VICTORIAN LONDON

How old was Victoria when she became queen? What were

some improvements during this period?

-She had 57 years old when she was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland .From 1 May 1876, she had the additional title of Empress of India. -Much of the prosperity was due to the increasing industrialization, especially in textiles and machinery, as well as to the worldwide network of trade and engineering that produce profits for British merchants and experts from across the globe. There was peace abroad and social peace at home. Opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The

Chartist movement, peaked as a democratic movement among the working class in 1848; its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions and cooperative societies. Companies provided their employees with welfare services ranging from housing, schools and churches, to libraries, baths, and gymnasia. Middle-class reformers did their best to assist the working classes aspire to middle-class norms of 'respectability.'

What are “Bobbies”? What do they do?

A police force is a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder Their powers include the legitimized use of force. Police forces are often defined as being separate from military or other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing.

How did the potato famine in Ireland affect

London?

The proximate cause of famine was Phytophthora infestans, a potato disease commonly known as potato blight which ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s. However, the impact in Ireland was disproportionate, as one third of the population was dependent on the potato for a range of ethnic, religious, political, social, and economic reasons, such as land acquisition, absentee landlords, and the Corn Laws, which all contributed to the disaster to varying degrees and remain the subject of intense historical debate.

When did the London Underground begin

operation? How many lines are there? What do

people call it?

The London Underground (also known as the Tube or simply the Underground) is a public rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and parts of the home counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. The network is considered the oldest rapid transit system, incorporating the world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863 and is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines; and the first line to operate underground electric traction trains, the City & South London Railway in 1890, now part of the Northern lineThe network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2014/15 carried 1.305 billion passengers making the Underground the world's 11th busiest metro system.

Why did people move from the country to cities

like London?

to the Industrial Revolution people all over the world lived mainly in the countryside. In 1800, only 3 % of the world’s population lived in cities. In 1900 only 12 cities had more than 1 million people.

Today, about half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. There are over 400 cities with more than a million people. In developed countries, up to 70 % or more live in larger cities, whereas in poorer countries this rate is below 40 %. During the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century cities grew fast, especially in Europe and North America, because new industries were created there and people found many jobs . Later on cities grew more slowly because they became overcrowded and diseases could spread faster. Today death rates in cites are low because they have better doctors and more hospitals. In industrialized countries the growth of cities has stopped. New York and London grew very quickly during the 1800s and early 1900s, but since then their growth has slowed down. African and Asian cities like Lagos, Bombay or Calcutta are growing rapidly and this will probably continue during the next years. About 40 cities around the world have a population of over 5 million . They are called megacities . 80% of them are in poorer countries. People go to the cities for many reasons. The table shows you what pulls them to the cities and what pushes them away from the countryside.

What was housing like in London and other

cities?

The wealthy Victorian Children and their families lived a much more elegant and privileged life than the poor families lived. The difference between upper class and lower class was vastly greater than it is today. Wealthy families lived in large Victorian houses three and sometimes four stories high with several rooms. They had more than one bathroom and even had flushing toilets. They usually had servants that performed all the duties including cleaning the house, washing clothes and cooking supper. A nanny was hired to fulfill the children’s needs and was in many cases responsible for raising the children. The servants life was not anything to dream about but the servants quarters were still better than the poor families homes. Watch the slide show below to get a more vivid idea of a rich Victorian child’s home. The poor Victorian Children lived in much smaller accommodations than the rich children did. It is hard to adequately put into words how bad the conditions were for poor Victorian children. The poor did not live in houses since property was next to impossible to acquire and the rich were the only ones who could afford to buy it. Most poor families lived in small apartments. Some no bigger than one room. Sometimes two or more families would share an apartment. These apartments could be found in the very “ran down” part of town. They would be in buildings that were very close to or connected to another set of apartments. These apartment buildings were not like the attractive apartments we have today. They were built very cheaply with little consideration for safety and attractiveness. There was no plumbing or bathrooms much less flushing toilets. Public outhouses were used by everyone that lived within the block. Sewage ran down the street since there was no underground sewage pipes.

What caused so much pollution in

the cities?

The Great Smog of 1952, caused by smoke from coal fires in the UK capital, killed thousands of Londoners. This led to the UK adopting the Clean Air Act in 1956 which allowed the UK to overcome the crisis by restricting the use of coal in household fires. This ground-breaking legislation showed that the law can be used to protect the environment and people’s lives. Today, 4,300 people die in London every year because of air pollution caused by traffic fumes.

What were some of the

improvments made for the

poor?

Previously, the rich and poor had lived in the same districts: the rich in the main streets; the poor in the service streets behind. Now, the prosperous moved out of town centres to the new suburbs, while much of the housing for the poor was demolished for commercial spaces, or to make way for the railway stations and lines that appeared from the 1840s. Property owners received compensation; renters did not: it was always cheaper to pay off the owners of a few tenements than the houses of many middle-class owners. Thus the homes of the poor were always the first to be destroyed.

Where did children work?

Describe their lives in some of

these places.

Children worked on farms, in homes as servants, and in factories. Children often did jobs that required small size and nimble fingers. But they also pushed heavy coal trucks along tunnels in coal mines. Boys went to sea, as boy-sailors, and girls went 'into service' as housemaids. Children worked on city streets, selling things such as flowers, matches and ribbons. Crossing boys swept the roads clean of horse-dung and rubbish left by the horses that pulled carts and carriages.