Mudlarks

A Memory of Portsmouth.

My father was one of those so called 'Mudlark's. I remember him telling the stories of how they used to stage mock fights over the pennies to make people feel sorry for them and throw more money.
The thought that they were poor orphans who had to do this to stay alive was very far from the truth. We lived very well in a house in Southsea near the Kings Theatre.
The memory was brought back on a recent trip to Egypt and a trip down the nile. Children beg for money along the banks of the nile as the cruiser goes by at the narrow points. After the ship is gone they get their BMX bikes out of the bushes and pedal home to the mud brick house with the satellite dish and the Merc parked outside.