VICTORIAN LONDON (19 th century)

1. VICTORIAN LONDON(19th century)

2. QUEEN VICTORIA (1819-1901) • Was crowned queen of England in 1837 at the age of 18 • Married Prince Albert of Germany in 1840 • Often publicly displayed their family life with their nine children • Many political and social reforms occurred during her reign as queen • The term “Victorian England” resulted from her ethics and personal tastes which were reflected in middle class life

3. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1750-1850) • England changed from an agricultural society to an industrial society with the development of: • Steam-powered machinery • Textile machinery • Mining machinery • Improved canals, roadways, and railways

4. EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION • Positive: • Increased employment opportunities in mills and factories • More middle class businessmen becoming rich vs. upper class nobility wealth • Negative: • Child labor • Dirty working and living conditions • Long working hours

5. LONDON’S POPULATION EXPLOSION • One million people in 1800 • More than two million people by 1850 • Thousands of people came from the countryside looking for work in the city • Many row houses, alleys and streets were being built to accommodate the increasing population • The city was in an upheaval

6. LONDON STREETS • Streets were crowded, noisy and very dirty • Vendors selling items such as pies, coffee, fish, vegetables, clothing, birds, flowers, etc. • Street musicians and performers • Horse-drawn cabs, omnibuses and carriages • People walking to work, shopping, socializing

7. LONDON STREETS, cont. • Street sweepers • Soot everywhere from chimneys belching coal smoke • Raw sewage in the gutters and Thames River • Pick-pockets, vagabonds, beggars and drunks • Streets lit at night by feeble gas lights

9. WORKING LONDON • Rich businessmen (such as Ebenezer Scrooge) owned companies and traded stocks at the Royal Exchange • They employed poorly paid clerks (such as Bob Cratchit) and expected them to work long hours, six days a week • A typical clerical worker was paid about $130 a year (Cratchit made half of that) • Factory owners employed people that worked twelve hours a day, six days a week. Many were children because there were no child labor laws. • Because of the presence of many wealthy people, there was a great need for domestic workers (servants). These workers often lived in their masters’ homes and were paid next to nothing.

10. HOUSING • Rich: • Lived in large townhouses with servants • Many lived in fashionable areas of the city near the business district (such as Scrooge) • In-between: • Lived in areas with moderately-sized rented houses (the Cratchits lived in Camden Town) • Areas were shabby, dingy and damp, but still better than the poorer part of town • Poor: • Lived in small row houses, shacks or tenements on the east side of the city along the river • Often crammed eight to ten people in a room • Workhouses – boarding house/prison for debtors (whole families lived here) • Many lived and died in the streets (including children)