- 19/06/2025
Documentary, The Victorian Slum S01E04 The 1890s
Victorian Slum
The Victorian Slum refers to a historical reenactment series that recreates the living conditions of the Victorian East End of London, focusing on the 1860s to the early 1900s. The series, produced by Wall to Wall Media, involves participants living in a recreated Victorian slum, experiencing the challenges faced by the poor during that era.
The show highlights the harsh realities of life in the slums, including overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and the struggle to survive through traditional trades.
The series was first broadcast on BBC in 2016 and later aired on PBS in America in 2017.
It also includes a narrative that explores how the Victorian East End changed attitudes toward poverty.
The series has been released on DVD and is available for purchase.
Additionally, the concept of the Victorian Slum is also discussed in relation to historical accounts of slum housing, which were often old, run-down buildings with poor living conditions
Victorian Slum
The Victorian Slum refers to a historical reenactment series that recreates the living conditions of the Victorian East End of London, focusing on the 1860s to the early 1900s. The series, produced by Wall to Wall Media, involves participants living in a recreated Victorian slum, experiencing the challenges faced by the poor during that era.
The show highlights the harsh realities of life in the slums, including overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and the struggle to survive through traditional trades.
The series was first broadcast on BBC in 2016 and later aired on PBS in America in 2017.
It also includes a narrative that explores how the Victorian East End changed attitudes toward poverty.
The series has been released on DVD and is available for purchase.
Additionally, the concept of the Victorian Slum is also discussed in relation to historical accounts of slum housing, which were often old, run-down buildings with poor living conditions
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LearningTranscript
00:00150 years ago, Victorian Britain became the world's first industrial superpower.
00:09And as the country thrived, London, the beating heart of empire, became the world's richest city.
00:17But this was a city divided.
00:20For the first time, geographical lines were drawn between those enjoying the nation's wealth in the West
00:27and those who weren't in the East.
00:33This is the story of one poor community living in London's East End.
00:40In the heart of modern Stratford, a Victorian slum has been recreated.
00:48And a group of 21st century people are moving in.
00:53Oh, absolutely awful.
00:57I'm just a bit dumbstruck.
00:59To survive, they'll have to work to keep a roof over their heads.
01:05It's absolutely shattering.
01:09And put food on the table.
01:11I'm starving.
01:12This is what's making me a bit emotional, to be honest.
01:15And they'll learn firsthand what life was like.
01:18You will call me mum.
01:19For those at the bottom of the economic pile.
01:22They were disabled.
01:23They couldn't do it.
01:24They didn't eat.
01:25They didn't eat.
01:26They died.
01:27They'll live through five decades of turbulent history.
01:30Look at the newspaper!
01:33And seismic social change.
01:36I am proud to be an East End suffragette.
01:39Power to the people.
01:40This is the story of how a quarter of a million slum dwellers in the East End changed our attitude to poverty forever.
01:51This is the slum.
01:59Last time, the slum dwellers endured the hardship of the 1880s.
02:03As soon as you start getting behind here, you're never going to get back.
02:06When soaring unemployment.
02:08There seems to be no end to the cycle.
02:10You go out, look for work, there is no work.
02:13And a growing population.
02:15God, this is so weird.
02:17Not what I necessarily expected.
02:19Heaped pressure on the East End.
02:21The slightest little thing can push you over the edge and you've lost everything.
02:26Welcome to the slum.
02:27Slum tourism brought unwelcome visitors.
02:30Like entertainment.
02:31Zoo animals.
02:32Yeah.
02:33People do suggest that the poor are thick and stupid.
02:37And actually, we're not.
02:39I'm going to throw you out, I'm afraid.
02:42And there was revolution in the air.
02:44Lower classes, the poor, the have-nots will not be trodden on.
02:48The slum dwellers fought back.
02:50Strikes.
02:52Publicity and protests.
02:54They have no right to take our living away from us.
02:58All helped to highlight their plight.
03:00Victory!
03:01Yay!
03:02Yay!
03:07The slum dwellers are waking up to a new decade.
03:10The 1890s.
03:16How was your sleep, Becca or Paul?
03:18Dad's snoring.
03:19Mum's shouting at Dad because he's snoring.
03:21You were kicking me in the face.
03:23Surprisingly, I managed to get a couple of hours sleep.
03:26I've got no one in the DOS house at the minute.
03:27And each empty bed means I don't earn money.
03:29I mean, I'm nervous about what is in store.
03:30I really don't know what's coming.
03:31During the 1890s, Britain finally emerged from the Long Depression.
03:32And with new prosperity, there came signs of modernity.
03:35There were electric lights in the streets, motorised buses and the first cinema opened on London's Regent Street.
03:41New technology meant cheaper, mass-produced goods filling the shops.
03:42Even in the poorest areas, there were small signs that things were getting better.
03:46Oh, my goodness, look at this.
03:47People would never have had pineapple before in their lives, would they?
03:48No.
03:49No.
