The Victorian Era ~ The Working Class and Poor

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Immigrants came to Victorian England just as factories were being built near the River Thames. Men could work in them with a salary of about $4.25 a week and women worked sewing or selling novelties bringing in about $1.20 per week. Rooms that were built near the factory were nothing short of a slum area, badly built, and poorly ventilated. There were about 13 million men, women, and children living in poverty on the streets of London. A room in the slum area could go for $4.75 to $5.25 a week. This was just one room with a bed, stove, and soap boxes for chairs. Between food and lodging neither were of good quality and life was dismal at best. Many had large families all living in one room. Or they could pay 24 cents a night for logging. Jack London was a journalist during this time who dressed in poor clothes and walked through the poor district to get an idea of how the poor lived. He wrote about the filth and poor conditions that were the norm for the poor. There were also nightly accommodations such as what was called a coffin. This was a small coffin-like case on the floor which a man might rent for a cost of 4 cents a night. Or there were the 'set ups' where you could set up on a bench all night for 2 cents. Mostly men used this type of accommodation. There were all kinds of thieves on the streets as well. Some stole from the peddlers to sell what they stole for enough for a meal or clothes. Even clothes were stolen and sold. Men and women alike would pretend to be interviewing for a job while they were looking for something to steal. Sometimes they would go in couples and one would keep the owner of the house busy while the other would scour the house for items to steal. Some were professional beggars. They would set their families up in a nice hotel, put on their begging clothes, and go begging all day. The money they got from begging would pay for their lifestyle. Others would make up a concoction of herbs and whatever they came across and sell it for medicine. One of the jobs some men were able to get was that of a dustman. The rich families would pay for 'dustmen' to come and carry off the ashes made by their fires each day. These dustmen would carry it off to the ash heaps on the edge of the city. While still others would rustle through the ash for metal or other things they might sell. Sometimes a family would be sent into workhouses which were controlled by the parishioners of the churches in outlying cities. Or a mother might put their children in one while she earned enough to put them up in one of the rooms. Children and adults were separated and the meals were no more than watered-down oatmeal and some days they might get hard bread and half an ounce of cheese. At 5a. each morning a bell would ring and they could then stand in a long line for a rag and maybe some soap to wash with. In England and Wales, there was a Poor Law set up in the 16th century which helped paupers and was administered by the local parishes. These laws distinguished between the deserving and the undeserving which was a harsh way to choose who got help and who didn't. It was mostly left up to parishes to take care of the poor until 1834 when The City of London Corporation of the Poor came into effect. You can read more about these laws and the workhouses here: