Thanks to a request from a HCA student the Library currently has trial access to the digital primary source database London Low Life from Adam Matthew. This wonderful digital collection brings to life the teeming streets of Victorian London, inviting you to explore the gin palaces, brothels and East End slums of the nineteenth century’s greatest city.

You can access London Low Life from the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 16th December 2019.

From salacious ‘swell’s guides’ to scandalous broadsides and subversive posters, the material sold and exchanged on London’s bustling thoroughfares offers an unparalleled insight into the dark underworld of the nineteenth century city. Children’s chapbooks, street cries, slang dictionaries and ballads were all part of a vibrant culture of street literature.

London Low Lifeis also a fantastic visual resource of London, depicting in full colour maps, cartoons, song sheets, street cries and a full set of the essential John Tallis’s Street Views of London – a unique resource for the study of London architecture and commerce.

You can access this database via E-resources trials.
Access is available on and off-campus.
Trial access ends 16th December 2019.
Feedback welcome.

Access is only available to current students and staff at University of Edinburgh.

Please note, trial access to a resource is an opportunity for our staff and students to try a resource out and give feedback on its quality and usefulness. However, if we trial a resource this is not an indication that we plan to or will be able to purchase or subscribe to the resource in the near future.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for History, Classics and Archaeology