| The Great Stink | The early Victorian cities had no sanitation and all waste was disposed of in the street or into the river. The Great Stink was an event in Central London in July and August 1858 during which the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human and industrial waste that was present on the banks of the River Thames. |
| Doss house (above) and workhouse | Doss houses provided miserable accommodation in squalid dormitories lined with pest-ridden beds. 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. |
| Pollution | Due to the Industrialization in Britain, emissions of black smoke were up to 50 times higher in the decades than they are today. The great London smog of 1952, that prompted policymakers to act, killed 4,000 in the space of a week |
| Child labour | Thousands of children worked in the mines, factories, and workshops of Victorian Britain. Until 1842 children as young as 4 worked long hours in atrocious conditions. |
| Chimney sweep | Although men had swept chimneys, they were often too big to be able to climb inside with their brushes. This is why children were frequently employed – often orphans, or poor children from the workhouses. Many accidents happened as they sometimes got stuck inside or burnt. They were dying soon of cancer caused by the soot on their lungs. |
| Drawers or hurriers | In the coal mines, children as young as five worked up to 12 hours a day in the dark. Drawers pulled heavy carts of cut coal to the pits surface with heavy chains around their waists. |
| A child prostitute | Prostitution was a huge issue in the Victorian era. This is a 10-year old pregnant prostitute but it was not only the most destitute who turned to the job for survival. |
| London slums | London slums arose initially as a result of rapid population growth and industrialisation. They became notorious for overcrowding, unsanitary and squalid living conditions. |
| Angel in the house | The popular Victorian image of the ideal wife/woman came to be "the Angel in the House"; she was expected to be devoted and submissive to her husband. The Angel was passive and powerless, meek, charming, graceful, sympathetic, self-sacrificing, pious, and above all--pure. The phrase "Angel in the House" comes from the title of an immensely popular poem by Coventry Patmore, in which he holds his angel-wife up as a model for all women. |
