In Darkest London

In Darkest London is Ada Elizabeth Chesterton’s first-hand account of destitution in 1920s London, published in 1926. To learn how homeless women really lived, the journalist gave away her money and good clothes and went out onto the streets herself, sleeping rough, queuing at shelters, and taking casual work among the poorest of the poor. What she found, told plainly and without sentimentality, was a world of cold, hunger, and official indifference that shocked her comfortable readers. The book helped launch the charity she went on to found for homeless women, and it stands as a powerful piece of social reporting in the tradition that runs back to Mayhew. This free PDF and EPUB offers the complete text.