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Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?

In Victorian society, rich and poor could find themselves living very close together, sometimes just streets apart. During the 19th century more people moved into the towns and cities to find work in factories. Cities filled to overflowing and London was particularly bad. At the start of the 19th century about 20% of Britain's population lived there, but by 1851 half the population of the country had set up home in London.

London, like most cities, was not prepared for this great increase in people. People crowded into already crammed houses. Rooms were rented to whole families or perhaps several families. If there was no rooms to rent, people stayed in lodging houses.

But how different were the homes they lived in? Use this lesson based on original sources concerning Victorian Hackney to find out.

Tasks

Background

Land-owners or factory owners often built houses for their workers. Unfortunately, this did not reduce overcrowding or improve building standards. The houses were cheap, most had between two and four rooms - one or two rooms downstairs, and one or two rooms upstairs, but Victorian families were big with perhaps four or five children. There was no water, and no toilet. A whole street (sometimes more) would have to share a couple of toilets and a pump. The water from the pump was frequently polluted. It was no surprise that few children made it to adulthood.

Some of the worst houses were 'back to backs' or courts. The only windows were at the front. There were no backyards and a sewer ran down the middle of the street. Housing conditions like this were perfect breeding grounds for disease.

On the other hand, the homes for the middle classes and the upper classes were much better. They were better built, larger and had most of the new gadgets installed, such as flushing toilets, gas lighting, and inside bathrooms. These houses were also decorated in the latest styles. There would be heavy curtains, flowery wallpaper, carpets and rugs, ornaments, well made furniture, paintings and plants. The source picture at the top this webpage illustrates some of the typical furnishings for the homes of the wealthier classes.

Most rich people had servants and they would live in the same house, frequently sleeping on the top floor or the attic. The rich had water pumps in their kitchens or sculleries and their waste was taken away down into underground sewers.

Gradually, improvements for the poor were made. In 1848, Parliament passed laws that allowed city councils to clean up the streets. One of the first cities to become a healthier place was Birmingham. Proper sewers and drains were built. Land owners had to build houses to a set standard. Streets were paved and lighting was put up.

Over time, slums were knocked down and new houses built. However, these changes did not take place overnight. When slums were knocked down in 1875 the poor people had little choice but to move to another slum, making that one worse. Few could afford new housing.

Teachers' notes

In this lesson on Victorian homes students are gradually introduced to sources on Hackney, starting with a small map section, then photographic evidence, concluding with the census.

Teachers may wish to ease their pupils gently into working with the census returns. They can be asked to look first at column headings, then down the columns. The list of occupants is also worth discussion, as are terms such as 'Nursing' which have changed their meanings - to wet nursing in this case.

Although the tasks do not directly ask pupils to make comparisons, it is likely that they will do so anyway. The largest differences are between the photos.

The activity presented here can be extended with illustrations of the interiors of rich and poor housing.

Sources

Illustration : COPY 1/155 f.198

Source 1 : IR 121/17/17

Source 2 : P8629 (Image courtesy of London Borough of Hackney Archives)

Source 3 : RG 12/284

Source 4 : P76 (Image courtesy of London Borough of Hackney Archives)

Source 5 : RG 12/200

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Was there much difference between rich and poor homes? In Victorian society, rich and poor could find themselves living very close together, sometimes just streets apart. During the 19th century more people moved into the towns and cities to find work in factories. Cities filled to overflowing and London was particularly bad.

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Victorian Medicine - From Fluke to Theory

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Bruce Robinson explores the dramatic progress of Victorian medicine.

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Robert Louis Stevenson - Books, Quotes & Death

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Robert Louis Stevenson was a 19th-century Scottish writer notable for such novels as ‘Treasure Island,’ ‘Kidnapped’ and ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.’

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The Victorian era spans the 63 years of Queen Victoria's reign over Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901. It was a time of great power and wealth for Britain as it expanded its empire across the globe. It was also a period of rapid advancement in science, industry and the arts, and saw much political and social reform. Many of these advances have helped to shape the world as we know it today.

Use the links below to learn more about life and culture in the Victorian era and to explore some of the Victorian sites that English Heritages cares for, including Queen Victoria's home on the Isle of Wight, Osborne House.

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The Victorian era spans the 63 years of Queen Victoria's reign over Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901. It was a period of rapid advancement in science, industry and the arts, and saw great political and social reform.

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Although the Victorian era was a period of extreme social inequality, industrialisation brought about rapid changes in everyday life. Family life, epitomised by the young Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their nine children, was enthusiastically idealised.

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In the Victorian period the growth of the railway network made it possible to transport food from the countryside to urban markets much more easily, greatly improving the quality of produce available there. But there was still no cure for most diseases, despite innovations in medicine, and life expectancy remained stubbornly low.

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In the Victorian period the growth of the railway network made it possible to transport food from the countryside to urban markets much more easily, greatly improving the quality of produce available there. But there was still no cure for most diseases, and life expectancy remained stubbornly low.

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The architectural profession is largely a Victorian creation. In the 18th century it was common for architects to act as developers and surveyors too, but by the 1820s such roles were being devolved, leaving architects free to experiment with a profusion of styles.

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The architectural profession is largely a Victorian creation. In the 18th century it was common for architects to act as developers and surveyors too, but by the 1820s such roles were being devolved, leaving architects free to experiment with a profusion of styles.

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In the Victorian period the growth of the railway network made it possible to transport food from the countryside to urban markets much more easily, greatly improving the quality of produce available there. But there was still no cure for most diseases, despite innovations in medicine, and life expectancy remained stubbornly low.

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In the Victorian period the growth of the railway network made it possible to transport food from the countryside to urban markets much more easily, greatly improving the quality of produce available there. But there was still no cure for most diseases, and life expectancy remained stubbornly low.

