Victorian
England
1832-1901
Named after Queen Victoria
When 18 year old
Princess Victoria
became Queen in
1837 no one
dreamed she
would reign for the
rest of the century
for another 64
years.
Victorian Prosperity
• Country becomes Urban (cities)
• Elite enjoy the development of new machinery
and new work methods.
• Poor are the underpaid workforce consisting of
adults and children living in wretched poverty.
• By 1850 half the country's former peasants were
squashed into Britain's cities. The growth of
industry, the building boom, the swift population
spurt and spread of the railway changed the
character of Britain too rapidly for many to
understand.
The Railway – A symbol of
Progress
• The railways moved
goods, foods and people
faster than canals or
horse drawn wagons.
• The greatest factor in
transforming Britain into
an industrial nation.
• Lives of millions were
changed as suddenly the
masses were able to
travel further than ten
miles in one direction.
The Rich Class
• enjoyed entertaining
in their lavishly
decorated homes –
They associated
clutter of
ornamentation and
showy display with
wealth and so
crammed their homes
with furniture, knick
knacks and pianos.
Society and Social Class
• In church the higher
classes sat at the front in
reserved pews and lower
classes at the back.
• The wives of wealthy
industrialists were clothed
in prominent finery as
they were the social
representatives of their
husbands.
• A new social class
emerged: the middle
class. An outward display
of wealth through clothing
and possessions .
Work houses and Poor Law
• The Poor Law
Amendment abolished
systems of poor relief that
had previously existed,
replaced by workhouses.
• The treatment in a
workhouse was little
different from that in a
prison leaving many
inmates feeling that they
were being punished for
the crime of poverty.
The Poor Class
• In a poor family—all
worked—parents and
children. Their were
no child labor laws.
• Very few poor
children were allowed
an education as this
would interfere with
their labor time.
Working Conditions
• Millions of workers lived in slums or in vacated
old decaying upper class houses. The occupants
of slums had no sanitation, no water supply, no
paved streets, no schools, no law or order, no
decent food or clothing.
• Many now had to walk miles to factories to work
beginning at 5.30.a.m—never less than ten. The
brutal degrading conditions were so awful that
drunkenness and opium taking was common as
homelife had so little to offer