In the second half of the nineteenth century, London slums attracted the attention of journalists and social researchers, who described them as areas of extreme poverty, degradation, crime and violence, and called for an immediate public action to improve the living and sanitary conditions of the working classes.
What were the London slums like?
During Queen Victoria’s reign numerous slums lurked behind the capital’s busy thoroughfares: Vicious and overcrowded hovels were sandwiched in between the Mile End Road and Commercial Road in Stepney, wretched rookeries lay behind Drury Lane and filthy tenements lined the west side of Borough High Street.
What were the slums of London called?
A rookery is a colloquial English term given in the 18th and 19th centuries to a city slum occupied by poor people and frequently also by criminals and prostitutes. Such areas were overcrowded, with low-quality housing and little or no sanitation.
What happened to the London slums?
During 1964–1969, 385,270 houses in England were demolished or condemned during slum-clearance schemes. Slum clearance accelerated during the 1960s: 10,000 more slum houses were demolished during 1968 than in 1963.
When was London a slum?
It was only in the late 19th century, when the living conditions of the poorest in society could be denied no longer, that the slums of Victorian London began to be acknowledged, talked about and depicted in newspapers like the Illustrated London News.
How would you describe Victorian slums?
It was reported that the main features of slum life were ‘squalor, drunkenness, improvidence, lawlessness, immorality and crime‘. Such stories made readers feel as though part of their city was like the Wild West.
What was life like in Victorian slums?
They became notorious for overcrowding, unsanitary and squalid living conditions. Most well-off Victorians were ignorant or pretended to be ignorant of the subhuman slum life, and many, who heard about it, believed that the slums were the outcome of laziness, sin and vice of the lower classes.
Where did the poor live in Victorian London?
Slum housing
Large houses were turned into flats and tenements and the landlords who owned them, were not concerned about the upkeep or the condition of these dwellings.
Why are they called slums?
A slum household, as defined by the United Nations, is a group of individuals living under the same roof and lacking one or more of the following conditions: access to improved water, access to improved sanitation, sufficient living area, structural quality and durability of housing and security of tenure (UN-Habitat,
What is the poorest section of London?
The East End has always contained some of London’s poorest areas. The main reasons for this include: The medieval system of copyhold, which prevailed throughout the Manor of Stepney into the 19th century. There was little point in developing land that was held on short leases.
Which city is called the Kingdom of slums?
Dharavi is a locality in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, considered to be one of the world’s largest slums. Dharavi has an area of just over 2.1 square kilometres (0.81 sq mi; 520 acres) and a population of about 1,000,000.
What was it like living in Victorian London?
London’s population grew rapidly during the 19th century. This lead to major problems with overcrowding and poverty. Disease and early death were common for both rich and poor people. Victorian children did not have as many toys and clothes as children do today and many of them were homemade.
How many people lived in Victorian slums?
Slum clearance
By 1914, however, it was believed that between two and three million people still lived in slum housing.
Why was Victorian London so poor?
During the Victorian era, the rates of people living in poverty increased drastically. This is due to many factors, including low wages, the growth of cities (and general population growth), and lack of stable employment.
What are the the 5 characteristics of a slum?
According to these experts, a slum is an area that combines to various extents the following characteristics: • Inadequate access to safe water; • Inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure; • Poor structural quality of housing; • Overcrowding; and • Insecure residential status.
What is a house in a slum called?
A type of slum housing, sometimes called poorhouses, crowded the Boston Commons, later at the fringes of the city.
What was poor housing like in Victorian England?
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.
How did Victorians treat the poor?
Poor Victorians would put children to work at an early age, or even turn them out onto the streets to fend for themselves. In 1848 an estimated 30,000 homeless, filthy children lived on the streets of London.
How was 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 diseases were in the Victorian slums?
Are Victorian diseases making a comeback?
- Typhoid. Typhoid during the Victorian era was incredibly common and remains so in parts of the world where there is poor sanitation and limited access to clean water.
- Scarlet fever.
- Tuberculosis.
- Cholera.
- Whooping cough.
- So, are ‘Dickensian diseases’ making a comeback?
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.