Updated - March, 2008
The
Victorian city of London was a city of startling contrasts. New building and
affluent development went hand in hand with horribly overcrowded slums where
people lived in the worst conditions imaginable. The population surged
during the 19th century, from about 1 million in 1800 to over 6 million a
century later. This growth far exceeded London's ability to look after the
basic needs of its citizens.
A
combination of coal-fired stoves and poor sanitation made the air heavy and
foul-smelling. Immense amounts of raw sewage was dumped straight into the
Thames River. Even royals were not immune from the stench of London - when
Queen
Victoria occupied Buckingham Palace her apartments were ventilated
through the common sewers, a fact that was not disclosed until some 40 years
later.
Upon this scene entered an unlikely hero, an engineer named Joseph Bazalgette. Bazalgette was responsible for the building of over 2100 km of tunnels and pipes to divert sewage outside the city. This made a drastic impact on the death rate, and outbreaks of cholera dropped dramatically after Bazlgette's work was finished. For an encore, Bazalgette was also responsible for the design of the Embankment, and the Battersea, Hammersmith, and Albert Bridges.
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Queen Victoria Statue Old London Tram (Taken about 1905)
Before
the engineering triumphs of Bazalgette came the architectural triumphs of
George IV's favourite designer, John Nash. Nash designed the broad avenues
of Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Carlton House Terrace, and Oxford
Circus, as well as the ongoing creation of Buckingham transformation of
Buckingham House into a palace worthy of a monarch.
In
1829 Sir Robert Peel founded the
Metropolitan Police to handle law and order in areas outside the City
proper. These police became known as "Bobbies" after their
founder.
Just
behind Buckingham Palace the Grosvenor family developed the aristocratic
Belgrave Square. In 1830 land just east of the palace was cleared of the
royal stables to create Trafalgar Square, and the new National Gallery
sprang up there just two years later.
The
early part of the 19th century was the golden age of steam. The
first railway in London was built from London Bridge to Greenwich in
1836, and a great railway boom followed. Major stations were built at Euston
(1837), Paddington (1838), Fenchurch Street (1841), Waterloo (1848), and
King's Cross (1850).
In
1834 the Houses of Parliament at Westminster Palace burned down. They were
gradually replaced by the triumphant mock-Gothic Houses of Parliament
designed by Charles Barry and A.W. Pugin.
The
year 1863 saw the completion of the very first underground railway in
London, from Paddington to Farringdon Road. The project was so successful
that other lines soon followed.
But
the expansion of transport was not limited to dry land. As the hub of the
British Empire, the Thames was clogged with ships from all over the world,
and London had more shipyards than anyplace on the globe.
For all the economic expansion of the Industrial Revolution, living conditions among London's poor were appalling. Children as young as 5 were often set to work begging or sweeping chimneys. Campaigners like Charles Dickens did much to make the plight of the poor in London known to the literate classes with his novels, notably Oliver Twist. In 1870 those efforts bore some fruit with the passage of laws providing compulsory education for children between the ages of 5 and 12.
The Pearly Kings & Queens started in Victorian days and some still reign today in their various London districts. Each individual area of London had a king and his 'donah', (as the wives are called) and both were elaborately turned out
Each outfit can have as many as 30,000 buttons on it and can weigh as much as 30 kilograms or more. These suits are worn at charity events, christenings, weddings and funerals. Where there is a special charity drive the kings and queens ride in splendour on their decorated carts.
It
will be very sad if the tradition of the Pearly King and Queen dies out, as
they are a very colourful part of London's history. Long live the Pearly
Kings and Queens!
The London East End Sweat Shop Tailoring Trade
Tailored garments were made in the East End of London and at Liverpool. The sweat shop system employed poor immigrants and by 1840 the East End of London was thronged with tailors. Because of the low wages they were able to produce trouser, coat and jacket clothing at very low prices.
Many of the East End tailoring trade workers worked at home. For some men and women that meant doing piece work on the sweating system up to 14 hours a day, and even up to 18 hours in the busy season. Home was a combined workshop, bedroom, living room and kitchen.
Those that could afford superior tailoring looked down on those that bought ready made ready ticketed goods. The reason was simply that the clothes were never a good fit and usually looked as if they had belonged to another person. Even so methods of pattern drafting and sizing for a reasonable average fit were improving and these shops were well received by the average person.
In the 18th and 19th centuries second hand clothing markets existed in every major city of Britain. In London's Petticoat Lane and Rosemary Lane, the best sellers were frock coats and great coats. The market held at Camp Field in Manchester in Northern England sold threadbare garments bought by the very poor and needy.
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Petticoat Lane End of the 1800's Petticoat Lane - Today
As the world's greatest manufacturing
center, as its greatest port and financial center, London was at the
pinnacle of its importance in the decades of the first half of the
nineteenth century. What drew immigrants to London was the possibility of
employment, and what they found was a world of work more specialized and
diverse than anywhere else in the world. In 1841 there were 168,701 domestic
servants and 13,103 private messengers and errand boys. There were furniture
makers and manufacturers, food processors and traders. In the West End,
luxury trades and the wealthy predominated, while in the East, the
manufacturers and warehousemen set up shop. In between, in the City within
the walls trading and warehousing was gradually paralleled by more and more
financial services. And while the population of the City remained stagnant,
its function as a clearinghouse of capitalism grew ever more prominent.
Early nineteenth-century London was as much a city of science and art, theatre and literature as it was a commercial and manufacturing center.
Irish Migration
The greatest flow of emigration from Ireland to London occurred in the early to mid-nineteenth century, in response to the agricultural depressions following the Napoleonic Wars and the increasing demand for Irish labour associated with the Industrial Revolution. But by this time Irish communities had been a common part of the London scene for at least two hundred years. Early migration patterns were dominated by seasonal employment at harvest time. This in turn was significantly modified by the workings of the vagrancy and settlement legislation, which ensured that many seasonal workers were forcibly returned to Ireland by parochial and county authorities. As a result of the military adventurism of the eighteenth-century state large numbers of Irish soldiers also found themselves discharged on to the frequently unwelcoming streets of London at the conclusions of Britain's innumerable colonial wars.
The first and largest Irish colony in London could be found in St Giles in the Fields. But by the early nineteenth century Irish migrants could be found living in all parts of the capital with the exception of the City within the walls. Beyond St Giles, recognizable Irish communities could be found in Whitechapel and Saffron Hill, Poplar and Southwark, and perhaps most notoriously in the Calmel Buildings off Orchard Street in Marylebone.
The living conditions suffered by the inhabitants of these districts were awful. Because of London's high cost of living, several Irish families frequently shared a single room. And when this overcrowding was combined with primitive sewage arrangements, poor ventilation, and few opportunities for washing of either bodies or clothes, the mortality rate among London's Irish population rose to frightening levels.
Many Irish immigrants were also from a rural and agricultural background, which ill-prepared them for life in a large city. Complaints about Irish families keeping pigs, were commonplace.
Search the 1841 England Census
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Don't forget to visit our 'PEARLY QUEENS & KINGS PAGE'
A History of Diseases and Illnesses through the years in the UK
VR London: Look around London using Virtual Reality
The Victoria County History: England's past for everyone
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