July 1, 2025 • 40 mins
Welcome to the London History Podcast. In this episode, we journey through the cobbled streets of Victorian London, where the sound of barrel organs and the chatter of Italian voices once filled the air.
Join Hazel Baker as she uncovers the remarkable story of Little Italy—a vibrant immigrant enclave in Clerkenwell, shaped by migration, resilience, and transformation. We’ll walk the lanes immortalised by Dickens, meet the artisans and street musicians who brought the city to life, and explore how their music became the soundtrack of London’s streets.
From the crowded workshops of Eyre Street Hill to the legal battles over street music, this is a tale of hope, hardship, and the indelible mark left by London’s Italian community. Tune in for Episode 134: Organ Grinders of Little Italy
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Hello and welcome to our London History podcast where we share
our love of London, it's people,places and history.
It's designed for you to learn things about London that most
Londoners don't even know. I am your host Hazel Baker,
qualified London tour guide and CEO and founder of London
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guidedwalks.co.uk. Each episode is supported by
show notes, transcripts, photos and further reading, all to be
found on our website. Click on londonguidedwalks.co.uk
podcast and then select the episode that you fancy.
And if you enjoy what we do, then you'll love our guided
walks and private tours that we offer throughout the year.
(00:46):
So get that cup of tea, put yourfeet up and enjoy.
Today we journey through the cobbled streets of Clerkenwell
to uncover the story of Little Italy, a tale of migration,
resilience and transformation that shaped London's heart for
over a century. By the 1830s, Clerkenwell,
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Saffron Hill and Hatton Garden have become the nucleus of
London's Italian population. Early arrivals were skilled
artisans, glassblowers, scientific instrument makers,
engravers, mainly from northern Italy.
As the century progressed, wavesof poorer, unskilled migrants
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from central and southern Italy joined them.
Driven by poverty and lack of opportunity at home, most
Italians came to Britain in the second-half of the 19th century
as poor and uneducated economic migrants.
Their regional costumes, languages, Catholic faith and
extended family structure distinguish them from the host
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community. Many of these newcomers settled
in the slums of Hatton Garden, Saffron Hill and Nether Lane,
and they were overcrowded. The poverty was endemic.
Houses could contain as many as 50 people living in crowded and
in sanitary conditions. But I get ahead of myself.
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Let's begin our journey by stepping back into Victorian
London. It's a Sunday night in May in
the year 1863. Imagine yourself standing at a
crossroads, surrounded by the hum of the city, the scent of
roasting chestnuts and the echo of Italian voices drifting
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through the air. To the South of Little Italy,
Clerkenwell Rd. runs past the iconic facade of the brand new
Saint Peter's Italian Church, the first Italian basilica style
church built outside Italy. Head east and you'll find
Farringdon Rd. lined with proud brick warehouses, and to the
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north is Roseberry Ave., which curves towards Exmouth St., once
home to Joseph Grimaldi, the legendary crown whose Italian
family helped shape London's theatre scene.
At the very heart of this triangle lies Saffron Hill, the
pulsing core, if you will, of Little Italy, immortalised by
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Charles Dickens as one of London's most notorious area.
The streets rang with the music of barrel organs and the cries
of hokey, pokey men selling penny ices.
Locals once called this patch Hockley in the Hole, a Mecca for
entertainment, for bear baiting,broad sword fighting and the odd
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local catfight. And you can hear more about its
earlier life, Hockley in the Hole, in Episode 6.
But for now, in 1863, it's knownas Little Italy, where every
street tells a story, and Dickens knew this area
intimately, and he drew on thesescenes for his novels.
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In Oliver Twist, he sets Fagin'sDen amongst the maze of small
streets, alleyways and courtyards of Saffron Hill, and
his description is unflinching. A dirtier, more wretched place
he had never seen. The street was very narrow and
muddy, and the air was impregnated with foul humours.
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There were good many small shops, but the only stock in
trade appeared to be heaps of children, who even at this time
of night were crawling in and out at the doors or screaming
from the inside. Covered ways and yards disclosed
little knots of houses where drunken men and women were
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positively wallowing in. Phil.
What was Oliver Twist letting him himself in for?
Right now, to truly understand how Italian immigrants transform
Clark and well, let's take a walk down one of its most
storage streets, and that's IyerSt.
Hill in Little Italy. One Sunday night, framed in the
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tone shops, amber light, a wine shop still the Bush displaying.
She lingers in the London night while Tito tender Things is
saying a southern Jack and a southern Jill, and loves romance
in Eyre St. Hill, the crowded St.
The narrow ways, closed sheds with rusty looks and styles have
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vanished from my wandering gaze.The night is May.
The scene is Naples, when Beppo eyes with looks to kill the
favoured Swain in Eyre St. Hill's sock drama room.
Above the sign there comes the hymn their preferri play to the
dear Madonna's shrine. When falls the night, serene and
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starry and soft Italian zephyrs fill the frosty courts of Air
St. Hill.
The Gray fog wraps the sombre St.
A funeral pool. The city covers built in the
London by wall meet the picturesque Italian lovers,
their song and sunshine with them still in Italy on Air St.
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Hill now. This romanticized poem invokes A
dreamy sun soaked vision of Little Italy filled with music,
love and devotion. And the sun, of course, is from
the inside, fighting against this London cool and greyness
now transforming Clark and WalesBackstreet into a kind of inner
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city Naples. But really, the many who lived
here, it was even far less idyllic.
This is where strong community bonds and cultural traditions
were undoubtedly present. And in daily light of this, part
of what was once known as an area of Finsbury often meant
overcrowded housing, low paid work and limited opportunities.
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For many Italian Londoners, the sounds of devotion and the
colours of festivals offered fleeting relief from the harsh
conditions of urban poverty. It was on Air St.
Hill in the late 19th century that Giuseppe Giapa's organ work
stood, a workshop that would shape the very soundscape of
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Victorian London. Giapa and his family were more
than just instrument makers. They were the creators of the
hand cranked barrel organs whoselively tunes became the
soundtrack of the city's neighborhoods.
These weren't just simple music boxes, they were marvels of
ingenuity, crafted with precision and care.
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Each organ, with its wooden pipes and intricate mechanisms,
could fill a street with music, waltzes, marches and popular
songs of the day. By 1871, half of all working
Italian men in Carcamole were St. musicians and many of them
rented their organs directly from Kiappa's workshop at Air
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St. Hill.
Ten years later, in the 1881 census, it shows Kiappa, now
aged 52, as piano organ maker and is no longer living above
the workshops but residing at 21Taiso St. in Clarkenwell with
his wife Rosa and seven children.
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The business didn't just supply instruments, it created a whole
ecosystem. Gappa offered not only the
manufacturer and repair of organs, but also the training of
performers and even the publication of music books.
The workshop was a hive of activity, with apprentices
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learning the craft and musicianscoming and going, collecting
their instruments for another day's work on the streets.
