Victorian London was a period of London's history that coincided with the Victorian era of 1837-1901. During this time, London grew enormously to become a global city of immense importance, becoming the largest city in the world in 1825, the world's largest port, and the heart of international finance and trade. Railways connecting London to the rest of Britain, as well as the London Underground, were built, as were roads, a modern sewer system and many famous sites. From 1801 to 1897, London's population skyrocketed from 1 million to 6.292 million, while the city grew in size from 122 square miles in 1851 to 693 square miles by 1896.
History[]
Urbanization and industrialization[]
A London factory during the 1860s
During the 19th century, London was transformed into the world's largest city and capital of the British Empire, with the population rising from over 1 million in 1801 to 5.567 million in 1891 and 6.292 million in 1897. By the 1860s, it was 25% larger than Beijing, 66% larger than Paris, and 5 times larger than New York City. At the dawn of the 19th century, the urban croe of London was bounded to the west by Park Lane and Hyde Park and by Marylebone Road to the north, while extending along the south bank of the Thames at Southwark and to the east as far as Bethnal Green and Spitalfields. Hyde Park Corner was once considered the western entrance to London, with a turnpike gate being operated ther euntil 1825. However, London grew from 122 square miles in 1851 to 693 square miles by 1896.
A factory funace
During this time, London became a global political, financial, and trading capital. London was the world's largest port and a major shipbuilding center fro the entire 19th century, and, at the dawn of the century, sailors had to wait a week or more to offload their cargoes at the overcrowded Port of London. In 1799, Parliament authorized the construction of the West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs to enable merchant shipping to avoid the dangerous and congested upper reaches of the Thames. The new warehouses surrounding the docks could accommodate close to a million tons of storage, with the Import and Export basins able to moor almost 400 ships at a time. Within a few years, these docks were joined by the East India Docks in Blackwall and the London Docks in Wapping.
Child laborers
London's rapid industrialization following the Industrial Revolution of the mid-18th century led to environmental disasters. Atmospheric pollution caused by burning cheap soft coul created the city's notorious pea soup fog, exacerbating a dirty atmosphere that had already been reported as far back as the 13th century. The fogs were at their worst in November, while frequently occurring throughout the autumn and winter. By 1880, coal consumption stood at 10 million tons per year, causing London to acquire the nickname "The Big Smoke." Skin and clothing were quickly dirtied just by walking on the street, and household upholsteries, artwork, and furniture could become irretrievably dirtied, requiring large contingents of servants in the more prosperous households to maintain cleanliness.
Railways[]
A London train station
19th-century London was transformed by the coming of the railways. The London & Greenwich Railway, a short line from London Bridge to Greenwich, was opened in 1836, followed by the opening of the rail termini of Euston in 1837, Paddington in 1838, Fenchurch Street in 1841, Waterloo in 1848, King's Cross in 1852, and St. Pancras in 1868. By 1865, there were 12 principal railway termini, and exurban villages surrounding London were developed into middle-class commuter towns. The development of these suburbs enabled the middle-class and wealthy to commute ot the city center, spurring the massive outward growth of the city while also leaving the poor to inhabit the inner city areas. The new railway lines were generally built through working-class areas, where land was cheaper and compensation costs lower. From the 1860s to 1880s, the railway companies were able to evade a law requiring the railroads to rehouse the tenants they evicted for construction. The Cheap Trains Act 1883 helped poorer Londoners to relocate by guaranteeing cheap fares and removing a duty imposed on fares since 1844. Working-class suburbs developed in West Ham, Walthamstow, Kilburn, and Willesden. London's suburbs were developed with terraced, semi-detached, and detached housing, with an almost endless variation in the layout of streets, gardens, homes, and decorative elements. At the same time as the development of the Overground, the London Underground was founded in 1863 after Parliament approved underground tunneling to ease the pressure on street traffic. The Metropolitan initially ran from Farringdon in the east to Paddington in the west, and wooden passenger cars were propelled by a coke-fueled steam locomotive and were lit with gas lamps. The line carried 9.5 million passengers in its first year of operation, and the line was soon extended to Hammersmith in 1868, to Aldgate and Whitechapel in 1884, and Harrow in 1880. The first true "tube", dug with a tunnelling shield, was the City and South London Railway, opened in 1890. By 1894, 228,605,000 passengers used London's three underground lines.
