In an article written for London Society in 1888, an anonymous author who uses the pseudonym ‘a Frenchwoman in London’ chronicles her attempt to find suitable lodgings in London. The task is nearly impossible. Although the streets are lined with houses, and there are spare rooms to be let, each is rendered unsuitable – or she herself is ineligible – due to a failure to comply with social expectations. Boarding houses that are tolerably clean enough for consideration ‘don’t take in ladies’ on account of the suspicion that such tenants might ‘go out late in the evening’. The alternative, the less respectable lodging houses, are patrolled by dishevelled women reeking of spirits and offer second-hand furnishings that are ‘really too disgusting to think about’. Although the Frenchwoman eventually finds a draughty garret with an unremarkable landlady, the flame once fanned by the chimera of independence has been snuffed out. Her disillusion comes not from an inability to evince or maintain a spirit of independence, for that is what motivates her to seek employment and accommodation in London, but rather from the disappointing realisation that there exists no social or material infrastructure to support women's self-determination. The author remarks that if a woman is lucky enough to find respectable and affordable lodgings, unlike a man she suffers from (among other unpleasant experiences) isolation:

The author makes an important point: women were living and working independently in the city, but social convention and architectural practice had not developed at the same rate as their autonomy. One important consequence was the scarcity of appropriate accommodation. The author notes that ‘there are many thousands of women working for their daily bread’ living in poor conditions, and suggests