For many Italian migrants, the barrel organ was more than a
means of survival, it was a way to bring a piece of home to the
bustling and often unfriendly streets of London.
The music they played was a bridge between cultures, a
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reminder of village festivals and family gatherings back at
home. And for Londoners, especially
children, the arrival of the organ grinder was a highlight of
the day, an invitation to dance,to sing along or simply to pause
and enjoy a moment of joy among the city's relentless pace.
The influence of Kiappa's organ works extended far beyond
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Carkenwell. Their instruments could be heard
across the capital, from the East End to the West End, in
markets, parks and outside public houses.
The melodies became woven into the fabric of London life,
echoing in collective memory long after the last organ had
fallen silent. Street music and barrel organs
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played a defining role in shaping London's urban
soundscape, especially during the 19th century.
Both as a source of vibrant public culture and also as a
focus point for debates about noise, class and urban identity,
Barrel organs and St. musicians were omnipresent in Victorian
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London, with estimates of over 1000 organ grinders active by
the 1860s. Their music filled the streets
from early morning until late atnight, blending with the
cacophony of horse drawn traffic, St. vendors and the
daily urban bustle. And the sounds of the barrel
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organ became emblematic of the city's working class
neighborhoods, especially in theareas of Saffron Hill and Clark
and Wales, Little Italy, where many of the Italian migrants
lived and worked. Now, street music was more than
just background noise. It helped create a sense of
community and belonging, especially among immigrants and
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working class Londoners. And performances in public
spaces broke down social barriers and provided shared
experiences, fusing the city with creativity and cultural
expression. However, they also created
controversy and class tensions. For many middle and upper class
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residents, barrel organs symbolised unwanted noise and
social disorder. Complaints about the organ
nuisance were common, with writers like Charles Dickens,
Thomas Carlisle decrying the constant disruption to constant
peace and intellectual work. Dickens famously described the
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street musicians as brazen performers on brazen
instruments, beaters of drums, grinders of organs, bangers of
banjos, clashes of cymbals, warriors of fiddlers and
bellowers of ballads. Dickens said he couldn't write
for more than half an hour without being driven to
distraction by the most excruciating sounds imaginable.
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Carlisle went so far as to install a soundproof room in his
Chelsea home to escape what he called vile organ grinders.
And these St. performers, most often Italian immigrants, would
wheel their Burrow organs from street to St. cranking out the
same tunes until someone paid them to move on.
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And for one man, this wasn't just a background noise, it was
a personal torment. Charles Babbage, the
mathematician and inventor now hailed as the father of the
computer, was a man who prized order, logic and above all,
quiet. In his leafy western
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neighborhood, he found himself besieged by what he called
instruments of torture, permitted by the government to
be in daily and nightly use in the streets of London.
Organs, fiddles, bagpies, drums and more.
He once calculated that 1/4 of his working life over 12 years
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had been destroyed by these nuisances.
In just 80 days, he tallied 165 interruptions, each one he
believed, stealing precious hours from his work on the
Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine, the world's
first mechanical computers. Babbage didn't just grumble.
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He fought back. He paid musicians to leave.
He called the police. He even appeared in court
arguing that street music was ruining the productivity of
London's intellectual class. He wrote pamphlets and lobbied
Parliament, his words dripping with frustration.
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It is difficult to estimate the misery inflicted upon thousands
of persons and the absolute pecuniary penalty imposed upon
multitudes of intellectual workers by the loss of their
time, destroyed by organ grinders and other similar
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nuisances. His vehement campaign against
organ grinders is steeped in a profound technological irony.
The barrel organs mechanical programming closely mirrored the
core principle of his own pioneering computing designs.
Both systems relied on encoded instructions to automate complex
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tasks. Music for the organ?
Calculations for the engine? Yep.
Babbage viewed the former as a torment and the latter as
progress. Finally, in 1864, Babbage's
campaign paid off. Parliament passed the Act for
the Better Regulation of Street Music in the Metropolis.
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Now, if a homeowner objected, police could order St. musicians
to leave and arrest them if theyrefused.
But victory came at a cost. Babbage became infamous among
London's buskers. Organ grinders would gather
outside his house, playing louder and louder than ever,
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especially as he lay dying in 1871.
It's said they serenaded his deathbed with their music, a
final, noisy act of revenge. It wasn't just intellectuals who
had it in for organ grinders. Oh no.
Middle class and elite Londonersfrequently described Italian
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organ grinders as infesting the streets, using language more
commonly reserved for pests or vermin.
Letters and articles in the press refer to them as Savoyard
friends or blaggards and accuse them of smelling of garlic and
goat skin, drawing on ethnic stereotypes in further distance
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from them, from this respectableBritish public, the Saffron Hill
neighborhood was depicted as overcrowded and unsanitary,
reinforcing prejudices about immigrant communities.
It was suggested that they infest the streets, having
brought a certain vice from Italy, or meant that the streets
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swarm with vagabonds. The noise of the barrel organ
was framed as an intrusion not just into public space, but into
the private domestic lives of the middle classes.
The music's property of penetration and ubiquity meant,
as one common thing to put it, there was literally nowhere to
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hide in these urban spaces, either public or private, from
such street music. This was more than a nuisance.
It was seen as a violation of the boundaries between class and
between Englishness and foreignness.
Victorian satire and journalism amplified these themes.
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Political cartoons like those ofJohn Leach in The Punch depicted
organ grinders as ruffians, their foreign noises castrated
with the refinement of British music and art.
Investigative journalists, oftenin disguise, ventured into
Italian neighborhoods to report on the supposed threat by these
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immigrants, describing them as thieves, extortionists and
public nuisances. Their reports were aimed at a
middle class audience, reinforcing social hierarchies
and the idea that Italian organ grinders were both oral and
moral pollutants. Newspapers often debated such
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ideas, using them to comment on broader social and cultural
tensions, including attitudes towards immigrants and the urban
poor. A passage in the Atlas, November
1857, was written with heavy irony, sarcasm and wit.
It mocks both the defenders and critics of organ grinders,
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exaggerating their arguments to highlight their absurdity.
The writer's own position is clear.
St. Organs are a noisy nuisance, and
the supposed benefits are laughable.
Here's an extract. Every journal in London has felt
itself called upon to speak of the great organ question which
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is now agitating all of London. And it appears that some of the
writers actually like organs. The others, who like music,
object to the organ nuisance fora variety of reasons.
And some of these reasons are sovery far fetched that one would
imagine it was necessary to stand upon ceremony with the
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Sardinians and Savoyards who infest our streets, making days
hysias with a series of screeching in triple or
quadruple time. Which thou barbarious and
inhumane defenders dignity with the time of heirs.
They continue in the same way where a man who prefer Porter to
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champagne and who would rather hear a low comedians quwl at a
penny gaffe than listen to Miss Pine warbling at the Lyceum.
The great reason why the Saturday Review would encourage
the demons in Sardinian form whoare fast making our streets
uninhabitable, yet have to be mentioned.
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Street music, according to the Ordeman, Grinder's friend, has a
great effect in preserving the morals of servant maids.
