Every visitor to 18th-century London was impressed by the noise and the throngs of people. But the city itself was neither quaint nor clean. Most residents lived in appalling conditions.

Robbery was a common crime in the 18th century. Highway robberies often happened on the streets and roads approaching London. A robber on foot was called a footpad and was often part of a gang.

U.S. News Insider Tip: Across from Borough Market sits the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garrett: a tiny museum housed in an 18th-century attic of that's the oldest surviving operating ...

In 18th- and 19th-Century London, mudlarks were impoverished citizens (often children) who scraped a meagre living by scavenging for sellable items in the stinking mud of the Thames at low tide.