Muddy Streets of London

Dear diary,

Into London is an urban setting, but what does a typical street in London 1800 look like? Who can you meet there?

Quick info

London is a booming town.

London is a dirty town. Mud on the street, soot and fog in the air.

The Thames stinks, full with garbage and excrements.

Busy London Street

Population

Population information shapes how a city looks: 1814, London is growing. A lot.

From just under a million in 1801, the population of London booms to 1,3 millions in 1811 (Greater London area).

Increase the population of any city by ~20% within a decade: there are bound to be problems, scarcity of living quarters, high rental prices, and infrastructure cannot be build quickly enough to support the influx of arriving population.

The 19th century is also the time of the beginning of the  industrialisation: not only housing projects are being built, but also production plants. Not all industrial barons built housing for their workers, and not all workers want to live in a building owned by their boss.

So, good housing is scarce (most people live in very cramped situations), commercial housing also.

That’s why a lot of people work on the street (which is considered normal), and seldom spend time at home, apart from meals and sleep. Children play on the street and that’s viewed as normal too.

Immigrants

A lot of the newcomers in London are from the rural areas of Great britain. You can certainly find people from all over them empire in London, but the biggest group among the immigrant population are, by far, the Irish.

Sure, a native-american, a french-cajun, an ex-slave from african descent (esclavage was abolished 1807 by the the Slave Trade Act in the empire) are an odder sight, but most people in London will associate migrants with “Micks” (derogatory term for the irish, apparently all named “Michael”).

Streets

1814, roads and streets in London are a mess: 

The parishes were responsible for their maintenance, there was no money for the work, so once a year, a “voluntary” reviewed the streets, on top of his normal job, with nearly no pay. Be sure he did an appropriate work (this can be compared to the work every citizen has to do in the Watch).

The street and roads in and around the other bigger cities (like Liverpool) were in better shape than London’s, which first started to use the McAdam process of road building in 1815.

The easiest way to get goods into the city was by waterways, the Thames or a canal (at Brentford).

Fish from the North Sea was transported by horse pack train, even though it was quickly perishable, at about the same speed as back when the romans ruled over the island.

But once the goods had arrived on the granite docks, bringing the goods within London was a big challenge: potholes, treacherous mud pools, narrow streets, too high loads for the street and the axles of the carts were daily hassles.

The paved streets themselves were muddy and stinking. The rudimentary sewer system was only used to drain the rain water, and everything landed, in the end, in the Thames, which was a stinking hell, full of detritus, garbage, animal carcasses, and even corpses. The banks of the River are a must every morning for corpses robber, and the Bow Street runners a few minutes later.

Toilets

As said before, the sewer system back in 1814 is only meant to drain the rain water. Every building in London has it’s own “cesspool”, ideally in the garden around back, but often in the basement. “Cesspools were built to be porous so the liquid part of the waste was meant to seep away into the ground. There was no knowledge of bacteriological contamination, although there was plenty of it happening. Nevertheless, you had this residue of solid matter left and it was removed by so-called ‘night soil men.’" (Dirty Old London, The Victorian Fight Against Filth by Lee Jackson)

At least, human feces did not land on the streets, but horse dung, mud, and rain were enough to make the london streets a slippery stinky slop, in which you’d better be in a cart, on a horse, or at least wearing good boots.

By law, the ‘night soil men’ had to work at night (because of the unbearable stink - and the societal taboo around toilets) but could make a good living out of the residue, selling them as fertilizer to farms in the countryside around London.

Sources

• On immigrants:  https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Population-history-of-london.jsp
• On streets: https://www.londonhistorians.org/index.php?s=file_download&id=64

Street urchins as employees

Dear Diary,
Traveling by yourself and exploring the word alone are bad decisions. A small group of motivated individuals (the PCs) has definitely a better survival chance than a lonely individual.
But recruiting “small hands”, like torchbearers, informers, people on the lookout, or shadowing on your behalf, can give you a definitve advantage.
Sure, you will have to pay them a few shillings and they might not be very loyal and certainly won’t risk their life for you.
But once you’ve earned their trust, they might really come in handy.

