© Boardworks Ltd 20071 of 19 © Boardworks Ltd 2007

Britain 1750–1900

1 of 19

Living Conditions in Industrial Towns

Icons key: For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation

Teacher’s notes included in the Notes Page

Accompanying worksheet

Flash activity. These activities are not editable.

Web addresses Sound

© Boardworks Ltd 20072 of 19

Learning objectivesL

earn

ing

ob

ject

ives

© Boardworks Ltd 20072 of 19

What was life like for workers in an industrial town?

Was anything done to raise workers’ standards of living?

What were the effects of the Poor Law?

What was life like in the workhouse?

© Boardworks Ltd 20073 of 19

What sorts of problems do you think there were in such rapidly-built towns?

The period between 1750 and 1900 was one of enormous growth in both industry and population.

As new factories were set up, so houses, shops and inns had to be built for the workers who flocked to the towns hoping to find jobs.

Thousands of new houses were built in a very short time, without any rules about planning or quality.

The growth of towns

© Boardworks Ltd 20074 of 19

The growth of towns

© Boardworks Ltd 20075 of 19

In the 18th and 19th centuries, anyone who owned land could build whatever they wanted on it.

There were no laws governing the quality of building, and many landlords built as many houses as they could on their land to ensure the highest income possible.

Problems

Much of Britain’s terraced housing dates from the Industrial Revolution

© Boardworks Ltd 20076 of 19

Building standards

Houses were crammed together.

Many had no foundations, were damp and lacked

ventilation. Very few had any form of

sanitation (toilets). Sometimes there

was a privy (primitive toilet) shared between several houses.

© Boardworks Ltd 20077 of 19

The shortage of housing often meant that one house accommodated several families, each having one room.

On the second floor lived a widow. In her room lived her grown-up son, two daughters, and two or three children of one of these daughters. Above on the third floor lived a market porter, his wife and four children.

Charles Booth, 1889

What problems would overcrowding like this have brought?

Overcrowding

© Boardworks Ltd 20078 of 19

Most of these slum dwellings contained little in the way of furniture. Many had just a table, a few chairs and a bed. Some did not even have that. A bed would be shared by several family members, and if some did shift work the bed could be used night and day.

Poverty

In my town they say the beds never get cold.

Just as well – the houses are always

freezing.

© Boardworks Ltd 20079 of 19

Factory managers and overseers had larger houses and could afford some luxuries in their homes.

The middling sorts

© Boardworks Ltd 200710 of 19

Rich and poor

© Boardworks Ltd 200711 of 19

In many towns the poorest people lived in cellar dwellings.

Some time ago I visited a poor woman in distress, the wife of

a labouring man: she had been confined [given birth] only a few days, and herself and the infant

were lying on straw in a vault through the outer cellar, with a clay

floor impervious to water. There was no light or ventilation in it, and the air was dreadful. I had to walk on bricks across the floor to reach her bedside as the floor itself was

flooded with stagnant water.

Slum dwellings

© Boardworks Ltd 200712 of 19

Dreadful living conditions went hand in hand with ill health. The slums were an ideal breeding-ground for diseases like tuberculosis, diphtheria, measles, cholera, influenza, and rheumatic fever, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

The rich died too, but it was the poor who suffered most. Poor housing, coupled with long hours, dangerous working conditions, and malnutrition resulted in an average life expectancy for the working class in Manchester of just 17 years.

Housing and health

“They dies everywheres …

They dies in their lodgings … they

dies down in Tom-all-alone’s in

heaps. They dies more than they

lives, according to what I see.”

Charles Dickens, Bleak House,

1852–1853

© Boardworks Ltd 200713 of 19

Many businessmen were more concerned with their profit margins than with the living conditions their workers endured. But some factory owners decided that social improvement was in everyone’s interests. Better standards of living meant healthier, happier and more efficient workers.

In 1850 Titus Salt, a self-made textile mill owner, built a new industrial ‘village’ just outside Bradford which he called Saltaire. As well as a vast new mill and factory, he built 850 houses for his workers.

Each house had gas, water and its own privy. In the village he added public baths, schools, a laundry, church, hospital, library and a large park.

Titus Salt

© Boardworks Ltd 200714 of 19

The textile mill built by Titus Salt at Saltaire.

Titus Salt

© Boardworks Ltd 200715 of 19

Titus Salt

Houses in Saltaire. Each house had its own privy, running water and gas.

© Boardworks Ltd 200716 of 19

Under the Poor Law, those people who could not find work, or were too old or sick to work, were looked after by their parish, either in workhouses or with small sums of money. As the population grew, however, the cost of this soared.

In 1832 the government set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Poor Laws. The Commission suggested that if conditions in workhouses were made awful enough, only the really needy would apply.

In 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act made workhouses the only form of benefit to the poor. Although many people lived and worked in terrible conditions, it was still preferable to being sent to the workhouse. So what was the workhouse and why was it so bad?

Changes to the Poor Law

© Boardworks Ltd 200717 of 19

The workhouse was a large building with separate dormitories, dining halls, exercise yards and workrooms for men, women and children. Families were split up: husbands, wives and children were rarely allowed to see each other.

Inmates of the workhouse were expected to ‘pay’ for their food and accommodation with labour. They had to work long hours at tasks such as sewing, weaving, or breaking stones for road building.

Discipline was strict, with harsh punishments for those who broke the rules. They were given the bare minimum of food – bread, gruel (a thin porridge), soup and a little cheese.

The workhouses

© Boardworks Ltd 200718 of 19

An original workhouse in Leeds, which today houses the Thackray Medical Museum.

The workhouses

© Boardworks Ltd 200719 of 19

1. ‘Greed controlled the living conditions in the industrial towns.’ Would you agree with this statement?

2. ‘The poor living conditions and the workhouses were just the norm in those days; people accepted it.’ Would you agree with this statement?

Questions