Street Life in 19th Century Victorian London (A Photo Documentary of Hard Lives)
Vložit
- čas přidán 4. 09. 2024
- The hard reality of Victorian street life for everyday people in 19th Century London told in photographs and with the genuine words of the people in them. This is an accurate documentary of everyday Victorians recorded in 1877 by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith. Thompson was a talented and influential photographer who joined with Smith, a journalist, in a project to photograph the street life of London’s poor. Their volumes were an early example of social and documentary photography. The descriptions really bring to life the photographs that accompany them and paint a picture of Victorian era poverty - in a time before moving pictures could do the same. From chimney-sweeps to flower sellers and musicians, their words allow us a mirror into the lives of people struggling to survive on the unforgiving streets. What’s more remarkable is that the authors were careful not to varnish their words for an audience - what they saw and heard accurately reflects their interactions with everyday people and, with ambience and sounds, genuinely immerses the reader in authentic Victorian street life.
Do you like history and mysteries? ✅ Please support the channel by sharing this video on social media 📲 It really helps the channel grow so we can bring you more content to watch 📺 Subscribe and click the bell icon to keep up-to-date. Thank you 👍
Enjoy the Victorians? Watch more videos:
Victorian Sweatshop Scandal (19th Century Work Life): • Sweatshop Hell in Vict...
‘Crawlers’ of Victorian London (street poverty): • ‘Crawlers’ of Victoria...
Victorian Flower Sellers of Covent Garden: • Victorian Flower Selle...
Hard Life of a Victorian Chimney Sweep: • Hard Life of a Victori...
Victorian Street Doctors (quacks): • Victorian Street Docto...
Victorian Omnibus Drivers: • Victorian Omnibus Driv...
Victorian Ratcliffe Highway Slum: • Victorian Ratcliffe Hi...
The ‘Real’ Oliver Twist of Victorian London: • The ‘Real’ Oliver Twis...
Sleeping Rough in Victorian England (Penny ‘Sit-Ups’, Two-Penny ‘Hangovers’ and Four Penny ‘Coffins’): • Sleeping Rough in Vict...
Starving in Victorian London (A Family’s Fight for Survival): • Starving in Victorian ...
Victorian Whitechapel (Working Class 19th Century Street Life): • Victorian Whitechapel ...
Down-and-Out in Victorian London (Darkest 19th Century England): • Down-and-Out in Victor...
Eating out in Victorian London (Fast Food for the Poor in the 19th Century): • Eating Out in Victoria...
A Tourist in East End Victorian London (The People of the Abyss): • A Tourist in East End ...
Video Time Stamps:
0:01:40 Street Doctors
0:04:23 Covent Garden Flower Women
0:06:06 Cast-Iron Billy
0:07:38 Dealer in Fancy-Ware
0:09:26 An Old Clothes Shop, Seven Dials
0:10:01 Caney the Clown
0:12:09 Strawberries. All ripe! All ripe!
0:13:04 London Nomads
0:16:27 A Convict’s Home
0:16:58 The Sellers of Shell-fish
0:18:36 Old Furniture
0:19:21 The Dramatic Shoe-Black
0:21:05 Street Advertising
0:22:07 The Temperance Sweep
0:24:26 Covent Garden Labourers
0:25:26 Clapham Common Industries
0:27:41 Public Disinfectors
0:28:11 ‘Tickets’ the Card-Dealer
0:30:07 London Boardmen
0:31:55 Halfpenny Ices
0:33:57 The Wall Worker
0:35:25 Black Jack
0:36:46 Workers on the ‘Silent Highway’
0:38:05 The Crawlers
0:39:41 Sufferers from the Floods
0:40:02 Italian Street Musicians
0:42:46 Hookey Alf of Whitechapel
0:44:51 The Cheap Fish of St. Giles
0:46:51 Recruiting Sergeant at Westminster
0:49:29 London Cabmen
0:50:43 Mush-Fakers and Ginger-Beer Makers
0:53:35 The Water-Cart
0:55:13 November Effigies
0:56:32 The Street Locksmith
0:58:13 The Independent Shoe-Black
0:59:42 The Flying Dustmen
Credits:
CCBY - Dutch Stock Exchange by Tuig, footsteps down long Victorian hospital corridor by odilonmarcenaro, WALLA PARK AMBIENT by costaipsa
#VictorianStreetLife #VictorianDocumentary #VictorianLondon #VictorianPhotos #VictorianLondonPhotos #VictorianEra #VictorianAmbience #VictorianEngland #VictorianStreet #VictorianLondonStreet
✅ Please support the channel by sharing this video on social media 📲 It really helps the channel grow so we can bring you more content to watch 📺 Thank you 👍
Thank you very much! More content to come.