Street urchins

2 Urchins and child on a london street

In the 1800ies, the social system is not a welfare state. If you’re unlucky enough to be born into the lower class, you’ll have to go work early as a child, sometimes as early as 8 years old. If you’re really unlucky, your parents died at work, during childbirth, or succumb of one of the random infections that plague the insalubrious poor neighbourhoods, that have been quickly built to house the influx of people leaving the campaigns for the towns.
Those unluckiest children tend to gather in small bands living on the streets, begging, stealing and getting by on any opportunity.

You, as an adventurer, are such an opportunity. And these kids are also an interesting ressource for you.
These characters need to be 3 things: helpful, memorable, and odd.
Helpful is easy, they only need to do what you expect them to do without whining.
Memorable is trickier: you need at least a name and something special. An accent, a strange habit, a peculiar physical trait.
Odd is in the name of the game, so it’s important too. Furthermore, it makes Characters more memorable.

A few urchins to get started

1d20	Name	Nickname	Oddity
1	Cuthbert	Cuddy the Saint	Lives in a church cellar. Quotes approximately the bible
2	Nathaniel	Filthy Fanny	Always tries to see naked people
3	Harold	Shadow Hal	Always wears black. Very discreet in shadowy environments
4	Isaac	Frosty Zak	Wears multiple layers of wool and always seeks warmth
5	Jeduthan	Stabby Jed	Fascinated by knives and blades
6	Gerald	Feathery Jerry	Picks and cleans feathers (mostly seagull and crow), then wears them
7	Christopher	Kit the Tinkerer	Fascinated by mechanics. Seems to be able to repair instinctively
8	Malcolm	Mal long fingers	Kleptomaniac who gives stuff back
9	Patrick	Irish Paddy	Was born and raised in british columbia
10	Nathaniel	Indian Nat	Born of a Wampanoag huntress and a scottish sailor (both died on boat)
11	Thaddeus	Right said Tad	Listens to aristocrats to learn new words. Uses words he doesn’t understand
12	William	Willie the Bolt	Runs very quickly
13	Jeremiah	Jem & tommy	Is protected by a dog quite as big as him. He sometimes rides Tommy. Tommy always eats first.
14	Phineas	Squeezy Finny	Seems to be able to squeeze through any crack, fence, or hole
15	Robert	Bully Dob	As stupid as strong and violent. Kids and animals are instinctively afraid of him
16	Martha	Mother Molly	Already a mother at 15 (kid is 3). Had to fight in court to keep her Nan (Ellen)
17	Arabella	Perverted Bella	Sells her mouth to men for food. Pretends to still be a virgin.
18	Lucinda	Spotless Cindy	Never dirty. Works in a wash-house
19	Dorothy	Boom Boom Dolly	Fascinated by explosions, black powder and pyrotechnics
20	Augusta	Gussie the dressmaker	Creates dolls and clothes. Accepts payment in textile, threads, and yarns

All these characters are poor souls, some of them still kids, not even teenagers, a few of them already 16.

All have 1 HP, and 1D6+6 STR.

Most of them don’t possess a weapon.

Dangers on the street

Your characters will probably invest in those kids. First, financially, but in the end it's the emotional investment that will be interesting. Make those urchin likeable and make your players their ally.
Life on the street is though. Coldness, dirt, violence, stray dogs, sickness, predators, there are a lot of dangers on the streets especially for kids. And then there's the worst kind of predators: the human kind. Be it slave-traders trying to catch and sell the little ones somewhere where slavery is still allowed, or be it the sexual predator kind of scum, those are adversaries worth the time of your player's characters. Help and save those kids from these felons and they'll be forever loyal.

Sources

An interesting article on how to get rid of street urchins (it is meant to be satire, but suprisingly informative and inventive)

how-to-rid-yourself-of-a-victorian-street-urchin

Into the Law & The Bow Street Runners

Into the Law & The Bow Street Runners 

Bow Street office in the late 19th century (Source: Wikipedia)

 There are a few interesting rules in Into The ODD. One of them is : “Everything is complicated”, the important sub point here being “Nobody knows who rules”.
So the law in Into London 1814 cannot just mirror exactly our London in 1814. That would still be odd for us (i’ll come to that point again later), but not the exact kind of odd we want for this game.

