Terrible Victorian Terraces and Towering Tenements (Life in 1800s East End London)
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- Опубліковано 6 тра 2023
- Victorian working class housing was a dirty hovel of a terrace house or a high rise tenement. By the end of the 1800s widespread recognition of the social ills of slum dwellings resulted in authorities building 'model buildings,' (tenement blocks) to accommodate Londoners, whilst rows and rows of small 'two up, two down' houses, which lacked even basic sanitation, ventilation and light were slowly being demolished and cleared away. Standards varied, but many offered cleaner, brighter rooms to rent than old and dirty terraces, but residents of both still lived cheek by jowl.
Octavia Hill was a philanthropist landlady, who documented her efforts to improve the appalling state of housing. She was a social reformer who took a keen interest in bettering the lives of London's poor, and did much to bring about social housing. This is her account of daily life for residents living in one of these East End housing blocks, as well as her concerns for how the poor would adapt to living in tenements - for, despite the wretched condition of London's terraces, they at least allowed for the separation of trouble makers and undesirables, instead of being grouped together under one roof.
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▶️ Victorian Slum Landlords and Nightmare Tenants: • Slum Landlords and Nig...
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▶️ Edwardian Documentaries (Playlist): • Edwardians
▶️ Worst Jobs in Victorian History (Playlist): • Worst Jobs in Victoria...
▶️ Criminal Past (Playlist): • Criminal Past
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Credits: Narration - markmanningmedia.com
CC BY - Creel with sprat by Georges Jansoone; Dwellings for the Working Classes, Peabody Square Shadwell London, A convalescing old lady asking a health visitor if she has recovered, A London school-board capture, Dwellings of the poor in Bethnal Green, Sanitary law and practice a handbook for students of public health by Wellcome Collection
CC BY-SA - A sickly pigeon in the window of the ruin of an uninhabited tenement house by Ivonna Novicka; Tenement Building, Old Bethnal Green Road, E2 by Christopher Hilton via geograph.org.uk; The Boundary Estate centres on Arnold Circus by Clem Rutter; Victorian high-rise Chequer Street, part of the Peabody Trust housing development for artisans off Whitecross Street by Alan Murrary Rust via geograph.org; Bedroom 1900s house by James Petts, Evelina Mansion SE5 by Danny Robinson; Laundry copper by Prioryman; The Old Nichols 1890 and 2016 by Jason C. McDonald
#VictorianLondon #VictorianDocumentary #VictorianLondonDocumentary #VictorianEraDocumentary #VictorianLife #Victorian #19thCentury #VictorianEra #VictorianSlums #HistoryDocumentary #FactFeast
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▶Slum Landlords and Nightmare Tenants in Victorian London: ua-cam.com/video/JR2bqjCkjh8/v-deo.html
This channel inevitably makes me appreciate my humble home, and reassures me that actual history is not vanishing from our view just yet
Thank you Brian! I'm happy you think the content has value.
The present government seem to want us to move back to the 1900s.
@@FactFeast it absolutely does.😎👍
People who forget history are doomed to repeating it.🤦🏻♂️🤦🏿♂️
Sadly Dirty Hovels still exist as Landlords are still greedy and will leave their tenants in danger with all sorts of housing problems,
2023 there's an estimated 1m+ homes unfit for human habitation, Its like some people forget the past and life repeats itself in new generations.
I hope this will change for the better and not the worse in the next few decades
Another really enjoyable. History lesson. I adore this channel. Thank you for Brightling my Sunday evening.
You're joking right? Soon enough there will be no more British in london. You invited decay and rot inside.
I'm sure Blackrock will treat you better.
The present government seem to be leading a charge back to these inglorious years.
all we've done is eradicate visible poverty today- new doors and painted window frames don't solve the poverty problem, they simply disguise it
because behind those doors are the some of the same kind of problems in this video , downtrodden, dysfunctional, poorly educated people , alcohol, drug problems , overcrowding
no hope, no direction & a tawdry boring life of little expectation inside a hamster wheel existence .
things are not that much better today when you scratch beneath surface.
Public baths, once a week if you were lucky(to bath) because of no bathrooms. Bagwashes to leave your washing to pick up later(if you could afford it), outside toilet with a pile of torn up newspaper for toilet paper.
One cold tap on a Belfast sink in the corner of a kitchen, no hot water, so water had to be boiled to wash, cook etc. Coal fires, no central heating.
Gas lights in Victorian homes. Lighting was by gas before electricity was installed in houses
I can remember when grandma had electricity installed during the 1950s.
Are you referring to laundry when you say bagwashes?
