Henry Mayhew (25 November 1812 – 25 July 1887) was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform. He is probably best known as co-founders of the satirical magazine Punch in 1841 and was the magazine’s joint-editor in its early days. One of seventeen children, he attended Westminster College before escaping education by running away to sea. His four volume (the final one co-written) London Labour and the London Poor provides a remarkable record of London street life in the 1850s. “Watercress Girl” is taken from Vol I (1851).
|