Victorian London

#2: Victorian Burials

~ Courtney K. ~ 5 Comments

This actually came as a shock to me while I was searching through the vast list of The Victorian Dictionary website and spotted the headline: Death & Dying. From the previous blog post, I read about the overcrowded state that London was in during the Victorian Era due to the migration of citizens from all over England settling down in the modernizing, vast city. Frankly, I did not even think about what happened past all of the disease that would be transferred from close living quarters of people, especially in the impoverished districts of London. Let alone the devious nature surrounding burials that churches were trying to shove under the carpets.

Death was, and still is, a rather expensive investment. Only the rich could afford a singular plot of land for a grave and a headstone out in the spacious countryside, “Wealth in London helps a man after death” (Bartlett 94).  Rather than providing proper burials to those living in the city of London the churches would provide mass burials down in the basements of the churches. Tens of thousands of bodies lying to rot beneath the feet of worshipers. The church collected the money from grieving families, carted the bodies to the cellars, and collected donations from the worshipers whom contracted diseases from the bodies beneath the floorboards.

Victorian London thus brought overcrowded to an entirely new level in body count surrounding the living and the dead. With disease on the rise and not much room left in the basements of these churches, disposal of the older corpses were deposited into the Thames until quicklime was rendered a more practical method of disposing of older corpses under the noses of the House of Commons. And with whatever land was accessible by plots surrounding the church, the ground was used for mass graves. Quite a horrific way of burying the dead in one of the most famous modernizing cities in the entire world. Yet, the church capitalizing on the deaths of those in the impoverished class expresses the corruption slithering around during the Victorian Era. The lack of heath and safety regulations regarding the burying of human remains during this time period was slim-to-none, and allowed for the actions of the Church to get away with robbing the people of their money and the deceased of a plot of land. And those who could not even afford buy a coffin, let alone bury the dead, could only leave the deceased within the homes with family members, to decompose for days on end (Sims 1883). The collaboration of these numerous factors (overcrowded living, corruption, and poverty) played a key role in the eruption of disease and the widespread death and miasma surrounding the city of London. A shocking yet intriguing section to happen upon in The Victorian Dictionary, and an absolutely horrifying time to live, and die, in the history of London.

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Works Cited:

Jackson, Lee. “Victorian London – Publications – Social Investigation/Journalism – London by Day and Night, by David W.Bartlett, 1852.” Dictionary of Victorian London. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.

—. “Victorian London – Publications – Social Investigation/Journalism – How the Poor Live, by George R. Sims, 1883.” Dictionary of Victorian London. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.

abortion in London

~ Ashley Schluter ~ 3 Comments

Abortions – opinions
“OF all the sins, physical and moral, against man and God, I know of none so utterly to be condemned as the very common one of the destruction of the child while yet in the womb of the mother. So utterly repugnant is it, that I can scarcely express the loathing with which I approach the subject” (Gardner, 1894).  This quote is one that we could easily hear about this topic today, anywhere in the world. I had not known before that abortion had been such a hot topic for such a long time. I will not tell you my own views as I want to remain unbiased, however, most people do have an opinion on the matter.  “Jardien * (* Jardien, “Etude Medico-1ega1e sur l’infanticide.) reports that in thirty-four cases of criminal abortion, where their history was known, twenty-two were followed, as a consequence, by death. In fifteen cases, necessarily produced by physicians, not one was fatal” (Gardner, 1894). The author of this article is clearly against abortion, even in extreme cases he offers a secondary choice. With this statistic though, she offers a scientific reason why. The maternal death rate for abortions was high. This statistic references both clinical abortion and criminal abortion. That is another interesting fact I learned about the topic. I didn’t know that the Mother could be charged as a criminal for non-clinical abortions. I also learned, before these other facts, a little bit of the history of abortions and infanticide. “At Athens it was particularly girls and those of the inferior classes that  were condemned to death. The ancient Norwegians followed the same custom with regard to females when there were too many in the same family.
On the coast of Guinea, in Peru, and among the Hottentots, in a case of twin pregnancy, the feeblest was put to death, and in preference, the girl, when the sexes were different.
In Madagascar ,and New Granada and Greenland, when the mother died during or after confinement, her living child was buried with her.
In case of famine or misery in China, New Holland, Kamtchatka, they killed their children, as they formerly did in Athens” (Gardner, 1894). I learned a lot about this very touchy subject. Although it has not changed my own views it has surly lent a much deeper connection to the recent events of two very separate time periods. To have a hot topic which spans so vastly over the years is fascinating to me. I find this important because it lends a feeling of how things have and haven’t changed in the world. It also gives insite into how many places treated and viewed children, women, and body rights.