Wealth[]
Wealthy Londoners
The City of London's importance as a financial center increased substantially over the course of the 19th century. The city's strengths in banking, stock brokerage, and shipping insurance made it the natural channel for the huge rise in capital investment which occurred after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The city was also the headquarters of most of Britain's shipping firms, trading houses, exchanges and commercial firms like railway companies and import houses. As the Industrial Revolution gathered pace, an insatiable demand for capital investment in railroads, shipping, industry and agriculture fueled the growth of financial services in the city. By 1862, 83 banks, 336 stockbroking firms, 37 currency brokers, 248 ship and insurance brokerages, and 1500 different merchants operated in the city, selling wares of every conceivable variety. Even while the City's residential population declined by 100,000 from 1840 to 1900 due to suburbanization, the City retained its historical role as the center of English commerce.
Poverty and disease[]
A London slum
In contrast to the conspicuous wealth of the cities of London and Westminster, there was a huge underclass of desperately poor Londoners within a short range of the more affluent areas. In Central London, St. Giles became a notorious slum defined by its prostitutes, gin shops, secret alleyways where criminals could hide, and horribly overcrowded tenements. The poverty worsened with the massive influx of poor Irish immigrants during the Great Famine of 1848, giving the area the name "Little Ireland". In 1847, New Oxford Street was built right through the heart of "the Rookery," eliminating the worst part of the area, but many of the evicted inhabitants simply moved to neighboring streets, which remained stubbornly mired in poverty. Mass demolition of slums displaced residents and forced them to move to nearby slums, but philanthropists from groups like the Peabody Trust focused on building affordable housing for the working-classes, including housing for the artisans and laboring poor on Commercial Street built in 1864. In 1890, the Houses of the Working Classes Act enabled the city government to construct its own housing on cleared land, leading to the rise of social housing in Bethnal Green and Millbank. During the Victorian era, extreme population density in the East End exacerbated unsanitary conditions and resulting epidemics of disease, leading to a 20% child mortality rate and a life expectancy of 19 years for an East End laborer. Tuberculosis, cholera, rickets, scarlet fever, and typhoid were rife, and only a few workhouse hospitals and the London Smallpox Hospital in St. Pancras were available to treat smallpox victims until the latter part of the century.
Immigration[]
Prize fighting at a London factory
As the capital of a massive empire, London became a draw for immigrants from the colonies and poorer parts of Europe. Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine poured into the city, making up 20% of the city's population at one point; by 1853, 200,000 Irishmen lived in London, equal to the combined populations of Limerick, Belfast, and Cork. London also became home to a sizeable Jewish community, estimated to be around 46,000 in 1882, and a very small population of Indian lascar sailors. In the 1880s and 1890s tens of thousands of Jews escaping persecution and poverty in Eastern Europe came to London and settled largely in the East End around Houndsditch, Whitechapel, Aldgate, and parts of Spitalfields. Many came to be work in the sweatshops and markets of the rag trade, refashioning and re-selling clothing. As members of the Jewish community prospered in the latter part of the century, many left the East End and settled in the immediate suburbs of Dalston, Hackney, Stoke Newington, Stamford Hill, and parts of Islington. An Italian community coalesced in Soho and in Clerkenwell, centered along Saffron Hill, Farringdon Road, Rosebery Avenue, and Clerkenwell Road. Most of these were young men, engaged in occupations like organ grinding or selling street food as ice cream, salt, and walnut vendors. Starting in the 1850s, a small population of Chinese sailors began to settle in Limehouse, around Limehouse Causeway and Pennyfields, opening shops and boarding houses to cater to the transient population of Chinese firemen, seamen, stewards, cooks and carpenters who serve on board the steamers plying between Germany and the port of London. Limehouse's Chinatown became known as a sinister quarter of crime and opium dens by the 1870s.
