Many of us were brought up to think of nineteenth-century social reformers like Dr Barnardo, Elizabeth Fry, Octavia Hill, Lord Shaftesbury and Robert Owen as heroes of a progressive age, motivated by increasing humanitarian concern. In fact, as we might expect, both their motives and the times were much more complex and ambiguous. For example:

• • Shocked by the appalling conditions of women and children in Newgate Prison, Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845) introduced a strict system for supervising the women and imposed compulsory sewing duties and bible reading.

• • Octavia Hill (1838–1912), the housing pioneer, regarded poor relief outside the workhouse as ‘a profligate use of public funds’ (Wyatt, 2000, 2). She ‘argued that although workers’ houses were often badly built … they were tenfold worst because of the tenants’ habits’ (Cunningham and Cunningham, 2012, 27). Despite the seasonal nature of employment in London, she insisted on rents being paid regularly as evidence of ‘habits of energy and punctuality’ (Stedman Jones, 1984, 265). She was described by an admirer, as ‘ruling over a little kingdom of three thousand loving subjects with an iron sceptre twined with roses’ (Bremner et al, 1965).