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Royal Museum Greenwich: Victorian Collection

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Royal Museum Greenwich: Victorian Collection

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Search Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

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Star: Royal Victorian Order, 1st class (Star) MED2524.1

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The Social Historian: Victorian Etiquette

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The Social Historian: Victorian Etiquette

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Etiquette for Ladies

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Victorian ladies should consider the introduction of one acquaintance to another a matter of serious responsibility. When introducing a gentleman and a woman, the gentleman should always be introduced to the lady and never the other way around, and never with asking the lady for her permission first. The lady, so introduced, should never offer her hand. When the introduction involves two people of the same gender, the socially inferior acquaintance should always be introduced to the superior.

Morning visits should be paid between two and four p.m. in the winter and two and five in the summer. A card should be presented. Visits of condolence should be paid within the week of the sad event, and only by family and close friends. Acquaintances should simply leave a card with narrow mourning borders. In all cases, dogs and children should not be taken on such visits but should be left at home.

In conversation, proverbs and puns should be avoided at any cost and ladies should never indulge in a long argument, speak of religion, nor interrupt a person who is speaking. Ladies should be up to date on current events but should never discuss matters that they have no knowledge of. Gossip and whispering should be avoided at all times.

Letters should be replied to promptly on suitable paper. Dainty note paper is acceptable when writing to close friends but business letters should be penned on plain paper. Salutations should reflect the relationship to the recipient with "I am, my dear Madam, yours very faithfully," being appropriate for someone with whom the writer is on friendly terms. All letters should be prepaid.

Attire should be appropriate to the time of day. Morning dress in the evening is vulgar. When in mourning, black and scarlet or black and violet are the preferred colours. Most jewelry should be avoided when attending a ball. Instead, wear beautiful flowers whether natural or artificial. Pearls are always appropriate for young and unmarried ladies.

[aesop_quote type="block" background="#804040″ text="#ffffff" width="content" align="left" size="2″ quote="Never be seen in the street without gloves; and never let your gloves be of any material that is not kid or calf. Worsted or cotton gloves are unutterably vulgar." cite="~Etiquette for Ladies" parallax="off" direction="left"]

[aesop_image imgwidth="600px" img="https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Formal_Place_Setting_12_Course_Dinner.jpg" align="center" lightbox="on" captionposition="left"] [aesop_quote type="pull" background="#804040″ text="#800000″ width="350px" height="200px" align="left" size="2″ quote="All well-ordered dinners begin with soup, whether in summer or winter." cite="~Etiquette for Ladies" parallax="on" direction="left"]

Morning parties begin about two o'clock and end at about five. Evening parties begin about nine o'clock in the evening and end about midnight or later. It is not necessary to arrive at the beginning, nor to stay until the end of a party so attending several functions in one evening is perfectly acceptable.

Invitations to dine should be accepted or graciously declined at once. If you accept such an invitation, you must attend unless prevented from doing so due to serious illness or death.

Young ladies can take no more than three glasses of wine at dinner although married ladies may take even five or six. Unless you absolutely abstain, it is ill-mannered to decline to take wine if invited to do so. When responding to a toast, a sip is appropriate; emptying the glass is not.

Etiquette for Gentlemen

Never write a letter of introduction without first considering if the friend to whom you address it will want to meet the obligation. Such letters should be written on the finest quality paper and should be unsealed as a sign of your good faith.

[aesop_quote type="block" background="#804040″ text="#ffffff" width="content" align="left" size="2″ quote="If you are walking with one friend, and presently meet with, or are joined by, a third, do not commit the too frequent error of introducing them to each other." cite="~Etiquette for Gentlemen" parallax="off" direction="left"] [aesop_quote type="pull" background="#804040″ text="#800000″ width="350px" height="200px" align="right" size="2″ quote="Unless you are a snuff taker, never carry any but a white pocket-handkerchief." cite="~Etiquette for Gentlemen" parallax="on" direction="right"]

When gentlemen converse with ladies, they should avoid topics such as politics, science or commerce, and instead choose topics that ladies are likely to be interested in.

Always write notes of invitation or acceptance in the third person. For example, "Mr. Smith has much pleasure in accepting Mr. Jones' polite invitation for Monday evening, June the 14th inst." Never use paper of any colour but white and never use sealing wax of any colour but red. A proper salutation begins with Sir or Madam and ends with "I have the honour to be your very obedient servant."

When meeting an acquaintance, it is never acceptable to simply nod and touch your hat. Politeness demands that a man should always lift his hat from his head. When greeting a lady in this manner, always lift your hat with the hand that is furthest away from her. Should you be on horseback, always dismount before talking to a lady who is on foot. It is not polite to force her to look up to converse.

In the morning, wear frock coats, double-breasted waist coats and trousers of light or dark colours, depending on the season. A coat should never be too well fitted. It is better that the clothes appear to belong to the man, rather than the man appearing to belong to the clothes. Evening dress should always be black. A black cravat can be worn with full dress, but a white one is more elegant.

Ballroom Guide

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Invitations to a ball should be sent in the name of the lady of the house at least ten days prior to the event. A response should be forthcoming in two or three days at the most and should be addressed in the same manner as the invitation. If the invitation began "Dear Sir", then the response should begin "Dear Madam".

Whenever possible, a supper should be provided for dancing makes guests hungry. Ideally the supper should be sent in from some first-rate establishment, but when that is not an option, the home-cooked supper, however simple, should be good and abundant.

On arrival, guests should seek the lady of the house immediately and pay their respects.

No gentleman should ask a lady to dance unless he has previously met her acquaintance. An introduction can be arranged through the Master of Ceremonies or through the lady of the house or a member of her family. Should a lady be approached by a man to whom she has not been introduced, she should reply that she would accept his invitation with pleasure if he would first procure an introduction.

