Standard Grade Revision Britain 1830-1930

1. Standard GradeRevision Britain 1830-1930 Housing and Health

2. Town Housing

3. New Towns in Scotland • After 1760 new towns developed and expanded. e.g.: • Glasgow, • Greenock • Motherwell • Dundee • By 1851 as many people lived in the towns as in the countryside. • High demand for housing – every spare room rented out. • Wealthy abandoned the town centre and moved to better housing in the outskirts or suburbs.

4. With this movement came problems: • Overcrowding • Shoddily built houses • Irresponsible landlords • Bad sanitation • Lack of running water • Lack of windows and ventilation

5. Tenement buildings Tenement buildings were built since it was cheaper to bu8ild upwards than outwards. Usually three of four stories, with flats leading off the stairway. Closes or wynds ran through the tenements providing access to a courtyard at the rear where washing was dried, rubbish thrown and dry toilets situated. Most families lived in one room. These houses with one room became known in Glasgow as “single ends”. Many single ends had no windows.

6. In 1840 30,000 Highlanders were forced to move to Glasgow. None of them spoke English (they spoke the Gaelic tongue), they had never seen a city. The only work they had ever done was to tend to a few animals and a small bit of land. They were forced overnight into factory work. In 100 years Glasgow's population swelled from 42,000 to 477,700. Work to be found in the textile mills, on the railways, in coal mines and in ship building. The cities grew so quickly that it was impossible to build decent homes fast enough. Conditions in the three and four story tenements were very bad. The immigrant areas were the poorest in the city. There was little sanitation, no proper water supply and rubbish lay in the street. Two or three families often had to share one or two rooms. These areas were known as slums. Rents were not always cheap and people were put out on the street if they could not pay on time.

7. Single Ends • People had no privacy • Germs spread easily • Damp • Furniture was basic – bed in a recess with a curtain, children often slept on floor. • Tables and chairs were luxury items. • Water carried in from outside. • No proper system of sanitation – sometimes cesspools next to water supply.

8. Government • Policy of “laissez-faire” – no laws to protect tenants – often tied housing • 1833 Burgh Reform Act – money from rates to clean streets.

9. Other town housing • Better-off working class families lived in house with two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs. • Middle-class housing ranged from large mansions to terraced houses with gardens, indoor toilets and piped water. • Servants • Did not live in same part of town as working classes.

10. Upper classes lived apart from middle classes • Large town house and country dwellings • Large gardens, running water, baths, rooms for servants. • Like middle classes, unaware of how bad housing was for poorer people.

11. After the First World War • As the war continued politicians promises a better life after the war. • 1924 Wheatley Act gave more money to councils to provide housing. • More than 75,000 houses built in Scotland • Electricity, indoor toilets & gardens • By 1920s an improvement in housing.

12. Health

13. Disease in towns in the 1800s • 1842 “Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain” by Edwin Chadwick. • Killer diseases: Smallpox, typhoid, tuberculosis (TB) & cholera. • Cholera: 1831 32,000 dead 1848 62,000 dead 1854 20,000 dead 1866 14,000 dead • Symptoms = severe diarrhoea & dehydration leading to shock & death • Thought to be bad air.

14. Edwin Chadwick • Fought to get government to take action. • 1842 “Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain” – proved life expectancy much lower in towns than countryside. • He argued government should bring about reform, as a healthier population would be able to work harder, and cost less to support.

15. Public Health Act 1875 • Local authorities had to appoint a Medical Officer • Authorities had to: • Cover and maintain sewers properly • Provide clean water • Pave and clean streets. • Local officers were appointed to check up on slaughterhouses and take responsibility to make sure contaminated food was properly destroyed.

16. Other factors that improved health: • Better diet: due to better transport, fresh food reached the cities • Cheap new materials: soap and disinfectant reduced infections • Cheap cotton clothes – easy to clean and launder • Better medicines and hospitals • 1864 Louis Pasteur discovered germs • 1867 Joseph Lister used antiseptics in surgery • 1928 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. • Rise in earnings meant people could afford better clothing and food.