Life for the underclass in London was less pleasant than in the countryside. The city was dirty, noisy, smelly and unhealthy, with black mud clogging the streets. A yellow fog of pollution, the notorious “pea-souper,” often prevented the Londoner from seeing the hand in front of his face and provided cover for thieves.

Poor Londoners lived in cramped lodging-houses, sharing rooms and even beds. The Central Criminal Court, The Old Bailey, records many instances of Londoners turning a blind eye and deaf ear to quarrels, domestic violence, and murder.

Steam trains soon crossed England. The Great Western Railway took Londoners to Bristol and the West Country from 1838. Early on Christmas Eve 1842, a landslip at Sonning Cutting, near Reading, derailed the train. Several passengers died. As a result, the 1844 Railway Regulation Act set out improvements such as the provision of roofs on passenger carriages.

The Victorians enjoyed the novelty of photography. Fox Talbot, in 1841, patented a process that produced more than one copy of a photograph. As each exposure required the sitter to remain motionless for half a minute, many Victorian photographs seem stiff and posed.

The crayon, a stick of coloured wax, existed in Victorian England. The word, first used in 1644, derives from the French word for chalk, craie. Jane Austen mentions the fashion for drawing in crayon in 1813, in Pride and Prejudice.

Members of the Metropolitan Police Force, called “bobbies” after Sir Robert Peel, Home Secretary at the time, policed London from 1829. Outside the capital, most parishes had a single constable who kept order as best he could. Serious crimes like murder were punished by hanging, while lesser crimes could result in deportation to Australia or New Zealand.

More English Victorian trivia can be found at:

A word about the author...

A word about the author...

Frances Evesham writes, collects grandsons and Victorian ancestors, and drinks tea. She loves to walk in the country, breathe the sea air in Somerset, and read Jane Austen novels. One day she will clean the house, but not today.

She’s worked in England and Belgium, as a speech and language therapist, a professional communication fiend, an intermediary in the criminal courts, and a road sweeper.

She writes historical romances, mysteries, and books about communication. That leaves just enough time to enjoy bad jokes and puns and wish she’d kept on with the piano lessons.

Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

Thank you for purchasing
this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.