03:50For slum shopkeepers Adrian and Vidka Bird,
03:51lights in the streets motorized buses and the first cinema opened on london's regent street
03:57new technology meant cheaper mass-produced goods filling the shops even in the poorest areas there
04:04were small signs that things were getting better oh my goodness look at this tin pineapple people
04:09would never have had pineapple before in their lives should they for slum shopkeepers adrian
04:14and vidka bird aha the new decade has brought a delivery of new stock cabbage cocoa essence
04:24it's real it's real wow and extras as well look at the flowers and then little bits and pieces for
04:32decorating your clothes and fixing things and a clock that's something to display proudly on the
04:37mantles international trade and domestic manufacturing rallied providing cheaper goods
04:45and foods to britain's with more disposable income but this new wealth did not touch everyone
04:53divisions are beginning to appear between those who have enough
04:57and those without the house have been the lucky ones and now they have a new family business
05:04look at that half and sun's limited that's quite nice isn't it
05:12oh my god wow fantastic isn't it really good this is more my environment it's more what i'm used to
05:21i love how it's just all classy like we actually look kind of well off it looks like a professional
05:27tailor's it looks like you're meant it's meant to be worked in not like a sweater's den it looks like
05:32it's a nice environment to make clothes in i'm actually just blown away i don't i don't really
05:37know what to say i actually don't i'm actually quite emotional
05:49this is just nearer to what we would have hoped for yeah i know for russell since he's been here
05:54he's worked really hard and also for my ancestors is what they would have worked for
05:58the house journey from sweatshop workers to owning their own business mirrors that of many jewish
06:09migrants including mandy's own ancestors who settled in britain after fleeing religious persecution in
06:15russia by 1890 spitalfields and whitechapel were home to a thriving jewish tailoring industry making suits in
06:24the east end for those who could not afford to shop at savile row wow you have you have come out
06:31in the world morning how are you so you've got the skill you've moved beyond sweated labor are you
06:36actually feeling more affluent now we are feeling more affluent it's like the end of the tunnel that
06:41we can actually get out of the slum yeah and work our way up which is what we've been working towards
06:46and have the other people have been finding it tough people without skills some some have found it very
06:50tough and my heart really goes out to them because they work so hard they're not lazy people at all
06:56and there's been massive struggles for them one such family are the potters
07:04hello oh goodness oh looks very nice with stock stock yes excellent good huh what other bits and bobs
07:15you've got on the back shelves adrian alison and her family are finding out what the 1890s has to offer
07:22we were selling products that we know today like oxo cubes you know we would sell them by the box but
07:28we would probably sell them by the single unit as well have you noticed the porcelain dogs up on the
07:33shelf i did how much are you selling those for hold on to your bonnet that's 17 pounds each no that's more
07:42than the potter's entire week's rent i mean that would feed us for three weeks wouldn't it surprisingly
07:48even within the slum at this point people got to a certain point when they had all of their basic
07:53needs covered and then they had extra spending money i don't think i could spend anything on any
08:01frivolous items well we haven't got that sort of money have we and we haven't got that sort of income
08:07where we would have that money yeah because currently none of us are working anyway the new
08:13luxuries available at the shop would have been well beyond their means we have these advertising
08:19posters back here and those are left over from putting up do you think you might want to try one
08:24of those in your room or a couple of them you like some as well so you've got a bottle
08:28pear soap oh pear soap i like that one just take one of each yeah bye bye see ya
08:38beecham's pills yeah that's fine about there yeah the potters have scraped through the decades
08:45since injuring his back shortly after arriving granddad graham has struggled to find work
08:51at a time when men were the main breadwinners old age or injury could seal a whole family's fate
08:58my fears would be to lose the house the room and this is it you know we put posters up to it to
09:06to make it brighter it's not the most fantastic place but it's home and i don't want to lose that
09:12it adds a bit of brightness to the room what do you think yeah that's it look a bit brighter yeah i think
09:20it turns in quite well with the mildew
09:21but for siblings john and maria who do have an income things are on the up we have enough for the
09:29rent and we have extra money but we won't be silly with it we'll get our breakfast every morning two
09:34slices of bread and then the evening two bowls of soup plus we just get out there and work and work and
09:40work and make more and more and more we have come such a long way from the das house we're in our own
09:46room now which is comfortable we are comfortable but comfortable isn't is not good enough you know
09:52we want more or at least i want more you have to keep working get out there do what we can and go as
09:59far and as high as possible because this is the time to do that like many slum women would have
10:05maria has been taking in her neighbors washing and she now has a burgeoning small business
10:13of london's 51 000 laundry workers 95 percent were women many were able to grow their enterprise from
10:21washing for neighbors to washing uniforms bedding and tableware for small-scale eateries and lodging
10:27houses by expanding her business maria has just enough work coming in to hire some extra help
10:35their bed sheets i don't know how they're this disgusting fellow slum dwellers allison and heather
10:41potter the sheets are maggoty girls oh so the boiling water into here and then we've got a dolly
10:51like this practice the movement girls together swinging that's it yeah you're good at this good i think
10:59give it my laundry business is doing quite good and i got two really good girls to help me today
11:07and i loved giving them the work it's like my hard work has paid off really because i'd started from
11:12the bottom and now i'm the boss put hold it in and wheel this around like this yeah
11:19color is absolutely wonderful you know we haven't had color with a few managing to scratch out a living
