Studying history can be a difficult thing, and can mean a lot of unlearning. We quickly “learn” various tropes and “facts”, without meaning to. The Victorians were prudes, the Tudors never cleaned themselves, we’ve all heard and internalised these. However, spending time learning about what the average person went through in a period can go a long way in helping. Liza Picard’s Victorian London is provides brilliant insight into average life in Victorian London, and is a fascinating read!
Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840-1870, Liza Picard
Like her previous books, this book is the product of the author’s passionate interest in the realities of everyday life – and the conditions in which most people lived – so often left out of history books.
This period of mid-Victorian London covers a huge span: Victoria’s wedding and the place of the royals in popular esteem; how the very poor lived, the underworld, prostitution, crime, prisons and transportation; the public utilities – Bazalgette on sewers and road design, Chadwick on pollution and sanitation; private charities – Peabody, Burdett Coutts – and workhouses; new terraced housing and transport, trains, omnibuses and the Underground; furniture and decor; families and the position of women; the prosperous middle classes and their new shops, e.g. Peter Jones, Harrods; entertaining and servants, food and drink; unlimited liability and bankruptcy; the rich, the marriage market, taxes and anti-semitism; the Empire, recruitment and press-gangs.
The period begins with the closing of the Fleet and Marshalsea prisons and ends with the first (steam-operated) Underground trains and the first Gilbert & Sullivan.
Why You Should Read This…
Picard’s London series is one of my favourite encyclopedic series. Each covers a different period in London, and covers life at all levels of society. I’ve actually listened to all of these audiobooks multiple times, which is rare for me for this type of book. I will fully admit, I had soaked up many incorrect ideas and notions about Victorian London, and Victorians in general, and this book will make you consider them. The mid-nineteenth century was a busy and ever-changing time in London, and deserves more attention. If you are looking to get into Victorian history, or perhaps unlearn what you do know, this is a must-read!
Have you read Liza Picard’s Victorian London?
Cheers,
The Historian
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