No gentleman should attend a ball unless he can dance. When dancing with a lady he should be careful not to injure her dress, for delicate skirts are easily torn. A gentleman should escort his last partner to supper, wait on her there, and afterwards escort her back to the ballroom.

Depart as quietly as possible so as not to let others see your departure. Should you meet your hostess on the way, take your leave of her discreetly, however do not seek her out for the purpose.

[aesop_video width="content" align="center" src="youtube" id="3JPrMGiGJdo" caption="The Quadrille" loop="on" autoplay="on" controls="on" viewstart="on" viewend="on"]

Reference

Routledge's manual of etiquette. 1860. London: Routledge.

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Victorian Etiquette, Routledge's Manual of Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen and a guide to the Ballroom

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Great pioneers

The designer of the Great Western was the brilliant young engineer of the Great Western Railway, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who had persuaded his directors that a transatlantic shipping line was the natural way to expand the services offered by their railway. Brunel's response to the challenge posed by his rivals was to design a bigger and better ship. In July 1839, the keel was laid in Bristol for a new 3270 ton iron super ship. Designed for speed and comfort, this was to be the most revolutionary steamship of the early Victorian period. Equipped with cabins and state rooms for 360 passengers and the largest and most lavish dining room afloat, and the first large ship to be screw-driven, the Great Britain set the standard for large liners for many decades to come. By 1853 the Great Britain, refitted to accommodate up to 630 passengers, was operating an efficient London to Australia service and continued to do so for nearly twenty years.

The success of the Great Britain encouraged Brunel and his backers to create one more ship. In 1854 work started at Millwallon the Thames in east London on the building of the Great Eastern. Designed to carry 4000 passengers and enough coal to sail to Australia without refuelling en route, the ship was 693 feet long, 120 feet wide and weighed over 18,900 tons. Nothing on this scale had ever been considered before, and when she was finally broken up in 1888, the Great Eastern was still the largest ship in the world. The records of scale set by the Great Eastern were only finally broken by the super liners of the Edwardian era, the Lusitania of 1907, the Titanic of 1912 and the Imperator of 1913. On the Great Eastern's maiden voyage in June 1860 the ship carried only 38 paying passengers.

This became a pattern and the ship never sailed with all berths filled. Scale and technical virtuosity were not enough and the smaller, simpler and faster ships of Samuel Cunard captured the traffic. Increasingly a white elephant, the Great Eastern came out of passenger service in 1863 and was chartered by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company to lay telegraph cables across the Atlantic and from India to Aden, a task for which her huge size and powerful engines made her eminently suitable.

From an early date the British government realised that the successful operation and maintenance of an expanding trade empire depended upon fast, regular and reliable steamship services, supported by coaling and supply stations scattered all over the world. The primary function of the Royal Navy in Victorian Britain was the protection of these trade routes and their supply bases. As a result, the government sponsored the development and maintenance of the routes and, increasingly, the cost of building the ships. In 1840 the Peninsular Company became the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, with government contracts to operate services to Egypt, South Africa, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. In the process, as the Cunard name was becoming synonymous with the Atlantic so P&O developed its long term association with routes east of Suez.

Booming railways

Equally important were the links established between shipping lines and ship yards. During the Victorian period British shipyards on the Clyde, the Tyne, the Mersey, the Thames, at Barrow and Belfast came to dominate the world, having pioneered the use of iron and steel in ship-building, and developed marine technology to a high level. In 1900, for example, 739,000 tons of shipping was built and registered in Britain. British yards built ships for owners all over the world and were still in a dominant position at the end of the century, despite increasing competition offered by ship builders in Germany. Cunard had close links with the Glasgow yard of Robert Napier, while the Belfast firm of Harland & Wolff backed a new Atlantic challenger, the White Star Line, launched in 1871 and went on to have interests in other shipping companies, including the Union Castle Line.

Like the steamship, the railway predates the Victorian era. The start of the modern railway age is usually marked by the opening in 1825 of the Stockton & Darlington line. Other, mostly local, lines followed, the most important of which was the Liverpool and Manchester of 1830, famous for Robert Stephenson's Rocket locomotive. With its multitube boiler, blast pipe exhaust, pistons connected directly to the driving wheels and its ability to haul its train at over 30 miles per hour, this machine set the standard for locomotive design. The first long distance lines were opened in the first years of Queen Victoria's reign, the London and Birmingham in 1838, part of Brunel's London to Bristol route the same year and the London and Southampton in 1840. A railway boom and mania followed during the 1840s, with promoters and speculators planning lines all over Britain.

By 1845 2441 miles of railway were open and 30 million passengers were being carried. The railways, offering as they did new opportunities for travel and commerce, and breaking down social barriers in the process, were immediately popular, a popularity encouraged by acts of parliament that ensured that trains conformed to standards of speed and comfort and offered rates that were affordable by all. The spread of the railways also brought about, through time-tabling, a regularisation of time throughout Britain. Excursions and day trips, particularly to the seaside, became a familiar part of British social life. In 1851 many of the six million visitors to the Great Exhibition travelled by train to London in organised excursions. Queen Victoria made her first train journey on 13 June 1842 and then became a regular user of the rail network, for speed and convenience and because it gave her ample opportunity to show herself and her family to her subjects.

Expansion of the rail network was rapid and continuous. Between 1861 and 1888 the mileage grew by 81 percent and the traffic carried by 180 percent. By 1900, 18,680 miles were in use and over 1100 million passengers were being carried, along with huge quantities of freight. From 1852 the carriage of freight provided the railway companies with the bulk of their income. Safety standards, at first almost non-existent, gradually improved with advances in signalling and vehicle technology. By the end of the century trains ran regularly, and with complete safety, at speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour. Comfort also improved. The first lavatories appeared in family saloons in the 1860s, the first proper sleeping cars were introduced in 1873 and dining cars came into use from 1879.

