did victorians have homework

Victorian Children

Victorian Children and Life in Victorian Times

Victorian Schools Facts for Children

Although schools have always been around it wasn’t until the Victorian era that these were improved considerably and available for all children rich and poor. In 1870 a law was passed which made it mandatory for all children aged between 5-10 in Britain to attend school. This was similar to the system we use today of Monday-Friday however the leaving age was far lower.

The leaving age was then increased to 11 in 1893 however parents and employers of working children still prevented some of them from going to school as they were making money in the workplace and this is what they wanted.

Who Went To School?

When Queen Victoria initially came to the throne schools were for the rich. Children of the wealthy would go to fee paying schools where they would learn classical subjects such as Latin and Greek, study classical history such as Greek mythology and classical literature about Roman Gods and Goddesses .

Most children never went to school and struggled to read or write. Children from rich families were typically taught at home by a governess until the age of 10 years old. Wealthy boys from the age of 10 would then go to Public schools such as Rugby. Girls on the other hand continued to be educated at home.

The poor were initially introduced to school thanks to the ‘Sunday school’ introduction by Robert Raikes with about 1,250,000 children gaining an education with this method by 1831.

This was all turned on its head however in 1870 with the passing of the law and schools began to cater for the rich and poor alike. Various names were given to the schools including the British schools and the Ragged schools; the latter getting the name from the poor children attending the school.

An education system had started and what a stark contrast it was to the one we have today.

What Were Victorian Schools like?

Victorian Schools were certainly different to the schools we have of today. Within poor inner city areas there could be anywhere between 70 and 80 pupils in one class!

The schools were imposing buildings with high up windows to prevent children from seeing out of. Furthermore the walls of the schools lacked creativity and were often bare or had merely text for the children to look at.

Village schools typically had smaller classes however the age groups would be varied. It wasn’t uncommon to see a 6-year-old child working in the same classroom as a 10-year-old! Due to the size of the school classrooms it became regimented and adopted a significant amount of repetition. Usually this would consist of the classroom teacher writing on the chalkboard and the children copying this down. Teaching lacked creativity and it was a strict, uncomfortable place for children to begin their life education.

Typical Victorian Teacher:

In Victorian schools there were more female teachers than male ones with women occupying the majority of teaching roles. These women were often very strict and scary. The majority of female teachers were unmarried ladies and they were to be called ‘Miss’ at all times. The reason teaching consisted of mostly ladies was due to the pay scale. The salaries were poor and men could be earning more money elsewhere so this was left to the women. The rationale behind it been mostly unmarried women was that once married the women was expected to take care of the family.

The large majority of teachers did not have a college education. The role of teaching was something they picked up while on the job and every new lesson would be a challenge for them too.

The teaching was also passed on to some of the brightest children in some schools known as ‘Monitors’ where they would be taught by the Headmaster and would then pass this onto small groups of children as another way of educating. The Victorian teaching system was much different to the one we have today.

Victorian Punishment on Children in School:

Discipline was huge in the Victorian times and this was no different in schools. It wasn’t uncommon for children to be beat by canes made from birch wood. Boys were typically caned on their backsides whereas Girls would take the punishment on their legs or hands.

The reasons ranged from truancy right through to laziness in the classroom. The punishments were usually harsh and painful for children aged jus between 5-10.

Children who were slower than the rest within lessons were made to wear the shameful dunce hats and sit in the corner for over an hour. This was not only humiliating for the child but also not helping them get up to speed with the rest of the class. At the time there was no concept of children with learning difficulties and the uneducated classroom teachers would assume it was purely down to the laziness or lack of effort.

Amazingly children were reprimanded for using their left hand to write! This was seen as a punishable offence and they were made write with their right hand!

In terms of lessons they were basic but focused on the 3 R’s of Reading, wRiting & aRtmetic (Maths) with the introduction of religion to make this the not so fantastic four. The intial three were seen as the most important areas of education at the time and a vast majority of school time involved the learning of these.

The lessons were very different to lessons of today and usually involved copying down what the teacher wrote on the chalkboard. Furthermore children were expected to chant things out loud until they did so without mistakes. The times tables were commonly done in this way and children were expected to do this without any mistakes.

