Volume 3

Life and labour of the people in London. 3d series, Religious influences / by Charles Booth ; assisted by Jesse Argyle, Ernest Aves, Geo. E. Arkell, Arthur L. Baxter, George H. Duckworth.

  • Booth, Charles, 1840-1916.
Date:
1902-1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Life and labour of the people in London. 3d series, Religious influences / by Charles Booth ; assisted by Jesse Argyle, Ernest Aves, Geo. E. Arkell, Arthur L. Baxter, George H. Duckworth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER I THE CHURCHES § 1 The City churches must be considered collectively; for though there is among them much individuality that is both valuable and suggestive, they are most of them subject to the disability of lack of resident parishioners, while surrounded by the throngs of those who spend their working days in the neighbourhood. Thousands may pass and repass the very doors of the church, but few there be who enter, though it is not too much to say that any occurrence of interest—a horse down or a man in a fit, the vagaries of a crazy woman or the capture of a thief, would in a few seconds attract a crowd greater than most of these churches ever hold. There are no less than fifty-four of them besides St. Paul’s Cathedral, and a discussion of the part which these churches play, or might play, will also throw some light on the whole subject of religious influence. But before proceeding with this general view it will be desirable to state briefly the case for each church separately. I shall take them in groups according to situation.* * I am indebted to London City Churches, by A. E. Daniell (Arch, Constable & Co., 1896) for much of the historical information here used. Ill I *