Charles Booth visited the Dust Hole in May 1900. He was accompanied by PC Clyne. The Arsenal was at full production, meeting the supply needs for the South African War. Booth was so fascinated with the Dust Hole that he later visited it alone, on a bicycle, at night, several times. The account below is taken from his hand-written notebooks; some words or phrases still need further checking.

Clyne says that a great number bring (lunch) with them & cook & eat it in the Arsenal. There is a large coffee house at the corner of Cross Street which is much patronised;

Beef (cut from joint) & 2 veg 6d
Roast Beef or Pork 4d & 6d
Large rasher & 2 eggs 4d

Shouting among the crowd were 2 boys selling the "News" & "Sun" - ½d papers; not many buyers. Clyne says they buy their papers, discuss it at their dinners & then return & place their bets upon the horses they fancy with the bookies when they come back to work. The bookies are agents of bigger men & wait in the Square.

Out of the West side of the market place is Salutation Alley; 2 storey, very poor, rough. Irish. Some costers : some thieves : fat loathsome women, barrows, "4/- for 2 rooms & washbasin". North up…

Rope Yard Rails; this is the beginning of the Dust Hole - 2 & 3 storey - 16 common lodging houses in the street, all on the East side : some bread & mess but street fairly clean : all the houses practically brothels, used by sailors, loafers, waterside labourers & by the lowest soldiers. For soldiers it is out of bounds & patrolled nightly by the Military Police. On the east side standing back are "Council Chambers", late ye olde Casual Ward (from a notice at the entrance): two doors; women on the right, men on the left, no communication between the two. Great many Irish. "Good accommodation for travellers" a common sign here. One woman, poor, dirty, not particularly vicious looking, pays 5/6d for 4 rooms & washbasin, has been there 7 years, her father-in-law runs the house and has lived in the street for 28 or 29 years. He came out, an old man about 60 or 70, above middle height, a yellow white beard, decently dressed as a working man, smoking a pipe. Looked like one in the autumn of life enjoying his old age after an honest and industrious youth. Clyne says they make their way by letting out rooms to men & prostitutes. The same room is let out many times the same night. In the middle of the road, just by Council Chambers, is an Almshouse for old women. North (South surely) into

High Street: Full of women, one girl of barely 18 with a clean apron, frizzed hair, short skirts, bare head, red, puffy, diseased-looking face; a prostitute. "Has already been in prison 13 or 14 times" says Clyne. Mahoney's common lodging house…Stanhope Chambers, 5 stories high, very rough, poor. West across open market place, public houses & beer houses, small shops, looks poor upstairs; out of north side is

Bell Water Gate: leading to ferry. A street of 5 houses, 3 are public houses, one a beerhouse, one a coffee house.."a noted brothel". East along a passage called

New Street: 2 storey houses, asphalted, 2 houses on north side & 2 on south, all doors open. Children with hole-y boots or none at all, all in good health & sufficiently fed. Houses beastly & stink of dirt. Irish & prostitutes. East into

Globe Lane: 2½ storey; runs downhill to the river, women on doorsteps, sore faces, bare tousled heads, some brothels; east & south to

Nelson Street 2½ storey…east along High Street, which is at this point perhaps the very best (?) of all the points in the Dusthole; women with broken noses, swollen faces, bare, dirty, unkempt faces & heads, draggled skirts, frayed edges everywhere, coarse Irish faces, bare arms, no men about. South down

Collingwood St Broad, clean, some bread & broken windows, but noted for bad characters; into

Rodney St 2 storey…east & north up

Meeting House Lane Rough, poor; poorer than the rest but less vicious, no brothels. East & south down

Hardens Lane Only a foreman's house lived in on west side. East & south down

Warren Lane Houses near High Street on west side; east side is Arsenal wall. The High Street where it turns south becomes Warren Lane, & is very like Rope Yard rails in character. The Almshouses of the Ropeyard come through to this side, the rest is common lodging houses & brothels…a vile hole, bread in the street & beastly women on the pavement. This is the end of the Dust Hole.

