Tosher

This article is about the type of British scavenger. For "Tosher", the member of the Hasidic community, see Tosh (Hasidic dynasty). For other uses, see Tosher (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Tosser.

A tosher is someone who scavenges in the sewers, a sewer-hunter, especially in London during the Victorian era. The word tosher was also used to describe the thieves who stripped valuable copper from the hulls of ships moored along the Thames. The related slang term "tosh" referred to valuables thus collected. Both "tosher" and "tosh" are of unknown origin.^[1][2]

In fiction

In the 1960 film The Day They Robbed the Bank of England, which is set in 1901, a tosher becomes involved to help break into the bank through the old sewer system.

A tosher in Victorian London is the profession of the title character in Dodger, a 2012 novel by Terry Pratchett.^[3]

The protagonist of Nick Harkaway’s 2012 novel Angelmaker describes the London sewers and backstreets as “Tosher’s Beat”.

The character Murky John is a Tosher in Year of the Rabbit Series 1 Episode 2.

See also

• Junk man – OccupationPages displaying short descriptions with no spaces
• Mudlark – Someone who scavenges for items of value on the shores of rivers, someone who scavenges in river mud.
• Waste picker – Scavenging solid waste for personal use
• List of obsolete occupations