You now need at least £1 million to live in one of those old hovels.
Awesome! I love listening to these while i do chores
I hope 21 minutes helps! Thank you.
These places carried on well past the Victorian era. My mother lived in a single room in the 1930s with her 5 sisters and parents. No hot water, and the toilet was outside, 3 floors down.
It’s hard to imagine how tough life was then and yet it wasn’t many generations ago.
My father was born and grew up in Peabody Mansions on Cherry Garden Street in Bermondsey. My abiding memory was on enormous landings and tiny three room flats. My Grandma and her youngest son were living there, still in in the 1960s.
Six people were living there until the post second war period.
What a warning to the social disaster of the building of blocks of flats in the 60's. A social disaster .
The slums in London could be divided into several different groups.
●Pre industrial revolution housing (10:00 for example), they dated from before the massive growth of London.
●Older larger houses, that were originally built for respectable working class or middle class residents, but had later been divided into single rooms for the poor. (Fournier St/Wilkes St/Princelet St between Brick Lane and Commercial Street in Whitechapel are good examples of originally middle class house's that were slums by the late 19th century with several families in each house).
●Terraced houses that were quite well built, and had been designed for single families, but had later been divided into one or two rooms per family. Built from the beginning of the industrial revolution onwards. (0:40 is a typical example of higher quality terraced houses).
●Terraced and back to back houses that were built badly from the start, using poor quality materials and were badly maintained by the landlords. They were built from the beginning of the industrial revolution. They often had just a single room per floor and some had no backyards and they were built in narrower, more densely built streets and courtyards. (1:07 is a courtyard, built as a cul de sac at a right angle from the wider main street, the entrance would have been an alley or a narrow archway).
The list above is not exhaustive but gives an idea of the housing available to the poor in Victorian times.
Very informative and thank you for taking the time to write. It’s much appreciated.
As a child in east London i had a friend whose house had an outside toilet, a garden bomb shelter, and still had gas light fittings on the walls.
This is weird, but I had a friend who lived in Berkeley, CA in the 1980's in a small Victorian house that only had a toilet on the back porch in a shed, none inside! I think she said there was a bathtub in the house, just no toilet.
Imagine carrying water all the way to the top floor!
Thirsty work!
What are you talking about? They had indoor plumbing!🤦
Thank you. A new look at the life of working clases. The comparison between house, low ride and high rise was particularly interesting. Kudos as always on the presentation
.
Thank you! I enjoyed her story of life in a tenement block, and also found it an interesting comparison and take on what she thought the future might hold for residents of block and terrace alike.
Renting a room in a Eastend terraced house with 2 up 2 down....hey, I did that back in my Uni years and that wasn't THAT long ago 😅
I'm sure that wasn't cheap?
This was most interesting .I am used to hearing about the clearing of tenements from the inter war years up to the 60s but not about them at the beginning of their lives ,when they were obviously considered quite an improvement in many respects .I can quite see how a tiny 2 up 2 down with a little yard would be preferable to many though .
Yes, I can understand her reasoning about them being considered more suitable for family life (if they were in good condition). It's just a shame they were so bad in terms of sanitary standards.
Even if you didn't have a pot to *iss in (usually kept under the bed) it was most important to keep your front doorstep spotless, or you would be gossiped about by the neighbours for being slovenly lol.
Very true! The lack of a well scrubbed front doorstep was often noted as one of the signs of a 'rough neighbourhood.'
@@FactFeast I love social history. People were so poor back then but tried to make the best of it by keeping up standards.
l forgot to mention the knocker-up man that used to rap on people's windows to wake up the husbands to go to work every morning. Also, the coalman that used to deliver once a week and the Jewish door 2 door salesmen selling their goods.
I'm glad you enjoy the history! You can find the knocker-up man mentioned in a few of my videos. See 'Edwardian Lady who Lived with a Poor Family,' for example. Thank you for your comment.
That's an impressive property! I discovered it has a website. The value of such a building today, in that location, is surely astronomical. Thank you for your kind words.
in England we didn't ever have tenements. they were just called blocks of flats. tenements is an American term for what was built in America. don't assume all terraces and back to back houses were slums. I was brought up in a house ,one room downstairs and a cellarhead kitchen .outside toilet and two bedrooms upstairs. three kids in one bedroom and baby in cot in with mum and dad. no bathroom. tin bath in front of fire. we loved living there. we didn't know any different .everyone was the same. dad worked and mum worked part time and we were kept clean and well dressed and well fed. we only moved when we grew too big for one bedroom. we moved to a council house on estate just been built. with more bedrooms bathroom and inside toilet .that was beginning of 60s don't assume all houses were slums. most were well kept and were loving homes of hard working people doing the best they could.
