Crossing-sweepers were essential in Dickens' London to enable pedestrians to cross the roads dry and relatively free of mud and filth. The best-known crossing sweeper in Dickens's works is Jo in Bleak House, who is one of the key witnesses (although discounted at the time) at the inquest on Captain Nemo. I cannot help identify "the black man that swept the crossing" but the job is one that Black people might have done. Of course, he might have been black from the mud on the road with which he spent his working life in close contact, just as sweeps and their boys were black from soot.

Peter B Freshwater MA MCLIP FSAScot
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