Why the absence of organs, that is to say of organized
screeching, should drive a servant girl to a hopeless
course of vice, we are somewhat at a loss to understand.
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Neither do we comprehend why a set of Sardinian beggars who,
instead of offering for sale theharmless Lucifer box or the
almost equally offensive tract, carry out with them the most
hateful devices for extortioningmoney.
We do not comprehend, we repeat,why these misrekunts are to be
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called art ministers. Oh dear.
But even the courts couldn't agree on how to deal with all
good nuisance, if at all. One applicant at North London
Police Court on a Saturday was aman who complained of a very
powerful organ which was kept playing from early morning till
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late night and deprived him of all rest.
The magistrate is reported to have, said Mr. Fordham, your
only remedy is by injunction. The High Court the organ may
annoy you, but it is not a cock and is not a dog.
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It does not crow and it does notbark.
Consequently, a police magistrate has no power.
The applicant left court lookingvery dejected.
In June 1895, the Marlabone Mercury reported that Gideon
Nabadali, 44, an Italian organ grinder, was charged with
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persistently playing an organ tothe annoyance of Richard Murray
after having been asked to desist.
Murray, the caretaker of a housein Barclay St. said that on
Friday evening the prisoner playing an organ outside the
house and one of his children was being ill and asked the
prisoner to go away. He refused and continued to play
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for about 20 minutes after he was requested to desist.
The prosecutor said he would send for a policeman and the
prisoner, using a coarse expression in English, said he
could do so. Eventually a constable was sent
for and a man given into custody.
Mr. Newton imposed a fine of 20 shillings with an alternative of
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14 day imprisonment. The controversy surrounding
street music in Victoria and London was closely tied to
prevailing attitudes toward immigrants, especially Italians,
who were the most prominent and frequently blamed among St.
performers. Complaints about organ grinders
and other street musicians oftenwent beyond objections to noise.
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They were steeped in xenophobic rhetoric and reflected deeper
anxieties about class, foreignness, and social order.
And beneath these grievances laya broader and ease about
immigration and the rapidly changing character of the city.
Organ grinders, Italian in particular, became associated
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with the public imagination, with vice, criminality and even
exploitation, as many were believed to be under the control
of Padroni employers who profited from their labour under
questionable conditions. This narrative painted Italian
St. musicians not merely as a nuisance, but agents of a
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supposed alien invasion that threatened English values in
society. The relentless chorus of
complaints from London's middle and upper classes, echoed in the
newspaper columns, courtrooms and even Parliament, eventually
forced the city's lawmakers to act.
The most significant response came in the form of the Street
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Music Act of 1864, and this legislation empowered
householders to demand the removal of St. musicians from
their vicinity. Now, this was more than just a
law about noise. It's marked a profound shift in
how Londoners understood and regulated public space for the
first time, the soundscape of the city.
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Who could make noise, where and for whom became a matter of
legal control. The ACT signalled a new era in
the policing of urban life, where the preferences of the
settled property owning classes could override the traditions
and livelihoods of St. performers, many of whom were
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immigrants or from the working poor.
The Act was controversial. Supporters hailed it as a
victory for peace and order, with one MP declaring that the
right to quiet enjoyment of 1's own home is sacred.
Critics, however, saw it as an attack on the city's character
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and a blow to the poor. Some argued that street music
was the only sunshine in the lives of the labouring classes,
and that silencing it would makethe city a colder, less
welcoming place. Yeah, despite the new
restrictions, street music proved remarkably resilient.
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Musicians adapted, finding new ways to perform, new instruments
to play and new audiences to entertain.
The character of street music evolved with the times.
Barrel organs gave way to accordions, fiddles, and
eventually amplified guitars andportable speakers.
The debates of the Victorian eraabout noise, public space and
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who gets to shape the city's atmosphere never truly
disappeared. I mean, today these same
questions resurface in discussions about busking, noise
ordinances and the role of public performance in city life.
Should buskers be licensed? How loud is too loud?
Who decides what belongs in the shared soundscape of a modern
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metropolis? The legacy of the Street Music
Act lives on, not just in the laws on the books, but in the
ongoing negotiation between order and vibrancy, tradition
and change. And that defines London's
streets. In essence, the story of street
music regulation is the story ofLondon itself, a city constantly
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reshaped by the plush and pull between authority and freedom,
silence and song, barrel organs and street music was central to
the auditory identity of Victorian London, symbolising
both the city's lively multiculturalism and the social
tensions of urban life. They helped define the rhythms
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of daily existence, foster community and sparked debates
about noise, class and belongingthat continue to resonate in the
city's public spaces now. Organ grinders were often boys
exploited by Padroni, these Labour agents, and were a
familiar sight and sound in Victorian London.
It began when young boys from the Palmer region of Italy began
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appearing in London shortly after the Napoleonic Wars.
By March 1820, the Times noted growing public annoyance at the
presence of numerous Italian boys roaming the streets with
monkeys and white mice, appealing to the sympathy of
passers by. At least two Italian men had
brought over 20 children from towns near Parma to London on 15
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month contracts specifically to beg.
Each child was provided with a monkey, mouse or squirrel and
upon a completing their indenture they were allowed to
keep the animal and potentially start their own business.
The trade proved highly profitable.
After the summer of 1819, two Italian masters returned home
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with 50 lbs in earnings. Initially, the children earned
their living solely by exhibiting dancing animals.
By the 1830s, their repertoire had expanded, including not just
monkeys and mice and squirrels, but also dogs, tortoises, and
even porcupines. The Pedrani would rent these
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animals to the children at a setdaily rate.
A tortoise or a box of white mice for instance, was let at 1
shilling sixpence a day, whilst a porcupine, more sought after
as there were only two in the city, cost 2 shillings sixpence
a day. Before shillings a boy could
also hire a barrel organ. The dancing dogs were the most
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expensive at 5 shillings a day, but for that some the boy
received four dogs in dresses, together with a spinning wheel
pipe and table. By the 1830's the children had
begun to incorporate inanimate objects into their performances,
a plain barrel organ or an organfor waltzing figures, or even a
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box of wax figurines. According to an 1831 article in
the Times, some of the boys could make as much as 6 or 7
shillings in a day, and one St. child claimed to have earned 15
shillings in one day in Brightonwith a dancing dog.
Until the late 1830's, the Italian boys were chiefly known
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for a displaying white mice. This is reflected in George
Eliot's Middle March, set in that era where Missus
Cuddewalda, upon learning that Doritea would force it because
Alban's inheritance if she married Will Ladislaw, remarks
that Doritea might as well marryan Italian with white mice.
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Soon the boys began playing musical instruments in addition
to exhibiting animals. In Dickens's Little Dorit, Flora
describes Italy as that land of poetry with burning mountains,
picturesque beyond belief. Though if the organ boys come
away from the neighborhood not to be scorched, nobody would
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wonder, being so young and bringing their white mice with
them, most humane. By the 1840's, the boys with
white mice had become widely known as the organ boys.
