Life in Victorian Britain

What was daily life like for people in the Victorian era? From the slums of 19th-century London and life in the workhouse to the court of Queen Victoria and the revolution of the railways, we bring you the facts

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Week one quiz: Victorian life. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Victorian life | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Gustave Doré's famous engraving, produced to illustrate the 1872 book 'London: A Pilgrimage', depicts (and exaggerates) the squalor of tightly packed terraced houses. Yes, as Rosalind Crone observes, the washing lines in Doré's picture demonstrate that "slum-dwellers were not all very dirty - or, at least, they didn't choose to be". (Photo by Getty Images)

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Was Victorian life really so grim? 5 reasons why the Victorians were 'happy'. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Workhouses were meant to be unpleasant. Inmates worked hard (like these women hanging out laundry c1880). (Photo by Sean Sexton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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Victorian daily life: what was it like for 'ordinary' Victorians?

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Cocaine: a Victorian sensation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The Great Exhibition: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Women enjoy life on two wheels in this 1895 photograph. The bicycle was a key part of the image of the ‘New Woman’ (Photo by Glasshouse Images/Alamy Stock Photo)

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Challenging gender in the Victorian Age: the 'masculine' New Woman and 'effeminate' New Man. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian women gossip at the opera (Photo by Bridgeman Images)

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Sex, sadism and sugared death: 8 scandals that rocked Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Victorians podcast episodes

A black and white photo of Queen Victoria and Empress Augusta sat together outside, both wearing dark clothing

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“There was a general perception that Queen Victoria’s mourning was neither normal nor acceptable”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Episode 6Battling against Bovril. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Episode 5Crazy about wheelbarrows. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Episode 4Celebrity pedestrian. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Episode 3Would you let a tiger lick your face?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Episode 2Sail, steam & stormy seas. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Episode 1“The life of a dozen men”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Victorian death rituals. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Gravestones displaying the names of pets

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Pet cemeteries: where have beloved animals been laid to rest through the centuries?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The characters Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, from Charles Dickens's work 'A Christmas Carol'

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Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas as we know it today?

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Black Victorians: radicals, muses, inmates & aristocrats. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An engraving of a prison hulk at Deptford, from a c1826 painting. (Photo by: Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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Floating hell: the brutal history of prison hulks

Image of Aina Forbes Bonetta and her husband, James Davies (GettyImages-3318942)

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15 minutes of fameHannah Cusworth chooses Aina Forbes Bonetta

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Love, marriage & wallpaper: the artistic lives of Jane and William Morris. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration of fossil hunter Dorothea Bate

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Dorothea Bate: A fearless fossil hunter. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Photograph of Mrs Beeton bracing herself against a chair while wearing a long, dark-coloured gown

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The secret life of Mrs Beeton: 10 pieces of life advice from her famous Book of Household Management. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A black and white photo of several 'matchwomen', who went on strike at the Bryant and May's factory in London in 1888.

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The 1888 Matchgirls strike: how a group of East End women changed British labour history

Life in the workhouse podcast with Peter Higginbotham

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Life in the workhouse: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

At dinner, St Marylebone Workhouse, London, c1901 (1903)

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The rise and fall of the workhouse

The Irregulars. From left to right: Prince Leopold (Harrison Osterfield), Jessie (Darci Shaw), Bea(Thaddea Graham), Spike (McKell David), and Billy (Jojo Macari)

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The Irregulars: the real history behind Netflix’s supernatural Sherlock spinoff

The 'Iron Duke' steam locomotive with railway workers

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The history of railways in Britain: from the first steam trains to the rail revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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