88888
who was at the very start with the old camera, very graceful movements
These poor people must have been so tired of life and worn out 😞.Long long hours for rubbish pay.Mind you, some jobs are still like that.
What jobs are still like that today???? U can't even come close to comparing these jobs to what people earn today. 1st world problems don't compare to Victorian times.
The old coach driver was a sad tale. Worked all his life until he could literally work no longer, then discarded like refuse. I'm sure that happened to tons of people.
It happens to this day everywhere. Especially as the western world turns socialist
Still does. Right here at home.
I had a great grand mother, who was born in Kent and came alone to Australia and married here at the age of 29. When I was learning about England in the 19th century, my grand father suggested I speak to her about the hardships people had in England. She was 98 in 1969, and her reasoning was
'what hardships"!? We were happy and it was what it was and we knew no better. My grandfather said, That's why I said to ask her, as history runs with the author, so speak to the horse not its Ar#e!!
She was lying to you, and you believed her.
In those days you didnt really have any option but to put up or die. The fact that you saw people dying in the streets and getting beaten and babies dying of disease ...you knew you were lucky if you were able to buy food and find a job. Nobody in her day would dare to consider their lives hard when they knew the hardships and suffering were much worse. Just as if youve ever visited a slum in india you will never compalin again. They didnt have hardship because they knew what hardship really was and were able to count their blessings. Here we are in modenr uk australia europemmmwith the poorest on the dole in the top 20 percent richest on earth. And we complain about hardships of not having the central heating on. We havent a clue how to be grateful for what we have or make the best of it.
Those shoes!
Why would anyone give this a Thumbs down?
No longer
I know! How ruuude. I love this stuff! How can you not??
My paternal grandparents emigrated from England to the USA in the early 1900s. I hadn't realized the economic hardships during that time. Thank you for posting.
You’re welcome! I’m glad it was of interest for you.
48:35 Sgt. Titswell and Sgt. Badcock, what a pair of names
🤣🤣🤣
A fantastic hour of time travelling, thank you.
I’m grateful to those Victorian journalists for recording their experiences ‘word for word’ so we really get a feel for 19th Century life in London. Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for watching.
I no longer want a time machine.
My God I adore CZcams, thankyou for putting this up
My pleasure and thank you for watching.
Looking through the comments I wonder how many of us have ancestors who immmigrated to North America or elsewhere to get away from the grinding poverty of the UK? I know my paternal grandparents did. They move to Canada for a better life in the early 1900s. Things went well for them until the Great War broke out.Fortunately my grandfather came back home in one piece but suffering from shell shock He was able to work though. Then came the 'Dirty Thirties' and the family of five were struggling until WWII. Things only got better after that. The family was never rich but they were comfortable. Certainly a lot better than if they had stayed in England. This is a really great channel with superb narration. I have subbed and 'liked'.
Thank you for sharing your story and a warm welcome to the channel!
Robert Peel (1788-1850) the founder of the first new Metropolitan Police Force Service at Scotland Yard in 1829. City of London Police 1839.
Thankyou for posting this! The first gentleman with the eye inflammation, sounds exactly like uveitis.. makes me really think “wow”. I suffer with chronic uveitis and with the hospitals knowledge I have saved the majority of my sight, but having it back in the Victorian era, I would of gone blind by now!
You’re welcome and I’m especially glad that you found the video interesting. If you enjoyed this, please keep a check on my channel as I am soon to publish an expanded version of the Victorian Street Doctors account - with some new and very interesting characters!
I pray in the name of Jesus for your eyesight to be healed ,thank you lord God because you hear and answer our prayers ,bless you friend 😁
It's extremely interesting to have a real insight of these peoples lives portraited here.