Henry Mayhew, the pioneering social investigator, also
chronicled the district the former capital town mansions.
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A slightly exaggerated description of the houses near
the cold bath, dingy and distressed, in use as old
furniture stalls or lodging houses for single men occupied
by Italian immigrants living in crowded and in sanitary
conditions, and chiefly employedin the ice cream chade or other
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street based activities such as organ grinding and Hawking of
plaster figures and in the winter, hot chestnut vending.
I think it's time for me to introduce Luigi Rabiotti.
He was one of the most notoriousItalian pedroni labor agents
operating in London's Little Italy during the mid 19th
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century, and he was infamous forhis exploitation of young
Italian organ grinders and the squalid, overcrowded conditions
in his lodging houses. Rabiotti was born in Palmer,
Italy, and by the 1841 UK censushe was living in Laystall St.,
Clarkenwell, a core area of London's Italian community.
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He was a shopkeeper and padroni,controlling a network of organ
grinders, many of them boys and young men brought from
impoverished Italian villages. Investigations by The Lancet in
1871 and contemporary health officers described Rabbiotti's
lodging houses on Ayr St. and Laystall St. as filthy and
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grossly overcrowded. One report detailed his basement
and his house in the back subletto organ grinders.
The basement was formed into a sort kitchen with shelves along
the wall where the barrel organsmight be deposited, A long table
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for the rolling out of macaroni.The floor, ceiling and walls
were black with smoke and dirt. The house has no furniture, only
double beds wherever they could be fitted, 2 or even 3 men slept
in each bed. In 1864 the Times described the
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Crampton unsanitary homes of these musicians.
In Ayre Place. As many as 14 organ grinders
slept in one room and, not content with that, beds were
made-up on the staircases. In some cases, up to 27 people
were squeezed into a single house, with beds crammed into
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every available space. Rabiotti and other Padroni
recruited children from poor Italian families, promising work
and better life in Britain. In reality, these boys were
forced to hand over all their earnings, often subjected to
beatings and neglect if they've failed to bring in enough money.
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Children were also made to beg and perform with animals, and
then living conditions left themvulnerable to disease and
malnutrition. But Abiotti did not formally
charge rent to his workers, instead taking his share from
leasing organs or a cut of theirdaily earnings.
He instructed his men to deny paying rent to avoid prosecution
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under the Common Lodging House Act.
The Leonardi case highlighted exploitation and created public
outcry. The tragic death of Giuseppe
Leonardi in 1845 is one example of the exploitation suffered by
Italian child St. musicians in Victoria, London.
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Leonardi, just 15 years old, wasone of the several boys under
the control of Rabiotti. These pedroni, as I mentioned,
brought the children from Italy to England under contracts and
they often amounted to forced labour, sending them out daily
to earn money through St. performance or begging.
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Leonardi's life in London was marked by poverty, illness and
abuse. Despite his deteriorating
health, he was repeatedly forcedto work.
As the coroner later reported, Leonardi's lungs were one mass
of disease. The boy had repeatedly
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complained of chest pain, but his pleas were ignored.
Instead, Rabiotti persisted in sending him out and beating him,
demonstrating the Padroni's complete disregard of the boy's
well-being. When Leonardi died destitute in
the street, his case drew publicattention to the plight of
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Italian child performers. The authorities charged Rabiotti
with manslaughter, accusing him of causing the boy's death
through neglect and cruelty. The trial revealed the grim
realities faced by these children, many of whom were
exploited and beaten if they failed to bring enough money.
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Although Rabiotti was ultimatelyacquitted of manslaughter, the
judge did not let him escape moral condemnation in court.
The judge delivered a severe reprimand, making clear that
while the law could not convict him, society could not condone
his actions. The case drew the attention of
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Italian political exiles in London, including the patriarch
Giuseppe Mazzini, who described the Padroni system as a species
of white slave trade, a disgraceto Italy, to its government and
to its clergy, who might, had they chosen to do so, have
prevented it. The scandal spurred the founding
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of the educational initiatives for destitute Italian boys, such
as the school established by Mazzini in Hatton Garden.
The Italian Benevolent Society was also founded to assist
vulnerable Italians with effortsto repatriate exploited children
and provide them with shelter and employment.
The specific plight of child musicians was largely ignored
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until later reforms in the 19th century.
The Elementary Education Acts, particularly in the 1870 and
1880 Acts, played a significant but indirect role in addressing
the exploitation of child St. musicians and performers,
including those from Italian immigrant communities.
The 1880 Elementary Education Act made elementary school
(37:01):
compulsory for all children under the age of 10 in England
and Wales. This legal requirement meant
that children of school age could no longer legally spend
their days working or performingin the streets.
In theory, they're supposed to be in school.
As compulsory education became the norm for English children,
the presence of foreign childrenworking in the streets became
(37:23):
more conspicuous and less socially acceptable.
This shift in attitude contributed to authorities and
magistrates increasingly viewingItalian child St. musicians as
victims of exploitation, akin tobeggars rather than legitimate
entertainers, and this led to more frequent detentions,
(37:43):
placement in workhouses and organised repatriations, often
in cooperation with the Italian Benevolent Society.
The Act provided a legal and moral framework for campaigners
to demand that all children, regardless of nationality, be
protected from exploitation and given access to education.
(38:06):
This pressure gradually encouraged the extension of
educational and child protectionmeasures to immigrant children,
though enforcement and coverage remained inconsistent for
decades. As the music of the barrel organ
fades into memory, so too does the world of Little Italy, a
world built on hope, hard work and the rhythms of migration.
(38:32):
The Italian organ grinders of Clarkenwell left a mark on
London far greater than their tunes alone.
They brought colour, community and a new cultural identity to
the city streets, even as they faced poverty, prejudice and the
threat of exploitation. Their story is more than
(38:54):
nostalgia. It's a window into the struggles
and triumphs of London's immigrant communities, and a
reminder of how the sounds of the street can both unite and
divide. The debates over noise,
belonging and public space that raged in Victorian times still
echo today whenever a busker sets up on a busy corner or a
(39:17):
new community finds its voice inthe city.
Thank you for joining us on thisjourney through Little Italy's
musical past. If you enjoyed today's episode,
subscribe and share it with a friend.
We have a lot of free content blog.postsandotherpodcastepisodesaboutvictorianlondonandtheycanbefound@londonguidedwalks.co.uk/history/victorian
(39:43):
and we have a number of Victorian specific London guided
walks for you to enjoy too. Come and join me on Victorian
Covent Garden and we can hear about Victorian ice cream
lovers. Check out
londonguidedwalks.co.uk guided Hyphen walks for our upcoming
walks calendar. Until next time.
Hello and welcome to our London History podcast where we share
our love of London, it's people,places and history.
