Victorian era

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Victorian Era

1837–1901

Queen Victoria, after whom the era is named.

Preceded by   Georgian era
Followed by   Edwardian era
Monarch Queen Victoria

Periods and eras in English then British

History

Tudor Period (1485–1558)

Elizabethan Era (1558–1603)

Stuart Period (1603–1714)

 Jacobean Era (1603–1625)

Caroline Era (1625–1642)

Georgian Era (1714–1830)

British Regency (1811–1820)

Victorian Era (1837–1901)

Edwardian Era (1901–1910)

Modern Britain (1945–present)

v·d·e

The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June
1837 until her death on 22 January 1901.[1] The reign was a long period of prosperity for the
British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial
improvements at home. Some scholars extend the beginning of the period—as defined by a
variety of sensibilities and political games that have come to be associated with the Victorians—
back five years to the passage of the Reform Act 1832.

The era was preceded by the Georgian period and succeeded by the Edwardian period. The latter
half of the Victorian era roughly coincided with the first portion of the Belle Époque era of
continental Europe and the Gilded Age of the United States.

The era is often characterised as a long period of peace, known as the Pax Britannica, and
economic, colonial, and industrial consolidation, temporarily disrupted by the Crimean War,
although Britain was at war every year during this time. Towards the end of the century, the
policies of New Imperialism led to increasing colonial conflicts and eventually the Anglo-
Zanzibar War and the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a
number of shifts in the direction of gradual political reform and the widening of the voting
franchise.

The population of England had almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in
1901.[2] Scotland's population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901.
Ireland’s population decreased rapidly, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901.
[3]
At the same time, around 15 million emigrants left the United Kingdom in the Victorian era
and settled mostly in the United States, Canada, and Australia.[4]

During the early part of the era, the House of Commons was headed by the two parties, the
Whigs and the Tories. From the late 1850s onwards, the Whigs became the Liberals; the Tories
became the Conservatives. These parties were led by many prominent statesmen including Lord
Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, William Ewart Gladstone, Benjamin
Disraeli, and Lord Salisbury. The unsolved problems relating to Irish Home Rule played a great
part in politics in the later Victorian era, particularly in view of Gladstone's determination to
achieve a political settlement. Indeed these issues would eventually lead to the Easter Rising of
1916 and the subsequent domino effect that would play a large part in the fall of the empire.

The reign of Victoria is the longest in British history; it would be exceeded if the present
monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) remains on the throne past 2015.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Population in the Victorian era

 2 Culture
 3 Events
 4 Entertainment
 5 Technology and engineering
 6 Health and medicine
 7 Poverty
 8 Child labour
 9 Prostitution
 10 See also
 11 References
 12 Further reading
 13 External links

[edit] Population in the Victorian era

The Victorian era was a time of unprecedented demographic increase in England. The population
rose from 13.897 million in 1831 to 32.528 million in 1901. Two major factors affecting
population growth are fertility rates and mortality rates. England was the first country to undergo
an Industrial Revolution.

Many countries in the 19th century didn’t manage to increase the population so rapidly and
successfully throughout the Industrial Revolution. At the time, some believed this lack of growth
outside Britain was due to the ‘Malthusian trap’ theory; Thomas Malthus argued that ‘in every
age and in every state’ the population increase was unsuccessful because of the lack of
subsistence. He had a very negative view on the increase of population, which he studied in 1798
- just before the start of the Industrial Revolution. England escaped the ‘Malthusian trap’ because
the Industrial Revolution had a positive impact on living standards. People had more money and
could improve their standards.

Fertility rates

Fertility rates in the Victorian era increased every decade until 1901 when the rates started
evening out. There are several reasons for the increase in birth rates. One reason is biological.
With living standards improving, the percentage of women who were able to have children
increased. Another possible explanation is social. In the 19th century, the marriage rate
increased, and the age people were getting married was very young until the end of the 19th
century, when the average age of marriage started to increase again slowly. Reasons why people
got married younger and more frequently are uncertain. One theory is that greater prosperity
allowed people to finances marriage and new households earlier than previously possible. With
more births inside marriage it seems inevitable that marriage rates and birth rates would rise
together.

