What was Victorian England like and in particular London?

Question

What was Victorian England like and in particular London?

Answer 1

i love the victorian times! if i had a time machine i would go back to london in the 1800s! i'll give you a few random, interesting things i can think of...

London was very foggy and dark. Many people died from the effects of the fog. It probably would have smelled strongly of coal. There was lots of poverty which contrasted with the Upper Class.

Victorian London was also a place of mystery and the notorious Jack the Ripper murders took place in 1888 in Whitechapel. There were also lots of opium dens, theatres, etc.

Oscar Wilde is a well-known figure from this time period and although originally from Ireland you could say he epitomized the London Victorian 'Dandy'.

There are so many interesting things about Victorian London and also about Queen Victoria herself but i'd be here all day!

I'd recommend reading any of Charles Dickens's novels to get a feel for the time period.

Answer 2

- Victorian period- 1837-1901 (Queen’s reign)

- All Victorian citizens were strongly religious, feared punishment from church and God

- Manners for gentlemen:  No cursing, embarrassment, raise hat for women, no temper, never arrogant or weak, fear nothing, off arm to woman who is walking on the street

- Manners for ladies:  don’t talk/listen ot others when alone, wear mantle (cloak) when on the street, courtesy when meeting someone, don’t call a man by his first name

- Treat people how you want to be treated and if it is rude now it would be rude then

Those were my notes from presentations we had to do in school... hope I helped! =]

Answer 3

Read this comic masterpiece - "Diary of a Nobody"

Written in 1888 and seralised in 'Punch'

http://nobody.bluebones.net/entries/

This is the full online version.

Answer 4

"All Victorian citizens were strongly religious, feared punishment from church and God" - well that's a simplification bordering on the plain "wrong".

The most important thing about London in that period is that (because of the indurstrial revolution being in full swing, and the ensuing urbanisation) its population grew much much faster than the infrastructure could handle. There was no decent public transport (and not as many bridges as to-day), so people working in the centre could not really live in the subburbs - they had all to cram themselves into a very small area. In addition, you had traffic chaos on a massive scale, and a lack of sanitaion.

In a word, most of London quickly became one big overcrowded, disease-ridden slum.

The Victorians, with their money, their enterprising spirit, and their lack of defeatism, undertook great efforts to resolve the problems, and most of London's most famous pieces of engineering stem from this era:

The underground (1860s)

Tower Bridge (1880s/1890s)

sewer system (1860s)