The importance of developing a fine hand in writing was high and alongside numbers this was seen as a crucial part of education.

School Hours:

The school days in Victorian times were structured slightly different to those of today. With the morning introduction session consisting of prayers and religious instructions. This was commonly followed by morning lessons running from 9am until 12pm. Following this was a lunch period when children usually went home. Similar to fathers who went home from work within the Victorian period the children would do the same.

Afternoon classes began at approximately 2pm and finished at 5pm. The school day in Victorian times was in the mould of the modern day 9-5pm. Children of a very young age were expected to maintain their best attention at all times and adhere to the rules of the school.

School Equipment:

Unlike today school equipment was very different in Victorian times. The most famous equipment from these times was how children were expected to write on slate instead of paper. The reason for this was simple; it was cost effective!

Paper was expensive so children used slates with slate pencils to complete their work. The letters were scratched into the slate with the pencil. This could be easily removed and usually was at the end of each lesson. It was standard procedure for the teacher to walk around the classroom checking the work of the pupils.

Once this was checked off they cleared their slate for the next lesson. No work was saved and children were expected to memorise the information they had taken in.

Before using slate boards the youngest children would practice writing letters in sand trays. This was a common activity for those in the 5-6 years old age bracket before they were ready to hold a slate pencil and write on a slate board.

For the teachers the most important equipment was the chalkboard and easel. The mainstay of any lesson was for children to copy information from the chalkboard onto slate board. The older children would begin to write in a book using a dip pen with black ink from an inkwell. There was a designated ‘Ink monitor’ whose job was to fill the inkwells each and every morning.

Victorians used a device called an Abacus for arithmetic which was their version of the modern day calculator. This enabled the children to conduct sums quickly and effectively.

Although Victorian schools are different in many ways to today’s classrooms some of the methods used help shape our education system today. Victorian schools are still used throughout Britain and remain an important part of history.

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<a href="https://victorianchildren.org/victorian-schools/">Victorian Schools Facts for Children</a>

Stewart, Suzy. "Victorian Schools Facts for Children". Victorian Children . Accessed on September 2, 2024. https://victorianchildren.org/victorian-schools/.

Stewart, Suzy. "Victorian Schools Facts for Children". Victorian Children , https://victorianchildren.org/victorian-schools/. Accessed 2 September, 2024.

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Victorian Age

Introduction.

Queen Victoria ruled the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for more than 63 years. The period of her reign, from 1837 to 1901, became known as the Victorian Age.

During the Victorian Age Britain became the largest empire that had ever existed. At its height, the British Empire covered about one-fifth of the Earth’s land mass and Victoria ruled a quarter of the world’s population. There were also great changes and developments within Britain in science and technology, culture, and daily life.

The Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700s, when machines were invented to make products more easily. The full effects of this revolution only started to be seen during Victoria’s reign. Steam-powered machinery meant that factories could produce items more quickly and efficiently than ever before. In particular, Britain became the world leader in iron and steel production. The country grew wealthy through international trade.

Steam power also led to dramatic changes in public transportation. When Victoria came to the throne, the railroads ran for only a few hundred kilometers. In the 1840s and early 1850s, 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of railroads were built all over Britain, giving people the opportunity to travel cheaply and easily around the country. Railroads also began to spread across other parts of the empire.

Age of Invention

The success of the steam engine and the other inventions that brought about the Industrial Revolution also led to many other new inventions. The Victorian era was one of great scientific and technological advances. In 1839 photography was invented and Victorians rushed to have their portraits taken. Queen Victoria herself was fascinated by the process of photography.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. Bicycles became popular in the 1870s, and in 1872 a bicycle known as the penny farthing was introduced. This had a large wheel at the front and a smaller one at the back. The design was used until about 1880, when a bicycle with equal-sized wheels was developed. The first cars appeared after 1885.

Gas lighting brightened homes, public buildings, and the streets. By 1879 Joseph Swan had invented an electric light bulb. By the 1880s steam power was being used in power stations to make electricity.