Birth rates were originally measure by the ‘Crude Birth Rate’, which is - births per year in
population per every thousand people. This is thought not to be accurate enough as key groups
and their fertility rates are not clear. It also does not take into account population changes, e.g.
same number of births in a smaller population (if men go to war, etc.). It was then changed to be
recorded by the ‘Net Reproduction Rate’ that only measured the fertility rate of women who
were capable of giving birth.

The evening out of fertility rates at the beginning of the 20th century was mainly a result of a
few big changes: Forms of birth control became available, and people’s attitude towards sex
altered (Bradlaw and Besant published ‘Fruits of Philosophy’, which is a publication about birth
control.) Abortion also became a more widely used practice - with attitudes becoming less
negative towards it. Finally, the state stopped children working - attitudes to children changed as
they were no longer seen as economical assets.

Mortality rates

The mortality rates in England changed greatly through the 19th century. There was no
catastrophic epidemic or famine in England or Scotland in the 19th century - the first century in
which a major epidemic did not occur, with deaths per 1000 of population per year dropping
from 22.4 from 1841-50 to 14.4 from 1911-20. Class had a big effect on mortality rates as the
upper classes began to avoid premature death much earlier in the 19th century than poorer
classes did.

Environmental and health standards rose throughout the Victorian era. Sewage works were
improved as was the quality of drinking water. With a healthier environment, diseases were
caught less easily and not spread as much. Technology was also improving because the
population had more money to spend on medical technology (for example, techniques to prevent
death in childbirth so more women and children survived). Improving technology led to a greater
number of cures for diseases. However, a cholera epidemic took place in London in 1848-49
killing 14,137, and subsequently in 1853, killing 10,738. This anomaly was attributed to the
closure and replacement of cesspits, by the modern sewerage systems.

[edit] Culture
See also: Victorianism, Victorian architecture, Victorian decorative arts, and Victorian fashion

Gothic Revival architecture became increasingly significant in the period, leading to the Battle of
the Styles between Gothic and Classical ideals. Charles Barry's architecture for the new Palace of
Westminster, which had been badly damaged in an 1834 fire, built in the medieval style of
Westminster Hall, the surviving part of the building. It constructed a narrative of cultural
continuity, set in opposition to the violent disjunctions of Revolutionary France, a comparison
common to the period, as expressed in Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution: A History, and
Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. Gothic was also supported by the
critic John Ruskin, who argued that it epitomised communal and inclusive social values, as
opposed to Classicism, which he considered to epitomise mechanical standardisation.

The middle of the 19th century saw The Great Exhibition of 1851, the first World's Fair, and
showcased the greatest innovations of the century. At its centre was the Crystal Palace, a
modular glass and iron structure - the first of its kind. It was condemned by Ruskin as the very
model of mechanical dehumanisation in design, but later came to be presented as the prototype
of Modern architecture. The emergence of photography, which was showcased at the Great
Exhibition, resulted in significant changes in Victorian art with Queen Victoria being the first
British Monarch to be photographed. John Everett Millais was influenced by photography
(notably in his portrait of Ruskin) as were other Pre-Raphaelite artists. It later became associated
with the Impressionistic and Social Realist techniques that would dominate the later years of the
period in the work of artists such as Walter Sickert and Frank Holl.

