The streets of London were thick with beggars and confidence tricksters in Victorian times. In the 1880s 300,000 Londoners were classified as poor. Many beggars made desperate efforts to lift themselves and their families out of their unrelenting poverty by taking on a trade, however small and insignificant. They were reluctant to apply for Outdoor Relief under the Poor Law. The match sellers, shoe blacks and flower girls, very often displaced from the countryside where life was yet more unendurable, were given short shrift by many of the great and wealthy. An 1888 tourist guidebook suggested the following evasive action be taken by travellers: 'To get rid of your beggar, when wearisome, take no notice of him at all. He will only follow you till you meet a more likely person, but no farther'.

Street traders faced suspicion from the public and persecution by the police on a daily basis. Their lives were a constant struggle to win food and shelter; many lived in cheap, crowded lodging houses in poor areas of the West End and the City, where they were preyed upon mercilessly by voracious landlords. There was, of course, no social relief, and families had to rely on their wits to keep body and soul together.

The Victorian social critic Henry Mayhew reported that the chimney sweeps were a tight-knit community, and that master sweepers often let rooms to families in the same trade. The climbing boys, often from the workhouse, earned 2d or 3d a day, but were sometimes given an extra 6d by grateful householders. They climbed easily up through wide flues using their elbows, but often found themselves stuck and near-suffocated in narrow nine-inch chimneys. For young children it must have been the most terrifying experience. George Smart's invention of the familiar set of hollow rods topped with a broad bristle brush encouraged an end to the cruelty, and an Act of Parliament finally made child sweeps illegal in 1875.

There were once 2,500 cabinet-making shops in London, many employing children. When powered sawmills and mechanical production methods brought ready-made furniture onto the market, many thousands of craftsmen lost their jobs, and had to scratch a living by going door to door mending furniture or re-caning chairs.

The gingerbread man with his laden tray was a welcome sight to children. His dark-coloured cake of flour, treacle and ground ginger was a favourite snack with Victorians at fairs and street events. The roughly-shaped pieces were measured into paper cones and topped with a blanched almond. The gingerbread was probably made by his wife or daughters.

Sporting their red uniforms, the bootblack boys were a familiar sight on the streets of London. The bootblack business grew into a highly organised philanthropic affair: the Ragged Schools, Saffron Hill, set up the first society, and nine others followed. Their aim was to educate orphan boys and to give them a good start in the world; by the 1880s the shoeblack societies had 400 boys on their books. Members of the Shoeblack Brigade were licensed to trade by the Metropolitan Police and carried on their business unhindered.

Small children loved to cluster round the hokey-pokey stall licking at the cheap ice cream. The hokey-pokey men were usually Italian immigrants (during the winter they often worked as hurdy-gurdy men). Every morning in summer they froze the ice cream they had mixed the night before, and went their rounds crying: 'Gelati, ecco un poco!' ('Ice cream, here's a little!') - hence the slang words for ice cream. The hokey-pokey man sold his ice cream in small glasses, 'licks', which he wiped clean when his customers had finished with them. Edible ice cream cones began to be used in the 1890s. A popular nonsense rhyme in Victorian times ran:

'Hokey-pokey, pokey hump!
Hokey-pokey, a penny a lump.
Hokey-pokey, find a cake;
Hokey-pokey, boil and bake.
Here's the stuff to make your jump;
Hokey-pokey, penny a lump.
Hokey-pokey, sweet and cold,
For a penny, new or old.'

In almost every Victorian city street you could find a child selling matches. Bryant & May's matches, such as their fusee 'Alpine Vesuvian' matches, popularly known as Brimstones, were popular products. This was hardly a desirable job, but a match seller was considerably better off than those poor Londoners who were involved in the manufacturing of matches: the yellow phosphorus used in the process caused a debilitating disease of the mouth known as 'phossy jaw'. Bryant & May employed 700 girls in their match factories. In 1888 these girls went on strike for better pay and conditions, but such a protest and threat to public order was rare amongst workers in Victorian Britain.

London loft conversions are an increasingly popular way for homeowners to expand the useable space within their house without going through all of the hassle and expense of moving. Planning law in England changed significantly on 1 October 2008 with 'The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (No. 2) (England) Order 2008' coming into force. How does this new law change the situation for London loft conversions and does it mean that I do not need planning permission?

The idea behind the changes to the planning laws was to reduce the pressure on local planning departments by allowing many domestic extension projects to proceed under 'permitted development' rather than having to apply for planning permission. This means that certain types of work, such as many loft conversions and extensions, do not require planning permission. To understand how the law has changed, it is necessary to briefly examine the position prior to 1 October 2008.

The previous legislation governing permitted development for London loft conversions was the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995. This established a system of allowing homeowners to develop their property by a certain volume depending on the type of house. For instance, a terrace house could usually develop by up to 50 cubic metres (40 of which could be used for a mansard or dormer loft conversion) and a semi-detached or detached house by 70 cubic metres (50 of which could be used for a dormer or mansard loft conversion). This effectively meant that any house with an existing large ground floor extension would have already used most of its permitted development volume and could not undertake a loft conversion in London.

The most significant change brought in by the 2008 Order affects extensions at ground level. The system has now been changed from one of volume to one governed by maximum dimensions depending upon the location and number of storeys. For instance, a single storey extension to the rear of a terrace house can be a maximum of 3 metres deep from the original rear wall.

This means that ground level extensions completed prior to 1 October 2008 which fall within what would now be considered the maximum dimensions do not affect the volume that can be used for London loft conversions. It is possible to use up to 40 cubic metres in a terrace house and 50 cubic metres in detached and semi-detached houses for a loft conversion, whilst also having a large ground level extension.

More restrictive limits apply to conservation areas, areas of outstanding natural beauty, National Parks etc. Limits may also have been applied by the local authority to individual properties, such as properties of historical merit, or areas by means including planning conditions and Article 4 directions.

In general it is strongly advisable to submit an application for a 'Certificate of Lawfulness' before starting any work, even if you believe that it clearly falls within your permitted development rights. Local Authorities often have quite different interpretations of what London loft conversions are permitted under the new legislation. A certificate of lawfulness is a straightforward application that only costs £75 and gives you the peace of mind that what you are proposing is lawful and does not exceed your permitted development rights.

This article is a brief summary of the law specifically relating to extensions and permitted development in England and should not be relied upon as a complete statement of the law. To understand your rights and obligations fully, study the relevant law or consult a planning solicitor. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is accurate, it does not constitute legal or other professional advice.