Based on source materials ranging from public inquiries and property valuations to the records created by women charity workers, such as Margaret Aylward, the slum geography of the city is meticulously recreated in this thoroughly original book. The overlapping areas of contagious disease, slum housing and the support of the very poorest, the beggars and costermongers who daily thronged the city streets, form the three main areas of analysis. These issues are explored on scales ranging from city-wide to the local street or court, while the final case study examines the dynamic nature of slum creation and efforts at relief and reform in the particular context of the north city parishes of St. Mary's and St. Michan's.