Love the voices.
It’s great to know you enjoy the narration. Thank you!
Great commentary and brings our London Ancestors to life.
Nice of you to say. Thank you!
1:43 size of the platforms the street doctor is wearing 🤣🤣
Strange you should say that; I scrolled down to comment on the first picture... To say, "That man was apparently born with one leg shorter than the other. ". You can tell by his boots... One has a very high platform whilst the other is normal..
My mining cottage home was built in the 1870's and my Grandfather was born in 1883. This is a fascinating insight to the lives of our relatives and what they went through to survive.
Thank you.
Irony of it all. By the comments not much has changed. 🙄
We still have 'rag fairs',. They are now called thrift stores, 2nd hand stores. The town I grew up in, the well-to-do were shopping there since the 1960's, keeping hold of their $ instead of paying top $ at the malls. My grandfather delivered ice til early 1950's when refrigeration came about, then he became a 'junkman' or today's recycler. Raised 9 children, 2 grandchildren in Jersey City.
The Custodian Helmet is the headgear traditionally worn by male police constables and sergeants while on foot patrol in England and Wales. Officers of all ranks in most forces are also issued a flat, peaked cap that is worn on mobile patrol in a vehicle. Ranks above sergeant wear the peaked cap only. However, some Inspectors wear the Custodian Helmet, but with two silver bands around the base (to match the two pips worn as rank insignia) to denote their position.
Claimed by some sources to have been based on the spiked pickelhaube worn by the Prussian Army, it was first adopted by the London Metropolitan Police in 1863 to replace the "stovepipe" top hat worn since 1829. In 1863, the Metropolitan Police replaced the previous uniform of white trousers, swallow-tailed coat and top hat in favour of very dark blue trousers, a more modern button up tunic and the early type of helmet which had an upturned brim at the front and a raised spine at the back, running from the bottom to the top of the helmet, which became known as the "cockscomb".
This was very interesting to read. Many thanks for sharing this information.
You're welcome.
Yes. I agree. I found it to be interesting learning.
I lived in London with my family, around 1964/65 and the council were still using horse-drawn dustcarts. They tipped the bins into hoppers on both sides of the lorry. They were small compared with the modern vehicles but then again I was only about six years old at the time. I was more interested in the horse wearing blinkers, and I couldn't understand how it could possibly see its way along the road .Happy innocent days!
That's a nice story. Thanks for sharing! I have a video on the channel about Victorian dustmen should you be interested.
This channel is so underrated. Love the voice narration! Keep up the great work!!!
Thank you so much for your kind words of support.
So true💞💞💞
This whole channel is very well done. The narrator is a pro 💯
I’m currently listening to the audio book, “The Victorian City” by Judith Flanders. It’s about a 16 hour audio book but it’s kept me on the edge of my seat thus far. I adore, and am intrigued in the Victorian era. Your voice is very soothing and yet your inflection at times makes me feel like I’m at a play. It’s fantastic! Keep up the good work.
It’s great that you think this is compelling to listen to as well. Thank you! There are several ‘street life’ videos on my channel.
Brilliant insight into London of old, well put together and well worth the watch.........thank you for the post.
You’re welcome. Thanks for visiting!
I want them to all break out in a performance of "Consider Yourself" from Oliver!.
Yes!!! Oh how I love Dickens. I think he is why I am do fascinated by this era's history so much.
Great video
Thanks for the visit
Absolutely fascinating. My wife - Japanese - and I live in Japan. The region where we live is hit by a partial lockdown and so, we are only able to work a few hours a week. My wife is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, when we found your channel, we were amazed!!! Wonderful and interesting videos, young man!! Thank you, from a hoy, humid and steamy Japan!!
Welcome! I’m glad you found the channel and I hope you enjoy the content. More to come.
The first man has one leg shorter than the other. Something I have not seen since I was a child in the 1960s. A lady at my mother's church, who was older even then. She wore one shoe with a stacked, raised sole like he does here but hers wasn't as tall. I'm glad we have ways to prevent people from having to grow up this way now. A few years ago I had a hen who had been hurt badly as a chick right in the upper hip joint but lived and came to walk with a distinctive gait once she was able to walk easily. I could not remember where I've seen that way of walking before but I just went ahead and started calling her "Dixie" for reasons unknown to me at the time. Then one day it hit me. That lady with the one short leg. Her name was "Dixie."
