1. Introduction

In the third chapter of 'Italian Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Realities and Images' Lucio Sponza distinguishes three periods in the pattern of occupations of Italian Immigrants to Britain. Up to the 1870s the Italian immigrants were either engaged in itinerant trades (organ-grinders and other street performers and makers and vendors of plaster statuettes) or in crafts like manufacturing precision instruments and looking-glass making. The organ-grinders were mainly from Parma, Emilia, the statuette makers from Lucca, Tuscany and the barometer, looking glass and frame makers were from Como in Lombardy. A fourth region of origin was Campania.

The late 1870s to the early 1890s was a period of change and showed an evolution towards more settled habits. First of all, there was a growing number of ice-cream makers and sellers and of chestnut vendors. Secondly, more unskilled Italians arrived. They were often employed as paviours and asphalters. And thirdly, carvers and gilders and picture-frame makers were replaced by carpenters, joiners, masons, painters and cabinet makers.

From the early 1890s onwards the Italian presence in the catering trade boomed. In England more Italians also went into domestic service, which explains the increase in the percentage of Italian women from the 1891 census onwards.

Migration of Italians to Britain was not unusual. In 1871 238,000 Italians were living abroad and that number had increased to over a million in 1881. Between 1900 and 1905 over half a million Italians migrated from Italy each year. In 1876 80% of all Italian emigrants went to European countries. However, by 1910 the most popular destination was the Americas.

Based on the census Sponza estimates that there were 4,489 Italians in England and Wales (2,041 in London) in 1861 and 20,389 (11,668 in London) in 1911.

Lucio Sponza, Italian Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Realities and Images, Leicester University Press, 1988