They weren't slums in the 60s, but they sure as all hell were some 70 years before that
He's reading an account of an "Octavia Hill" who lived there in the late 1800s. She wrote it and he's just reading it. Also this is referring to the late 1800s and over a hundred years before you did. I'm sure many improvements had been made in that 100 years.
Err there where tenements in Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow and yes, they was actually called tenement buildings. Tenement is an English word.
Wot @terrychapman said! Notably, 'tenement' isn't (necessarily) a dirty word in Scotland, where they might best be compared to the later mansion blocks of the capital. While not normally having lifts or concierges, they were purpose built, usually to a fairly high standard, and 'respectable' - which isn't to say they didn't have their 'ups and downs', but they are nowadays mostly considered highly desirable (and commanding commensurate prices). This in contrast to the High - Rise tower blocks 'thrown up' with such enthusiasm by Scotland's municipal authorities in the '60's and '70's; these were a far worse fit for the climate (both literal and social) of Scotland than they were for places like Toulouse for which such housing had been originally envisioned... though it has to be said they were still a huge improvement on (for example) the rookeries of Glasgow's Gorbals, by the early '60’s probably Europe's most crowded slum and notorious for the kind of street~gangs more normally associated with the USA.
In contrast with Scotland, in Ireland 'tenement', at least in popular parlance, _is_ most definitely a by~word for sub~standard and slum housing, although having come to be most specifically assosciated with the Georgian terraces for which Dublin is now famed, (even as Limerick, Ireland's third city, is overlooked!) and for which, like Edinburgh, it is celebrated. These terraces were built when Dublin was "the second city of the empire" (yah boo sucks, Glasgow!) but after the Act of Union in 1800 when the gentry baled for London and the city was allowed to run down, the grand Georgian housing was sub~divided (and _'sub_ - sub' - divided!) and deteriorated into uncared - for (by their landlords) multi - family batteries, and history records Dublin as having 19th Century Europe's worst slums. While this neglect can be perhaps be written off as a shameful but predictable symptom of absentee landlords and life in a city inhabited by a people overlooked, if not actively disdained, by Empire, it's worth remembering that the UK's urban poor pretty universally had it bad. The difference with Dublin was that the neglect would only continue, first under the Free State and then in the Republic. Despite the best efforts of a few progressive voices on (the _then_ ) Dublin Corporation, notably City Architect Herbert Sims, who were responsible for the building of some of the city's 'actually - pretty - decent' municipal housing stock in the run up to the Second World War, the Georgian Terraces and Squares on the fringes of the City Centre were allowed by succesive landlords and by political oversight to decay to the point of becoming structurally dangerous until a couple of fatal building collapses in the mid '60's caused the outcry that would finally bring about a sea - change in how these buildings, these reminders of British rule, were seen. However while what remains of this 'housing' - today one would have to be a literal millionaire to live in one of these houses! - is all but fetishized, it would actually take a great deal of campaigning in the face of enormous official indifference before these buildings would be seen as potential assets to be cherished as opposed to mere nuisances, liabilities to be cleared away in favour of tawdry office blocks and (as - per - usual) cheaply built, poorly thought out public housing...
They call them tenements in Scotland.
Octavia Hill was instrumental in setting up the National Trust . There is a beautiful memorial bench dedicated to her memory in the woods below Ide Hill nr Sevenoaks in Kent . Those woods are filled with beautiful Bluebells at the moment ( May ) ✌️
It sounds tranquil and picturesque!
@@FactFeast Yes it is a lovely spot with a wonderful view over the Weald . Nearby Toy's Hill was one of the first National Trust acquisitions. For anyone reading this there is a carpark at Toy's Hil giving access to beautiful countryside and a circular walk that takes you past Octavia's Seat at Ide Hill .
Octavia is buried at nearby Crockenhill .
Wow. What these folk had to endure…and how we whinge nowadays at the slightest thing…humbling.
Always find these to be as informative as they are thought provoking, thank you for making them, born and raised east London so its really nice to hear more about the history of where I live
It’s great to know you find value in this. I think her story of everyday life in tenement blocks is really interesting.
Thanks F.F.🖤
Thank you!! I really appreciate it.
I lived in the east end in 1995 you can feel the history there when u walk the streets, especially Brick lane
Yes, there are still a lot of Victorian (and earlier) buildings standing. A walk around Spitalfields and Whitechapel is worth it for the history.
The conditions which drove people into service as a better life, makes you think.
And the army or navy.