It's designed for you to learn things about London that most
Londoners don't even know. I am your host Hazel Baker,
qualified London tour guide and CEO and founder of London
(00:22):
guidedwalks.co.uk. Each episode is supported by
show notes, transcripts, photos and further reading, all to be
found on our website. Click on londonguidedwalks.co.uk
podcast and then select the episode that you fancy.
And if you enjoy what we do, then you'll love our guided
walks and private tours that we offer throughout the year.
(00:46):
So get that cup of tea, put yourfeet up and enjoy.
Today we journey through the cobbled streets of Clerkenwell
to uncover the story of Little Italy, a tale of migration,
resilience and transformation that shaped London's heart for
over a century. By the 1830s, Clerkenwell,
(01:08):
Saffron Hill and Hatton Garden have become the nucleus of
London's Italian population. Early arrivals were skilled
artisans, glassblowers, scientific instrument makers,
engravers, mainly from northern Italy.
As the century progressed, wavesof poorer, unskilled migrants
(01:29):
from central and southern Italy joined them.
Driven by poverty and lack of opportunity at home, most
Italians came to Britain in the second-half of the 19th century
as poor and uneducated economic migrants.
Their regional costumes, languages, Catholic faith and
extended family structure distinguish them from the host
(01:53):
community. Many of these newcomers settled
in the slums of Hatton Garden, Saffron Hill and Nether Lane,
and they were overcrowded. The poverty was endemic.
Houses could contain as many as 50 people living in crowded and
in sanitary conditions. But I get ahead of myself.
(02:13):
Let's begin our journey by stepping back into Victorian
London. It's a Sunday night in May in
the year 1863. Imagine yourself standing at a
crossroads, surrounded by the hum of the city, the scent of
roasting chestnuts and the echo of Italian voices drifting
(02:35):
through the air. To the South of Little Italy,
Clerkenwell Rd. runs past the iconic facade of the brand new
Saint Peter's Italian Church, the first Italian basilica style
church built outside Italy. Head east and you'll find
Farringdon Rd. lined with proud brick warehouses, and to the
(02:56):
north is Roseberry Ave., which curves towards Exmouth St., once
home to Joseph Grimaldi, the legendary crown whose Italian
family helped shape London's theatre scene.
At the very heart of this triangle lies Saffron Hill, the
pulsing core, if you will, of Little Italy, immortalised by
(03:16):
Charles Dickens as one of London's most notorious area.
The streets rang with the music of barrel organs and the cries
of hokey, pokey men selling penny ices.
Locals once called this patch Hockley in the Hole, a Mecca for
entertainment, for bear baiting,broad sword fighting and the odd
(03:37):
local catfight. And you can hear more about its
earlier life, Hockley in the Hole, in Episode 6.
But for now, in 1863, it's knownas Little Italy, where every
street tells a story, and Dickens knew this area
intimately, and he drew on thesescenes for his novels.
(03:58):
In Oliver Twist, he sets Fagin'sDen amongst the maze of small
streets, alleyways and courtyards of Saffron Hill, and
his description is unflinching. A dirtier, more wretched place
he had never seen. The street was very narrow and
muddy, and the air was impregnated with foul humours.
(04:22):
There were good many small shops, but the only stock in
trade appeared to be heaps of children, who even at this time
of night were crawling in and out at the doors or screaming
from the inside. Covered ways and yards disclosed
little knots of houses where drunken men and women were
(04:43):
positively wallowing in. Phil.
What was Oliver Twist letting him himself in for?
Right now, to truly understand how Italian immigrants transform
Clark and well, let's take a walk down one of its most
storage streets, and that's IyerSt.
Hill in Little Italy. One Sunday night, framed in the
(05:07):
tone shops, amber light, a wine shop still the Bush displaying.
She lingers in the London night while Tito tender Things is
saying a southern Jack and a southern Jill, and loves romance
in Eyre St. Hill, the crowded St.
The narrow ways, closed sheds with rusty looks and styles have
(05:28):
vanished from my wandering gaze.The night is May.
The scene is Naples, when Beppo eyes with looks to kill the
favoured Swain in Eyre St. Hill's sock drama room.
Above the sign there comes the hymn their preferri play to the
dear Madonna's shrine. When falls the night, serene and
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starry and soft Italian zephyrs fill the frosty courts of Air
St. Hill.
The Gray fog wraps the sombre St.
A funeral pool. The city covers built in the
London by wall meet the picturesque Italian lovers,
their song and sunshine with them still in Italy on Air St.
(06:14):
Hill now. This romanticized poem invokes A
dreamy sun soaked vision of Little Italy filled with music,
love and devotion. And the sun, of course, is from
the inside, fighting against this London cool and greyness
now transforming Clark and WalesBackstreet into a kind of inner
(06:39):
city Naples. But really, the many who lived
here, it was even far less idyllic.
This is where strong community bonds and cultural traditions
were undoubtedly present. And in daily light of this, part
of what was once known as an area of Finsbury often meant
overcrowded housing, low paid work and limited opportunities.
(07:03):
For many Italian Londoners, the sounds of devotion and the
colours of festivals offered fleeting relief from the harsh
conditions of urban poverty. It was on Air St.
Hill in the late 19th century that Giuseppe Giapa's organ work
stood, a workshop that would shape the very soundscape of
(07:25):
Victorian London. Giapa and his family were more
than just instrument makers. They were the creators of the
hand cranked barrel organs whoselively tunes became the
soundtrack of the city's neighborhoods.
These weren't just simple music boxes, they were marvels of
ingenuity, crafted with precision and care.
(07:48):
Each organ, with its wooden pipes and intricate mechanisms,
could fill a street with music, waltzes, marches and popular
songs of the day. By 1871, half of all working
Italian men in Carcamole were St. musicians and many of them
rented their organs directly from Kiappa's workshop at Air
(08:12):
St. Hill.
Ten years later, in the 1881 census, it shows Kiappa, now
aged 52, as piano organ maker and is no longer living above
the workshops but residing at 21Taiso St. in Clarkenwell with
his wife Rosa and seven children.
(08:33):
The business didn't just supply instruments, it created a whole
ecosystem. Gappa offered not only the
manufacturer and repair of organs, but also the training of
performers and even the publication of music books.
The workshop was a hive of activity, with apprentices
(08:53):
learning the craft and musicianscoming and going, collecting
their instruments for another day's work on the streets.
For many Italian migrants, the barrel organ was more than a
means of survival, it was a way to bring a piece of home to the
bustling and often unfriendly streets of London.
The music they played was a bridge between cultures, a
(09:14):
reminder of village festivals and family gatherings back at
home. And for Londoners, especially
children, the arrival of the organ grinder was a highlight of
the day, an invitation to dance,to sing along or simply to pause
and enjoy a moment of joy among the city's relentless pace.
The influence of Kiappa's organ works extended far beyond
(09:38):
Carkenwell. Their instruments could be heard
across the capital, from the East End to the West End, in
markets, parks and outside public houses.
The melodies became woven into the fabric of London life,
echoing in collective memory long after the last organ had
fallen silent. Street music and barrel organs
(10:03):
played a defining role in shaping London's urban
soundscape, especially during the 19th century.