History: 

1814 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is a troubled time. The kingdom is at war, not only against its former overseas colonies, the newly formed United States of America, but also Napoleonic France.
The War of 1812 (1812 - 1815) against the United States can be seen as part of the napoleonic wars, since the United States considered the continental blocus as illegal and therefore went to war. This was also a war at the border of British Canada and the United States. The Brits weaponed the native tribes, slowing the expansion westwards of the United States. At the same time, it is said the Yankees went to war with the possible intent to annex British Columbia.
In the end, the Treaty of Ghent is a big deal, that is being negotiated during 1814, and all parties want to come on top, so any big victories during the negotiations can be used to claim more than the day before. If my players don’t screw it up one way or another, it will end with a status quo ante bellum, back to situation before the war.
This two wars have an influence on the population of London:

• Taxes are high, resulting in more poverty 
• There is a shortage of male workers (but nobody would trust a women for certain jobs anyway, back then - something you can change in your game, if you want), particularly those able to sail and fight.
• Certain products are scarce, because of the war and the blocus and their influence onto international trade (Fur, leather and cotton prices are much higher for example, which has a repercussion on the price of all clothing) 

Police: 

The Bow street runners (created 1749) are historically the first professional police force in the United Kingdom. They work directly under the Bow street magistrates and are few and far between (my research says around 70-100 members, and their jurisdiction spans the whole London metropolitan area and the roads around).
Up to their creation, there were 3 forces for justice:

• The night watch and the constables 
• The Army 
• The private citizen 

Traditionally, all householder were supposed to police the streets (as part of the watch), and every citizen had to report and capture anyone they saw committing a felony. If someone shouted “Thief” in a crowd, everyone was supposed to help catching the criminal.
They had a good reason to do so: there was a reward for the capture of the villain. This is how the “Thief-Takers” came into life, a kind of bounty hunters who received a (quite handsome) sum of money for the conviction of all kinds of criminals but in particular highway robbers. The private persons also used them to broker a sum to buy back their stolen stuff. As you can imagine, such persons were of low morals and reputation, only tolerated thanks to the results they brought.
The night watch was composed of civilians (all householders) under the supervision of constables. There was originally no salary for watchmen, but around 1800, all were paid for their duty by their parish.
There were also “private watches” for example to patrol on the private roads, where you paid a toll to use. Another example is the West India Merchants Committee, which funded in 1798 a Marine Police Office to protect their assets in the Port of London.
But the main reason of being of the watch, was not to detect crimes but to prevent crimes, their sheer presence in the streets at night acting as a deterrent. Constables were taking orders from the magistrates, organising the watch and executing arrest orders. They had very loose limitations on whom they could arrest and what for, so their power for nuisance was very high (they could let you spent a day in jail for a minor offence like swearing or acting “disorderly”).
The army was only dispatched by order of the king (or someone high up) for really important criminals or in the case of a riot.

What is to different with the Runners, then? 

Well, their work happened after a crime, which they investigated. You could go to them and they would do what we understand nowadays under “police work”. Their focus was on highway robbers and major crimes. And some of them were mounted (about two dozen runners were actually riders).
In 1792, offices like the Bow Street runners were created across the metropolis, each staffed by three paid magistrates and up to six paid officers or constables.
Bow Street remained the first and most distinguished but you could find such Police Offices at Queen's Square (Westminster), Great Marlborough Street (Westminster), Worship Street (Shoreditch), Lambeth Street (Whitechapel), Shadwell, Union Hall (Southwark) and Hatton Garden. There was also a river police (Thames Police Office - created at Wapping in 1798).
Although the situation saw betterment from the beginning of the 1800ies, a lot of corruption plagued these institutions and forces.
Sources:
https://www.londonlives.org/static/Policing.jsp 
https://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/history-from-police-archives/Met6Kt/MetHistory/mhPolOffices.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_Street_Runners

What about a peek into the law, but oddified ? 