Communication revolution

The building of the railway network was the major achievement of the Victorian period, changing for ever both social patterns and the landscape of Britain. The great engineers, Stephenson, Brunel, Locke, Vignoles and many others built their lines across hills and valleys, across mountains and marshland and over great rivers with determination and style, and often regardless of cost. Their legacy are the great embankments, viaducts, tunnels and bridges that cover the face of Britain, in many cases still visible long after the trains they served have disappeared. Their stations, wondrous constructions in iron and glass and great cathedrals to modernity, brought a new building type into British culture.

As the railway was, in essence, a British creation, it was readily exported to many parts of the world, as a concept, and in component form. British engineers, British construction teams and British capital built railways throughout the Empire, in the Americas and in many parts of Europe. The famous railway contractor Thomas Brassey built railways in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Russia, India, Argentina and Australia. Imperial railway building projects were often inspired by strategic as well as industrial and commercial motives, but such projects, notably in India and Africa, opened up huge and long lasting markets to British manufacturers.British-made locomotives, rolling stock and railway equipment were exported around the world throughout the Victorian period.

The spread of the railway in Victorian Britain was closely linked to the development of the electric telegraph. The idea of communicating via electricity dates back to the eighteenth century but it was the understanding of electromagnetism from the 1820s that gave the idea a practical reality. In 1837 Cooke and Wheatstone developed the electric telegraph which used an electric current to move magnetic needles and thus transmit messages in code. The first operational telegraph system linked Euston station and Camden town, and from there it spread all over the railway network, used both to carry messages and to control signalling. The technology of the telegraph rapidly expanded, making possible mass communication on both national and global scales. With instruments in every post office, the telegraph, and its visible offspring, the telegram, personal communication on a scale hitherto inconceivable became commonplace. A telegraph cable was laid across the Channel in 1851, followed by others across the Irish and North Seas.

In 1866 Brunel's huge ship, the Great Eastern, laid a durable telegraph cable across the Atlantic. The global network spread rapidly, with many countries establishing their own systems. Colonial, military and commercial implications were quickly appreciated. By 1878 Britain had constructed two overland and one maritime telegraph links to India, part of a network that by the end of the century had reached almost every corner of the world. Related to the telegraph, but far more practical on a personal level, was the telephone, developed by the Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. By 1887 there were 26,000 telephones in use in Britain (and 150,000 in the United States) and multiple switchboards had been installed in most major towns and cities.

With the development by Marconi of practical radio transmissions at the very end of the nineteenth century, the foundations for the global communications systems of the twenty first century were in place in Victorian Britain.

In Britain, the attitudes and achievements of the Victorians are still part of many aspects of modern life today. These legacies are probably most tangible in the fields of communication. The Victorians not only built a British railway network which was more than twice as large as today's network but often operated with greater effiency. Urban transport systems such as buses and underground railways were also created by the Victorians. With those systems came the habit of commuting, one of the most durable and least appealing of nineteenth century legacies. The post service, the electric telegraph which was the forerunner of today's internet and the phone paved the way for the making of a world which relies heavily on complex structures of domestic and worldwide communications.

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The designer of the Great Western was the brilliant young engineer of the Great Western Railway, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who had persuaded his directors that a transatlantic shipping line was the natural way to expand the services offered by their railway. Brunel's response to the challenge posed by his rivals was to design a bigger and better ship.

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British Library: Rise of Victorian Technology

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British Library: Rise of Victorian Technology

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During Queen Victoria’s reign big changes took place in the way people spent their leisure time. Blood sports like bear baiting and cockfighting were banned. With the growth of the railways, people began to travel more and visiting the seaside became a popular pastime. But the railways also allowed…

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Date:

1820 - 1914

...(Show more)

Victorian era, in British history, the period between approximately 1820 and 1914, corresponding roughly but not exactly to the period of Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) and characterized by a class-based society, a growing number of people able to vote, a growing state and economy, and Britain's status as the most powerful empire in the world.

During the Victorian period, Britain was a powerful nation with a rich culture. It had a stable government, a growing state, and an expanding franchise. It also controlled a large empire, and it was wealthy, in part because of its degree of industrialization and its imperial holdings and in spite of the fact that three-fourths or more of its population was working-class. Late in the period, Britain began to decline as a global political and economic power relative to other major powers, particularly the United States, but this decline was not acutely noticeable until after World War II.

The Victorian stereotype and double standard

Today "Victorian" connotes a prudish refusal to admit the existence of sex, hypocritically combined with constant discussions of sex, thinly veiled as a series of warnings. There is some truth to both sides of this stereotype. Some few educated Victorians did write a lot about sex, including pornography, medical treatises, and psychological studies. Most others never talked about sex; respectable middle-class women in particular were proud of how little they knew about their own bodies and childbirth. In addition, Victorians lived with a sexual double standard that few ever questioned before the end of the period. According to that double standard, men wanted and needed sex, and women were free of sexual desire and submitted to sex only to please their husbands. These standards did not mesh with the reality of a society that featured prostitution, venereal disease, women with sexual desires, and men and women who felt same-sex desire, but they were important nonetheless.

