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Unit 15: The Triumph of Romanticism (Social, Economic, Political and Cultural Conditions)

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15.2 Social Conditions in the 19 Century Notes
15.2.1 Poverty and Slum Housing

Casual Work
Many of the jobs created in the port during the 19th century were badly paid. Others were seasonal
or casual, which meant that people were only paid when work was available. As a result, the
dockers and their families lived in poverty.
The casual nature of much of their work meant that the dockers did not receive a regular income.
There was no income at all during periods of unemployment unless they could find alternative
work. Sometimes the poor were forced to turn to crime, others begged to make ends meet, while
many more ended up in the workhouse.

Cheap Housing
Families relying on an income from casual work could only afford basic accommodation. Builders
knew that they would never be able to charge the poor high rents. They built their houses quickly
and cheaply, often without facilities such as bathrooms and toilets.
Sometimes houses were divided in half to accommodate two families. This often meant that one
family had to make do without a easily accessible supply of drinking water.
The 1890 Housing Act made it the responsibility of local councils to provide decent accommodation
for local people. Things gradually improved, but conditions remained bad well into the 20th
century.

15.2.2 Social Investigation

A Political Issue

As the 19th century progressed journalists and social reformers carried out surveys in the East End.
These revealed the full extent of the plight of the poor.
The studies were part of a new emphasis given to social investigation into the extent and causes of
poverty in large industrial cities. They also examined solutions to the problems.

Fear of Unrest
A series of riots, including the 1887 ‘Bloody Sunday’ demonstration against unemployment, sparked
fears of social unrest. These concerns were further fuelled by sensational press reports about life
in the East London slums.

Did u know? Issues such as crime, unemployment and poverty were now very much on the
political agenda.

Open Sewers
The novelist Charles Dickens visited Canning Town in 1857. He described the squalid conditions
there. People who worked at the recently opened Victoria Docks were forced to live in a slum built
on a marsh. There were few roads; no gas supply and open sewers ran through the streets.
“Rows of small houses, which may have cost for their construction eighty pounds a-piece, are built
designedly and systematically with their backs to the marsh ditches; which, with one exception,

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