11:30in the slum hello mrs how are you today look at all this stuff there are some takers for the new
11:38products in the shop i just want to treat us to something nice yeah i definitely have a tin of corn
11:44beef definitely corn beef that's 238 that's fine including newly available homewares now being
11:53manufactured cheaply for the mass market i'm so excited to have flowers in my house that's the one
11:58thing how's that for you lovely can't go wrong how much is the clock the clock is 17 pounds that's over
12:07half of mandy's weekly rent i think we have to wait till our first suit's done before i can stretch to
12:13that but i've got my eye on that to walk in the shop and actually know that i've got some money in
12:18in my purse for the first time to not just necessarily buy the basic bread and butter
12:26soon as i saw them i knew exactly where i was going to put them and they're going to go on my
12:29table in a vase and the vase is going to go on a doily so as you open the door the first thing you
12:36will see i will go straight to the flowers that's where they're going as soon as i get home
12:40i've got to make a suit and embellish a hat james is embellishing the hat the howarth men are starting
12:49work on their first order one embellished bonnet and one lounge suit an order like this can earn
12:56russell up to 200 pounds in today's money i'm taking pride in this work it's a lot more enjoyable running
13:03a family business we're just working for us rather than being a sweater working for other factories
13:08it's been really good sort of showing james bits and pieces today i'm going to cut a hole so you
13:14can actually see out of it but it's going to go all the way around it's just going to drape down
13:18there's going to be a bow at the back because the victorian people did love their bows
13:21so hopefully it's going to turn out all right that father and son thing like my son goes fishing
13:27with me every weekend me and my dad don't have that because i don't like to go fishing i like to go
13:32shopping so i think it meant a lot to him to actually see that sign on the wall dad
13:38it's like the desert the lawrence of arabia actually embellished didn't it that looks reasonably
13:44embellished while russell runs the business the family's relative prosperity means they can afford
13:51for mandy not to work
13:52the victorian ideal was that married women should remain at home to look after any children and keep
14:01a clean and tidy house put some elbow grease in it not only is she ott she's actually ocd so it's like
14:12everything has to be right being a respectful woman in the victorian era is a really tough job
14:20but being able to stay at home was a luxury that most slum women could not afford i think this one's
14:26all right yeah it's all this one ready three two one working for maria is earning heather and allison
14:34potter a badly needed income but without graham working they won't have enough to keep the family
14:40afloat 26 27 28 29 29 29 yes yes well done so it's been a good day considering the power of the potters
14:53yes potter's power there is a hierarchy to the slum and we're at the bottom of the pile again
15:04the victorian elite were puzzled by the fact that although society as a whole
15:08was getting richer there was this growing population of poor london the greatest city
15:14on earth was creating an underclass of savages they called them the residuum literally the dregs
15:19of society and the worry was that they would somehow drag the whole population down with them
15:28determined to find out the scale of the problem one man set out to investigate
15:33businessman and statistician charles booth started in the east end and hired researchers to collect
15:39extensive data on every household from how much they earned to how they lived
15:50in 1891 his findings for wider london were published historian jerry white has come to the slum
15:57to tell the residents what he discovered booth set out to be the first person to define what poverty was
16:05and how many were living in poverty it was a massive inquiry it ran to 17 volumes but the great iconic
16:15product of his investigations was the london poverty map where he set out to color code the streets of
16:24london according to the class of the people who lived in london street by street on his map
16:33streets colored yellow red and pink represented the wealthy middle class and the comfortable working
16:39class households light blue were families living on the poverty line which boost defined as those
16:45those earning between 18 to 21 shillings a week dark blue accounting for around a hundred thousand
16:53people in east london was the very poor in chronic want the black streets were inhabited by the much
17:00feared residuum who booth described as vicious and semi-criminal but booth concluded that this was just
17:08one percent of the population not the majority of the poor as people had assumed booth thinks nothing
17:16can be done with the blackest streets except demolish the streets and disperse the people but if you
17:23demolish the black and disperse them where they're going to go they'll just move to a blue wall they will
17:29but they won't as it were create this difficult problem which the victorians saw as the semi-criminal
17:36and degraded classes clustering in particularly difficult streets which posed as it were a threat
17:42to people around demolition wasn't the only solution proposed booth suggested setting up labor camps
17:51where the unskilled would get training others favored deportation the evangelical school of industry
17:59shipped 12 000 poor children from london's east end to countries like candor and australia there was even
18:05a eugenics society who recommended mass sterilization they were going to contemplate sterilizing them for
18:13god's sake you know i mean what is that all about you know dreadful really sending them sending abroad
18:20you know just don't get any sense the slum dwellers would have been horrified to have known that the
18:26forces that had oppressed them in so many ways so far that they were the people talking about classing them
18:32as a different race and exterminating them basically is horrifying i wondered where you would have put
18:40your street where was the black ones again i don't think we're black are we i think we're dark blue
18:47dark blue because i don't think we're vicious semi-criminals are we there's no there's no
18:52vicious semi-criminal and degraded he called it the lives of savages booth said i'd say we're dark blue
18:57certainly dark blue you're absolutely right that i would have said this is a dark blue street i just
19:02wondered because it's only the two of us you know and we're making good money although it's casual labor
19:09that it's based on at the moment and so that may have brought us into the light blue with a new
19:15laundry business and so on then yeah i mean that's it wouldn't be long before you got there
19:20but uh yeah i'm certainly dark blue the news that the poorest made up just one percent of the population
19:29went some way to allay victorian concerns about a vast and vicious underclass
19:35but booth's research went further
19:39well what booth found and it was an astonishing finding of the time
19:44was that one in three of the east london population was living in poverty and for the first time i think
19:53he gave a human face to the poor the myths that these were people who were feckless
20:00drunken lazy didn't want to work what he showed was that one of the fundamental problems of london
20:07was low wages that even if people were working 70 hours a week they were working for a pittance
20:14and that meant that london was never seen in the same way again and the london poor were never seen
20:19in the same way again boo's work encouraged other social reformers to start their own investigations
20:26confectioner seaboom roundtree discovered that the poor in york faced almost identical problems to those
20:32in london a survey in manchester came to the same conclusion the genie was out of the bottle this
20:39wasn't a local issue but a national epidemic poverty was in the spotlight as never before but the question
20:45for the authorities was what to do about it there seems to be a bit more hope in the community a bit
20:52more spirit a bit more a bit more of a feeling that we can actually go out and make something of
20:58ourselves it really makes the 90s feel like like there is new hope
21:11it's a new day in the slum and in the 1890s boost findings were beginning to have an effect
21:17britain's attitudes towards the poor were slowly shifting it was no longer seen as simply part of
21:22the natural state but the product of social environmental and economic factors one way to
21:29help people out of poverty was education girls you're going to school
21:35school wash your hands and faces and get your scent off to school come on live you first
21:41in the past schooling was either provided by charities or had to be paid for by the pupils family
21:56then the nation's first education act provided subsidized schooling for most pupils and made it free
22:01for the very poorest during the 1890s schooling became free for all and compulsory for all children
22:10between the ages of five and twelve it also put an obligation on families to make sure their
22:17kids actually went to school this was a shift the state was intervening in family life and this had a
22:24big impact on the lives of working poor right behave yourself today do you understand me i'll try
22:31i'm not joking i try right do as you're told i'll try behave myself don't show me up could you just let me do it
22:41let me do it james james james no please you've got to have a clean face just one sec
22:48no please stop you're on high show don't show me up all right love you
22:55good morning children good morning mom very quietly sit down
23:17if you do not work well in class then you may
23:20be given the cane and it's very painful so we're going to start with some arithmetic
23:29two times seven equals hands up pupils were rigorously drilled in the three r's
23:37by the end of the century an astonishing 97 percent of the population could read
23:42an increase of more than 30 percent since the 1850s on the seven very good
23:52while james is at school mandy and rebecca are getting to grips with more housework
23:58what are you doing got to turn it down what do you mean turn it down
24:01like that see it's a bit posh isn't it
24:04even at the best of times keeping a slum dwelling clean was an uphill struggle but in the 1890s this
24:13was to become more difficult than ever this doesn't normally take this long to pump doesn't normally does
24:18it i don't think it's working properly how are we going to get that fixed should we call andy
24:24yeah we could do that because he's the one that collects the rent from us i suppose if nothing's
24:28working here he's the one that's got to come and try and salt it you've seen the sign up front no
24:40in the mid 1890s london suffered a drought notice is hereby given that it is found necessary to
24:48restrict the supply of water to use only for strictly domestic purposes the east london waterworks
24:55company supplied water from the river lee it had spent little on maintaining infrastructure and
25:00had already been fined for supplying contaminated water in the 1860s now it restricted supply in the
25:07east end to just six hours a day i bet the band wasn't done equally so i bet the rich were given some
25:14leeway and the poor got the brunt of it it would be easier to regulate their usage wouldn't it because
25:20they've only got the stamp pipes to add insult to injury the east london waterworks even published
25:27propaganda blaming the poor for contributing to the problem by wasting water for the struggling potters
25:35reliant on work from maria it's a particular blow this is going to affect us isn't it greatly we can't
25:42clean clothes for that water can we at all right and we need boiling water really clean water we need
25:47water for salt everything i'm angry because we wanted to get this washing done we wanted to earn some
25:54money and now we're thwarted and back in 1896 there was nothing you could do who could you go to
26:06the lack of water posed a threat to more than just the poor's livelihoods
26:11sanitation in the east end slums was already rudimentary one outside privy could be shared
26:17by scores of people cesspits were rarely emptied and when it rained sewage overflowed into houses
26:25leaving families three foot deep in human waste the water shortage made the situation even more deadly
26:32while wealthier households had bars in which to store supplies and money to buy bottled water
26:41in the slums sewage stagnated and diarrhoea deaths tripled most slum housing was owned by absentee
26:49landlords who made little or no effort to maintain their properties and put profits before the welfare of
26:55their tenants protected by their anonymity there was little recourse for the suffering slum dwellers
27:02until a campaigning journalist decided to bring the poor's plight to the public's attention
27:09bennett burley a war reporter for the daily telegraph decided to investigate one of london's most
27:15notorious slums the old nickel he wrote of finding 108 people in 39 rat infested rooms
27:25burley exposed dozens of slum landlords in his articles as well as aristocrats like the duke of
27:32buckyham he discovered that some local councillors were also implicated but most shocking to the
