London - Boot Scrapers
 

This is Cornwall Gardens in Kensington, London. The photo was taken in the late 1800's when Victoria was queen and horses were "king".

Prior to the advent of automobiles there were approximately 300,000 horses active on the streets of London on any given day.

This included 2,000 "buses" powered by 25,000 horses, 10,00 Hanson cabs, plus every conceivable form of horse-drawn cart delivering goods around what was then the largest city in the world.

Those 300,000 horses produced approximately 1,000 tons of manure daily, a volume that was beyond the ability of the city to manage.

By 1915 automobiles had largely replaced horses, but not before the Times of London newspaper published an article titled "The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894" in which they predicted "in 50 years every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure.”

Add another 10 litres of urine produced by each horse daily -- plus, many London streets were dirt rather than asphalt or cobblestone -- and you can begin to picture the lethal "mud-manure-urine porridge" that Londoners had to endure on a daily basis ... made even worse when it rained!

No wonder every 19th century London home had a cast iron boot-scraper at the entry!

Today, boot-scrapers are no longer needed -- and as a result, many have been removed -- but thankfully a significant percentage of them still remain ... historical artifacts, reminders of a bygone era.

I've done a small study, mostly in my neighbourhood of Kensington.

Here are some examples of boot scrapers that still exist on London door-steps, organized by similar styles, more-or-less: