The Baby in the Bulrushes

The people

Children from impoverished backgrounds had a particularly harsh lot in the Victorian era. Those as young as five worked begging or sweeping chimneys and it was not until 1870 that five to twelve-year-olds were legally required to attend school. Although campaigners, such as author Charles Dickens, did much to alert the public to the conditions, improvements came slowly. Children born illegitimately also fell through the net of the Poor Law. In the 1890s, between 37,000 and 38,000 illegitimate children were born each year and only a few were taken in by charities.

At least in part because of the vast disparities in living conditions between the rich and poor, there was growing interest in republican movements for parts of Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901, fanned by her reputation for being aloof.

Nevertheless, grand engineering and architectural schemes were the order of the day. After being burned down in 1834, the Houses of Parliament were rebuilt in their current neo-gothic style by Charles Barry and August Welby Pugin. Big Ben’s tower was built in 1859. The first railway from London Bridge to Greenwich arrived in 1836 and other stations followed at Euston in 1837, Waterloo in 1848 and elsewhere. The first major line, from London to Manchester, was completed in 1842 and in 1863 the first underground railway — from Paddington to Farringdon — opened.

The centre piece of 1851’s triumphant exhibition for the world fair was Joseph Paxton’s vast glass and steel structure — the Crystal Palace — initially built in Hyde Park and then moved to Sydenham in south London. The sight attracted 200,000 visitors. The telephone was invented in 1876 and the first electric power station was unveiled in 1888.

At the same time as these advances in technology and trade, movements for social progress saw all male householders get the vote in the Second Reform Bill in 1867. And the last public hanging came the following year. Women gained increasing rights.

The police

Widespread concern about crime and health as a result of overcrowding led Sir Robert Peel to set up London’s police force at the end of the 1820s. By early in the next decade the force had swelled to 3,300 men and there were horse patrols, with the emphasis on prevention.

In 1845, the Police Commissioners set a target of one policeman for every 450 people and the officers had to cope with many of the problems that still dominate in today’s London. In one year there were 14,000 robberies.

Conflict over the police role of keeping order or crime solving came to a head with the murders of Jack The Ripper. In just a few months from August to November 1888, six prostitutes were murdered and mutilated in the East End of London, haunting the capital with fears of a serial murderer. Public faith in the police was already at a low point following an 1887 riot known as Bloody Sunday, and they were attacked by the press for their failure to protect citizens, and accused of bullying the unemployed. But despite all efforts, the identity of the killer, or killers, remains a mystery.

Poor health

Health was an overriding concern for Victorian cities, in part because conditions in many areas were so poor. City populations were growing through industrialisation and there were inadequate housing and other facilities to handle the changes. Overcrowding and under nourishment left the poor particularly vulnerable.

In the 1830s and the 1840s there were two influenza epidemics and outbreaks of typhus, typhoid and cholera, which in late 1831 killed 52,000 people. Spread by contaminated water, it attacked mainly the poor. For every person who died of old age or violence, eight died of diseases, according to studies during the period. Average life expectancy was as low as 37 in many poor areas.

Control of diseases was made more difficult by the large movement of people through cities set in train by, among other factors, the Irish Potato Famine of 1846.

From the middle of the century, health began to improve with the construction of Joseph Bazalgette's sewerage system of tunnels to pipe the waste out of the capital. Towards the start of the 20th century inoculations were introduced that further helped to prevent the spread of disease.

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