27:38god-fearing victorians was that some of the worst properties were on land owned by the church of
27:44england one of the biggest difficulties in dealing with the appalling living conditions in the east end
27:50slums had always been the lack of a single regulatory body until the 1890s london was governed by 43
28:00separate vestries underfunded and often corrupt and then finally 50 years after glasgow and liverpool
28:08london got its own administration the london county council funded and elected by london's rate payers
28:15it was responsible for overseeing all city planning its first priority was the housing crisis the lcc made
28:23funds available to employ extra sanitation inspectors the precursor to our modern environmental health
28:30officers their job was to investigate conditions in the slums so have a look at the um the privies women
28:37had often been at the forefront of charitable crusades to improve the health of the poor
28:41but during the 1890s middle-class women were employed for the first time as sanitary inspectors
28:49mandy's newfound victorian respectability has landed her a new profession it's so unhealthy in there
28:56there's not even a gap for the air to come out it's just rotten the whole thing is rotten
29:03some slums were home to over 20 000 people and rubbish disposal was a big problem you've got all the food
29:10from i don't know how many days ago yeah flies and rats it just needs all to be cleared to get it
29:17collected yeah rubbish should have been collected by dustman but because their wages were topped up with
29:23tips which no one in the slums could afford it often festered for weeks dustman wouldn't have come
29:30to pick this up because it wouldn't have been worth their while no and nobody was there to enforce it
29:34nobody cared because the poor like to be dirty yeah the london county council was also put in charge of
29:39the city's common lodging houses with the power to prosecute owners and shut down properties that
29:46didn't meet the required standards next on mandy's round andy's dossers oh this is awful how many beds
29:56are in here five six seven eight that's a fair one from that side and look these have not been
30:01cleaned it's just a breeding ground for disease it wouldn't surprise me if they have mice and rats
30:06coming in here and the floor hasn't been mopped i think ever and then we've got this here and it
30:11just stinks doesn't it look and look at the floor just with that damp itself people will get ill they'll
30:16get infections yeah it has to be shut down i've got the authority now having gone through my checklist
30:21and looked at all of this i'm shutting this place down i don't think you have any alternative no i've
30:26got no alternative none at all unfortunately okay so much mold in here hundreds of doss houses were
30:35given formal warnings and the worst closed down despite the council's best intentions this only
30:41made the housing problem worse because 31 000 of london's poor relied on them each night the lcc did open
30:49its own boarding house on drury lane it had room for 240 lodgers and boasted individual cubicles with
30:56beds sinks and lockable doors but at six pence per night it was 50 percent more than a common lodging
31:03house too expensive for the very poorest who had to make do with the remaining dos houses or resort to
31:10sleeping on the streets shut me down fabulous so it's less money now you've seen this
31:27shut me down it's a hole wasn't it but there's still money i can't earn from it now that's right
31:35stuck to you stuck your income you'll find another job don't worry we've had to diversification is going
31:42to be the key in a time before the welfare state disabled people who found themselves without an income
31:51would have had very few options if i'd have been a real victorian there's no way i would have been like
32:01i am now 11 years post injury and still alive and relatively healthy do you know what i mean there's
32:10no way many had to resort to work considered either dishonest or demeaning so i think the first thing we'll
32:18make is some kind of ointment yeah and sell it as a joint reliever some became quacks street doctors
32:27selling homemade medicines which were often little more than sugar pills
32:32right is survival of the fittest and uh you've got to diversify if you don't diversify you don't earn
32:37we will now do what we need to do to get by i would have been so browbeaten so told by society that
32:47because i'm disabled i was nothing anyway so i would have been very happy that i'm able to go out and make
32:51some potions and earn some money that way thank you very much indeed all right in 1890 if you need to
32:59make money and you've got slightly low morals it's probably a very acceptable way to do it graham you're
33:06my board man so you go out advertising bring people in without state pensions to live on
33:13the elderly too had to take what work they could find gardeners won the potions victorian potions
33:24do you want to try some of my potions like you young man are you sure described by dickens as pieces
33:31of human flesh between two slices of board these were the sandwich board men in an era obsessed with
33:38respectability and reputation these were humiliating and desperate ways to make money victorians knew
33:45that men and women in these jobs were just one small step away from the workhouse a lot of people
33:51just ignored us some people call faces yeah that's what you're finding hard yeah walking around with
33:58an a board on although to some people would be the worst thing you could possibly do to me i knew was
34:03earning money and as the head of the household that's what i feel i should do gardeners wonder potions
34:13my legs are hurting now
34:17back at the slum with the drought dragging on for years a successful laundress like maria would have
34:23had little choice but to move on if she wanted to continue running her business
34:28we came with goals and we've done what we set out to do and now we've made five times our weekly
34:35rent and now it's time to go thank you so long goodbye slum women with the means could leave the
34:45water shortages of the east behind and move west where industrial laundries had tanks in which to store
34:52water in the 1890s the laundry industry expanded rapidly new larger laundries sprang up in clusters
35:01in places like kensal newtown known as soap sud island here they received orders from places as
35:07far afield as scotland and even paris hello hello we're getting out of here you're leaving we're going
35:15we're getting out of the slum we better go off into the sunset oh well done well done thanks and
35:22take care see you later darling i've got full respect for john and maria i think they did the irish
35:27immigrants absolutely proud i think their ancestors would look on what they've done and be very proud
35:32that they've got two people like that in their family
35:34i think the irish would have felt extremely proud of themselves because they really did start from
35:48the bottom and then to work their way up with all their strength all their fight no matter how starving
35:54no matter how tired or cold they were to be able to then work their way up would have been the most
35:58proud feeling i think they would have felt forever i really see everyone diverging now you have some
36:13who are possibly skyrocketing in in their success and others still struggling
36:18for the potters maria and john's departure throws yet more uncertainty over their future we have relied
36:31on maria who was running her laundry business to give us some work but they're going to move on to
36:38better things and they're not going to take us with them so we're going to find ourselves not having
36:46any work again and a family in our position would never have been able to work their way out of the slum
37:07in the 1890s new social reforms were starting to make irrevocable changes to slum life
37:13but compulsory schooling put pressure on families like the potters we're not going to earn as much
37:22money if your children aren't with you yeah but that doesn't matter today's not about earning money
37:26it's about learning you don't want to be making matchboxes for the rest of the days do you with james
37:33going to school russell is also under more pressure to finish his order on time rebecca's definitely
37:40going to have to work harder because you have to pull the weight of both the family members
37:47the school-aged children were working hard too some sewing for the girls as well as academic lessons
37:54they were taught gender specific practical skills and for you james we have some woodwork i want you to
38:01do some sanding for me i find it pointless i'd rather be working because i'm bringing home something
38:09this incensed some poor parents whose children were being taught things they already knew and got paid
38:16to do at home my girls enjoy earning the money so that they know that they're contributing to the
38:23family part so they feel that they're somehow letting us down by going to school because they're then not
38:30able to earn money for us but i don't see it like that however for the victorian poor people they had
38:38two three maybe four children out there earning money for them so they would be losing half of their
38:43family income well done i'm pleased with that so now i want you to do some hammering for me we've got
38:51many refused to send their children to school but the law came down hard on truancy with fines of five
38:57shillings the equivalent of a child's average weekly wage i'd rather be back in the slum than here
39:04because i'd rather be working with my family and getting money and surviving and learning things
39:13compulsory schooling also exposed to the state the terrible conditions in which many slum children were
39:18living one in three was malnourished only one in 81 children owned a toothbrush and many suffered from
39:26poor eyesight and rickets end of school for today so class rise but even for children in poor health
39:34the end of lessons marked the start of their working day some managed 40 hours of labor a week outside
39:41school even with rebecca's help russell is struggling to get his order done on time it's a sad life to have
39:53being cooped up all the time and having to work day in day out it's the first all we've done in the shop
39:59it's meant to be finished ended today i was rushing to do something and i picked the iron up didn't check
40:04it properly put the iron it and burn it's just i'm devastated i've never used anything like this
40:10before i'm adapting myself to to use these techniques and just the fact you can burn something just like
40:16that it's just i'm absolutely what i want to cry i'm like undo it and start again it's really grating on
40:24my dad like you can really tell and he's going stir crazy like he's not even talking to any of us like
40:30like dad you all right it's just quite in a way it's like it's quite mental genuinely quite worried
40:35for him we haven't got no buttons to go on look buttons are here russ i can get you some buttons i can
40:40find show me that trouser buttons all week or non-stops every time i do it on in bad mood
40:51have a couple of points where we calm yourself down
40:53for many one way to escape from the drudgery of slum life was to drink it was estimated the poor
41:03spent a fifth of their income on alcohol and working class drunkenness was another target
41:09for victorian social reformers drop mode yes to another long day of alcoholism
41:16within a quarter of a mile of the old nickel there were 112 pubs with east end pubs shutting for
41:25just five hours each night drunkenness was rife many middle and upper class victorians thought poverty
41:32was caused by excessive drinking a movement was formed to encourage the poor to turn t-total
41:41it produced propaganda to highlight the destructive effects of alcohol on the drinker and their family
41:49the temperance movement urged people to sign a pledge to give up drink
41:53in return they promised that a life of sobriety would bring self-respect self-improvement and a happy
42:00home would it help our plight if we signed this it'd certainly help our plight in the long run yes
42:06how in what way so they can't blame us then that drinks causing everything no i'm not going to sign
42:11hell no because okay no no not today i think as an 1890s man living in the slum beer was probably a
42:19fundamental part of their life they drank it constantly day in day out and when the temperance
42:24movement came about they were probably not too keen on it to put it mildly
42:32throughout the second half of the 1890s london's drought continued
42:36the worst thing is the cleanliness it's disgusting i can't tell you how bad it makes me feel
42:48it's unsanitary it's revolting just to get up and smell yourself in the morning makes you feel awful
42:57my body hasn't seen decent water for weeks and the water it has seen has been stone cold
43:05the feeling of not being clean and being able just to jump in the shower it's just so destroyed
43:14despite the intermittent water supply the victorian middle and upper classes
43:18at least had indoor bathrooms if the poor wanted to get clean they had to look further afield
43:26this is bath time public bathing had been popular in british cities since the 1840s when the urban
43:33population began to explode but bethnal green would have to wait until 1898 before it got its first
43:41locally funded public bars
