In the fall of 1883, a pamphlet called, The Bitter Cry of the Outcast London: An Inquiry into the Conditions of the Abject Poor, was published describing the deplorable sanitary conditions of the poor. A few days later, The Pall Mall Gazette picked up the story and wrote an article called “Is it Not Time?” containing a one-page condensed version of the pamphlet. The conditions described included the following quote, “We do not say the conditions of their homes, for how can those places be called homes, compared with the lair of a wild beast would be a comfortable and healthy spot? (57-58)” In heartbreaking detail, the author describes case after case of horrific conditions of filth and degradation.

“In one cellar a sanitary inspector reports finding a father, mother, three children, and four pigs! In another room a missionary found a man ill with small pox, his wife just recovering from her eighth confinement, and the children running around half naked and covered with dirt. Here are seven people living in one underground kitchen, and a little dead child lying in the same room” (59-60).

In this short pamphlet, there were no less than seventy-two examples of the horrible conditions of the poor. At publication, the details gained immediate attention from the British people. Overcrowding and filth were only the starts of the terrible atrocities brought to the reader’s attention. Another aspect of over-crowded problems addressed is that of incest. The author does not go into detail concerning this, in order to avoid censorship, but he does say in regards to this, “‘wholly to omit what most needs to be known’ and to sidestep all but the sparest of detail since even ‘the driest statement of the horrors and infamies discovered’ could not be printed by any respectable printer” (61). The author then speculates about how one could wonder that young girls wander “into a life of immorality which promise release of such conditions” (60-61). These examples seem to cover all the horrors that one might find deep in the filthy alleys of the poorest cities. They seem reminiscent of Oliver Twist's experiences in the dens of thieves and prostitutes.

In the last sections of the pamphlet, the author implores a need for reform and tells the reader, to go “and see for yourselves the ghastly reality” (24). The effect of this pamphlet started a chain of events that people call “cataclysmic” and lead to better conditions for British citizens that are felt even to today.

Leckie, Barbara. "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London." 1883. http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=barbara-leckie-the-bitter-c.... Accessed on 11 Dec 2018.