On 13 December 1938, unemployed men queued outside the Labour Exchange in Stepney, east London. A Science Museum Group photographic record identifies the date, location and people waiting with unusual precision.
Labour exchanges connected job information with unemployment support. In the insecure labour market that followed the Depression, applicants waited for their turn on a cold street. The system was national in scale, but each case still moved through a counter one person at a time.
The backs in the line may look alike, yet every man brought a different trade and household need. A shared wish to work produced one visible queue on a winter pavement.