[edit] Events
This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can
help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (May
2010)
1832
Passage of the first Reform Act.[5]
1837
Ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne.[5]
1840
New Zealand becomes a British colony, through the Treaty of Waitangi.
1840
Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield. He had been naturalised
and granted the British style of Royal Highness beforehand. For the next 17 years, he was
known as HRH Prince Albert
1840
Birth of the Queen's first child The Princess Victoria. Within months she was granted the
title Princess Royal
1841
Birth of the Queen's heir-apparent The Prince Albert Edward, Duke of Cornwall (Duke of
Rothesay). He was swiftly made Prince of Wales
1842
Treaty of Nanking. Massacre of Elphinstone's Army by the Afghans in Afghanistan
results in the death or incarceration of 16,500 soldiers and civilians.[6] The Mines Act of
1842 banned women/children from working in coal, iron, lead and tin mining.[5] The
Illustrated London News was first published.[7]
1843
Birth of The Princess Alice
1844
Birth of The Prince Alfred
1845
The Irish famine begins. Within 5 years it would become the UK's worst human disaster,
with starvation and emigration reducing the population of Ireland itself by over 50%. The
famine permanently changed Ireland’s and Scotland's demographics and became a
rallying point for nationalist sentiment that pervaded British politics for much of the
following century.
1846
Repeal of the Corn Laws.[5]
1846
Birth of The Princess Helena
1848
Death of around 2,000 people a week in a cholera epidemic.
1848
Birth of The Princess Louise
1850
Restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Britain.
1850
Birth of The Prince Arthur
1851
The Great Exhibition (the first World's Fair) was held at the Crystal Palace,[5] with great
success and international attention. The Victorian gold rush. In ten years the Australian
population nearly tripled.[8]
1853
Birth of The Prince Leopold
1854
Crimean War: The United Kingdom declared war on Russia.
1857
The Indian Mutiny, a widespread revolt in India against the rule of the British East India
Company, was sparked by sepoys (native Indian soldiers) in the Company's army. The
rebellion, involving not just sepoys but many sectors of the Indian population as well,
was largely quashed within a year. In response to the mutiny, the East India Company
 was abolished in August 1858 and India came under the direct rule of the British crown,
beginning the period of the British Raj. Prince Albert was given the title The Prince
Consort
1857
Birth of The Princess Beatrice
1858
The Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, responded to the Orsini plot against French
emperor Napoleon III, the bombs for which were purchased in Birmingham, by
attempting to make such acts a felony, but the resulting uproar forced him to resign.
1859
Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, which led to various reactions.[5]
Victoria and Albert's first grandchild, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, is born — he would
later become William II, German Emperor
1861
Death of Prince Albert;[5] Queen Victoria refused to go out in public for many years, and
when she did she wore a widow's bonnet instead of the crown.
1863
The Prince of Wales marries Princess Alexandra of Denmark at Windsor.
1866
An angry crowd in London, protesting against John Russell's resignation as Prime
Minister, was barred from Hyde Park by the police; they tore down iron railings and
trampled on flower beds. Disturbances like this convinced Derby and Disraeli of the need
for further parliamentary reform.
1867
The Constitution Act, 1867 passes and British North America becomes Dominion of
Canada.
1875
Britain purchased Egypt's shares in the Suez Canal[5] as the African nation was forced to
raise money to pay off its debts.
1877
The Princess Alice becomes Grand Duchess of Hesse when her husband succeeds as
Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse
1878
Treaty of Berlin (1878). Cyprus becomes a Crown colony. The Princess Alice dies.
Princess Louise's husband The Marchioness of Lorne is appointed Governor-General of
Canada
1879
Victoria and Albert's first great-grandchild, Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen, is born.
1882
British troops began the occupation of Egypt by taking the Suez Canal, in order to secure
the vital trade route and passage to India, and the country became a protectorate.
1883
Princess Louise and Lord Lorne return from Canada
1884
 The Fabian Society was founded in London by a group of middle class intellectuals,
including Quaker Edward R. Pease, Havelock Ellis, and E. Nesbit, to promote socialism.
[9]
Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany dies.
1886
Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and the Liberal Party tries passing the First
Irish Home Rule Bill, but the bill is rejected by the House of Commons.
1888
The serial killer known as Jack the Ripper murdered and mutilated five (and possibly
more) prostitutes on the streets of London.[5] Victoria's eldest daughter, the Princess
Royal becomes German Empress when her husband succeeds as Frederick III, German
Emperor. Within months, Frederick dies, and their son becomes William II, German
Emperor. The widowed Vicky becomes the Dowager Empress as is known as "Empress
Frederick".
1870 - 1891
Under the Elementary Education Act 1870, basic State Education became free for every
child under the age of 10.[10]
1891
Victoria and Albert's last grandchild, Prince Maurice of Battenberg, is born.
1892
The Prince of Wales' eldest son Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence dies of influenza.
1893
The Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh succeeds as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
when his uncle dies. The Duchy skips over The Prince of Wales due to his renunciation
of his succession rights to that Duchy.
1900
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dies. His nephew Prince Charles Edward, Duke
of Albany succeeds him, because his brother Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and
nephew Prince Arthur of Connaught had renounced their rights.
1901
The death of Victoria saw the end of this era, and the ascension of her eldest son,
Edward, began the Edwardian era, another time of great change.

