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Appropriately, the exhibition is at the Foundling Museum in London, next to the children's charity Coram—an institution that grew out of the Foundling Hospital, established by Thomas Coram in 1739 “for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children”. The Food Foundation has calculated that for a family in the poorest 10% of the household income distribution to follow Public Health England's healthy eating advice, they would have to spend 74% of the household income on food. Added to the shortage of affordable housing and cuts to local government funding in the UK, there has been a combination of caps to housing benefits, the bedroom tax, restrictions of the welfare budget and tax credits, and problems with Universal Credit.

While the history of poverty in England has recently enjoyed a revival in academic attention, little is yet known about poor housing and poor households. This comprehensive study of the living arrangements and households of the English poor between 1600 and 1850 also contributes valuable insights into the poor in English society. Offering a detailed examination of the material circumstances of the poor in urban, rural and metropolitan contexts, chapters investigate how poor people lived, how they fit into households, and how they themselves perceived their household experiences. An important addition to wider investigations into British economic and social conditions in the long eighteenth century. Summary reprinted by permission of Palgrave Macmillan