Who are they?

Founded in 1895, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is one of the United Kingdom’s most highly rated and prestigious research institutes. 

The school specialises in economics, politics, and other social sciences, and is a member of the University of London. 

The LSE is also the home of the Charles Booth Archive. Charles Booth (1840-1916) was a wealthy Victorian gentleman deeply concerned with the urban poverty he saw in London.

He funded and executed an extremely detailed social study of the life of the London poor, beginning in 1886 and resulting, in 1903, in the publication of “Life and Labour of the People in London” and the iconic Charles Booth map of poverty in London.

Pictured right: The Sir Arthur Lewis building at the London School of Economics
Header image: Charles Booth’s Poverty Map

Why Humap? 

The Charles Booth Map of London is one of many historical maps available via Layers of London, a project from the Institute of Historical Research (a fellow member of the University of London). Humap is the platform behind Layers of London, so the team at LSE were familiar with our work in creating mapping platforms for the humanities. 

We bid for the contract and won, and we couldn’t be happier with the new Charles Booth website. 

Most of the necessary features were already a part of Humap: we’re an interactive map company, we have IIIF embeds, our own website creator, and the GIS expertise needed to bring all of these things together. The Humap founding team were a Webby-award winning digital agency in a previous life, and we were able to develop new features to fit the brief.

Pictured right: Notebook Entry 352 in the IIIF viewer