Victorian London had a fair few slum districts, or 'rookeries', these seem to have been areas of land once attached to an ecclesiastical establishment. The Devils Acre, in Westminster, was once a place of sanctuary for thieves and debtors and Jacobs Island was once the home of Bermondsey Abbey.
There were properties being dug out and done up and workers moved into some of them, and just wouldn't move out. Squatters really. By the end of the 19th Century they were in such a state they had to be cleared. Some were still salvageable... these old houses were definitely built to last.
History Extra
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The Cicumlocution Office
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