ABSTRACT
Recent histories of the poor law have drawn attention to the ways in which paupers bargained for relief and although this chapter is primarily about the relationships between place and policy, nevertheless the voice of the poor was an important element in the way that assistance was negotiated. A working-class life was often lived close to the margins of poverty. Life cycle factors together with personal misfortune and adverse labour market conditions could easily tip individuals and households below the poverty line. At the end of the century Charles Booth estimated that over 30 per cent of London's population was living in poverty but the proportion that were actually paupers was little more than two percent. Negotiating relief was never just a question of applying to an overseer or relieving officer, or seeking a night's shelter at the workhouse. It involved a theatrical display of needs, rights and obligations that sometimes took place in the public gaze.