There were developments in medicine and health care, too. The most important of these was pioneered by Joseph Lister. Lister investigated the causes of infection that occurred after patients had undergone surgery. He realized that the infections were caused by bacteria . In 1870 he introduced methods of sterilizing surgical instruments and using antiseptics to keep hospitals clean. These methods dramatically reduced infections and deaths.

Charles Darwin was another important scientist of the era. His ideas about evolution forever changed the way scientists thought about all living things.

Many people in Victorian Britain wanted to find out more about the world around them. They went to lectures on science, history, religion, and exploration. In 1845 Parliament said that local councils could set up free libraries, and by the end of the era every large city had its own art gallery, museum, and concert hall.

Victoria and her husband Albert encouraged the arts and literature. Many great writers, including Charles Dickens , the Brontë sisters, and Robert Louis Stevenson, wrote during the Victorian Age. The great artistic movement of the age was the Pre-Raphaelites, which included artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais.

The extension of the railroads meant that travel was more affordable than it had ever been, as well as quicker. By the 1840s the working classes joined the upper classes on seaside holidays. At the seaside, people stayed in boarding houses, paddled, and walked on pleasure piers.

Victorian Life

In Britain in 1837, when Victoria came to the throne, the majority of people lived in villages and worked on the land. By the end of her reign most people lived in towns and worked in offices, shops, and factories. The population of Britain more than doubled in the Victorian era, creating a huge demand for food, clothing, and housing. Even more factories and machines were built to meet this demand, and new towns developed.

Most Victorian families were large and only the poorest families did not have servants. Children from rich families were taught at home by a governess. Boys were sent to boarding school around the age of 10. There were few schools for girls until the end of the Victorian era, so girls from wealthy families usually continued to be taught at home.

In early Victorian Britain most poor children did not attend school, so they grew up unable to read or write. Some went to free charity schools and Sunday schools, which were run by churches.

In 1844 Parliament passed a law stating that children working in factories must be given six half-days of schooling every week. In 1870 another law was passed that required all children between the ages of five and 12 to attend school. Many more schools were built as a result of this.

Teachers in Victorian schools were strict and they could punish children for not learning their lessons or for misbehaving. There could be as many as 70 or 80 students in each class. Lessons were usually reading and copying, or chanting a lesson until it had been memorized.

Paper was expensive so children wrote on slates. After a lesson was completed and the teacher had checked their work, students cleared their slates for the next lesson. Older children sometimes learned to write on paper using pens made out of thin wooden sticks dipped into ink. In many schools pupil-teachers aged 13 and above helped with the teaching. After five years they could become teachers themselves.

Children at Work

Most poor children were sent out to work, often for long hours and little pay. Small children were made to crawl underneath machinery or open and close the ventilation doors in coal mines. Many children had accidents or became ill or died because these jobs were so dangerous.

Until the 1840s children as young as five worked in underground mines for up to 12 hours a day. The Factory Act of 1878 banned employment of children under the age of 10. However, poor families often still sent children out to work because they needed the money.

After 1842 the employment of women and children in the mines was made illegal. After 1844 working hours were limited for children and women in factories.

End of an Era

By the time Queen Victoria died in 1901, almost every area of life had changed dramatically. The empire over which Victoria had presided would not last far into the 1900s. Within 15 years, World War I destroyed monarchies and empires all around the world. By the middle of the century there was very little left of the great British Empire.

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The Victorian Era Primary Resource

Learn all about this period of amazing inventions and discoveries.

This history primary resource explores Britain’s Victorian period in a fun, colourful comic. Join max the mouse on his time-travelling journey to discover the significant events that occurred during this exciting period in British history. When was the Victorian era? How did the British empire expand during Queen Victoria’s reign? What were the ground-breaking inventions of the Victorian era?

Pupils will learn about the key social, political and cultural changes that occurred during Britain’s Victorian period in this National Geographic Kids history primary resource.

The teaching resource can be used in study group tasks for discussion about the Victorian era and 19th century Britain, It could be used as a printed handout for each pupil to read themselves, or for display on the interactive whiteboard, as part of a whole class reading exercise.

Activity : In the same way that Queen Victoria dedicated monuments to her husband Albert, ask pupils to design a monument dedicated to someone they love or feel inspired by. They could also design their own postage stamp/s, inspired by their favourite people, places and things. Once finished, get the children to present their work to the class, or write a short description explaining their designs.

N.B.  The following information for mapping the resource documents to the school curriculum is specifically tailored to the  English National Curriculum  and  Scottish Curriculum for Excellence . We are currently working to bring specifically tailored curriculum resource links for our other territories; including  South Africa ,  Australia  and  New Zealand . If you have any queries about our upcoming curriculum resource links, please email:  [email protected]

This History primary resource  assists with teaching the following  History objectives  from the  National Curriculum :

• Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
• Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

National Curriculum Key Stage 1 History objective:   

• Pupils should be taught: significant historical events, people and places in their own locality
• Pupils should be taught: the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods [for example, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong]

National Curriculum Key Stage 2 History objective:

• Pupils should be taught a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066

This History primary resource  assists with teaching the following  Social Studies Second level objective  from the  Scottish Curriculum for Excellence :

• I can discuss why people and events from a particular time in the past were important, placing them within a historical sequence
• I can compare and contrast a society in the past with my own and contribute to a discussion of the similarities and differences

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The Victorian era

When was the Victorian age?

The time when Queen Victoria reigned is called the Victorian era or Victorian age . She was queen from 1837 to 1901 , and a lot of things happened in Britain during that time.

During the 64 years that Queen Victoria was on the throne, Britain was also going through the Industrial Revolution . Machines for factories were invented that could make things quickly, like textiles – so, there were more textiles around to sell, and more people who wanted to buy them. With the invention of the steam train, the textiles could get to places further away than before.

Life in the Victorian era changed very quickly for a lot of people, and cities became busier and more crowded.

Top 10 facts

• The Victorian era is what we call the time that Queen Victoria reigned: 1837-1901.
• During the Victorian era, the Industrial Revolution was happening – this is when scientific inventions meant that it was easier to make things to sell, and that those things could be sent to places further away than before.
• One big reason why the Industrial Revolution happened was because of steam power – this lead to the invention of steam trains, which made it faster to travel and to send goods.
• A way to make steel from iron was also discovered, which made it easier to make machines for factories and to even build the factories themselves.
• All of these things during the Industrial Revolution meant that lots of products could be made in the same place at the same time – this is called mass production. Before this, it would have been just one tradesman making one thing at a time.
• Also during the Victorian Era, Great Britain became the British Empire . Britain governed many countries, kingdoms and colonies all over the world. Many of these places are part of the British Commonwealth today.
• Before the Victorian era, it took days – sometimes weeks – to travel places. Inventions such as the steam train and the iron steam ship meant that travel took a lot less time, so people started going to places where they wouldn’t have thought to before, like the (modern day) United States of America and India .
• It was also faster to get in touch with other people, even if you were all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. The telegraph and telephone were both invented in the Victorian era , so people didn’t always have to write letters if they had something important to say.
• People started using electricity for the first time in the Victorian Era. The first electrically-lit streetlights, public building and even village were in the UK.
• By 1901, half of all the people who lived in Britain (not including the Empire) lived in cities. This was a huge change because most people had lived in the country around the start of the Victorian era.
• 24 May 1837 Victoria was crowned queen
• 1837 The SS Great Britain, the first iron steam ship, was built and made the Atlantic Ocean crossing

• 30 June 1841 The Great Western Railway from Bristol to London was completed
• 1842 The Mines Act established that women and children younger than 10 years old were not allowed to work in mines
• 1843 Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol and the first Christmas cards were sold
• 1845 The pneumatic rubber tyre was invented
• 1845 London Road in Nottingham was the first road to be paved with tarmacadam (tarmac), which meant roads didn’t have to be covered in cobblestones anymore
• 1847 The Factories Act set limits on the amount of time women and children could work
• 1850 The first public library opened in Manchester – anyone could borrow books for free!