It's remarkable how current this seems. I have been lower income all my life. I have never minded not having the things that many others have or living frugally. But, I always wished that I could find a low income area that wasn't rife with disgusting behavior. Finally I was able to buy a duplex house and was determined to be the best landlord I could possibly be. I kept the rent low (lower than any other in the area) I gave all kinds of perks like half rent at Christmas and garden space. I bought people furniture and helped with utility bills. I had a vision that I could find a decent small family that could use a break- and maintain a friendly neighborly relationship with. Every single renter I had was rife with 'issues '. They ended up making being a landlord not worth the aggravation especially since I occupied the other apartment. I have become very jaded in regards to lower income people. It's a mentality I want nothing to do with.
Low income ppl are low quality ppl 100% they don't know the basics when it comes to cleanliness and hygiene
the British working classes are a feral bunch , not all by any means, but simply far far too many are just ill conceived dragged up morons.
its a perpetual cycle courtesy of the welfare state mentality which as all but ruined working class Britain .
the country is still a backward mess, even back in victorian times when we ruled the world much of the rest of the world knew very little of the wretched
squalid poverty that infested the working class Britain.
the UK is still very backward & its treatment of the poor/lower classes hasn't changed & the council fitting new doors and painted window frames doesn't solve poverty in any way, it simply disguises the shocking living standards in this dreary country
You had the best intention take care
It’s similar to my experience too, unfortunately.
Thank sir for wonderful cultural documentary channel. Honestly with every new video I learn new information and new vocabularies. Tenement is type of building shared by multiple dwelling typically with flats or apartments on each floor shared entrance stairway acces . It’s common on British isles particularly in Scotland. Victorian terrace originally built in 1855 as transformed into three energy off terraced home to create living refurbishment lab . Best wishes for you your family friends.
Thank you for your comment KHATOON.
Sadly greedy landlords wanting to put us back to this. 🤬
An interesting one of your videos, would be on the prefabs built during and after WW2.
I have lived in a victorian terraced house, and most all of them once updated with inside toilets and central heating. They are far better than many new build first time buyer homes.back then and still a few families now a small house that is likely to lead insanitary and slum like conditions I read when over crowded, in uk victorians had larger families,nowdays we have contraception, shame we are losing the knowledge that it was not all the buildings fault but the amount of ocupants and the lack of facilities plumbing and heating in the building, the victorian terraces i know do have many windows i read ot so i usa tennaments etc..
With modern plumbing and sanitary fittings I believe a lot would have made decent enough homes. I imagine some were so decayed that it was economically more effective to clear en mass.
Yes
Catching up on videos I missed lovely to hear❤
Super! I hope you enjoy listening 😊
Wow I gotta take a shower every single day, twice when I work out 😯😯😯 really makes you think how we take these hot showers for granted, especially having central AC/heater , wow no AC on a hot day 😯😯😯 people back then, were a whole lot stronger back then 😤
Any flat on the East End cost a LOT now……
Yaaay Fact Feast does more Victorian London content!
I hope it was an interesting watch for you CoconutSmarties.
@@FactFeast Always. I absolutely love learning about Victorian era London, and live on City Road (EC1) so I always imagine how it must've looked over a century ago when I'm walking home from work. Most of the old buildings are still standing there. And Octavia was incredible - after your last video on her I made a little 'pilgrimage' to the once "degraded, lawless" building in Marylebone which she managed and turned around. As you might imagine, it's now extremely expensive and sought after, with nice mini palms planted outside - facing her Blue Plaque. How times change, and not always for the worse.
Time changes much. I think she'd be amazed to see property prices in London today even for modest houses, let alone in Marylebone.
Very interesting video
Thanks! I'm glad you're interested in East End history.
Worth a fortune now
Thanks for the vid!
I’m grateful for your support! 🙂
At least there weren't drug addicts lying all over the streets and standing like zombies the way there are these days.
Fyi. They definitely had addicts - in the USA at that time - people were given cocaine & morphine from their doctors- many many addicts were around. They were hidden awzy in houses etc but they were there. Tons of men who had been in the civil war (on both sides) were terribly addicted to morphine/heroin. This is noy a new issue in the USA.
The problem is that much of the USA refuses to look at the drug problem as a Public Health issue & keep looking at it as a morality issue (as they have been doing for over 100 years) which doesn’t make sense as by the time someone is addicted their addiction overcomes their morality.
you for real?? you no nothing
To think on those tenements and in those years no lifts.Having to walk up, and down all those many flights of stairs with no electric lighting for the old and the lame and women with little children.Dear G-d how on earth did they manage to have to live in such buildings.
