{"id":15037,"date":"2022-06-07T15:05:24","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T13:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=209431"},"modified":"2022-06-07T15:21:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T13:21:11","slug":"victorian-daily-life-what-was-it-like-for-ordinary-victorians","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/victorian-daily-life-what-was-it-like-for-ordinary-victorians\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian daily life: what was it like for \u2018ordinary\u2019 Victorians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Charlotte Hodgman\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 07 June 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The Victorian era is widely regarded as a golden age of innovation and industry, when humanity made great leaps in technology and thinking. But what was life like for \u2018ordinary\u2019 Victorians whose daily struggle for survival was far away from the sweeping progress and prosperity?<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty grim\u201d, answers Professor Sarah Richardson. \u201cLife expectancy at birth for the average Victorian was about 42, and more than\u00a0<\/span>25 per cent of children died before their fifth birthday. Disease was rife \u2013 there were four major outbreaks of cholera<\/a> alone between 1832 and 1866. And although, in general, standards of living did improve over the period, a third of the population was still living in poverty at the end of the 19th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, there was some light on the horizon \u2013 universal education came in during the 1870s, there were improvements in health and sanitation, and also the introduction of leisure pursuits such as football<\/a>, libraries, music halls and the like. So it wasn\u2019t all doom and gloom, but life wasn\u2019t a positive story for most Victorian working-class people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love the Victorians?<\/h4>\n

Dont miss this VIRTUAL masterclass \u2013 starting Friday 11 June<\/h6>\n

Everyday life in Victorian Britain with Emma Griffin<\/strong><\/p>\n

This curated three-part virtual lecture series from historian and author Emma Griffin will explore the lives of people in Britain during the Victorian age.<\/p>\n

Find out more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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\""MC_Emma\"<\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section>

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Grim city living<\/h3>\n

Between 1800 and 1850, England\u2019s population doubled, and as factories sprung up across the country, churning out the products of Britain\u2019s imperial expansion, and new technology meant fewer farm workers were needed, thousands flocked from the countryside to the city in search of work. The cost of accommodation rocketed as demand increased, and many families were forced to live side by side in slum housing \u2013 hastily built houses, known as tenements, divided into individual rooms in which entire families would live.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
A son sits by his drunken parents c1880. Squalor was rife in city slum housing. (Photo by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Conditions were terrible: many houses flooded or collapsed, and sanitation was non-existent. Lodging, or \u2018doss\u2019, houses were common, renting out cheap beds for the night. For the homeless, an alternative to sleeping on the streets or entering the workhouse was a \u2018penny sit-up\u2019 where, for the price of a penny, you could sit \u2013 but not lie \u2013 on a bench for the night. Two pence could see you upgraded to a bench with a rope strung up to lean over, while four pennies would pay for a wooden coffin in which to bed down.<\/p>\n