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.
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 were the slums in the Victorian era?
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 was Victorian society like for the poor?
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 were the poor treated in the Victorian era?
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 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.
Where were the worst slums in the UK?
Through the period 1955–1960, of the estimated 416,706 dwellings deemed unfit, only 62,372 had been cleared by 1960. The authority with the highest number of unfit homes was Liverpool with around 88,000, closely followed by Manchester.
What is a Victorian poor house?
The Victorian Workhouse was an institution that was intended to provide work and shelter for poverty stricken people who had no means to support themselves.
Where did poor Victorians live?
Poor people in Victorian times lived in horrible cramped conditions in run-down houses, often with the whole family in one room. Many people during the Victorian years moved into the cities and towns to find work in the factories.
What jobs did poor Victorian girls do?
Children worked on farms, in homes as servants, and in factories. Children provided a variety of skills and would do jobs that were as varied as needing to be small and work as a scavenger in a cotton mill to having to push heavy coal trucks along tunnels in coal mines. There were so many different jobs!
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.
What did poor Victorian children do?
Poor children often had to work instead of going to school. Many worked with their parents at home or in workshops, making matchboxes or sewing. Children could also earn a bit of money as chimney-sweeps, messengers or crossing sweepers like the boy in this picture.
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.
What was the life expectancy of a poor Victorian child?
Around one-third of children, and more than half in some poor neighbourhoods, died before they reached the age of five.
What was life like for a poor child in Victorian times?
The children of the poor were not thought to be a blessing, but often a burden on the family. With no laws to protect children, this meant they had few rights and were badly treated. Seen as simply the property of their parents, many children were abandoned, abused and even bought and sold.
What made slums so difficult to live in?
Limited or no access to basic services: water, toilets, electricity, transportation. Unstable homes: weak structures are often blown away or destroyed during storms and earthquakes. No secure land tenure (i.e. the land rights to live there).
What are the challenges of living in a slum?
These slums come with many issues for people including the lack of planned access to clean water and sanitation systems, poor health, lack of education, unemployment and the prospect of crime.
What problems do people in slums face?
Slum dwellers in India regularly deals with problems such as lack of clean water, constant migration at slums, no sewage or waste disposal facilities, pollution, and unsanitary living conditions. High levels of pollution, lack of basic needs, and room-crowding are some of the basic characteristics of slum housing.
What is the rudest city in the UK?
The UK’s rudest city: London
The research from Jurys Inn to mark the start of British Tourism Week found that the cosmopolitan capital has the unfriendliest customer service, and its residents avoid making conversation in pubs and dodge having to give up their seat on the tube or bus.
What is the most depressed town in UK?
The results further show that Bradford was crowned the most naturally unhappy place in the UK, with the city only getting a predicted 110 hours of sunlight in winter.
What is the most depressing town in the UK?
Least Sunny Cities and Towns in the UK
- Bradford – 110 sunlight hours in winter.
- Barnsley – 110.
- Rochdale – 125.
- Glasgow – 137.
- Paisley – 140.
- Belfast – 141.
- York – 145.
- Gateshead – 146.