Hard Streets
Working-Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin's London
Will be published approx. on 4. February 2027
Book
Paperback/Softback
432 pages
978-1-80081-865-1 (ISBN)
Description
HARD STREETS is a rich and emotive study of a world now lost that will leave readers stunned' Hallie Rubenhold, author of THE FIVE
Charlie Chaplin rose from the hard streets of Victorian London to become one of the most beloved comedians of all time. With his threadbare jacket, baggy trousers and puzzled expression, Chaplin's 'Little Tramp' alter ego was shaped by the city of his childhood - a place of ribald variety shows and hard drinking, radical politics and desperate poverty.
In Hard Streets, Jacqueline Riding conjures the lost world of working-class London in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Weaving through Chaplin's iconic rags-to-riches story are the lives of music hall stars, political reformers and George Tinworth, a neighbour of Chaplin's mother and grandparents, who progressed from poor wheelwright to nationally renowned sculptor. Riding paints a striking portrait of a time and place where hardship was the norm, but where talent, determination and luck could bring opportunity and success.
Charlie Chaplin rose from the hard streets of Victorian London to become one of the most beloved comedians of all time. With his threadbare jacket, baggy trousers and puzzled expression, Chaplin's 'Little Tramp' alter ego was shaped by the city of his childhood - a place of ribald variety shows and hard drinking, radical politics and desperate poverty.
In Hard Streets, Jacqueline Riding conjures the lost world of working-class London in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Weaving through Chaplin's iconic rags-to-riches story are the lives of music hall stars, political reformers and George Tinworth, a neighbour of Chaplin's mother and grandparents, who progressed from poor wheelwright to nationally renowned sculptor. Riding paints a striking portrait of a time and place where hardship was the norm, but where talent, determination and luck could bring opportunity and success.
Reviews / Votes
Remarkable in scope and detail, this impressive evocation of the tough world that produced Chaplin is fascinating and often profoundly moving -- Mike Leigh Powerful ... a vivid picture of working-class life in the capital in the 19th and early 20th centuries ... yet Riding also reveals bright spots in the gloom * The Times * An enthralling journey through some of London's hardest streets, in the company of a writer of integrity and passion -- Lucy Worsley Meticulously researched ... a fascinating collective portrait of the city in those times * Financial Times * Jacqueline Riding evokes late 19th-century London with an artist's eye ... This book is about the documentary reality behind Chaplin's later comic vision: the origin of his tramps, waifs, abandoned babies -- Book of the Week, Roger Lewis * Daily Mail * A deeply researched and valuable book * Literary Review * Fascinating... hugely informative * Sight and Sound * Fascinating * Country Life * A clear-and, crucially, clear-eyed-picture of those left behind, or run over, by the upheavals of empire, industry and science around the turn of the 20th century * Prospect * Part social history, part micro-biography and entirely compelling ... Few historians have captured so well the texture of London's poor without condescension or gloom ... There is something almost Chaplinesque in Riding's ability to blend tragedy and laughter, scholarship and sentiment, grime and grace * BBC History Magazine * Fascinating...a vivid account...meticulously researched...This book can be thoroughly recommended as a good read, but also a rich social history * Who Do You Think You Are * Hard Streets is not just about a storied place, but it is about those who refused to accept their position in the social pecking order: the Chartists who massed on Kennington Common in 1848; the poor students taking evening classes at Lambeth School of Art. Resistance, for Riding, is never impossible, never futile -- Sukhdev Sandhu * V&A Magazine * Through her painstaking research, Jacqueline Riding has reconstructed a thoroughly engrossing and visceral picture of 'how the other half lived' in Victorian London. The dirty, vibrant streets of Charlie Chaplin's childhood, the struggles of its inhabitants caught in the twisted web of work and poverty, addiction and temperance, violence and family life are sketched in uncomfortably vivid detail. Hard Streets is a rich and emotive study of a world now lost that will leave readers stunned -- Hallie Rubenhold, author of THE FIVE A compelling and richly detailed portrait of working-class life in a neglected corner of London -- Alwyn Turner, author of A SHELLSHOCKED NATION 'Powerful ... Bleak and brutal ... but also studded with colour, energy and joy ... Riding plaits the local with the national, the personal with the political -- Sarah Wise * History Today * Charlie Chaplin's world comes alive * V&A Magazine * A fascinating and incredibly moving study of working-class lives ... A tribute to stubborn resilience in the face of hardship as well as the creative spark, comedy and community * Shortlist *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80081-865-1 (9781800818651)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2026
Profile Books Ltd
€28.49
Available for download
Person
Dr Jacqueline Riding is a historian and art historian specialising in British history and eighteenth century art. Former curator of the Palace of Westminster and Director of the Handel House Museum, her previous book Hogarth: A Life in Progress was a Sunday Times and Christie's Art Book of the Year.