Speaking generally on the character of the Dust Hole, Clyne said it was to the SE of London what Notting Dale is to the N-West. It forms a house of call for all the tramps from London to Kent & vice versa. There is a regular interchange of tenants between this & Bangor Street & Queen, Giffen & Stale Streets in Deptford. Police from Notting Dale find old friends in Ropeyard Rails. The casual loafer floats between the two. When "wanted" on one, he is pretty sure to be in the other.

The male inhabitants are bullies, dock & waterside labourers, costers, hawkers & tramps. The women are prostitutes. In the area between the Thames on the north, Warren Lane on the east, Ropeyard Rails, High Street & Nile Street on the west (i.e. "the Dust Hole") Clyne reckons between 70 & 80 known prostitutes - since the law against bullies of last October year 45 men were run in on this charge, & of this number 42 were convicted & sentenced to terms varying 3 & 15 months with hard labour.

The lowest class of woman is of the rough Irish type of the Fenian Barracks in Bromley (Side (?) Box Streets etc). The younger prostitute is in appearance the "sailor's wife" of Ratcliffe Highway (Sage & Albert Streets): the clean white apron, the frizzled hair & ear rings is the mark of this class. Clyne says the majority of young & old, male & female are Irish. No law runs in these streets. The priest is powerless & seldom seen. The Police only come when there is a bad row & they are summoned. No man would go alone - when called he waits for at least one other. Missiles are showered on them from every window when they interfere. It is out of bounds for soldiers & the military patrol can capture & confine any soldiers found there. But nevertheless the low class soldier goes there. The Police know & see them, but have no right to arrest them.

If the man is known to have money or jewels on him he is made to hire a room & robbed, always cleaned out. If he has only enough to pay the woman then the street is used. There is no regular charge; each man pays as much as the woman can get from him.

The war has had great effect on the district, for the better. The bullies on coming out of prison would naturally return to their old games, but it is risky work now & there has been a great demand for workers. Neither dockyard nor private employers have gone strictly into the question of character. In consequence, some have found employment & some have gone to the war.

Those who suffer most in the Dust Hole are recruits: Woolwich is a depot - drafts constantly coming & going. These are the young flies that are caught & may be ruined for life. The very best public house in the "Hole" is that at the corner of Nelson Street.

On a bicycle through the streets of Woolwich between 10 and 12.30 p.m. & a visit to the Woolwich Music Hall, while staying with H.F. Donaldson at Wood Lodge, Shooters Hill

Leaving Shooter's Hill at 9.45 I got to the market place at about 10 minutes after 10 - it is downhill the whole way. Fine night, stars, rather cold but practically no wind.

All dark and quiet until New Road was reached. There the crowd began. Many soldiers in uniform. Shops all lighted & open, booths on the side of the street leading to the market place. All good humoured, well-dressed, out for marketing or to see the fun or for a (?) (snack?) simply. Men, women & children all young. Children from babies in arms to 10 years old, husbands between 20 - 35 and women of the same ages. Hardly a grey hair or an old face among them all. A few soldiers almost tipsy opposite the public house at the corner of the New Road. Thomas Street, a smart crowd watching them, listening to (??) playing at the door. The civilians were sober.

In the market there was a greater seriousness. Most coming away with their purchases in large brown paper or newspaper wrappers as I arrived but a good number still buying and the market place full though not as thickly crammed as it had been a little earlier. The men never carried the parcels except where the women had the child & not always then. Men in caps & Bowlers, collars, a few with black coats but most in ordinary suits of clothes. Women in bonnets, cloaks, not quite in their best but like the men evidently dressed for the occasion. Two or three labourers were in their working clothes but they were exceptions.

The chief interest centred around the butcher's stall.

Fair Sirloin 6d lb
Canterbury Lamb 4½d - 5d lb
Meat (not joint but not scraps) 3d lb
All meat looked good.

Flower stalls were doing a good business in bedding-out plants, flowers and vegetables.

Other stalls were for tools, fancy goods (purses, braces etc) - cloth caps, oranges etc & a shorting (?) stall. It was a smaller & less busy market than Lower Marsh (Lambeth) but of the same character.

From the market the flow of the crowds was towards Powis and Hare Streets. These streets contain the best shops in Woolwich - large drapery stores - grocers - public houses - boot shops - bacon & cheese shops. Fair small strawberries were on sale at 8d lb and good cherries at 6d lb. Cherries found more buyers than the strawberries. Lipton has a large new shop at the corner of Hare & Powis streets.