I was just going to comment on his shorter leg when I saw yours, which was much better and detailed than I could have hoped to do. Thank you!
I think Rivers Cuomo from Weezer has that same issue, or so I've heard.
Excellent thanks for your time and I'm sure you are right about the royal blue 😂..( this was all auto spell lmao) but I likely this ..man's voice is the best story sound. History was always my favorite subject spectacular & fascinating👍
I love the subtle use of street sounds and your accents are applaudable.
Regards and best wishes from Loutraki Greece
Glad you enjoyed the atmosphere of the Victorian streets!
"Nomads" must've been the name used before gypsies ( " pouffe and darts"??) Interesting to hear the expression " fish supper" used in 1877. This is a snapshot of the millions of people in Victorian Britain who barely existed above destitution and starvation. It's good to see this reality for all its sadness and misery. Up till the advent of the internet history would have had us think everyone in Victorian Britain was rich and happy.
A Gypsy was even then likly a specific class of wayfarer. So whilst their life style may have been nomadic it was different to the vagabond, fugitive, ambulant, tramp, vagrant, circus, travellin Fair, Showmen, itinerants. They may be all itinerant nomads of a form or with in certain seasons but some of the travelling community such as the Gypsy would likely prefer not to be labeled as some of the other nomadic types such as vagrants, tramps or fugitives. Even an itinerant Gyspy clothes peg vendor may have had their pride. Both the name Nomad and Gyspy predated the 19th century. Gypsys were nomadic. So likely both terms were used. But when the nomad was specifically known as a Gypsy then likely Gyspy would have been the term more often used for them rather than the broder nomad which could include many other nomadic types.
So that's what clapham common is. I love the show Are you Being Served and I remember from one episode Mr. Slocome says and I quote "I havnt forgotten being thrown flat on my back on clapham common". Lol! I never got that reference until I watched this video. Thank you.
I don’t know that scene, though I know the comedy and I’m glad this video helped with Clapham Common.
@@FactFeast It wasn't just that lol. Greatly entertaining video. Thank you!
Really enjoyed this! I find Victorian London absolutely fascinating… almost like I lived through it in a past life…
Great that you enjoyed the Victorian atmosphere. Thanks for watching!
One of my grandmother's was born in 1882 so she knew Victorian South London very well.😚
I love the narration and the language!
Very entertaining!
I’m really glad you enjoyed it. Thank you!
Brilliant !, My perfect documentary
That's great! More Victorian content on my channel.
Great story teller
Glad you enjoyed these life stories. Thank you!
Fascinating stuff… making my way through all of your videos 😁
Awesome, thank you!
Absolutely immersed into these videos. The narrating is exceptional.
I’m really glad the content is engaging for you! Thank you.
Fascinating! Well done 👏
It’s great to know you found the video so appealing. Thanks for visiting the channel!
I wonder if the blind gentleman just randomly got better, or if the ointment actually helped? He could have had chronic dry eye, maybe tear duct blockage, & the ointment helped that condition?
It’s inflammation inside the eye it causes blindness without modern day treatment. Uveitis
Probably was never blind but uses that story to sell his ointment. It's unlikely victorian street ointments did anything, the whole thing will be like a sort of confidence scam.
I have just found out through dna results that family on my father’s side were from France and Denmark, they moved to Canterbury in the 10th century they are mentioned in the doomsday book and then married and expanded out into different areas of London and Kent one of my g,g,grandfathers was a Lighterman .
That’s very interesting. Such a long way back in time as well. There were lots of lightermen working in the Port of London. Thank you for your comment.
That info is priceless. How interesting. Congrats from South Texas.
`
I just Love this!
Thank you! You can see more like these on the channel page.
Are we just ignoring the first blokes platform shoes?
" Badaetoes"! Yes! Perfection in reading!
"Time are bad, and I've left the streets for a regular job."
Being off the street in a regular job? Horrifying.
Big fan of your work. Keep it up. 🍀
Thank you. Lots more to come. I really appreciate your support!
At 25mins. Sad Sad times..your narrative is perfect. Over 100 years + what are WE learning here?. I'll duly comment....
Wonderful video, thanks a lot! Felt like I was in a different world..
Glad you enjoyed the Victorian atmosphere. Thank you for your kind comment.
I am particularly interested in the topics and pictures you present. Outstanding narration. I look forward to catching up, and awaiting your future efforts.
Now subscribed to, sharing, and liking, your brilliant uploads. Thank you kindly. Please be safe.
Thank you! It’s kind of you to share my videos. More to come.
I enjoyed this very much! It was very refreshing! I feel as if I’ve watched almost every documentary on just about every era of British history. I’m so glad to have found this channel. You have content that I haven’t seen just yet.
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed this and happy you found my channel 🙂 A new video is coming soon about a curious Victorian tale, so I hope you watch out for it!
@@FactFeast I most certainly will!! Can’t wait!!
It’s lovely to see even at the worst times in history people still come out to make people laugh imagine haw hard it would be then to see something funny must make a bad day just that little bit better
FASCINATING
That’s great! Glad it was so interesting.
Absolutely fantastic. Keep up the good work.
Absolutely brilliant! Great narration and fascinating pictures. Subbed, I can't wait to watch your other content!
I really appreciate it. Thank you! I hope you enjoy the content.
I just came across this channel & I'm so glad I did👌😁
Thank you! Hope you find interesting content here. More to come.
Really enjoyed this, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed watching. Thank you!
Great content and delivery, thank you. Subbed.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. More to come.
I can't begin to say how much I enjoyed this!💕
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you.
Top social content, subbed, thx!
I’m glad you found it so interesting. Lots more content to come!
Love the narration and the stories! It’s such an interesting window into a different life
Great to know you enjoyed the ‘Victorian atmosphere.’ Thanks for watching.
In Scotland The penny hang as it was called offered someone that had a penny in his pocket an opportunity to sleep under a dry roof hanging by placing both arms over a stout hemp rope until morning.
This is brilliant, I love stuff like this, plus it's brilliantly done epically seeing that these are true account's from actual people from the time
It’s great that you enjoyed this so much! Many more like it on my channel. Thank you for your comment.
I really enjoy your content and have subbed up and hit the bell. The Victorian era is my favorite!
I'm glad to hear you enjoy the videos and thank you for subscribing. More to come!
Mesmerising and immersive...thoroughly enjoyed...greatly appreciated...thank you kindly and shared on #Twitter at time of writing😐
Thank you! I really appreciate it :)
Great channel mate, great content.
Thank you!
Dynamite topic. Dynamite channel.
Lotsa viewing i gotta catch up with!!
Hope you enjoy and thanks for watching!
This is very cool
The Irish Fishseller sounds Scouse
Yes.
wonderful picture gallery and truly infuriating life stories as most of the people pictured were in the large majority living from hand to mouth.... This photographer compiled an invaluable social document of the period.... Great idea to have gathered the pics and the stories in this video : i had seen a few of these pictures before but the accompaniment of the subjects' tales makes them so much more fascinating... thanks for another excellent video...
Such a precarious life.
Do we know what the ointment was in the early part of the video?
Absolutely love your videos good man! I have been binge watching and I really like your narration and stories. Subscribed!
That’s great! Thank you and welcome to the channel. I’m glad you’re enjoying the content here.
Fascinating!
I’m glad you think so. The aim is to bring life to these characters from the past. Thank you you for your comment!
@2:00 what in the world is up with those doctors shoes!?? They look like something Lady Gaga would wear, lol. 😄
I love the channel btw! ✨☺️
It is so hard to believe that any government would allow their citizens to suffer the terrible conditions that these people did. The starvation, lack of shelter, disease, abuse by teachers, employers, churches, the middle and upper classes is so shocking to today's people. But it is the same old story. The wealthy prey upon the poor, blame them for their poverty and go about congratulating themselves on what fine people they are. Makes you sick to your stomach. I am so surprised that the poor did not rise up and hang all of their 'betters' like the French did. Can't help but think how much better the UK would be today if they had done that.
Still a lot of homeless in uk now
Not even think about the situation in usa
I subscribed to this channel and thank you for making it because it is interesting!
