Queen Victoria came to the English throne in 1837. The River Thames was the wide meandering river then, just as it had been for centuries. Twice a day the River ebbed and flowed as far up as Teddington.
The Victorian age saw many improvements, including the umbrella, flushing toilets, letter boxes, the world’s first subway and improved roads and signs. Author Liza Picard’s book “Victorian London” gives a portrait of the great city, 1840-1870. Let us take a look now of what used to be. Or, maybe, after all, human nature remains pretty much the same.
The London letter-carriers wore a splendid scarlet tunic and a tall black hat. There were 10 collections daily from local sorting offices and pillar boxes beginning at 9 a.m.. Londoners could anticipate 12 deliveries, one for each hour during the day. The first pillar-boxes were installed in Fleet Street having been invented by Anthony Trollope in 1855.
Southwark Town Hall was demolished in the 1860s. In its cellars were found crates of petrified plum puddings addressed to the troops at Sebastopol during their year-long siege of 1854-1855. Was this one of the first late postal deliveries?
It was an era when a child could be sold, yes sold, for 12 pounds. Whether the parents were alcoholics, destitute, uncaring or for any other reason that they wanted to get rid of their child, they could legally do so. The Poor Law Act of 1601 was deemed too lenient and in 1834, the law was drastically altered. The paupers could not continue to sponge off their richer neighbors. Families were separated into male paupers and female paupers. The workhouse was their last resort.
Sadistic masters ran each workhouse with cruelty and disinterest The food was scant with bits of bread in a bowl of water and rotten milk. Three potatoes, often rotten, made up the dinner. There was a Central London District School for pauper children which had more than 1,000 pupils. Its most famous pupil was Charlie Chaplin.
Education and work were the twins which could lift anyone out of poverty and into respectability. A professional caller carried a long stick by which he would tap on the bedroom windows to awake men on cold dark mornings. Many men had working hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m..
The introduction of steam as a motive power and the rapid invention of machinery gave rise to many highly-skilled and highly-paid workmen. Ninety pounds was the annual salary of a post office junior clerk. Twenty-one pounds would buy an entire set of false teeth. Twenty pounds a year was the wage of a female shop assistant. Thirty thousand pounds was granted by Parliament for Prince Albert.
It was thought that the 1839 cholera epidemic was really the fault of the poor, for being dirty and smelly. The board of health ordered all streets, mews and alleys be cleaned every 24 hours.
Clothing, then as now, made the man. Both the clerks and the conductors of omnibuses wore silk toppers. A top hat might have been impractical, but it was what the middle-class wore. It was that every person of respectability would take care to appear in public in a good hat. Mi lady wore a dress with narrow shoulders and a narrow waist. Her day dresses had high necklines. Brocaded silk was fashionable. Shoes and ankle-length boots were made of satin or kid (soft leather). Both to be worn when playing the new sport of croquet on the lawn.
And thus a day in the life of a Victorian Londoner changed drastically during their lifetimes. Just as it does now. Just as it has ever been. Thus it always will be.