the London Poor and shield us from the accusation of either underrating or exaggerating individual peculiarities of appearance."

These "types" include gypsies, cabmen, street doctors, locksmiths, shoe-blacks, public public disinfectors, photographers, purveyors of shell fish, peddlers of fresh fruit, the flower-women of Covent Garden, and others less observed or merely glimpsed "at the angle of some dark alley, or in some squalid corner." Several of the subjects are named, such as "Tickets" the card-dealer, Black Jack, Cast-Iron Billy, "Hookey Alf" of Whitechapel, and "Caney" a clown who also repaired cane furniture.

Each of Thomson's photographs are accompanied by a commentary upon the images, twenty-four by Smith and twelve by Thomson. Street Life in London was later issued as a bound volume in 1877 and in 1881 a second, abridged version containing only 21 photographs using incomplete remainder sheets was issued under the title Street Incidents.

"Street Life in London... constitutes the first photographic social documentation of any kind." (Gernsheim - The History of Photography pg. 447).

"One of the most significant and far-reaching photobooks in the medium's history." (The Photobook I, 48).

First edition, first issue in the original parts; 12 fascicles (280 x 219 mm, 11 x 8¾ in); 37 Woodburytype photographs by John Thomson on 36 card mounts, ruled in red with letterpress captions, light cockling, tissue guards, text by Adolphe Smith, occasional light foxing to to text leaves; original blue wrappers printed in black, light wear to edges, toning to upper side of part 1, plates excised, contents and wrappers preserved, an exceptionally rare survival of the work in it's earliest form. 1-8, [1] issue contents, [1] preface, 9-100pp.

Gernsheim's History of Photography p447; The Truthful Lens 169; The Photobook: A History I, p48; Imagining Paradise p174-5; The Open Book p42-43.