Gender and class in Victorian society

Victorian society was organized hierarchically. While race, religion, region, and occupation were all meaningful aspects of identity and status, the main organizing principles of Victorian society were gender and class. As is suggested by the sexual double standard, gender was considered to be biologically based and to be determinative of almost every aspect of an individual's potential and character. Victorian gender ideology was premised on the "doctrine of separate spheres." This stated that men and women were different and meant for different things. Men were physically strong, while women were weak. For men sex was central, and for women reproduction was central. Men were independent, while women were dependent. Men belonged in the public sphere, while women belonged in the private sphere. Men were meant to participate in politics and in paid work, while women were meant to run households and raise families. Women were also thought to be naturally more religious and morally finer than men (who were distracted by sexual passions by which women supposedly were untroubled). While most working-class families could not live out the doctrine of separate spheres, because they could not survive on a single male wage, the ideology was influential across all classes.

Class was both economic and cultural and encompassed income, occupation, education, family structure, sexual behaviour, politics, and leisure activities. The working class, about 70 to 80 percent of the population, got its income from wages, with family incomes usually under £100 per annum. Many middle-class observers thought that working-class people imitated middle-class people as much as they could, but they were mistaken; working-class cultures (which varied by locality and other factors) were strong, specific, and premised on their own values. The middle class, which got its income (of £100 to £1,000 per annum) from salaries and profit, grew rapidly during the 19th century, from 15 to over 25 percent of the population. During the 19th century, members of the middle class were the moral leaders of society (they also achieved some political power). The very small and very wealthy upper class got its income (of £1,000 per annum or often much more) from property, rent, and interest. The upper class had titles, wealth, land, or all three; owned most of the land in Britain; and controlled local, national, and imperial politics.

Most Victorian Britons were Christian. The Anglican churches of England, Wales, and Ireland were the state churches (of which the monarch was the nominal head) and dominated the religious landscape (even though the majority of Welsh and Irish people were members of other churches). The Church of Scotland was Presbyterian. There was some religious diversity, as Britain also was home to other non-Anglican Protestants (notably Methodists), Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and others (at the end of the period there were even a few atheists).

Alongside their faith, Victorians made and appreciated developments in science. The best-known Victorian scientific development is that of the theory of evolution. It is typically credited to Charles Darwin, but versions of it were developed by earlier thinkers as well, and the pseudoscience of eugenics was an ugly outgrowth of Victorian evolutionary theory. Victorians were also fascinated by the emerging discipline of psychology and by the physics of energy.

Government and politics in the Victorian era

The formal political system was a constitutional monarchy. It was in practice dominated by aristocratic men. The British constitution was (and is) unwritten and consists of a combination of written laws and unwritten conventions. At the national level, government consisted of the monarch and the two houses of Parliament, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The monarchs during this period were Queen Victoria (1837-1901), preceded by King George IV (1820-30) and King William IV (1830-37) and followed by King Edward VII (1901-10) and King George V (1910-36). During the Victorian period, the House of Commons became the centre of government, the House of Lords lost power (though it remained influential until the Parliament Act of 1911), and the monarchy transformed into a symbol of the nation. The House of Commons consisted of about 600 men called members of Parliament (MPs), who were elected to represent the counties and boroughs of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. England had many more representatives than the other three nations, by virtue of its status as first among these four equals, the product of tradition as well as its greater political power and wealth. The upper house, the House of Lords, was populated principally by several hundred noblemen who had life tenures. Members of both houses were wealthy men. Formal national politics was dominated by two major parties, the Liberal Party and the Conservative (or Tory) Party.

At the start of the period, MPs were elected by the half-million property-owning men (in a population of 21 million) who had the vote. In 1829 the vote was granted to Catholic men and in 1832, to most middle-class men; in 1867 and 1884 the franchise was extended to working-class men. Most women over age 30 got the right to vote in 1918. Full adult suffrage, with no property requirement, was achieved with the second Representation of the People Act (1928). This story of the expansion of the national electorate is important, but there is more to political participation than voting at the national level. Local politics were also important. And being denied a voice and access to institutions certainly did not render nonvoters indifferent to politics or to how power was wielded; they made their opinions on these known via demonstrations, petitions, and pamphlets.

Important political events during this period included the abolition of slavery in the British Empire; the expansions of the franchise; working-class political activism, most notably Chartism; the rise of liberalism as the dominant political ideology, especially of the middle class; and the nationalization of Conservative and Liberal parties (and the emergence of the British Labour Party in 1906). The growth of the state and state intervention were seen in major acts that limited hours for factory workers and miners, in public health acts, and in the provision of elementary education by the state. Political conflicts between Ireland and Britain and the rise of Irish nationalism were also hallmarks of the era, as were women's rights activism, which resulted in the Married Women's Property Acts, the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, and the growth of education and employment options for women.

The Victorian British Empire

The Victorian British Empire dominated the globe, though its forms of rule and influence were uneven and diverse. The traffic of people and goods between Britain and its colonies was constant, complex, and multidirectional. Britain shaped the empire, the empire shaped Britain, and colonies shaped one another. British jobs abroad included civil and military service, missionary work, and infrastructure development. People from various imperial locations traveled to, studied in, and settled in Britain. Money, too, flowed both ways-the empire was a source of profit, and emigrants sent money home to Britain-as did goods such as jute, calico cotton cloth, and tea.

Dramatic expansion of the empire meant that such goods came to Britain from all over the world. Between 1820 and 1870 the empire grew, shifted its orientation eastward, and increased the number of nonwhite people over whom it exerted control. Much of this expansion involved violence, including the Indian Mutiny (1857-59), the Morant Bay Rebellion (1865) in Jamaica, the Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-60) in China, and the Taranaki War (1860-61) in New Zealand. India became central to imperial status and wealth. There was significant migration to the settler colonies of Australia and New Zealand and later to Canada and South Africa. From 1870 until 1914 continued aggressive expansion (including Britain's participation in the so-called Scramble for Africa) was assisted by new technologies, including railways and telegraphy. Britain took control of large parts of Africa (including Egypt, Sudan, and Kenya), which together were home to about 30 percent of the African population. The same period also saw the start of anticolonial movements that demanded freedom from British domination in India and elsewhere. These would ultimately lead to decolonization after World War II.

