1-192-864 - © London Museum/Heritage-Images

'Blondin at Shoreditch', 1872. Blondin, a famous French acrobat, walks on the tightrope with his head covered with a cloth to an amazed audience. Taken from London: A Piligrimage by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré. A Pilgrimage was a comprehensive portrait of London, but although the book was a commercial success many of the critics disliked it. Several were upset that Jerrold and Doré had concentrated on the poverty that existed in London.