Downstream

mudlarks were nineteenth-
century children and adults
who scavenged the banks of
the Thames at low tide,
looking for coal, iron, brick,
copper, canvas, and bones to
sell to dealers. In the early
twentieth century the word
was used to describe
schoolchildren who begged
passers-by to throw coins into
the Thames mud for them to
retrieve. Today’s mudlarks
search the riverbank for