The Victorian British economy

Britain's status as a world political power was bolstered by a strong economy, which grew rapidly between 1820 and 1873. This half-century of growth was followed by an economic depression and from 1896 until 1914 by a modest recovery. With the earliest phases of industrialization over by about 1840, the British economy expanded. Britain became the richest country in the world, but many people worked long hours in harsh conditions. Yet, overall, standards of living were rising. While the 1840s were a bad time for workers and the poor-they were dubbed "the hungry forties"-overall the trend was toward a less precarious life. Most families not only had a home and enough to eat but also had something leftover for alcohol, tobacco, and even vacations to the countryside or the seaside. Of course, some decades were times of plenty, others of want. Relative prosperity meant that Britain was a nation not only of shopkeepers but of shoppers (with the rise of the department store from mid-century transforming the shopping experience). Increased wealth, including higher real wages from the 1870s, meant that even working-class people could purchase discretionary items. Mass production meant that clothes, souvenirs, newspapers, and more were affordable to almost everyone.

Victorian culture and art

More access made British cultural products more important. Not only did they reveal much about the society from which they emerged, but during the Victorian period Britain was the cultural capital of the English-speaking world (including the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). Victorian performance and print culture were rich and varied, a blend of melodrama, spectacle, and morality.

Theatre thrived. Melodrama-which featured evil villains, virtuous heroines, and intricate plots-was the most important and most popular genre early on; later, sensation drama became popular. Even more popular were music halls, which featured varied programs of singing, dancing, sketches, and more; these emerged in the 1850s, and by the 1870s there were hundreds across Britain, some seating thousands of people. Music halls attracted people of all classes.

Print culture was also large and diverse, aided by relatively high literacy rates. There were hundreds of magazines and newspapers available at ever cheaper prices. The 1880s saw the emergence of "the New Journalism," which drew in readers with pieces on violent crimes and scandals in high society. Novels were another key feature of Victorian print culture. By mid-century, Britons of all classes could afford and read novels. Some were aimed at highly educated and well-off people, others at less-educated readers looking for appealing and exciting stories. Penny dreadfuls and sensation novels, seen at their best in the work of Wilkie Collins, thrilled their readers. Victorian novels were often quite long, with complicated plots (often centred on marriages) and many characters. Many, especially those by Charles Dickens, are still read today.
Susie Steinbach

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Victorian era | History, Society, & Culture

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Victorian era, the period between about 1820 and 1914, corresponding roughly to the period of Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) and characterized by a class-based society, a growing number of people able to vote, a growing state and economy, and Britain's status as the most powerful empire in the world.

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Museum of the Home: Drawing Room in 1830

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Museum of the Home: Drawing Room in 1830

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By the 1830s this room was a female domain, used primarily by the women of the house for activities deemed appropriate, like reading or painting. There was also a growing interest in interior design, with a number of influential publications giving advice.

What's happening

It is mid-afternoon and a mother and her daughters are gathered in the drawing room.

The mother is relaxing on the sofa, reading her monthly magazine and catching up on the latest fashions.

At the central table, her eldest daughter is practising her watercolours, while the younger daughter is writing a letter to her cousin who lives on the other side of London.

She has set up the chessmen on the games table at the back of the room, ready to challenge her brother to a game of chess when he comes home from school.

Objects to look out for

Sofa, about 1820

Sofas became common in homes in the early 1800s.

They were much more comfortable than previous types of seating and show how the main living space was becoming more informal and relaxed.

Needlework and games table, about 1815

This small table is very versatile. As well as a reversible backgammon and chess board, it has a removable book rest for reading.

The silk bag you can see underneath was used to store embroidery and needlework.

Centre table, about 1830

Large circular tables like this could be used for many different kinds of activities. Families used them for reading, writing, eating light meals and playing parlour games.

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Drawing room | Female domain | 1830s | Museum of the Home

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By the 1830s this room was a female domain, used primarily by the women of the house for activities deemed appropriate, like reading or painting. There was also a growing interest in interior design, with a number of influential publications giving advice. It is mid-afternoon and a mother and her daughters are gathered in the drawing room.

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Robert Louis Stevenson | The most comprehensive web resource dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson

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The most comprehensive web resource dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson, designed for all: academics, school children and everybody interested in learning about RLS.

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The fashion of the 19th century is renowned for its corsets, bonnets, top hats, bustles and petticoats. Women's fashion during the Victorian period was largely dominated by full skirts, which gradually moved to the back of the silhouette. However, towards the end of the period, the less restrictive Aesthetic style began to emerge.

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The fashion of the 19th century is renowned for its corsets, bonnets, top hats, bustles and petticoats. Women's fashion during the Victorian period was largely dominated by full skirts, which gradually moved to the back of the silhouette. However, towards the end of the period, the less restrictive Aesthetic style began to emerge.

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The Victorians, fashions and clothing in the 19th and 20th centuries

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Victorian Era Women's Fashion. Dresses, Clothing and Gowns

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The women's costumes underwent radical changes in the Victorian era. The dresses worn by women in the early Victorian period showed resemblance to those worn by women in the Georgian age. Etiquette was an important factor in the case of Victorian clothing. The dresses worn by women covered their entire body.

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Victoria, (born May 24, 1819, Kensington Palace, London, England-died January 22, 1901, Osborne, near Cowes, Isle of Wight), queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901) and empress of India (1876-1901). She was the last of the house of Hanover and gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age. During her reign the British monarchy took on its modern ceremonial character. She and her husband, Prince Consort Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had nine children, through whose marriages were descended many of the royal families of Europe.