Crime[]
The East End, with an economy oriented around the Docklands and the polluting industries clustered along the Thames and the River Lea, had long been an area of working poor. By the late 19th century it was developing an increasingly sinister reputation for crime, overcrowding, desperate poverty, and debauchery. By 1881, a third of the East End's 1 million inhabitants lived in poverty. The Cheap Trains Act 1883 enabled many working-class Londoners to move away from the inner city, leaving the most destitute behind. By 1888, Whitechapel alone was home to at least 62 brothels and 1,200 prostitutes. Whitechapel and Spitalfields became the site of the 1888 Whitechapel murders by Jack the Ripper, bringing international attention to the squalor and criminality of the East End. Additionally, the Factory Act 1833, which meant that children could no longer work in factories, led to children spending more time on the streets and committing petty crimes to support their families, while also pulling pranks as devious attempts to outsmart authority. Working-class youth hooliganism drew great concern frm the press and middle class. London was the first city noted to have a major problem with criminal gangs; by 1888, the Marylebone Gang of Lisson Grove, the Fitzroy Place Gang of Regent's Park, the Monkey Parade Gang of Whitechapel, the Black Gang of Borough, the New Cut Gang of Lambeth, the Greengate Gang of City Road, the Prince Arthur Gang of Blackfriars, the Gang of Roughs in Norwood, and the Jovial Thirty-Two of Holloway were, as part of the Skeleton Army, harassing and murdering members of the Salvation Army. Fighting gangs involved in thievery plagued Bow, Millwall, and Drury Lane, while the fall-female Forty Elephants gang was involved in shoplifting and smash-and-grab raids in Elephant and Castle and the Richardson Gang became infamous for inflicting brutal punishments on their victims.
Culture[]
Several of London's major museums were built during the 19th century, including the British Museum from 1823-1852, the National Gallery from 1832 to 1838, the National Portrait Gallery in 1856, and the Tate Britain in 1897. The great complex of museums at South Kensington was founded by Prince Albert in 1851, and it became home to the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, and teh Science Museum. London also became home to a proliferating popular entertainment scene. At the start of the century, only the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres held winter performances and the Haymarket Theatre held summer performances, but 17th-century laws forbidding rival theatres from operating were loosened in the early 19th century. Theatres like the Old Vic were established outside the boundaries of London to produce new plays, and the Licensing Act 1737 ended the duopoly of the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres, while the Theatres Act 1843 allowed straight plays to be produced in all licensed theatres. By 1851, 19 theatres were in operation, growing to 61 by 1899 (38 of them in the West End). During the 1830s, the music hlal rose in popularity. Music halls became an integral part of cocknet popular culture, the most famous being the Alhambra Music Hall and the Empire in Leicester Square. By 1875, there were 375 music halls across the city.
Politics and government[]
City government[]
In 1829, Home Secretary Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police Service as a police force covering the entire urban area, with the exception of the City of London, which formed its own police force in 1839. The Bow Street Runners and Marine Police Force were absorbed into the Met in 1839, and the Met was nicknamed the "Bobbies" and "Peelers" after Peel. Corruption was rife among its initial batch of 1,000 recruits, so five-sixths of them were dismissed within four years. As London's urban area expanded into Islington, Paddington, Belgravia, Holborn, Finsbury, Shoreditch, Southwark and Lambeth, London's local government was reformed, with the Metropolitan Board of Works being established in 1855 to provide the city with adequate infrastructure to cope with its growth. The MBW was replaced by the London County Council in 1888, and London was subdivided into 28 metropolitan boroughs in 1900 to form a more local tier of administration. The London government worked with Parliament to ameliorate urban issues, with Parliament creating the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1867 to provide healthcare from the poor away from workhouse infirmaries. In 1847, the government replaced open cesspools with sweres that flowed into the Thames, causing the river to become much more polluted. The combination of cesspools and raw sewage led to major cholera outbreaks in 1832, 1849, 1854, and 1866, culminating in the "Great Stink" of 1858. Joseph Bazalgette designed a massive system of sewers after 1858, causing a dramatic drop in London's death toll and the curtailing of epidemics. Horse dung was another sanitary issue, with some 300,000 horses dropping 1,000 tons of dung on London's street each day during the 1890s. Boys between 12 and 14 were employed to collect horse waste from the streets until cars gradually replaced horse-drawn vehicles in the 20th century.
