This photograph, 'Cheap Fish of St Giles' by the famous Scottish photographer, geographer and traveller, John Thomson (1837– 1921), shows a Victorian fish seller or costermonger of Little Earl Street, the section of present day Earlham Street from the Dials to Shaftesbury Avenue.
The text that accompanies ‘Cheap Fish of St Giles’ states that, "Little Mic-Mac Gosling, as the boy with the pitcher is familiarly called by all his extended circle of friends and acquaintances, is seventeen years old, though he only reaches to the height of three feet ten inches. His bare feet are not necessarily symptoms of poverty, for as a sailor during a long voyage to South Africa he learnt to dispense with boots while on deck.”
This photographic work amongst others taken locally in St Giles by Thomson, was published in the monthly magazine, 'Street Life in London' from 1876-77. The project documented in photographs and text the lives of street traders and ordinary people of London, establishing social documentary photography as an early type of photojournalism. The series of photographs was later published in book form in 1878, with accompanying text by the radical journalist, Adolphe Smith.
Jane Palm-Gold is an artist, curator, and historian living in St. Giles, London. You can follow Jane on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