43:46bath houses provided facilities to wash and at some sites to swim two pence paid for a hot bath and a
43:54clean towel a cold bath was just a penny i've just felt elated i've felt my skin squeak for the first time
44:04in two and a half weeks it's beyond brilliant it really is
44:14as the decade drew to a close the work of social reformers began to have a direct impact on the east
44:20end all right oh we have a letter oh what's that all about then mrs gardner and potter we would like
44:30to inform you of your immediate employment as general laborers we are desirous of the communal
44:35areas of the dwelling house being whitewashed as part of the sanitary improvements that have been
44:39ordered you will both be renumerated to the value of five pence for each full hour
44:45either they want to put rents up or they're scared about that telegraph bloke i think they've got to
44:51make improvements let's get crack in us all right let's go with the publicity generated by figures like
44:58burley and booth the london county council forced more and more slum landlords to make improvements
45:03to their properties it's looking a lot better at least it's put a bit of brightness in here it just
45:09seems to be a false air of cleanliness doesn't it in many cases the improvements were superficial
45:16and did little to improve conditions as a whole we pay body hour slow down for andy and graham it does
45:23at least provide some income at howarth and sons russell's finished the suit well done rust that's
45:32a tall order that was if you think about the tools that you've had i think you've done a great job
45:39yeah it's all done a lot of skills i've used i've not used for a long time and so it's sort of nice to
45:45revisit those it's what made me fall in love with taylor in the first place 20 40. they've been paid
45:52enough to comfortably cover their costs for the week it's definitely benefited the family this skill
45:58over the decades and it's come to fruition and we're now moving up into the middle class 83 pounds 44 pence
46:05brilliant fantastic well done well done daddy well done well done james i'm quite proud of the hat
46:13you should be it wasn't it wasn't the best you weren't 10 pounds for that hat towards the family
46:18so now we have money to put away we have money to treat ourselves with we've already got the rent money
46:24so life is good as the end of the 19th century approached victorian society turned its attention
46:37to something that had become one of the biggest problems of all london's population hit five and a
46:43half million queen victoria asked prime minister gladstone to start an urgent inquiry the housing of
46:49the working classes act swiftly followed it gave london county council the right to demolish the worst
46:56slums like the old nickel and replace them for the first time with social housing
47:07dear mrs howarth it is with great pleasure that i wish to inform you
47:11of the compulsory purchase of the dwelling houses of which you are the sanitary inspector the purpose of
47:18purchase is for immediate demolition and reconstruction with houses for the respectable
47:24artisan and working classes so it's all going to be knocked down and rebuilt and we've got to be
47:30rehoused i can't believe it this was a watershed moment for the east end urban poor victorians must have
47:40felt overjoyed that finally that the wretched accommodation where they've been living is going to
47:44be demolished and something is going to be done but it's still their home and there must have been
47:48this nervousness around what are they going to do where they're going to go and also can they afford
47:52the new place where they potentially would be going to so they must have had this mixed emotion of
47:58happiness but really frightened the london county council used charles boo's poverty maps to identify the
48:06areas to demolish and redevelop they started with the old nickel slum in shoreditch
48:12it had become a warren of overcrowded narrow streets full of filth and desperation an inspection of its
48:19housing reported 43 unfit for human habitation
48:31demolition began in the 1890s and in its place rose london's first ever council housing the boundary
48:38estate was opened in 1900 by the prince of wales to cheering crowds historian and leading expert on
48:46the old nickel sarah wise is showing the slum residents what potentially could have been their new home
48:54the boundary street estate was 20 blocks of about a thousand flats that was going to be home for
49:01four thousand seven hundred people and the idea was they wanted something that was going to be
49:08morally uplifting for the poor so they really wanted this idea of lights and fresh air and that's why
49:13you've got these amazingly broad streets and this central circus the mound for the central circus was
49:21made using the bricks and rubble from the demolished slum compared to what we've been living like to come to
49:27something like this is just mind-blowing really and just to be able to get in the fresh air
49:32see the sun something green for the victorians it just must have been just like heaven for them
49:38one of the reasons it looks as good as it does is that the county council wanted to act as a
49:43flagship to charitable and philanthropic developers or even to private builders just to show them this is
49:50how good urban living can be the lcc made sure the estate housed facilities which they believed
49:57addressed many of the problems that faced the urban poor
50:04as well as a thousand flats the model development included a huge central laundry a school
50:12and a parade of shops they ensured there was no pub on site but provided a club room where residents
50:18could socialize and the improvements didn't stop there each flat you had gas and your own running
50:29piped water um the gas amazing yeah no absolutely and the gas was for the lighting and also there was a
50:37a gas ring on top of a specially designed kitchen range so you had your own little oven and some flats
50:44had their own lose they wanted to do everything they could to make sure that cleanliness was given
50:49priority but life on the boundary estate came with a long list of regulations as a costamonger we were
50:57selling eels and sheep trotters would we have been able to prepare them in the accommodation that would
51:04have been frowned upon yeah yeah it's what would have been called a noxious trade back in those days and
51:11they would not have wanted that going on in the premises because apart from anything it would be
51:14seen as anti-social amongst the rules residents had to abide by were no subletting no keeping of
51:21livestock and most significant for the slum dwellers no running of any kind of business or trade from
