The Crossing Sweeper is an 1858 painting by the English painter William Powell Frith which has been described as breaking "new ground in its description of the collision of wealth and poverty on a London street.

Crossing sweepers offered to sweep the streets in front of wealthy-looking pedestrians in the hope of a tip.

An 1853 Punch cartoon entitled "the crossing sweeper nuisance" depicted a hapless middle-class man surrounded by importunate boys holding out their hands for money.

[2] In an 1858 issue of Building News similarly negative sentiments were expressed of "those juvenile highwaymen who, broom in hand, take possessions of our crossings and level black mail upon the public in general, and timid females in particular.

Frith created several copies in the 1890s, at a time in his career when much of his output comprised variations on his famous works.