or poverty-corner, subs. phr. (variety artists’).—The corner of the York and Waterloo Roads, London. See quot. In New York that portion of 14th Street, opposite the Washington Statue, is known as ‘The Slave Market’ for similar reasons.
1890. Tit-Bits, 29 March, 390, 3. Any Monday, between eleven and three, may be seen a hundred or more persons of both sexes outside [the York Hotel] waiting in the hope of obtaining engagements in music-halls or variety theatres—“lion comiques,” “serio-comics,” “character comedians,” in fact, every variety of music-hall artiste. Anyone wishing to see faces beaming with joy and prosperity [or] worn pale and thin by privation, care, and anxiety, will not find any better opportunity than by paying a visit on a Monday morning to POVERTY JUNCTION.—[Abridged.]