1830s-1850s politics[]
10 Downing Street in 1868
During the 1830s and 1840s, the City of London and the City of Westminster tended to lean Tory, as these were wealthier areas dominated by merchants, bankers, and the aristocracy. Bankers, lawyers, and other upper-class professionals generally favored the Tory party, which aligned with their economic interests. The aristocracy and landed gentry were a core Tory constituency. Meanwhile, the East End of London, including neighborhoods like Whitechapel and Bethnal Green, leaned more Radical due to the prevalence of working-class laborers and artisans. Areas like Holborn, Finsbury, and parts of Southwark had stronger Whig support, as they had a mix of middle-class professionals and some working-class voters. Doctors were split between the parties, with some leaning Tory and others aligning with the Whigs or even Radicals. Laborers, factory workers, and other members of the working class tended to support the Radical candidates, who championed reforms like the People's Charter. The middle-class, including small business owners and professionals like teachers and clerks, were more divided between the Whigs and Radicals.
A radical speaker in Trafalgar Square, 1868
From the 1840s to 1850s, the middle-class areas of Holborn, Finsbury, and parts of Southwark grew more divided, with some still supporting the Whigs and others gravitating towards the emerging Peelite faction. The landed gentry, aristocracy, and upper classes remained a core Conservative constituency. The urban working class, including factory workers and laborers, continued to back the Chartists and Radicals. The growing middle-class of professionals, merchants, and small business owners were a more contested demographic, with some aligning with the Whigs and others moving towards the Peelites or Conservatives. Bankers, lawyers, and other upper-class professionals tended to favor the Conservatives. Doctors were more split, with some maintaining Whig sympathies while others supported the Peelites or even the Chartists. Clerks, teachers, and other white-collar workers were an important part of the expanding Peelite faction, attracted by their more moderate reform agenda. Factory workers, artisans, and manual laborers largely remained loyal to the Chartist movement and its demands for political and economic reforms.
Disraeli vs. Gladstone[]
The rise of Benjamin Disraeli and his vision of "Tory democracy" in the 1860s, concurrent with the rise of William Ewart Gladstone's populist brand of classical liberalism, led to a major political realignment. The urban working class - factory workers, laborers, artisans - tended to support the Liberals, seeing the party as more sympathetic to issues like better working conditions and expanded suffrage. The prosperous middle class - industrialists, merchants, bankers - was more split. Some favored the Liberals' free trade policies, while others allied with the Tories due to social status and conservative leanings. The landed gentry, aristocracy, and large landowners were a core Tory constituency, seeing the Conservatives as defenders of their economic and social interests. Working-class districts like the East End overwhelmingly supported the Liberals. Wealthier areas like the City of London and parts of the West End were Tory strongholds, home to the financial elite and upper-middle class professionals. More mixed neighborhoods saw fierce electoral competition between the two parties.
Skilled laborers, artisans, and factory workers tended to back the Liberals. Doctors, lawyers, and other educated professionals were split, with some aligning with the Tories and others supporting Liberal reforms. Bankers, stockbrokers, and the financial elite in the City of London generally favored the Conservatives. Industrialists, merchants, and some stockbrokers were more likely to support the Liberals' free trade agenda. The rise of Gladstonian liberalism, with its emphasis on individual liberty, religious disestablishment, and social reform, attracted new middle-class support to the Liberal party. Disraelian conservatism, with its focus on the "one nation" vision and appeal to working-class voters, helped the Tories reclaim some ground among urban laborers and artisans. However, the Liberals' moderation on free trade and embrace of some protectionist measures also allowed them to regain ground with urban manufacturers and industrialists.