British Horror 😢
"Old English" lol! Gotta love the way that when one does it oneself, it's 'documenting', but when the neighbours do it, it's plain old gossip! To be fair she does a good job of recording the minutiae of East End life, as well portraying both how entertaining and how poisonous gossip can be!
I can't help thinking how I would hate to have this woman, this 'Karen's Karen', if you like, as a neighbour, let alone a landlady! And yet I have to grudgingly admit, she's not a million miles off the mark in pointing out that, yes, you can (physically) engineer out a lot of your social ills by providing decent housing for the Working Classes, but that alone will only take you so far - without a modicum of authority and the retention of a lot of nowadays derided 'conservative values', the presence of a few bad apples and everything goes all to hell! Having lived a great deal of my life in both Council housing (some of it in Bethnal Green and in Hackney - specifically, the estate at the epicentre of the 2013 riots, fwiw) and in tiny, squalid privately rented bedsits, I can attest to the importance of both. At least, unlike many "Big 'C' " Conservatives though, this lady was willing to live amongst those she pontificated about - but then, no telly in those days, how else could she have gotten her latest episode of 'Eastenders'× ?!!
One things for sure - like the poor, gossips you will always have with you!
×'Eastenders' - for decades one of Britains 2 most popular soap operas, the Capital's rival to Manchester/The North's longer running 'Coronation Street'. The UK is notable for it's consistent preference for Soaps _set_ amongst the Working Classes, on the part of viewers of _all_ classes. While Coronation Street is characterized by occasional levity, at times almost approaching sitcom, 'Eastenders' is marked by its almost total lack of comic relief, its viewers preferring to take their dose of vicarious misery 'straight, no chaser'!
💚
Thanks Lynne. Much appreciated!
t buildings reminds me of the flats i live in right now!
Tiny and brightly coloured?
@@FactFeast they could be brighter, but the community sense is very true. we're always overhearing things
Well, not much has changed in Torry, Aberdeen, Scotland ... 🙃
1800 looks advanced , Like to see., 1600,1700 closer to the hidden history. of London.
I truly think that the past is coming to bite us where the sun doesn’t shine with the “woke” politics and companies. Increasing inflation, low wages, high food prices and gas prices, and increase taxes are causing more homelessness for people living in America, and abroad. It’s sad that we continue to vote for people who don’t really care about their constituents, but we MUST do what we can to help each other.
After my husband and myself lost our mobile home to a fire, becoming homeless and living out of commercial trucks, and living in a 1* hotel for 11+ years ( we were grateful to have a roof over our heads, a shower, cooking items, but we could’ve done without the cockroaches and mice), we finally were able to buy our first home. It’s 1,400 square feet, but it’s home, and we thank God every single day for the home, my husband’s job, our health, our 9 fur babies, our car, and for the many blessings that God has blessed us with.
Not sure what 'woke politics' has to do with inflation and low wages..
I'm afraid you're right
I think its sad when there are decent good people who buy a house fix it up and try to be fair and decent landlords..only to get tennants of a low income and bad attitude trash it the house and take advantage of the generosity of the owner..these sorts make the rest of the nicer low income folks look bad..im low income but I try to be a good renter and leave my rentals as clean as the day i move in ive dealt with slumlords..but would like to have a fair and decent landlord for a change..it goes both ways sadly .. nightmare tennants and landlords are nothing new 😢
Photos look like London under khan.
And all the time the answer was staring them in the face. An answer we have, thanks to our wise and benevolent leaders, fully embraced...uncontrolled and unfiltered immigration.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you Miji 🙂
Not just BRITISH horror, all big and moderate cities had vast areas like this. This is why the world relies on taxes, to remedy such blight.
Obviously they don't otherwise we wouldn't have them
These are old school projects
According to Labour leader Clement attlee the only reason the slum house and was removed from East and south London was because they feared got the whole of East London South London was on the verge of turning sides towards Sir Oswald Mosley. He stated in his autobiography as well as Michael Foot, but when it came to economics Mosley was ahead of them all and if not for WWII that would have been a democratic fascist revolution in Britain. At leave and says it's one of the reasons why he was forced to move out of East London.
KEPT THEMSELVES TO THEMSELVES...IF POSSIBLE ?😢 ...NOW , RUNNING OUT OF TIME....THE MODEL ❤😊 ..THE LOTUS EATERS EQUATIVE??? 😊
0:15. Evelina Mansions, Camberwell, London.
Social housing sold off and each is yours now for c. £500,000.
Another failed social engineering attempt by Thatcher and the Tories and we're paying the price for it now throughout society.
Doing chores. That leads to self starvation and horrible death.