Jeremy Deller: Henry Mayhew

Gas-light … I've often continued working past midnight with no other light than that, and then my eyes used to feel like two bits of burning coals in my head. And you see, sir, the worst of it was, as I found my sight going bad I was obliged to try it more, so as to keep up with my mates in the shop. At last my eyes got so weak that I was compelled to give up work.

Henry Mayhew collected the voices and accounts of London Labour and London Poor, including journeymen tailors.