19th century pictures from London

Our "Daily Mail" is at it again publishing collections of old photos. Somebody at The Mail must be really interested in photographic history as they have been publishing these collections for some time. Anyway, here's the latest. Love the "itinerant photographer" on Clapham Common with his portable darkroom!

http://tinyurl.com/buxpmoq

Can't you see, he's erecting some sort of surveillance station, and turret gun! That man is clearly a threat to national security...

Thanks for posting. Interesting to watch. At first I thought the water man was carrying drinking water into town using his Water Cart, before the times of general availability of running drinking water. But than I realized he is using the cart to sprinkle water on the road, see behind the cart. Guess the unpaved roads needed attention during dry summer months in London... although that slightly conflicts with the remark of the next picture "the smooth pavements of the streets have successfully competed with the placid current of the Thames"

He is probably washing horse pee away. People quickly forgot how much urine and dung there was before the automobile.