1. Poverty tourism might have been in bad taste but did help bring about improvements for the masses.
Towards the end of the 19th century, a number of individuals, as well as groups, began to take an active interest in poverty and deprivation, not just in London but across England. Despite the risks, a significant number of middle and upper-class women, including aristocrats, went ‘slumming’ in London’s East End, disguising themselves in poor clothes, in order to gather data on the lives of the people living there. Eyewitness accounts by the likes of Lady Constance Battersea helped sway public opinion, with slums increasingly seen as a symptom of what was wrong with society at large.
Alongside these prominent individuals, several notable groups also stepped up their campaigning efforts. Some were Christian, driven on by their faith, though others were driven by just a sense of social justice. Schools and libraries were set up with the aim of helping the working classes escape poverty, while pressure was put on the government to improve sanitation and clamp down on criminality in the city’s worst slums. Though much was still to be done, by the end of the century, slums were no longer seen as a ‘disease’ and something to be ignored, but as social ill to be addressed head-on.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Life in 19th-century slums: Victorian London’s homes from hell,” History Extra, October 2016.
“Slums and Slumming in Late-Victorian London.” Dr. Andrzej Diniejko. Victorian Web.
“Dirty Old London: A History of the Victorians’ Infamous Filth.” NPR, May 2015.
“Victorian Slum House.” PBS.org.
“Desolation Row: Victorian Britain’s Sensational Slums”. Nell Darby. History Today. 18 Oct 2017.
Juvenile crime in the 19th century.” The British Library.
Setting the workers alight: the East End Match Girls’ Strike.” BBC.