Financial community[]
While the Liberal Party was generally associated with support for free market capitalism, the reality was more nuanced. Many members of the financial and banking elite in London saw the Conservatives (or Tories) as better protecting their specific economic interests, even if the Liberals had a more overtly pro-business platform. The Tories were seen as more reliable defenders of the status quo and existing power structures, which benefited the established financial institutions. There were concerns among some in the City of London that the Liberals' social reform agenda, such as expansion of the franchise, could threaten the traditional dominance of the economic elite. Personal and class connections played a role, as many in the financial sector had closer ties to the aristocratic, landed interests associated with the Tories. On specific economic policies like free trade, there were divisions within both parties, with some Tories supporting it alongside the Liberals. The economic policies of the Tories and Liberals in 19th century Britain differed in some important ways, even though both parties were generally supportive of free market capitalism. The Tories tended to favor the interests of the landed gentry and aristocracy more than urban industrialists and financiers; were more protectionist on trade, often supporting tariffs to protect domestic industries; and were more skeptical of social reforms that could challenge the traditional power structures. Meanwhile, the Liberals championed free trade and removal of protectionist policies; were more supportive of expanding the franchise and other liberal social reforms; and were focused more on urban, industrial interests than the landed classes. In practice, this meant the Tories were sometimes willing to implement protectionist measures, like the Corn Laws, that the Liberals strongly opposed as anti-free market. The Liberals, on the other hand, pushed through major free trade reforms like the repeal of the Corn Laws. However, the lines were not always so clear-cut. There were free trade Tories and some Liberals who were more cautious on social reforms. And both parties had to balance the diverse economic interests of their supporters. Ultimately, the Tories tended to be a bit more oriented towards the traditional landed elite, while the Liberals were more focused on the emerging industrial and financial interests. But the economic policies of the two parties overlapped significantly as well.
In general, the City of London and the broader financial/banking elite tended to favor the Tories over the Liberals during this period. The traditional landed gentry and aristocracy, who were the core Tory support base, had deep connections to the City through patronage, investment, and social ties. This created a natural affinity. Many in the financial sector were wary of the Liberals' social reform agenda, fearing it could disrupt the existing power structures. Specific protectionist economic policies of the Tories, like tariffs, were seen as benefiting some financial interests. However, merchant bankers and international traders tended to favor the free trade policies of the Liberals. Stockbrokers and others closely tied to the London Stock Exchange were more evenly split between the parties. Older, more established banking families often stuck with the Tories, while newer financial players were more open to the Liberals. Over time, the allegiances did start to shift somewhat. As the Liberals moderated their reform agenda and embraced free trade, they gained more support from the financial elite. Meanwhile, the Tories had to balance their traditional landed interests with the needs of the growing industrial and commercial classes. By the late 1860s, there was a growing convergence between the economic policies of the two major parties, which helped reduce the stark divisions within the City and Westminster.
Police[]
The Met patrolling London's streets, 1868
The Metropolitan Police was established in 1829 by the Tory government of Sir Robert Peel, and the service was seen as upholding traditional authority and social order - values more closely aligned with the Conservative Party. Many of the senior officers and leadership of the police force came from military or gentry backgrounds, which tended to foster conservative political sympathies. The Liberals were often viewed with some suspicion by the police, as the party was associated with more progressive reforms and challenges to established institutions. However, the police service itself tried to maintain a non-partisan stance and did not officially endorse any particular political party.
Working-class[]
Under Disraeli's leadership, the Conservatives made a concerted effort to reach out to working-class voters, a shift from the party's traditional landed gentry base. Disraeli's "one nation" conservatism emphasized social reform and a paternalistic vision of the state providing for the welfare of the working classes. This helped the Tories make inroads in some working-class neighborhoods and with certain skilled artisanal professions. In contrast, Gladstone's Liberals championed individual liberty, secularism, and a more laissez-faire approach to the economy. However, the party's support for expanding the franchise and pursuing social reforms like the Factory Acts also resonated with many working-class voters, especially in the less-skilled industrial sectors.
Whitechapel in 1868
In terms of specific neighborhoods, the working-class East End of London was a Liberal stronghold, with constituencies like Whitechapel and Bethnal Green consistently returning Liberal MPs. However, some working-class areas in the outer suburbs, like Woolwich, were more contested, with the Conservatives gaining ground. Regarding professions, skilled artisans and craftsmen - such as bricklayers, stonemasons, and carpenters - were more likely to support the Conservatives, drawn to Disraeli's appeals to traditional values and social harmony. In contrast, factory workers, dockers, and other less-skilled laborers tended to favor the Liberals.
As the 19th century progressed, the rise of socialism began to reshape working-class political allegiances. The emergence of the Independent Labour Party in the 1890s provided a new, explicitly pro-worker political vehicle, drawing support away from both the Liberals and Conservatives, especially among the urban poor and unskilled workers. This contributed to a gradual realignment, with the working classes becoming a more reliable voting bloc for the left by the early 20th century.