I read that book - it was quite an eye-opener.
The People of the Abyss.
Jack London. 1908.
American author London, bought second hand clothes and slummed it in the East End. He said he was a sailor down on his luck. He slammed the British Empire for it's rotten treatment of the poorer classes. With which I had to agree. Better things came with David Lloyd George and his old age pension and workman's compensation 1911.