Both as a source of vibrant public culture and also as a
focus point for debates about noise, class and urban identity,
Barrel organs and St. musicians were omnipresent in Victorian
(10:25):
London, with estimates of over 1000 organ grinders active by
the 1860s. Their music filled the streets
from early morning until late atnight, blending with the
cacophony of horse drawn traffic, St. vendors and the
daily urban bustle. And the sounds of the barrel
(10:47):
organ became emblematic of the city's working class
neighborhoods, especially in theareas of Saffron Hill and Clark
and Wales, Little Italy, where many of the Italian migrants
lived and worked. Now, street music was more than
just background noise. It helped create a sense of
community and belonging, especially among immigrants and
(11:10):
working class Londoners. And performances in public
spaces broke down social barriers and provided shared
experiences, fusing the city with creativity and cultural
expression. However, they also created
controversy and class tensions. For many middle and upper class
(11:30):
residents, barrel organs symbolised unwanted noise and
social disorder. Complaints about the organ
nuisance were common, with writers like Charles Dickens,
Thomas Carlisle decrying the constant disruption to constant
peace and intellectual work. Dickens famously described the
(11:51):
street musicians as brazen performers on brazen
instruments, beaters of drums, grinders of organs, bangers of
banjos, clashes of cymbals, warriors of fiddlers and
bellowers of ballads. Dickens said he couldn't write
for more than half an hour without being driven to
distraction by the most excruciating sounds imaginable.
(12:17):
Carlisle went so far as to install a soundproof room in his
Chelsea home to escape what he called vile organ grinders.
And these St. performers, most often Italian immigrants, would
wheel their Burrow organs from street to St. cranking out the
same tunes until someone paid them to move on.
(12:38):
And for one man, this wasn't just a background noise, it was
a personal torment. Charles Babbage, the
mathematician and inventor now hailed as the father of the
computer, was a man who prized order, logic and above all,
quiet. In his leafy western
(13:00):
neighborhood, he found himself besieged by what he called
instruments of torture, permitted by the government to
be in daily and nightly use in the streets of London.
Organs, fiddles, bagpies, drums and more.
He once calculated that 1/4 of his working life over 12 years
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had been destroyed by these nuisances.
In just 80 days, he tallied 165 interruptions, each one he
believed, stealing precious hours from his work on the
Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine, the world's
first mechanical computers. Babbage didn't just grumble.
(13:45):
He fought back. He paid musicians to leave.
He called the police. He even appeared in court
arguing that street music was ruining the productivity of
London's intellectual class. He wrote pamphlets and lobbied
Parliament, his words dripping with frustration.
(14:07):
It is difficult to estimate the misery inflicted upon thousands
of persons and the absolute pecuniary penalty imposed upon
multitudes of intellectual workers by the loss of their
time, destroyed by organ grinders and other similar
(14:27):
nuisances. His vehement campaign against
organ grinders is steeped in a profound technological irony.
The barrel organs mechanical programming closely mirrored the
core principle of his own pioneering computing designs.
Both systems relied on encoded instructions to automate complex
(14:48):
tasks. Music for the organ?
Calculations for the engine? Yep.
Babbage viewed the former as a torment and the latter as
progress. Finally, in 1864, Babbage's
campaign paid off. Parliament passed the Act for
the Better Regulation of Street Music in the Metropolis.
(15:09):
Now, if a homeowner objected, police could order St. musicians
to leave and arrest them if theyrefused.
But victory came at a cost. Babbage became infamous among
London's buskers. Organ grinders would gather
outside his house, playing louder and louder than ever,
(15:31):
especially as he lay dying in 1871.
It's said they serenaded his deathbed with their music, a
final, noisy act of revenge. It wasn't just intellectuals who
had it in for organ grinders. Oh no.
Middle class and elite Londonersfrequently described Italian
(15:53):
organ grinders as infesting the streets, using language more
commonly reserved for pests or vermin.
Letters and articles in the press refer to them as Savoyard
friends or blaggards and accuse them of smelling of garlic and
goat skin, drawing on ethnic stereotypes in further distance
(16:14):
from them, from this respectableBritish public, the Saffron Hill
neighborhood was depicted as overcrowded and unsanitary,
reinforcing prejudices about immigrant communities.
It was suggested that they infest the streets, having
brought a certain vice from Italy, or meant that the streets
(16:35):
swarm with vagabonds. The noise of the barrel organ
was framed as an intrusion not just into public space, but into
the private domestic lives of the middle classes.
The music's property of penetration and ubiquity meant,
as one common thing to put it, there was literally nowhere to
(16:57):
hide in these urban spaces, either public or private, from
such street music. This was more than a nuisance.
It was seen as a violation of the boundaries between class and
between Englishness and foreignness.
Victorian satire and journalism amplified these themes.
(17:19):
Political cartoons like those ofJohn Leach in The Punch depicted
organ grinders as ruffians, their foreign noises castrated
with the refinement of British music and art.
Investigative journalists, oftenin disguise, ventured into
Italian neighborhoods to report on the supposed threat by these
(17:40):
immigrants, describing them as thieves, extortionists and
public nuisances. Their reports were aimed at a
middle class audience, reinforcing social hierarchies
and the idea that Italian organ grinders were both oral and
moral pollutants. Newspapers often debated such
(18:00):
ideas, using them to comment on broader social and cultural
tensions, including attitudes towards immigrants and the urban
poor. A passage in the Atlas, November
1857, was written with heavy irony, sarcasm and wit.
It mocks both the defenders and critics of organ grinders,
(18:21):
exaggerating their arguments to highlight their absurdity.
The writer's own position is clear.
St. Organs are a noisy nuisance, and
the supposed benefits are laughable.
Here's an extract. Every journal in London has felt
itself called upon to speak of the great organ question which
(18:44):
is now agitating all of London. And it appears that some of the
writers actually like organs. The others, who like music,
object to the organ nuisance fora variety of reasons.
And some of these reasons are sovery far fetched that one would
imagine it was necessary to stand upon ceremony with the
(19:05):
Sardinians and Savoyards who infest our streets, making days
hysias with a series of screeching in triple or
quadruple time. Which thou barbarious and
inhumane defenders dignity with the time of heirs.
They continue in the same way where a man who prefer Porter to
(19:28):
champagne and who would rather hear a low comedians quwl at a
penny gaffe than listen to Miss Pine warbling at the Lyceum.
The great reason why the Saturday Review would encourage
the demons in Sardinian form whoare fast making our streets
uninhabitable, yet have to be mentioned.
(19:49):
Street music, according to the Ordeman, Grinder's friend, has a
great effect in preserving the morals of servant maids.
Why the absence of organs, that is to say of organized
screeching, should drive a servant girl to a hopeless
course of vice, we are somewhat at a loss to understand.
(20:11):
Neither do we comprehend why a set of Sardinian beggars who,
instead of offering for sale theharmless Lucifer box or the
almost equally offensive tract, carry out with them the most
hateful devices for extortioningmoney.