• 1850 The first workhouses opened, giving poor people a place to live in exchange for their work
• 1851 The Great Exhibition took place at Crystal Palace in London
• 1852 The Victoria and Albert museum opened in London
• 1853 The first post boxes were used – painted green, not red!
• 1853-54 An outbreak of cholera in London killed 11,000 people

• 1856 Scientist Henry Bessemer invented a quick way to convert iron to steel, which helped mass production
• 1857 The National Portrait Gallery opened in London; it was the first portrait gallery in the world
• 1857 The Science Museum opened in London
• 1857 A cable was laid in the Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland and Newfoundland, so telegraphs could be sent between North America and Great Britain; it took a few more years to get it working properly, though!
• 1858 India started to be ruled by Britain
• 1863 The London Underground opened, becoming the world’s first underground railway (steam powered)
• 1867 Voting laws gave all men who paid taxes a right to vote
• 1870 The Houses of Parliament in London were completed (they had to be rebuilt after a fire in 1834)

• 1873 The first chocolate Easter eggs were made by Fry, Vaughan & Co. in Bristol
• 1875 A drainage system in London was completed, which improved sanitation in the city
• 1876 Queen Victoria was named Empress of India
• 1877 The first telephones were sold through a company named after inventor Alexander Graham Bell
• 1877 Thomas Edison made the first recording on a phonograph; Queen Victoria was recorded on a phonograph in 1888
• 1878 The first electric streetlights were installed in London
• 1878 The Salvation Army was founded by William Booth to help the poor
• 1880 The Education Act decreed that all children aged 5-10 had to go to school
• 1881 Godalming in Surrey was the first town in the world to have an electricity supply available for everyone to use; also that year, the Savoy Theatre was the first public building in the world to be entirely lit by electricity
• 1882 Thomas Edison opened the world’s first steam-powered electricity generating station in London
• 1883 The first electric railway was built in Brighton
• 1885 The standard bicycle (like the ones we use today) was invented
• 1885 The first motor car was built in Germany by Karl Benz
• 1887 The gramophone was invented by Emile Berliner
• 1887 Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee
• 1891 A law was passed that established every child age 5-13 should have access to a free education
• 22 January 1901 Queen Victoria died and Edward VII became king

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Did you know?

• The Victorian era is named after Queen Victoria, who was queen from 1837-1901. People who lived during the Victorian era are called Victorians .
• Before the 19th century it used to take people 12 hours to travel between Birmingham and London if they were riding in a horse-drawn coach. Steam trains meant they could make the journey in under six hours!
• The police force was set up during the Victorian era by a man called Robert Peele (which is why we sometimes call the police "bobbies"!).
• Electric light bulb
• Steam and electric trains
• Rubber pneumatic tyres
• Sewing machines
• Postage stamps
• Chocolate Easter eggs
• Christmas cards
• In 1851 the Great Exhibition was a huge collection of all kinds of inventions and art from Britain as well as places like America and Russia . The money that was made from people paying to see the Great Exhibition was used later to build museums in London, like the Science Museum.
• the first electric street lights were in London
• the first building lit with electric lights was a theatre in London
• the first village to have its own access to electricity was Godalming in Surrey.
• At the beginning of the Victorian era in 1837, more people lived in the country than in cities. By the end of the Victorian era in 1901, half of the British population lived in cities. Find out more about life under Queen Victoria.

See if you can spot all the following in the gallery below:

• Queen Victoria
• Alexander Graham Bell
• Joseph Wilson Swan
• Volks Electric Railway in Brighton
• A steam engine used in a factory
• A map of the British Empire in 1897 (all the red areas)
• People riding a penny-farthing bicycle
• The SS Great Britain ship (Photo Credit: mattbuck via Wikimedia Commons)

When the Victorian era began, Britain was going through the Industrial Revolution. Scientists had learned how to use steam to create power, and from that came a whole list of other inventions that used steam power to make machines operate.

One of these machines was the steam train, in the early 1800s. It meant that travelling was a lot faster than using a horse and carriage, and that goods could be transported much more quickly than using the canal system.

This was good because more and more goods were being made! For instance, the textile industry was growing thanks to the invention of machines that could do the spinning and weaving instead of people, meaning it took much less time to produce. This is called mass production , and it was a key factor in the Industrial Revolution. It wasn’t a case anymore of just one person making one item – machines could do the same job in a fraction of the time.