Thank you for your kind comment. Glad to have you here!
Reminds me a lot of Spinal Tap.
Square Mile Bobbies. City of London Police 1839-1949.
So 19th Century Victorian London was like Five Points in New York.
Less tribal and more industrious. Victorian London was inventing everything.
No-It wasn't as bad as The Five Points. No stink pond or stagnant festering water. At least in London the thousands of daily tons of faeces floated out of the city on the Thames. The nights pee pots when empty flowed down hill also all by it self in to the river at the lowest points mid City. Unlike the stink pond which lacked drainage. So the lower east side NY could be smelling yesterda'ys smells along with last weeks, last months and last years. A Victorian view of Costamongers is just a snap shot of one class of person living and working on the streets. No way is it a representative of all London. Go further afeild away from the common through fares with their business vendors and there are Castles, Palaces, Large open Green areas, parks, plush shops, Theater land (west End), hotels, coaching houses, public houses, pubs and the new developing archiloghical museums. Slavery was already band where as in 1776 New York the anti slavery civel war was about to erupt. London was an emblem of civilisation. Where as the Five Points even gave Dickens a bit of a turn. Hells Kitchen next door was likely not much better either with refugees from there journeying to the Five Points just for a cheap vacation. LOL-Just joking my literate friend. Not often a literat person knows of The Five Points. Things have for sure changed since so long ago.
This reminds me of the stories in Unchained Memories,where the Congress commissioned a professional recorder to talk to the elderly remainder of the slave popualtions in the 1930's. they transcribed it w/o making any changes to grammar.
So 100 yr later from now
📄 They will see the street life of Trumpian life, as we live it now, but seen in the yr 2117. Huh.
M. Illinois. 🇺🇸
That street doctor's shoes,like Herman Monsters..😂
Probably part of the sales ‘patter’ - making him appear imposing.
@@FactFeast are both shoes like that or just one. If it is only one it would be because he had a limp and a higher heel would help with that. It hasn’t been that long since they have stopped making those types of shoes for people with limps.
It seemed that the large shoe was hiding a similar sized one behind at first, but the apparent size difference in trouser legs does suggest otherwise. Thank you for pointing this out and for watching.
he's got one leg shorter than the other. The larger shoe makes it so he can walk.
@@FactFeast left over from polio
Look at this dude... Which photograph did this actor jump out from?
They are really struggled to survive.
I just noticed the cough drop seller's short leg.
Loved it
I'm glad you enjoyed watching. Thank you for your kind comment!
So the totally love pragmatic businessman fish restaurant!! Wish I was an heir of his!
I went diggin in a street sweepers and factory tip for bottles ,I soon worked out life was misery ,all I ever found was penny pipes and broken coffee bottles
id take these time than these days in london today I reckon more chance of survivng a night on the streets than we do today
1:48 What is up with my mans shoes?
Could have been polio
CZcams Time Machine.
Wow that chaps right leg is short as .
So scummy mummies spending on themselves but not their children was going on back in Victorian times
I could’ve been a street dentist.
Those shoes!!!
Same as England today under the Tories.
Celebration of Fact Feast Dialogues bonus comment. Etymological Perambulations; (15:09) "It makes him wus". Is "wus" an early example of the expression "wooss" (see: Urban Dictionary "Someone afraid of doing simple things" or is the /r/ simply elided from "worse" and thus being voiced as "wose" or "wus"? Importantly, the context is entirely right for "wooss". I've heard this spoken likewise by working class people even over the past half century, education makes you "a wooss" or simply "wooss", i.e., 'unwilling to get your hands dirty and do honest work'. Thank you Fact Feast for this little gem of early etymological possibility. The mindset of Victorian values, based on the immediate experience of our forebears, remains as yet within our modern culture. Although current social media is doing its very best to eradicate reality by broadcasting widely the horribly over-generalised misconception that all British Empire citizens, irrespective of class and social history, were somehow super-privileged beneficiaries. That, it must be said, is exactly the consequence of being a wooss. Said otherwise, "The Devil does make work for idle hands to do."
Wonder if he tried the magic ointment on his club foot.😅
Love the content, but holy adds batman!
I play the street life
Because there's no place I can go
Street life, it's the only way I know 💃🎩🧐