We do not comprehend, we repeat,why these misrekunts are to be
(20:31):
called art ministers. Oh dear.
But even the courts couldn't agree on how to deal with all
good nuisance, if at all. One applicant at North London
Police Court on a Saturday was aman who complained of a very
powerful organ which was kept playing from early morning till
(20:52):
late night and deprived him of all rest.
The magistrate is reported to have, said Mr. Fordham, your
only remedy is by injunction. The High Court the organ may
annoy you, but it is not a cock and is not a dog.
(21:14):
It does not crow and it does notbark.
Consequently, a police magistrate has no power.
The applicant left court lookingvery dejected.
In June 1895, the Marlabone Mercury reported that Gideon
Nabadali, 44, an Italian organ grinder, was charged with
(21:38):
persistently playing an organ tothe annoyance of Richard Murray
after having been asked to desist.
Murray, the caretaker of a housein Barclay St. said that on
Friday evening the prisoner playing an organ outside the
house and one of his children was being ill and asked the
prisoner to go away. He refused and continued to play
(22:00):
for about 20 minutes after he was requested to desist.
The prosecutor said he would send for a policeman and the
prisoner, using a coarse expression in English, said he
could do so. Eventually a constable was sent
for and a man given into custody.
Mr. Newton imposed a fine of 20 shillings with an alternative of
(22:21):
14 day imprisonment. The controversy surrounding
street music in Victoria and London was closely tied to
prevailing attitudes toward immigrants, especially Italians,
who were the most prominent and frequently blamed among St.
performers. Complaints about organ grinders
and other street musicians oftenwent beyond objections to noise.
(22:42):
They were steeped in xenophobic rhetoric and reflected deeper
anxieties about class, foreignness, and social order.
And beneath these grievances laya broader and ease about
immigration and the rapidly changing character of the city.
Organ grinders, Italian in particular, became associated
(23:02):
with the public imagination, with vice, criminality and even
exploitation, as many were believed to be under the control
of Padroni employers who profited from their labour under
questionable conditions. This narrative painted Italian
St. musicians not merely as a nuisance, but agents of a
(23:23):
supposed alien invasion that threatened English values in
society. The relentless chorus of
complaints from London's middle and upper classes, echoed in the
newspaper columns, courtrooms and even Parliament, eventually
forced the city's lawmakers to act.
The most significant response came in the form of the Street
(23:46):
Music Act of 1864, and this legislation empowered
householders to demand the removal of St. musicians from
their vicinity. Now, this was more than just a
law about noise. It's marked a profound shift in
how Londoners understood and regulated public space for the
first time, the soundscape of the city.
(24:09):
Who could make noise, where and for whom became a matter of
legal control. The ACT signalled a new era in
the policing of urban life, where the preferences of the
settled property owning classes could override the traditions
and livelihoods of St. performers, many of whom were
(24:30):
immigrants or from the working poor.
The Act was controversial. Supporters hailed it as a
victory for peace and order, with one MP declaring that the
right to quiet enjoyment of 1's own home is sacred.
Critics, however, saw it as an attack on the city's character
(24:50):
and a blow to the poor. Some argued that street music
was the only sunshine in the lives of the labouring classes,
and that silencing it would makethe city a colder, less
welcoming place. Yeah, despite the new
restrictions, street music proved remarkably resilient.
(25:10):
Musicians adapted, finding new ways to perform, new instruments
to play and new audiences to entertain.
The character of street music evolved with the times.
Barrel organs gave way to accordions, fiddles, and
eventually amplified guitars andportable speakers.
The debates of the Victorian eraabout noise, public space and
(25:32):
who gets to shape the city's atmosphere never truly
disappeared. I mean, today these same
questions resurface in discussions about busking, noise
ordinances and the role of public performance in city life.
Should buskers be licensed? How loud is too loud?
Who decides what belongs in the shared soundscape of a modern
(25:53):
metropolis? The legacy of the Street Music
Act lives on, not just in the laws on the books, but in the
ongoing negotiation between order and vibrancy, tradition
and change. And that defines London's
streets. In essence, the story of street
music regulation is the story ofLondon itself, a city constantly
(26:14):
reshaped by the plush and pull between authority and freedom,
silence and song, barrel organs and street music was central to
the auditory identity of Victorian London, symbolising
both the city's lively multiculturalism and the social
tensions of urban life. They helped define the rhythms
(26:38):
of daily existence, foster community and sparked debates
about noise, class and belongingthat continue to resonate in the
city's public spaces now. Organ grinders were often boys
exploited by Padroni, these Labour agents, and were a
familiar sight and sound in Victorian London.
It began when young boys from the Palmer region of Italy began
(27:01):
appearing in London shortly after the Napoleonic Wars.
By March 1820, the Times noted growing public annoyance at the
presence of numerous Italian boys roaming the streets with
monkeys and white mice, appealing to the sympathy of
passers by. At least two Italian men had
brought over 20 children from towns near Parma to London on 15
(27:25):
month contracts specifically to beg.
Each child was provided with a monkey, mouse or squirrel and
upon a completing their indenture they were allowed to
keep the animal and potentially start their own business.
The trade proved highly profitable.
After the summer of 1819, two Italian masters returned home
(27:47):
with 50 lbs in earnings. Initially, the children earned
their living solely by exhibiting dancing animals.
By the 1830s, their repertoire had expanded, including not just
monkeys and mice and squirrels, but also dogs, tortoises, and
even porcupines. The Pedrani would rent these
(28:08):
animals to the children at a setdaily rate.
A tortoise or a box of white mice for instance, was let at 1
shilling sixpence a day, whilst a porcupine, more sought after
as there were only two in the city, cost 2 shillings sixpence
a day. Before shillings a boy could
also hire a barrel organ. The dancing dogs were the most
(28:31):
expensive at 5 shillings a day, but for that some the boy
received four dogs in dresses, together with a spinning wheel
pipe and table. By the 1830's the children had
begun to incorporate inanimate objects into their performances,
a plain barrel organ or an organfor waltzing figures, or even a
(28:54):
box of wax figurines. According to an 1831 article in
the Times, some of the boys could make as much as 6 or 7
shillings in a day, and one St. child claimed to have earned 15
shillings in one day in Brightonwith a dancing dog.
Until the late 1830's, the Italian boys were chiefly known
(29:17):
for a displaying white mice. This is reflected in George
Eliot's Middle March, set in that era where Missus
Cuddewalda, upon learning that Doritea would force it because
Alban's inheritance if she married Will Ladislaw, remarks
that Doritea might as well marryan Italian with white mice.
(29:39):
Soon the boys began playing musical instruments in addition
to exhibiting animals. In Dickens's Little Dorit, Flora
describes Italy as that land of poetry with burning mountains,
picturesque beyond belief. Though if the organ boys come
away from the neighborhood not to be scorched, nobody would
(29:59):
wonder, being so young and bringing their white mice with
them, most humane. By the 1840's, the boys with
white mice had become widely known as the organ boys.
