Today's newspapers record the legacy of nineteenth-century social problems. Reports of knife crime, youth gangs, binge drinking, vice and anti-social behaviour all have their origins in an earlier age. The Victorians not only faced the same inner-city social problems, but faced them for the very first time. For all the benefits of social progress, we are still struggling with Victorian problems and still offering the same old solutions. It is ironic that when Liverpool City Council looked at establishing ‘managed zones’ for sex workers (selected districts where prostitution would be tolerated) one of the areas for consideration was Kempston Street, formerly Blandford Street, the focus of the city's brothels in the 1890s. This was the same ‘red light district’ permitted by Head Constable Nott-Bower and his officers. It is as if we have come full circle.

Nineteenth-century distinctions about the deserving and undeserving poor have been transformed into debates about the nature of the underclass, that disreputable group consisting of the work-shy, the feckless, single mothers, uncontrollable teenagers, drug addicts and others seemingly lacking civilized values. CCTV has largely replaced the beady eyes of the beat constable but the battle for control of the streets continues. In place of victorian officers moving on the Cornermen, we now have dispersal orders targeting unruly youths. The old slums might have been demolished but criminal districts still linger in run-down estates full of dilapidated houses, untidy gardens and barking dogs.