Henry Mayhew and Charles Dickens were aware of and saw London as so few others did at this time. A few observations follow, from Dickens' Sketches by Boz", Scenes, Chapter 2, The Streets — Night, Penguin 1995 reprint, p. 76

"The streets in the vicinity of the Marsh-gate and Victoria Theatre present an appearance of dirt and discomfort on such a night, which the groups who lounge about them in no degree tend to diminish. Even the little block-tin temple sacred to baked potatoes, surmounted by a splendid design in variegated lamps, look less gay than usual; and as to the kidney-pie stand, its glory has quite departed. The candel in the transparent lamp, manufactured of oil-paper, embellished with 'characters,' has been blown out fifty times, so the kidney-pie merchant, tired with running backwards and forwards to the next wine-vaults, to get light, has given up the idea of illumination in despair, and the only signs of his 'whereabout,' are the bright sparks, of which a long irregular train is whirled down the street every time he opens his portable oven to hand a hot kidney-pie to a customer."

"Flat fish, oyster, and fruit venders linger hopelessly in the kennel, in vain endeavoring to attract customers; and the ragged boys who usually disport themselves about the streets, stand crouched in little knots in some projecting doorway, or under the canvass blind of the cheesemonger's, where great flaring gas-lights, unshaded by any glass, display huge piles of bright red, and pale yellow cheeses, mingled with little five-penny dabs of dingy bacon, various tubs of weekly Dorset [butter], and cloudy rolls of the 'best fresh.' "

Portraits of street people and street life were not unique to Mayhew. In the compilation "Petersburg: The Physiology of a City", Nikolai Nekrasov includes several stories about the street life and street people of nineteenth-century St. Petersburg, including "The Petersburg Quarter" and "The Petersburg Organ-grinders".