Society for the Suppression of Mendicity

The Society for the Suppression of Mendicity was a British charitable organisation, established as a joint-stock company in 1818 and operating until 1959. It aimed to deal with a supposed problem of begging in the streets of London, and begging by letter, by a range of measures including discouraging falsehood and imposture on the part of beggars; making inquiries into the circumstances of individual beggars and making interventions in their lives; and sponsoring the removal of beggars to parishes from which they were determined by the society to originate. It did not, at least in its stated aims, seek to diminish direct donations to beggars.