Rookery (slum)

A rookery, in the colloquial English of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was a city slum occupied by poor people and frequently also by criminals and prostitutes. Such areas were overcrowded, with low-quality housing and little or no sanitation. Local industry such as coal plants and gasholders polluted the rookery air. Poorly constructed dwellings, built with multiple storeys and often crammed into any area of open ground, created densely populated areas of gloomy, narrow streets and alleyways. By many, these parts of the city were sometimes deemed "uninhabitable". Local trades such as fulling and tanning, cat's meat, and livestock added to the unsanitary conditions. In addition brick pits where clay had been excavated sometimes remained and these filled with surface water, sewage and rubbish.