In the late 19th century, England was known for its wealth, but not everyone shared in its prosperity.
Even though it was one of the richest countries, many neighborhoods, especially in London, were very poor. Around 35 percent of Londoners lived in poverty by the end of the 1800s.
When Henry Mayhew, a social reformer, visited the slums of Victorian London, he was shocked.
He described how the water in front of the houses was covered in a layer of dirt and grease. He also saw piles of garbage along the edges, and said the air smelled like a graveyard.
Life in London’s slums was tough. Many people got sick and died from diseases like cholera. The factories where people worked were dangerous and often collapsed, killing everyone inside.
An “old room in slumland.” 1901.
During the period from 1800 to 1850, England experienced a significant population increase, leading to a doubling of the total population.
This surge in population drove many people from rural areas to seek opportunities in London, the country’s largest city.
This rapid influx of people placed immense pressure on London’s housing situation.
Entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to profit from this demand by providing housing for the city’s poorest residents. Unfortunately, these buildings were often poorly constructed.
Two children in Spitalfields, one of the worst slums in London. 1903.
The homes of the poor were tiny, cold, and damp, often crawling with lice and vermin. They had to fetch water from a dirty pump in the street and share filthy outdoor toilets with many neighbors.
Since stoves were expensive, many couldn’t cook hot meals. Their diet mainly consisted of bread, cheese, and potatoes.
Living in dirty and overcrowded slums made the poor prone to many untreatable diseases. Death was common, especially among children who often lost siblings or parents early on.
Orphaned children had to fend for themselves, sleeping wherever they could find shelter, like doorways or damp cellars, alongside criminals, rats, and open sewers.
These “gutter-waifs,” hungry, dirty, cold, and weak, had no one to care for them and little chance of survival.
With only dirty water to drink, polluted air to breathe, and scraps of bad food to eat, it’s no wonder so many fell ill and died.
Boarded up houses on Ainstey Street from circa 1903.
The only place for poor children to play was on the street. Without expensive toys like bicycles or dolls to play with, their games were simple and often meant making best use of what they could find.
During these decades, the suicide rate in the slums was alarmingly high, to the extent that retrieving bodies from the Thames became a full-time occupation.
Despite being places of great desperation, the Victorian slums were often viewed by the wealthy as the sole responsibility of the poor.
A magistrate famously described the slums as centers of “squalor, drunkenness, improvidence, lawlessness, immorality, and crime.”
These slums were frequently featured in newspapers, attracting the interest of affluent families who embarked on unsettling excursions to witness the conditions firsthand.
A mother and her child.
If you couldn’t afford a permanent residence in Victorian London, your option was to stay in a doss house.
These were inexpensive lodging houses in the slums, akin to rundown hotels, often in poor condition.
By the late 1800s, there were approximately 1000 doss houses in London, though the term “hotel” was used loosely, as many of these establishments were converted warehouses or factories.
Children of the Victorian slums.
Some of the beds in a doss house were nicknamed “four penny coffins” because they were essentially wooden boxes resembling coffins, available for four pence per night.
Doss houses typically opened around 8 pm and required residents to leave by 10 am the next day. Accommodation would cost a few pennies per night, attracting vagrants and beggars.
Given these conditions, it’s understandable that many of London’s homeless individuals opted for the harsh conditions of the workhouse over life on the streets.
A photograph of Dorset Street taken in 1902, after many of the London’s slums had been torn down.
In the 1870s and 1880s, some wealthy Victorians engaged in a practice known as “slumming.” They would disguise themselves and venture into the slums, often visiting after dark and even paying to stay in doss houses for entertainment.
Many of these individuals would then regale their affluent friends with stories of the “unsavory” characters they encountered and their supposed brushes with violence or death. Slumming became a popular form of tourism among the wealthy.
In some instances, the wealthy would hire a “guide” for a tour of the slums.
This phenomenon was not limited to Britain; it was also prevalent in certain American cities, such as Boston and New York, during the same period.
A Glasgow slum in 1868
By the late 19th century, social campaigns had begun to improve conditions for London’s poor.
Sanitation plants were set up to get rid of raw sewage, which had caused cholera outbreaks, and new schools were opened to educate impoverished children.
Charles Booth, a social reformer, drew attention to the issue with his poverty map, highlighting the city’s poorest streets.
Philanthropists funded projects to build schools and improve education for the poor. However, for many, this help came too late.
An Italian ice man selling ices to children and other slum residents. 1877.
Once known as Lambeth Marsh, the area became a slum in the 19th century. This photograph, from 1860, shows Fore Street.
A family living in London’s slums, 1900s.
A woman identified as Ma Rolinson making a mattress in the slums of Bethnal Green. 1890s.
In the slums, families had to carry all their belongings when forced to move due to eviction. This photograph from around 1901 captures a family during such a relocation.
A photograph of the Bethnal Green slum on London’s East End. 1900s.
Youngsters who lived in London’s slums create a golf course out of buckets.
While some of London’s slums were hastily erected shantytowns, other slums were made of centuries-old houses. This photograph from 1877 shows homes in Cloth Fair built after the Great Fire of London in the 17th century.
Residents at Boundary Street, located in the Old Nichols slum.
A man selling meat for cats walks down the street of a London slum. The man pushes a cart with a cat strolling between the wheels. 1900s.
This 1877 photograph shows a family living a nomadic life in London.
Children gather in the yard in London’s slums to play a game of marbles. 1860.
In this 1877 photograph, Londoners affected by flooding stand in front of a rag shop.
A circa 1860 photograph shows children on New Street in Vauxhall.
An alley and its residents.
Two Jewish children play on an East End street. 1900s.
This 1901 photo shows a family recently evicted from slum housing with all of their possessions.
A slum street in an area marked for demolition. 1901.
Poor women selling flowers at Covent Garden. Circa 1877.
(Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / City of London Archives / Britannica).