Victoria first learned of her future role as a young princess during a history lesson when she was 10 years old. Almost four decades later Victoria's governess recalled that the future queen reacted to the discovery by declaring, "I will be good." This combination of earnestness and egotism marked Victoria as a child of the age that bears her name. The queen, however, rejected important Victorian values and developments. Although she hated pregnancy and childbirth, detested babies, and was uncomfortable in the presence of children, Victoria reigned in a society that idealized both motherhood and the family. She had no interest in social issues, yet the 19th century in Britain was an age of reform. She resisted technological change even while mechanical and technological innovations reshaped the face of European civilization.

Most significantly, Victoria was a queen determined to retain political power, yet unwillingly and unwittingly she presided over the transformation of the sovereign's political role into a ceremonial one and thus preserved the British monarchy. When Victoria became queen, the political role of the crown was by no means clear; nor was the permanence of the throne itself. When she died and her son Edward VII moved from Marlborough House to Buckingham Palace, the change was one of social rather than of political focus; there was no doubt about the monarchy's continuance. That was the measure of her reign.

Lineage and early life

On the death in 1817 of Princess Charlotte, daughter of the prince regent (later George IV), there was no surviving legitimate offspring of George III's 15 children. In 1818, therefore, three of his sons, the dukes of Clarence, Kent, and Cambridge, married to provide for the succession. The winner in the race to father the next ruler of Britain was Edward, duke of Kent, fourth son of George III. His only child was christened Alexandrina Victoria. After his death and George IV's accession in 1820, Victoria became third in the line of succession to the throne after the duke of York (died 1827) and the duke of Clarence (subsequently William IV), whose own children died in infancy.

Victoria, by her own account, "was brought up very simply," principally at Kensington Palace, where her closest companions, other than her German-born mother, the duchess of Kent, were her half sister, Féodore, and her governess, Louise (afterward the Baroness) Lehzen, a native of Coburg. An important father figure to the orphaned princess was her uncle Leopold, her mother's brother, who lived at Claremont, near Esher, Surrey, until he became king of the Belgians in 1831.

Victoria's childhood was made increasingly unhappy by the machinations of the duchess of Kent's advisor, Sir John Conroy. In control of the pliable duchess, Conroy hoped to dominate the future queen of Britain as well. Persuaded by Conroy that the royal dukes, "the wicked uncles," posed a threat to her daughter, the duchess reared Victoria according to "the Kensington system," by which she and Conroy systematically isolated Victoria from her contemporaries and her father's family. Conroy thus aimed to make the princess dependent on and easily led by himself.

Strong-willed, and supported by Lehzen, Victoria survived the Kensington system; when she ascended the throne in 1837, she did so alone. Her mother's actions had estranged her from Victoria and taught the future queen caution in her friendships. Moreover, her retentive memory did not allow her to forgive readily.

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Victoria | Biography, Family Tree, Children, Successor, & Facts

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Victoria, the iconic Empress of India and Queen of the United Kingdom, presided over an era marked by industrial progress and colonial expansion, leaving a lasting legacy as one of Britain's longest-reigning monarchs.

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Who Was Queen Victoria?

Queen Victoria served as monarch of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901. She became Empress of India in 1877. After Queen Elizabeth II, Victoria is the second-longest reigning British monarch.

Victoria's reign saw great cultural expansion; advances in industry, science and communications; and the building of railways and the London Underground.

Early Life

Born Alexandrina Victoria on May 24, 1819, Queen Victoria's father died when she was 8 months old. Her mother became a domineering influence in her life. As a child, she was said to be warm-hearted and lively.

Educated at the Royal Palace by a governess, she had a gift for drawing and painting and developed a passion for journal writing.

Despite a feisty temperament, Victoria was famously tiny in stature, measuring just 4 feet 11 inches tall. Later in life, her weight ballooned, with her waist reportedly measuring 50 inches.

Parents and Half-Sister

Queen Victoria was the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, who was King George III's fourth son. Her mother was Victoria Saxe-Saalfield-Coburg, sister of Leopold, king of the Belgians.

Queen Victoria also had a half-sister who was 12 years her senior, Princess Feodora, from her mother's first marriage to Emich Carl, Prince of Leiningen. When Princess Feodora was 6 years old, her father died. Her mother remarried Queen Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent, and promptly moved from Germany to England for the future queen's birth.

Ascension to the Throne

At birth, Victoria was fifth in line to the throne. However, upon her father's death in 1820, Victoria became the heir apparent, since her three surviving uncles - who were ahead of her in succession - had no legitimate heirs who survived childhood. When King William IV died in June 1837, Victoria became queen at the age of 18.

Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria's First Prime Minister

Lord Melbourne was Victoria's first prime minister, who served in 1834 and again from 1835 to 1841. When she first took the crown at the young age of 18 in 1837, Melbourne helped teach Victoria the intricacies of being a constitutional monarch. He acted as the queen's political advisor and confidant during the early years of her reign.

In 1840, when Great Britain was fighting wars with Afghanistan and China and facing a working-class movement, Melbourne helped the queen work with an uncooperative Conservative government and suggested she let her husband, Albert, take the reigns of state responsibilities.

Reign

Victoria ascended to the throne at age 18 on June 20, 1837, and she served until her death at the age of 81 on January 22, 1901. Under Victoria's reign, Great Britain experienced unprecedented expansion in industry, building railways, bridges, underground sewers and power distribution networks throughout much of the empire. Seven assassination attempts were made on Victoria's life between 1840 and 1882.

There were advances in science ( Charles Darwin's theory of evolution) and technology (the telegraph and popular press), with vast numbers of inventions; tremendous wealth and poverty; growth of great cities like Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham; increased literacy; and great civic works, often funded by industrial philanthropists.