Crowd good tempered, sober, more promenade than business. Such business as was done was rather inside than outside the shops. After the butcher's shops, the boot shops were best lighted & made the best show. After them came the public houses.

From Hare Street I went back through the streets which compose the Dusthole. Rope Yard rails was quiet, dark and the kitchens of the common lodging houses as far as could be seen from outside with only a few persons in them. Not much being done in the beer house. One man asleep drunk on the pavement, most doors open, smell of dirt. Dark stains along the pavement on either side where men & women had relieved nature. Badly lighted figures emerge suddenly from dark corners & disappear again as mysteriously as they had come. Some old men and women of the draggled tramp type were laboriously (slouching along?) the street toward the Casual Ward lodging house as I passed. The first & most obvious improvement in these streets would be to light them better.

In High Street were a few rough women but not many men. Rodney Street & the turnings off it were empty, dark & quiet - Warren Lane also dark and like Rope Yard Rails.

Then I went to the music hall in Beresford Street, the last piece was already on, a military piece called "drummed out". The manager said he would not charge me anything as it was so near the end (it was about 10.45) but hoped I would come again. I went to the Dress Circle (proper price 1/-). Theatre crammed, about 2000 people; not more than 12 soldiers in uniform & hardly 50 women, the rest all young men & boys. Nearly the whole of the Pit (which here includes the stalls) was taken by boys and youths between 14 & 18. The average age of the whole of the audience would I think have worked out at under 25. All quiet & orderly & washed & brushed & dressed for the occasion. The scene showed part of Woolwich barracks & the acting consisted in ordinary military duties being performed on the stage. Sentry duty, changing guard, (??) etc etc varied with comic figures (the regimental cook) and the Irish grandmother of a drummer boy; the catchwords of the comic characters were well known to the audience. The boys in the pit shouted them out as soon as the actor appeared & were chaffed in return by the actors from the stage. "Drummed Out" was the set piece and made the 10th and last "turn" of the evening. The earlier turns had been of the usual music hall type.

I left about 11.15 and again went round the Dusthole - all was as before - then I bicycled on into Plumstead. The shops were all open though not doing much business. The whole of the Plumstead Road is a shopping street. No drunkenness nor noise except 2 women half drunk. I turn back at the Riversdale Road. Crowds were then coming from Woolwich to Plumstead, all walking fast & disappearing into the dark streets N & S of the Plumstead Road. Many more men than women, and only a few children about. I got back to the Dusthole about 10 minutes after closing time (i.e. 12.10) - more life in the streets but no quarrelling. Women & men had just been turned out of the public houses. The two worst places were opposite Mahoney's lodging house in the High Street opposite the S end of Rope Yard Rails & again in the narrow street which rises rather steeply out of Rodney Street & is called Globe Lane. There was no noise from these groups of men & women - they were round the open house doors like conspirators & now & then a voice would rise but it never went as far as a street row.

In Rodney Street itself the windows were nearly all dark except one at the first floor which was open, through which could be seen bonneted and capped heads and from which came the sound of a patriotic music hall song. Evidently a small evening party.

In the market everyone was packing up & going off in barrows & pony carts. The joint of beef which before had been 6d was now 3d lb: the last few pieces were being sold off at great reductions. Only the poorest buying now, one woman not liking to do more than whisper into the ear of the salesman the price that she was prepared to pay.

Then I went back past the barracks, seeing a good number of soldiers who could only just walk & turning into the block of four (??) off the east side of Woolwich common. All quiet here. The little general shops at the E end of Manor Street still open & a child buying something. S down James st & (??) down Dicey st, poor, rough, fewer people in bed, more lighted windows and open door than in the other streets, no rows but has all the appearance of rough poor streets.

Then to the common & S past the RMA to Shooters Hill: in a small patch of wood at the corner of the Common Road & Shooters Hill was a nightingale singing loudly and being answered by another in the crown (?) woods on the S side of the hill.

It is thanks to the execrable train service that nightingales still sing & pheasants are still (??) & bluebells carpet the woods within 12 miles of St Pauls .

The S side of Shooters Hill is quite in the country though still in London