Gardner, Augustus. “Victorian London – Sex – Abortion – Opinions.” Victorian    London – Sex – Abortion – Opinions. 1894. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.

 

#1: Introductory Blog

~ Courtney K. ~ 2 Comments

My name is Courtney Kiesecker,  I am a senior graduating in December and am double majoring in English and Asian Studies. I was interesting in taking this class not just because it was one of the very limited English major electives that I haven’t already taken already, but because I absolutely enjoy the culture that had spawned out of Victorian London. I was torn between studying abroad in London and Japan last semester, but ultimately went ahead and studied in Tokyo to improve my Japanese language skills. After graduation I hope to go back to Japan to teach English to Japanese students ranging from primary to secondary education.

From the Robinson reading, I gathered many of the broad topics of poverty, expansionism, industrialism, the division between the social classes and so on that is typically taught in history classes and throughout readings of novels like Dickens, Doyle, the Bronte sisters, and the Brownings’ poetry. But what I happened to find interesting was the distinct separation of the social class through the massive body of water, the Thames River. That physical, geographical representation of social diversion is essential to the theme of space that we had talked about on the first day of class. But where poverty was, the industrialized Victorian Era’s bridges to connect the north and the south brought about industry and banks. But not only did poverty play a part in poor living conditions, but now with the introduction of industry, including heavy industrial industry creating poor health decisions that would cause harder living conditions. And because of the heavy concentration surrounding the Thames River, the overcrowded nature of London, the city that had a concentrated population boom, was another key part of Victorian London’s decline in living conditions. The great innovations that were brought about in London society to bring the city into the modern era also held a negative impact on the livelihood of London citizens.

Introduction

~ Shianne ~ 2 Comments

Hello there Professor Swafford and fellow classmates! My name is Shianne (pronounced shy-ann). I am a senior, and an English major. I’m very excited to get to know all of you and learn about Victorian London. I have never been to London, or any part of Europe for that matter, but will be travelling there this winter for a couple weeks. I am very excited to get to visually compare what we will be learning in this course with my own experiences in London this coming winter.

I found the reading to be a really great overview of Victorian London; I know very little about the history and geography of London and found this article to be a helpful start. I (unsurprisingly) learned that London, like many large cities, was divided into “rich” and “poor” areas–the North and West being the wealthy, safe areas, and the South and East being the poor, and more dangerous living and working areas. However, I found interesting that the introduction of various forms of transportation, as well as Acts created to stabalize low costs of transportation (i.e The Cheap Trains Act of 1883), allowed for lower working class London residents to move into safer, surrounding areas such as West Ham and Walthamstow. The accessiblility of transportation to non-wealthy residents feels very progressive for its time. Furthermore, the growth and success of charity and city-funded public places (i.e. museums, parks, munipal housing) is also incredibly progressive, especially when London was just being built from the ground up less than two hundred years earlier. I found it admirable that municipal housing for the poor is not a new concept, and has been existant in large cities for nearly two centuries. I was also incredibly impressed to learn how quickly railways, both above ground and below, were assembled. In just 25 years, London revolutionized transportation and working life by the addition of the railway system.

 

Dictionary of Victorian London: Prisons – Carly Silk

~ Carly Silk ~ 5 Comments

While traversing the Dictionary of Victorian London online, I decided to take a further look at the Victorian prison system, specifically how crime was dealt with by the public, and how prisoners themselves were treated.

I found it very interesting that seemingly very extreme lengths were taken by the public to ensure that they did not run afoul of criminals, to the point where advertisements were made which displayed such clothing articles as the “Patent Antigarotte Collar,” a device placed around the neck to prevent one from being strangled.

garrotte101

While the use or even invention of this device may seem comical at first, it’s quite alarming to imagine a person walking the streets wearing this, or that criminals choking people was apparently as commonplace to even warrant this invention. I also took a look at the recorded ages of prisoners in London prisons, and was surprised to find that most were between the ages of fifteen and twenty, and that there was a single prisoner being held who was between the ages of five and ten. One can only wonder what a small child did to warrant being arrested and imprisoned. Lastly, I decided to research if there were any rehabilitation programs available to prisoners who were awaiting release, and discovered that there was a program for boys between the ages of thirteen and fifteen who were of sound mind and in prison for three years or less, called the “Cornwall Training Ship.” Whether or not this reformatory taught young men how to become sailors or work on ships I could not discover, but it would appear that not much help was given to adult prisoners after their release, as I could find nothing except the issuing of parole tickets. Interestingly, I couldn’t find any information on female prisoners, meaning that nothing on them was documented, or that there were so few female prisoners that it did not make it into this dictionary.

