15. The glamor surrounding the upper class obscured the sordid slums of the poor
A population boom emerged during the Regency Era, particularly among London’s poor. Several areas of the city developed what were called rookeries. These presented the most crowded and dangerous of the city’s slums. Pickpockets and cutpurses, burglars, and violent robbers crowded the rookeries, preying upon people on the streets, and then vanishing into the warrens of the slums. Many were so dangerous the constables of the London police feared entry without armed backups. Prostitutes roamed the streets, on the fringes of the rookeries, importuning their marks without fear of arrest. Some of the worst neighborhoods of the city were within sight of the domiciles of its most wealthy, and near the shops they patronized.
Gentlemen moved about the city armed with stout walking sticks – some concealing blades. Ladies were discouraged from walking in many neighborhoods alone, or even in small groups without male companions. In later works, Charles Dickens described some of the rookeries of London, with which he first became acquainted as a boy during the Regency. He wrote of “girls of fourteen or fifteen…boys of all ages…men and women, in every variety of scanty apparel, lounging, scolding, drinking, smoking, squabbling, fighting, and swearing”. London’s slums expanded during the Regency Era, as the fine architectural edifices supported by the Prince Regent rose over them. The population increased by about 25% during the period, including the subsequent reign of George IV.