Henry Mayhew, the pioneering social investigator, also
chronicled the district the former capital town mansions.
(30:21):
A slightly exaggerated description of the houses near
the cold bath, dingy and distressed, in use as old
furniture stalls or lodging houses for single men occupied
by Italian immigrants living in crowded and in sanitary
conditions, and chiefly employedin the ice cream chade or other
(30:43):
street based activities such as organ grinding and Hawking of
plaster figures and in the winter, hot chestnut vending.
I think it's time for me to introduce Luigi Rabiotti.
He was one of the most notoriousItalian pedroni labor agents
operating in London's Little Italy during the mid 19th
(31:06):
century, and he was infamous forhis exploitation of young
Italian organ grinders and the squalid, overcrowded conditions
in his lodging houses. Rabiotti was born in Palmer,
Italy, and by the 1841 UK censushe was living in Laystall St.,
Clarkenwell, a core area of London's Italian community.
(31:28):
He was a shopkeeper and padroni,controlling a network of organ
grinders, many of them boys and young men brought from
impoverished Italian villages. Investigations by The Lancet in
1871 and contemporary health officers described Rabbiotti's
lodging houses on Ayr St. and Laystall St. as filthy and
(31:50):
grossly overcrowded. One report detailed his basement
and his house in the back subletto organ grinders.
The basement was formed into a sort kitchen with shelves along
the wall where the barrel organsmight be deposited, A long table
(32:10):
for the rolling out of macaroni.The floor, ceiling and walls
were black with smoke and dirt. The house has no furniture, only
double beds wherever they could be fitted, 2 or even 3 men slept
in each bed. In 1864 the Times described the
(32:35):
Crampton unsanitary homes of these musicians.
In Ayre Place. As many as 14 organ grinders
slept in one room and, not content with that, beds were
made-up on the staircases. In some cases, up to 27 people
were squeezed into a single house, with beds crammed into
(32:58):
every available space. Rabiotti and other Padroni
recruited children from poor Italian families, promising work
and better life in Britain. In reality, these boys were
forced to hand over all their earnings, often subjected to
beatings and neglect if they've failed to bring in enough money.
(33:21):
Children were also made to beg and perform with animals, and
then living conditions left themvulnerable to disease and
malnutrition. But Abiotti did not formally
charge rent to his workers, instead taking his share from
leasing organs or a cut of theirdaily earnings.
He instructed his men to deny paying rent to avoid prosecution
(33:45):
under the Common Lodging House Act.
The Leonardi case highlighted exploitation and created public
outcry. The tragic death of Giuseppe
Leonardi in 1845 is one example of the exploitation suffered by
Italian child St. musicians in Victoria, London.
(34:08):
Leonardi, just 15 years old, wasone of the several boys under
the control of Rabiotti. These pedroni, as I mentioned,
brought the children from Italy to England under contracts and
they often amounted to forced labour, sending them out daily
to earn money through St. performance or begging.
(34:29):
Leonardi's life in London was marked by poverty, illness and
abuse. Despite his deteriorating
health, he was repeatedly forcedto work.
As the coroner later reported, Leonardi's lungs were one mass
of disease. The boy had repeatedly
(34:49):
complained of chest pain, but his pleas were ignored.
Instead, Rabiotti persisted in sending him out and beating him,
demonstrating the Padroni's complete disregard of the boy's
well-being. When Leonardi died destitute in
the street, his case drew publicattention to the plight of
(35:10):
Italian child performers. The authorities charged Rabiotti
with manslaughter, accusing him of causing the boy's death
through neglect and cruelty. The trial revealed the grim
realities faced by these children, many of whom were
exploited and beaten if they failed to bring enough money.
(35:30):
Although Rabiotti was ultimatelyacquitted of manslaughter, the
judge did not let him escape moral condemnation in court.
The judge delivered a severe reprimand, making clear that
while the law could not convict him, society could not condone
his actions. The case drew the attention of
(35:52):
Italian political exiles in London, including the patriarch
Giuseppe Mazzini, who described the Padroni system as a species
of white slave trade, a disgraceto Italy, to its government and
to its clergy, who might, had they chosen to do so, have
prevented it. The scandal spurred the founding
(36:14):
of the educational initiatives for destitute Italian boys, such
as the school established by Mazzini in Hatton Garden.
The Italian Benevolent Society was also founded to assist
vulnerable Italians with effortsto repatriate exploited children
and provide them with shelter and employment.
The specific plight of child musicians was largely ignored
(36:38):
until later reforms in the 19th century.
The Elementary Education Acts, particularly in the 1870 and
1880 Acts, played a significant but indirect role in addressing
the exploitation of child St. musicians and performers,
including those from Italian immigrant communities.
The 1880 Elementary Education Act made elementary school
(37:01):
compulsory for all children under the age of 10 in England
and Wales. This legal requirement meant
that children of school age could no longer legally spend
their days working or performingin the streets.
In theory, they're supposed to be in school.
As compulsory education became the norm for English children,
the presence of foreign childrenworking in the streets became
(37:23):
more conspicuous and less socially acceptable.
This shift in attitude contributed to authorities and
magistrates increasingly viewingItalian child St. musicians as
victims of exploitation, akin tobeggars rather than legitimate
entertainers, and this led to more frequent detentions,
(37:43):
placement in workhouses and organised repatriations, often
in cooperation with the Italian Benevolent Society.
The Act provided a legal and moral framework for campaigners
to demand that all children, regardless of nationality, be
protected from exploitation and given access to education.
(38:06):
This pressure gradually encouraged the extension of
educational and child protectionmeasures to immigrant children,
though enforcement and coverage remained inconsistent for
decades. As the music of the barrel organ
fades into memory, so too does the world of Little Italy, a
world built on hope, hard work and the rhythms of migration.
(38:32):
The Italian organ grinders of Clarkenwell left a mark on
London far greater than their tunes alone.
They brought colour, community and a new cultural identity to
the city streets, even as they faced poverty, prejudice and the
threat of exploitation. Their story is more than
(38:54):
nostalgia. It's a window into the struggles
and triumphs of London's immigrant communities, and a
reminder of how the sounds of the street can both unite and
divide. The debates over noise,
belonging and public space that raged in Victorian times still
echo today whenever a busker sets up on a busy corner or a
(39:17):
new community finds its voice inthe city.
Thank you for joining us on thisjourney through Little Italy's
musical past. If you enjoyed today's episode,
subscribe and share it with a friend.
We have a lot of free content blog.postsandotherpodcastepisodesaboutvictorianlondonandtheycanbefound@londonguidedwalks.co.uk/history/victorian
(39:43):
and we have a number of Victorian specific London guided
walks for you to enjoy too. Come and join me on Victorian
Covent Garden and we can hear about Victorian ice cream
lovers. Check out
londonguidedwalks.co.uk guided Hyphen walks for our upcoming
walks calendar. Until next time.
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