90 likes | 256 Views
Victorian London. Said to be the largest, most spectacular city in the world. During Industrial Revolution in Britain: $$ Consequences Population 1800: 1 million 1880: 4.5 Million. Consequences. Squalor Filth Quote from Dickens’ Biographer
E N D
Victorian London • Said to be the largest, most spectacular city in the world. • During Industrial Revolution in Britain: • $$ • Consequences • Population 1800: 1 million • 1880: 4.5 Million
Consequences • Squalor • Filth • Quote from Dickens’ Biographer • “If a late twentieth-century person were suddenly to find himself in a tavern or house of the period, he would literally be sick – sick with the smells, sick with the food, sick with the atmosphere around him.”
Imagine • London/Early 19th Century • Upper and middle class homes next to areas of extreme poverty and filth • In the streets, poor and rich together • Rags and riches • Street sweepers meagerly attempt • Manure- omnibus • coal smoke- soot settled everywhere
Personal Hygiene • Not a priority • Laundry…? • Stench • No light. • Gas lamps outside • Only primary streets • Candles inside
Dickens describes a London rain storm” • “In the country, the rain would have developed a thousand fresh scents, and every drop would have had its bright association with some beautiful form of growth or life. In the city, it developed only foul stale smells, and was a sickly lukewarm, dirt-stained, wretched addition to the gutters.
Imagine • The gutters empty into the Thames. • Drinking water comes from the Thames. • Cholera • The Great Stink of 1858 • Smelled so bad, they dismissed Parliament!
Poor? • New Poor Law • 1834 • Required parishes to create workhouses • Prison for poor • Poor avoided the aid • “poor house”
Champion to the Poor • Dickens’ father imprisoned • Debt • Charles consigned to blacking factory • Help pay family debt • Used his writing to change the system. • http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/bleakhouse/animation.shtml