Well, the law by then is very strange for us:
There were a lot of victimless crimes, motivated more by religious belief than by presenting a danger to society. Drunkenness on the street, swearing, vagrancy, disorderly behaviour, or nightwalking were all reasons to get arrested and fined
The main reason for the watch was not to act on criminal activities but to deter would-be villains to commit crimes.
What we would call “Civilian arrests” were not the exception, but happened everyday and often on fallacious reasons. Most officers of the law (including the magistrates) were corrupt
So, i don’t think we have to oddify the law much.

Historical arrest reasons and their punishment

Arrest Reason / Crime	Fine/Punishment
Deception with intent to steal	1 Year Prison
Stealing costly belongings from house	Transported for Life
Kidnapping	Transported for 7 years
Theft (less than a pound of worth)	6 months in correction, 1 shilling fine
Coining offence: sell fake currency	Death
Highway robbery	Death
Highway robbery without violence	Transported for 7 years
Trick deception	1 Year Prison
Forging delivery documents	1 Year Prison / Death
Receiving & holding fenced goods	Transported for 14 years
Shoplifting	1 Year in correction / Death
Manslaughter (kill someone in Duel)	7 shillings fine
Burglary	Transported for 7 years
Stealing Cattle	Transported for 7 years
Wounding with pistol	Death
Pickpocketing	Transported for 7 years

As you see, judges were quite hard with their punishments. Their saw the harshness of a punishment as a deterrent for other criminals.
If you want to read some judgements from back then, read https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/search.jsp?gen=1&form=searchHomePage&_divs_fulltext=fine&kwparse=and&count=3093&start=1500

So let’s oddify this a bit, to make it less punitive and more enjoyable in-game...

Law random encounters in Whitechapel

1D6	Police force encountered
1	The watch: 1D6 + 4 watchmen armed with batons
2	Constables : 2 armed and better trained watchmen
3	Thief-takers: 1D6 +2 unsavory types armes with cutlasses
4	Lambeth Street “runners”: 1D4 well trained and armed officers in civil clothes
5	Lambeth Street “road patrollers”: 2 well trained and armed mounted officers
6	Army squad: 20 heavily armed soldiers with their officers

Random arrest reasons (and funnier, i hope)

1D30	Reason	Fine/Punishment
1	Kidnapping	Transported for 7 years (where to?)
2	Deception of store (haggling)	Doubling of the price paid
3	Swearing	1D100 pennies
4	Coining offence: using fake coins	Confiscation and 1 shilling fine
5	Theft (less than a pound of worth)	6 months in correction, 1 S fine
6	Coining offence: sell fake currency	Death (invest in a good defense!)
7	Political protest	Hefty fine (5D20 S) / transportation
8	Highway robbery	Death if guilty, 1D20 S trial costs
9	Receiving & holding fenced goods	Transported for 14 years
10	Shoplifting	Confiscation & fine of 2x the price
11	Manslaughter (kill person in Duel)	1D10+5 shillings fine
12	Wounding with pistol (colateral)	Medicine costs + 1D20+20 Shillings
13	Prostitution advance	1D10+15 Shillings
14	Vagrancy	Leave neighbourhood + 2D6 S
15	Public drunkenness	3D6 shilling or night in jail
16	Attempted sodomy	3D10 shilling + terrible night in jail
17	Witchcraft	Confiscation of arcanum + 1D3 P
18	Public lunacy	3D6 shilling & a few hours  in jail
19	Flogging of a boy, age under 16	3D10 shilling & 1D20 whacks
20	Operating a bawdy house	1D6 pounds or transportation
21	Public exhibit of disgusting object	3D6 shilling & confiscation
22	Public display of affection	1D6 shilling per person
23	Public nudity (visible arms or legs)	2D10 shilling + rest of day in jail
24	Animal poisoning	2D6 shilling per 5kg of animal
25	Discourteous behaviour	Leave place + 2D6 Shillings
26	Blasphemy	1D10 Shillings or night in jail
27	Spitting on floor	2D6 Shillings + house ban
28	Splashing pedestrians	2D6 Shillings + cleaning fee
29	Poaching in the Thames or a garden	Confiscation + 2D10 shilling
30	Demonic Possession	Hanging or transportation

Remember, none of this offences have to be true and a magistrate will in the end decide if the arrested person needs to be convicted and what is the sentence.
The fine in the table are guidelines. Paying directly the "runner" will normally not lead to a process.