51:27their homes that's why the council built four runs of workshops 90 workshops in total the problem with
51:35that was that they cost an extra four shillings a week on top of your weekly rental so that's really
51:41pretty pricey when you're used to paying only two and six a week all in then this building wouldn't
51:48have been an option i think that's right for us yeah yes you see a big split then don't you because
51:53it would be all right for us we'd probably love a place like this yeah love it but then for you it
51:59would be impossible to do at all how are they gonna live it's almost as if whilst the accommodation
52:06in the tenement is awful at least they had a way of making living at least they you know the few
52:11pennies that they may have earned it kept at least one meal on the table per day they've got no chance
52:19the estate planners never consulted with the slum dwellers about their specific needs
52:24and it turned out they got it seriously wrong sad fact is that of the 5 700 people
52:32in the old nickel only 11 took a flat on the estate well 11 yeah just 11. that's awful um
52:41yeah i'm serious because what the london county council hadn't realized was over half of people
52:47in the old nickel lived in a one-room home so there were 750 one-room homes in the nickel but on the new
52:53estate there were only 15 one-room flats i think that is a travesty yeah because everybody must have
53:02had their hopes raised they felt that they'd been promised this accommodation they must have felt as
53:08though they'd been lied to they may very well have thought that finally we've been noticed that there's
53:14going to be change and then it's whipped from underneath them in the in a most devastating way actually
53:19because you know they lived in in the most atrocious conditions but at least they had somewhere to live
53:23and now they had nowhere without enough affordable homes at the boundary estate most of the former old
53:30nickel residents were forced into other slums in nearby bethnal green overcrowding became worse than ever
53:38accommodation even more squalid and due to the high demand rent rose by almost a third within 10 years
53:46it's just such a wasted opportunity and what a beautiful project this was it would have made a
53:50real difference to the way people live their everyday lives but the fact that only 11 families could
53:55actually afford to live there is such a shame we're starting to get used to this pattern of people trying
54:01to do good for people in the slum and it not working out or causing even more problems than they had to
54:06begin with back in the slum the demolition order hangs over them when properties were knocked down
54:14landlords were paid extra compensation for homes in a habitable condition which triggered a rush of
54:20superficial patching up so andy and graham are still whitewashing landlords were actually paid
54:2910 percent extra compensation if they had tried to improve living accommodation really is that the case
54:38graham brush down is that truth yeah that's so basically you've been painting all day to
54:47the landlord an extra 10 percent more money and they're just going to pull it down anyway end of
54:53finished they've condors yet again as is the residents in here we've been ordered to to paint it
54:59for and it's going to be condemned so you know we've lost that both ways aren't we we knew something was
55:04that yeah we did i'm not painting with this struggling up and down them stairs and graham
55:11with his back struggling to do walls for them to earn more money nope i'm not doing one more lick
55:15no neither am i mate there was me thinking that 1890s were actually showing a little bit of social
55:20conscience and a little bit of care towards the poor well it was wasn't it yeah till this
55:27that's foul to do that the people that thought maybe this was the start of something good for
55:32their tenement and to turn around and no we're knocking it down anyway but thanks for doing that
55:37we pay you a pittance we won't ask you if you want to do it we tell you you've got to do it we will
55:42pay you a pittance and they get 10 extra on the price i think 2016 me and 1890s me would probably have
55:49to pay him a visit and i don't think he'd like the result of that the residents have called a meeting
55:55to discuss their fate as a community we're a community we're all going to be split up they
56:01would have all been split up the friends they would have made the children we've all been split up
56:06people like yourself you may have somewhere to go and money to go out and be able to to find new
56:13lodgings we wouldn't i mean it must have been terrifying for the victorians at this time you know
56:17especially people that are in my situation that have got young children um oh god it must have been
56:25awful to just another cloud of uncertainty over their head about god what is my future going to be like
56:36as the 1890s come to an end the slum community faces an uncertain future
56:42i think it was the first time that poverty had actually raised its head above the parapet and to
56:50actually say that poverty is not a decision that you take it's a circumstance that's forced upon you
56:56due to lack of work the biggest change for me is the fact that i've lost my income and going from
57:03dos housekeeper to nothing really but you can start to see little bits of change maybe a couple of
57:11chinks of light at the end of the tunnel for the slum dwellers when i heard that the slum was
57:16going to be demolished my upset came for those that wouldn't be sure where they were going if
57:20they can afford anywhere i know that we could move to somewhere better i'd be devastated to leave
57:26everybody here but ultimately like it's always been in the slump it is each family for themselves
57:31you have to look after your own first and foremost because nobody's going to do it for you
57:35then comes the community my worries for the next decade are having somewhere to live to have enough
57:43money to feed the family and my fears are that we will end up without a roof over our heads
57:51next time the residents change decade for the final time
57:55it's a new century the monarchy goes on long live the king a time of huge upheaval
58:05i feel like it's progress it's like a new adventure now while some exercise their rights the poor were
58:11desperate to voice their opinion others still have a fight on their hands i've just heard the men they're
58:17talking about politics shame we can't vote and a lucky few experience life beyond the slum for the actual
58:23victorian kids that got a chance to do this it must have been a whole new world for them yes run
58:29whoo
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