During Victoria's reign, Britain expanded its imperial reach, doubling in size and encompassing Canada, Australia, India and various possessions in Africa and the South Pacific. The Queen was emblematic of the time: an enthusiastic supporter of the British Empire, which stretched across the globe and earned the adage: "The sun never sets on the British Empire."

At various points in her reign, Victoria exercised some influence over foreign affairs, expressing her preference, but not pressing beyond the bounds of constitutional propriety. During this time, the British Empire experienced only a few small wars, exerting its authority over foreign possessions.

One of the major factors that helped Britain avoid European entanglements was the marriage of Victoria's children: either directly or by marriage, she was related to the royal houses of nearly every major European power. Though the English constitutional arrangement denied her powers in foreign affairs, she ruled her family with an iron hand that helped keep Great Britain away from the intrigues of European politics.

During Victoria's reign, the political climate in British Parliament went through a major transition. The Tory Party split, forming the Liberal and Conservative parties, and started a succession of opposing administrations. Victoria played a crucial role as a mediator between arriving and departing prime ministers.

Though she detested Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone, she found ways to work with him, even during her mourning period. She was particularly fond of Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who linked the monarchy to the expansion of the empire, which helped restore public opinion following Victoria's long seclusion after the death of her beloved husband Albert.

Victoria continued in her duties up to her death. In keeping with tradition, she spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, where her health quickly declined to the point that she was unable to return to London.

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The Victorian Era

Life in Britain during the 19th century was known as Victorian England because of Victoria's long reign and the indelible stamp it and her persona placed on the country. Her strict ethics and personality have become synonymous with the era.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

In 1840, Victoria married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the son of her mother's brother. The couple met when Victoria was just 16; their uncle Leopold suggested they marry.

Since Victoria was queen, Albert couldn't propose to her. So she proposed to him on October 15, 1839.

At first, the British public didn't warm up to the German prince and he was excluded from holding any official political position. At times, their marriage was tempestuous, a clash of wills between two extremely strong personalities.

However, the couple was intensely devoted to each other. Prince Albert became Victoria's strongest ally, helping her navigate difficult political waters.

After several years of suffering from stomach ailments, Victoria's beloved Albert died of typhoid fever in 1861 at the age of 42. Victoria was devastated, sleeping with a plaster cast of his hand by her side, and went into a 25-year seclusion. For the rest of her reign, she wore black.

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Queen Victoria's Children

Victoria and Albert had nine children together:

Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise (1840-1901), who married the future emperor of Germany Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia in 1858. On his death three months after taking the throne, their eldest son became Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

Prince Albert Edward Wettin (1841-1910), who succeeded his mother to the crown as King Edward VII in 1901.

Princess Alice Maude Mary (1843-1878), whose daughter Alix married Nicholas II, the last Russian tzar.

Prince Alfred Ernest Albert (1844-1900), who married the daughter of Tzar Alexander II of Russia. His oldest daughter, Marie, wed the crown Prince of Romania.

Princess Helena Augusta Victoria (1846-1923)

Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (1848-1939) created quite a scandal when she married a commoner, John Douglas Sutherland Campbell (later the Duke of Argyll).

Prince Arthur William Patrick (1850-1942), who married Princess Louise Margarete of Prussia.

Prince Leopold George Duncan (1853-1884)

Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria (1857-1944)

Relationship with John Brown

John Brown was Victoria's Scottish servant and one of her closest friends, with some suggestions that the two may have been lovers. Seven years her junior and many ranks below her, the queen said Brown was her dearest friend - an unthinkable relationship at the time. He became known as "the queen's stallion" in the royal household and pledged his lifelong loyalty to her.

There were rumors that Brown and Victoria were lovers, especially after the death of Albert. Historians have since parsed through her journals - which were edited by her daughter Beatrice - and never found evidence of an affair. But one thing is clear: She loved him. When Brown died suddenly in March 1883, Victoria told his sister-in-law that he was the "best, the truest heart that ever beat."

Relationship with Abdul Karim

Following Brown's death in 1883, Victoria's servant Abdul Karim ascended into the queen's inner circle and became her closest confidant. Karim was the son of a hospital assistant in Northern India and was brought to England to serve at the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 1887. He quickly impressed the queen with his cooking, and she asked him to teach her Urdu. Victoria lavished Karim with gifts including a private carriage, titles and honors. She also commissioned several portraits.

In letters to Karim, the queen referred to herself as "your loving mother" and "your closest friend." However, historians do not believe that the two had a physical relationship.

Abdul's great-grandson Javed Mahmood told The Telegraph in 2010 that they shared "a mother and son relationship. She became an Indophile in part because of her affection for him. But the prejudice of her family percolated down to Victoria's staff."

Victoria and Karim's close relationship was scandalous to the royal family. Upon the queen's death in 1901, they had all of the pair's letters burned, and Victoria's daughter Beatrice removed all references of Karim from the queen's journals. Although the family followed through with the queen's wish for Karim to be among a small group of mourners at her funeral, they later evicted Karim from the home Victoria gave to him and sent him back to India.

Karim's relationship with Victoria was uncovered decades later by journalist Shrabani Basu, who visited the queen's summer home in 2003 and noticed several paintings and a bust of Karim. Basu investigated their relationship and wrote a book, Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant.

Death and Successor

Victoria died after a lengthy period of poor health on January 22, 1901, at the age of 81. Her son, the future King Edward VII, and her eldest grandson, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, were both at her bedside.

Prince Albert Edward Wettin, Victoria's eldest son, succeeded her to the British throne as King Edward VII upon her death in 1901.

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Queen Victoria served as monarch of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901. She became Empress of India in 1877. After Queen Elizabeth II, Victoria is the second-longest reigning British monarch. Victoria's reign saw great cultural expansion; advances in industry, science and communications; and the building of railways and the London Underground.