A poor Victorian family would have lived in a very small house with only a couple of rooms on each floor. The very poorest families had to make do with even less – some houses were home to two, three or even four families. The houses would share toilets and water, which they could get from a pump or a well.
What was life like for poor Victorian London?
Poor people – even children – had to work hard in factories, mines or workhouses. They didn’t get paid very much money. By the end of the Victorian era, all children could go to school for free. Victorian schools were very strict – your teacher might even beat you if you didn’t obey the rules.
How were the poor treated in Victorian times?
The new Poor Law ensured that the poor were housed in workhouses, clothed and fed. Children who entered the workhouse would receive some schooling. In return for this care, all workhouse paupers would have to work for several hours each day. However, not all Victorians shared this point of view.
What was it like to be poor in London in the 1800s?
The Victorian period was a miserable time to be poor. Assistance was only awarded to people who could earn a living, however meagre that living might be. Those who would not or could not work were treated as an ‘underclass’ whose impoverished state was akin to a criminal offence.
What did poor Victorians have?
A typical poor family living in a town would have had about 12 shillings to spend on food each week. A loaf of bread cost about 3 d (pennies). Most of the week’s money was spent on bread leaving little for other necessities. The weekly shop could also include milk, cheese and potatoes.
Why was life unfair for poor people in Victorian society?
Large numbers of both skilled and unskilled people were looking for work, so wages were low, barely above subsistence level. If work dried up, or was seasonal, men were laid off, and because they had hardly enough to live on when they were in work, they had no savings to fall back on.
How much did poor Victorians get paid?
The average wage in the 1850s was about 15 shillings (75p) a week. Many children got just 5 shillings (25p) a week, or less. While thousands of children worked down the mine, thousands of others worked in the cotton mills.
What did the poor Victorians eat?
For many poor people across Britain, white bread made from bolted wheat flour was the staple component of the diet. When they could afford it, people would supplement this with vegetables, fruit and animal-derived foods such as meat, fish, milk, cheese and eggs – a Mediterranean-style diet.
Where did poor people live in Victorian London?
Earning a mention in George Sims’s book How The Poor Live and Horrible London, Bethnal Green was the poorest area of London in Victorian times and a known rookery. Old Nichol Street, where the lowest class housing consisted of tenements with walls running with damp, was particularly squalid.
What was life like for poor Victorian child?
Life for Victorian children was very different from our lives today. Children in rich households had toys to play with and did not have to work, but children in poor households often had to work long hours in difficult, dangerous jobs. They didn’t have toys to play with but sometimes made their own.
Did poor people have comfortable lives during the Victorian period?
Poor Victorians had a rough and hard life, often ending up in the workhouse or early death.
What did Victorians smell like?
By the middle of the Victorian era, bergamot and lemon oil had surpassed Eau de Cologne to become the most popular fragrance for women. According to Goodman: “Bergamot and lemon oil, sometimes employed separately but more often used in combination, was the signature smell of the middle years of the century.
How did poor people live?
They lived mainly on bread, butter, potatoes, and tea. During the 18th century, the Poor Law continued to operate. In the 17th century, there were some workhouses where the poor were housed but where they were made to work. They became much more common in the 18th century.
What did the poor Victorians eat for breakfast?
A typical breakfast might consist of stoneground bread smeared with dripping or lard (consisting largely of healthy monounsaturated fats), accompanied by a large bunch of watercress, rich in vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.
How were girls treated in the Victorian era?
They were viewed as only supposed to be housewives and mothers to their children. The women during this era were only viewed as people that should only concern themselves with keeping a successful household. However, during this time women were forced into working positions outside of the household.
What do you think most poor Victorians did with their human waste?
These poor people could only dispose of all faeces, urine, and dirty water into their own small cesspool or the communal one. Although the ban on connecting house drains to the Roman sewers had been lifted in 1815, many slum landlords refused to connect their houses because of the amount of money it cost.
What time did Victorian children go to bed?
In the Victorian era the public would typically fall asleep at 7pm when the sun disappeared, however this dramatically moved to 10pm in the Edwardian era, finally settling at 12pm in the modern age. Although our bedtime has become later throughout the years, we’ve continued to wake up around a similar time.
How were children treated in workhouses?
The conditions were harsh and treatment was cruel with families divided, forcing children to be separated from their parents. Once an individual had entered the workhouse they would be given a uniform to be worn for the entirety of their stay.
Did servants ever get a day off?
By the 1880s, servants were given a half-day off on Sundays, starting after lunch (and only if all their chores for that morning had been completed), and they were usually given one day off each month, starting after breakfast, and again, their chores all had to be finished first.
What meat did poor Victorians eat?
Popular Foods:
These were: Beef, mutton, pork, bacon, cheese, eggs, bread, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, milk, vegetables in season, flour, sugar, treacle, jam and tea. These foods would form a stable of most diets and would be a basis for most meals.
What was a typical Victorian breakfast?
The Victorian breakfast was usually a heavy meal: sausages, preserves, bacon and eggs, served with bread rolls. The custom of afternoon tea served before dinner, with milk and sugar, became well-established in Britain in the early 19th century.