While all this was going on, Britain was becoming bigger. The British Empire was the term used to describe all of the places that were under British rule, and during the Victorian era, this got so big that one poet said ‘the sun never sets on the British Empire’ (meaning that wherever the sun was shining at the time, it would be shining on something that belonged to Britain). Many countries that were part of the British Empire are now part of the Commonwealth.

The Great Exhibition in 1851 celebrated not just great accomplishments from around the world, but also within Britain and the British Empire.

Names to know:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) – a famous engineer who build steam ships, bridges, tunnels and even helped with the Crystal Palace used to house the Great Exhibition James Watt (1736-1819) – a Scottish engineer who invented an improved steam engine used in factories and mines Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) – most famous for inventing the telephone Thomas Edison (1847-1931) – an American inventor who made the phonograph and helped Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914) in Britain create the first electric light bulbs. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) – Prime Minister in 1868 and again from 1874-1880 William Gladstone (1809-1898) – Prime Minister four different times between 1868 and 1894, which is more than any other prime minister; he supported laws that allowed more people to vote W. H. Fox-Talbot – an inventor who found ways to take photographs using negatives Robert Peel (1788-1850) – Prime Minister from 1834-1835 and 1841-1846, who set up the Metropolitan Police Force in 1829.

Related Videos

Just for fun...

• Quiz yourself on the Victorians!
• Watch a Horrible Histories video about the Victorian age:  Queen Victoria - British Things Song
• Read English Heritage's Kids Rule! guide to Victorian England magazine to learn all about the Victorians
• Travel back in time to a Victorian house
• Print out some Victorian scenes to colour in
• Did  life really improve in Victorian times ?
• Follow along with loads of Victorian recipes 
• Listen to a radio play about Prisoner 4099 , 12-year-old William Towers who was caught stealing two rabbits (possibly for food for his family) in 1872 and sent to Wandsworth prison

Best children's books about the Victorians

Find out more:

• A children's guide to Victoria's reign , with information about the Queen Victoria's family , the  British Empire , Victorian architecture and Victorian cities
• Watch a  BBC Bitesize clip about the history of the steam engine
• A guide to some  great Victorians  and their lives
• See a BBC Bitesize introduction to the British Empire
• Read fiction books set in Victorian times
• Victorian Britain  information and links from the National Archives
• A BBC bitesize introduction to The Victorian Era
• Understand the impact of the steam engine on Victorian life
• Life in the workhouse, including a guided tour
• Read about workhouses in Victorian times
• Find out about  crime and punishment in Victorian times
• Information about Victorian prisons
• Watch a BBC Bitesize video about the Industrial Revolution and what life was like in Britain before, during and after industrialisation
• Find out about famous Victorian author, Charles Dickens
• Read about the Great Exhibition , which embodied Prince Albert's desire to showcase the wonders of industry from around the world
• Look closely at William Powell Frith's painting Ramsgate Sands (Life at the Seaside) , 1852-4, to see an image of Victorian life
• Consult a Victorian inventions timeline (1837 to 1901)
• Read about Victorian transport in Preston , including trams and stem engines
• Explore posters, newspapers, illustrations and more that showcase Victorian Britain

See for yourself

• Look at an online collection of Victorian objects , including carbolic soap, candle snuffers, clothes wringers and oil lamps
• See posters, British Exhibition tickets and other items from the height of the British Empire at the Museum of London
• Learn more about the amazing inventions around the Victorian Era at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
• Walk around Buckingham Palace in London to see evidence of Victorian life: a route map highlights all the places of interest
• At York Castle Museum, Kirkgate is a recreated Victorian cobbled street with a schoolroom, police cell and Hansom cab
• At Blists recreated Victorian Town  you can meet some "real" Victorians in their authentic shops and cottages, buy Victorian goods and watch tradespeople in action  

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The Victorians Homework Tasks

Subject: History

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

3 February 2015

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The Great Fire of London was a fire that was so big that it burned nearly all of the buildings in London, with the exception of the Tower of London as that was made from stone, and stone doesn't burn up easily.

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8th October 2016

The Victorians was a time for railways, Queen Victoria and the establishment of many familiar companies, such as chocolate maker Cadbury and soft drink company Coca Cola.

