'...a good bit of spice to give the critlings a flavour, and plenty of treacle to make the mince-meat look rich'

Radical Victorian reformer Henry Mayhew walked the streets of London interviewing ordinary flower girls, market traders, piemen and costermongers to create the first ever work of mass social observation, and the ultimate account of urban life - including an extraordinary description of the city from a hot air balloon.

Henry Mayhew (1812-1887). Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor is available in Penguin Classics.