2-969-896 - /Heritage Images

A "City Arab" - from a photograph taken before admission to the Belvedere-Crescent Reformatory, 1856. Homeless boy on the streets of London. 'That the once filthy, vagrant, emaciated, idle, reckless, and obscene, should not only present an appearance of cleanliness and comfort, but actually come to be industrious, prudent, and moral, is a phenomenon well deserving the attention of those who are able to appreciate the difficulty of the process, and the reality of its achievement'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.