Queen Victoria

The Victorian era started when Princess Victoria was crowned Queen, at 18 years old, in 1837. Three years later, she married her cousin, Prince Albert. They had 9 children together, before he passed away in 1861. Victoria was distraught, and missed him so much that she wore black for the rest of her life.

You can find out more about Queen Victoria here.

Life in Victorian Britain

How your life was in Victorian Britain depended on who you were and how much money you had. If you were rich, then life was luxurious, although how luxurious your life was depended on how rich you were. If you were poor, then life was hard, and in some cases, you literally had to fight to survive.

Workhouses were places where some poor people lived and worked. They worked long hours on the factory floors. In return for their work, they would get a roof over their heads and food (although not very much.)

Many workhouses were dark and dirty, and you weren’t treated very well. It wasn’t a place you wanted to be in.

The house(s) that you owned and lived in depended on how much you and your family earned.

Rich families usually had a country estate and a house in the city. During the working week, the owner of the house would usually be in the city for work and go back to their country estate for the weekend. This wasn’t always the case, but it was common.

Middle-class families usually lived in either the outskirts of the city or in medium-sized cottages in the countryside. If the family had enough money, they might have both.

Working class and unemployed people, who usually lived in the cities (although they could be farmers in the countryside) usually rented or owned a terraced house, or for the poorest, shared a single (or double) room with other families as they couldn’t afford to rent an entire house.

Servants for the rich

A more attractive job than working in factories or the workhouse would be to work for a rich family as a servant. You got paid a wage (how much that wage was depended on your job) and a roof over your head. Because you were fed and had a roof over your head, your wage was usually sent back to your family.

Servants were summoned by their owners to particular rooms through a network of bells. In the Servants Quarters’ of that house, there was usually a row of bells, with a sign saying what room it was coming from, so the servants knew where to go, and who was demanding their assistance.

Among the servants, there was a hierarchy, as there was in the family. The more senior your job was, the more time and the closer you were to the family. The closest to the family were the house-steward or the butler (or both, if the family was very rich), the lady’s maid, the valet, the housekeeper and the nanny (who supervised any children.)

Victorians had more free time than in previous eras. With the introduction of weekends and bank holidays, workers could now spend their free time however they wanted. Many people, rich and poor, sometimes decided to go down to one of the many new seaside resorts that were being built.

The seaside

The invention of the railways meant that many people could escape from the city to one of the many new seaside resorts that were being built. Train tickets were relatively cheap, meaning even factory workers and their families could afford a day or two at the seaside.

Piers were being built across the coastline. The first one was built on the Isle of Wight in 1814, and exactly 100 years later, there were at least 100 piers across the British coast.

Inside Victorian Houses

Many people in Victorian times lived in homes without any of the modern comforts we take for granted today. People had to manage without central heating or hot water from the tap – instead they had open fires and heated water on a big cooker called a range.

Most Victorian houses had a fireplace in every room.

Without vacuum cleaners or washing-machines, looking after the home was very hard work.

Poor people in Victorian times lived in horrible cramped conditions in run-down houses, often with the whole family in one room.

Many people during the Victorian years moved into the cities and towns to find work in the factories. People crowded into already crowded houses. Rooms were rented to whole families or perhaps several families.

Most poor houses only had one or two rooms downstairs and one or two upstairs. Families would crowd into these rooms, with several in each room and some living in the cellars.

These houses had no running water or toilets . Each house would share an outside water pump. The water from the pump was frequently polluted.

Some streets would have one or two outside toilets for the whole street to share !

Houses were built close together with narrow streets between them and open sewers running down the middle of the streets. Rubbish was tipped into the streets. It was no surprise that few children made it to adulthood.

Homes for the middle classes and the upper classes were much better. They were better built and were larger. The houses had most of the new gadgets installed, such as flushing toilets, gas lighting, and inside bathrooms.

Wealthy Victorians decorated their homes in the latest styles. There would be heavy curtains, flowery wallpaper, carpets and rugs, ornaments, well made furniture, paintings and plants. The rooms were heated by open coal fires and lighting was provided by candles and oil or gas lamps. Later in the Victorian period, electricity became more widespread and so electric lights were used.

©Copyright Mandy Barrow 2013 primaryhomeworkhelp.com

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