All information taken from “The Victorian Dictionary.” Jackson, Lee. Web. 26 August 2015.

Working Women in Victorian London

~ Daniela ~ 4 Comments

The Victorian London Dictionary site is an incredibly addicting resource. Before I settled on my topic, I found myself skimming through a ton of interesting and engaging material. I was particularly interested in the roles of women during this era of rapid progress. I stumbled upon an article defining and examining the lives of working girls. The term ‘City-Work Girls’ strikes me as patronizing because I am a modern reader, but overall I consider this article quite contemporary in its depiction of women considering the time period.

There were several aspects of this article I found to be important to our understanding of Victorian Literature and the physical makeup of London. . The author begins by educating the reader about how important working girls are to the economic well being of London. Over one hundred trades would have ceased to be profitable or would cease to exist, without working girls. That is a pretty powerful statement. While I did know women worked as book binders during this time, I had no idea they held positions making surgical instruments or spectacles. The various job titles the article highlights seem so romantic to me. I am sure it caused a ton of migraines but working as a ‘perfumer’ sounds so lovely. What impressed me the most about this article was that even though women had only begun to spread out and occupy such jobs, there was an interest in unionizing and equal pay. Early on the narrator states that these girls are, “forming Trade Unions and making friends with workers of the other sex, who begin to think that if the work is the same, the pay should be equal.” I couldn’t believe this was written in 1889! There is even contact information for girls who wish to unionize or learn more about it.

The City-Work Girls article is not really about native London girls, but focuses more on the country girls who the author says, “daily flock into our Modern Babylon from small towns and country villages.” Due to their lack of familial support and experience, most employers refuse to hire them or only employ them temporarily. This discrimination by geographical origin is something that reminded me of the division between North and South London, yet it takes place within North London through the divides between native Londoners and country girls. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice came to mind when I envisioned these young country girls.

The article transitions into the dangers these girls face in London. The term ‘slack time’ gets thrown around a lot and is used to describe the lay off period that plunges these City-Work Girls into what appears to either resemble modern dating or is a higher form of prostitution. There is a subterranean society in London in which, “The girls fall into no trap, for the men help to eke out their wages, and add to the brightness of their lives by tickets for theatres, visits to music-halls, novelettes, and gifts of jewellery and dresses.” The article goes as far as to document and relay to its readers a sting operation of sorts in which they sent a commissioner into a tenement house that regularly houses these City-Work Girls! I thought that was hilarious. The commissioner witnessed the girls spending nights with their sweethearts and going out with them on dates. The article gives his account of two girls who “received money and presents from these young men, besides being treated by them to places of entertainment and to outings.” The article also notes that this particular housing establishment “is especially recommended by the clergy of the district.” I found this article to be entertaining. It almost reads like Cosmopolitan Magazine. A the same time it indicates what I perceive to be some early attempts to examine or perhaps even erode, the Madonna/Whore complex because these girls are describe as girls you would encounter everyday. It states, “This hidden trade has recruits among all classes of young women in London, from the pretty, neatly dressed little governess who trips into the precincts of the Law Courts on Saturday night, to the flower-girl who would swear until black in the face if she heard herself accused of anything so nefarious.” I can’t imagine finding a more controversial article but I really hope I do this semester.

 

“http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications3/newtoilers-16.htm”

Daniela Velez

~ Daniela ~ 4 Comments

 

Hey everyone, My name is Daniela Velez and this is my senior year. I am an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing. I was on track to study abroad at Middlesex this semester so taking this class is sort of bittersweet, but I don’t really regret it because I would’ve been crying over my loan debt after graduation. I’ve always been a little obsessed with London because I love the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde’s A Picture of Dorian Gray. Most of what I know about Victorian London comes from fiction I’ve read and classes I’ve taken surrounding the economic aspects of industrialization and the social/cultural consequences of it.

Robinson accurately described the attitude taken towards these consequences. He states, “The grinding poverty of Dickensian London was real and vicious, yet in many ways the city was improving.” In general it was improving – much like technology in the twenty first century has improved our lives – yet it was only benefiting the upper classes and wealth seems to always be built on the backs of the lower and middle class. I have a feeling repetition throughout history will be a prevalent theme this semester. I was surprised to learn about the development of government and public works, like the establishing of parks, museums, and slum clearance. However, this occurred in the 1850s but, “south London was smelly and – with its prisons, asylums and dodgy taverns – it had a bit of a reputation,” since the 1700s.

 

 

Works Cited

Robinson, Bruce. “London: ‘A Modern Babylon’” BBC News. BBC, 11 Feb. 2011. Web. 25 Aug. 2015.