[edit] Entertainment
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challenged and removed. (March 2010)

Popular forms of entertainment varied by social class. Victorian Britain, like the periods before
it, was interested in literature (see Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle and William
Makepeace Thackeray), theatre and the arts (see Aesthetic movement and Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood), and music, drama, and opera were widely attended. Michael Balfe was the most
popular British grand opera composer of the period, while the most popular musical theatre was
a series of fourteen comic operas by Gilbert and Sullivan, although there was also musical
burlesque and the beginning of Edwardian musical comedy in the 1890s. Drama ranged from
low comedy to Shakespeare (see Henry Irving). There were, however, other forms of
entertainment. Gentlemen belong to dining clubs, like the Beefsteak club or the Savage club.
Gambling at cards in establishments popularly called casinos was wildly popular during the
period: so much so that evangelical and reform movements specifically targeted such
establishments in their efforts to stop gambling, drinking, and prostitution.

Brass bands and 'The Bandstand' became popular in the Victorian era. The band stand was a
simple construction that not only created an ornamental focal point, but also served acoustic
requirements whilst providing shelter from the changeable British weather. It was common to
hear the sound of a brass band whilst strolling through parklands. At this time musical recording
was still very much a novelty.

Another form of entertainment involved 'spectacles' where paranormal events, such as

hypnotism, communication with the dead (by way of mediumship or channelling), ghost
conjuring and the like, were carried out to the delight of crowds and participants. Such activities
were more popular at this time than in other periods of recent Western history.

Natural history becomes increasingly an "amateur" activity. Particularly in Britain and the United
States, this grew into specialist hobbies such as the study of birds, butterflies, seashells
(malacology/conchology), beetles and wildflowers. Amateur collectors and natural history
entrepreneurs played an important role in building the large natural history collections of the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Many people used the train services to visit the seaside, helped by the Bank Holiday Act of 1871
which created a number of fixed holidays which all sectors of society could enjoy. Large
numbers travelling to quiet fishing villages such as Worthing, Brighton, Morecambe and
Scarborough began turning them into major tourist centres, and people like Thomas Cook saw
tourism and even overseas travel as viable businesses.

[edit] Technology and engineering

The railways changed communications and society dramatically

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challenged and removed. (March 2010)
An important development during the Victorian era was the improvement of communication
links. Stage coaches, canals, steam ships and most notably the railways all allowed goods, raw
materials and people to be moved about, rapidly facilitating trade and industry. Trains became
another important factor ordering society, with "railway time" being the standard by which
clocks were set throughout Britain. Steam ships such as the SS Great Britain and SS Great
Western made international travel more common but also advanced trade, so that in Britain it
was not just the luxury goods of earlier times that were imported into the country but essentials
such as corn from the America and meat from Australia. One more important innovation in
communications was the Penny Black, the first postage stamp, which standardised postage to a
flat price regardless of distance sent.

Even later communication methods such as cinema, telegraph, telephones, cars and aircraft,
would have an impact. Photography was realized in 1839 by Louis Daguerre in France and
William Fox Talbot in the UK. By 1900, hand-held cameras were available.

Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol

Similar sanitation reforms, prompted by the Public Health Acts 1848 and 1869, were made in the
crowded, dirty streets of the existing cities, and soap was the main product shown in the
relatively new phenomenon of advertising. A great engineering feat in the Victorian Era was the
sewage system in London. It was designed by Joseph Bazalgette in 1858. He proposed to build
82 mi (132 km) of sewer system linked with over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) of street sewers. Many
problems were encountered but the sewers were completed. After this, Bazalgette designed the
Thames Embankment which housed sewers, water pipes and the London Underground. During
the same period London's water supply network was expanded and improved, and a gas network
for lighting and heating was introduced in the 1880s.

The Victorians were impressed by science and progress, and felt that they could improve society
in the same way as they were improving technology. The model town of Saltaire was founded,
along with others, as a planned environment with good sanitation and many civic, educational
and recreational facilities, although it lacked a pub, which was regarded as a focus of dissent.
During the Victorian era, science grew into the discipline it is today. In addition to the increasing
professionalism of university science, many Victorian gentlemen devoted their time to the study
of natural history. This study of natural history was most powerfully advanced by Charles
Darwin and his theory of evolution first published in his book On the Origin of Species in 1859.
Glasgow slum in 1871

Although initially developed in the early years of the 19th century, gas lighting became
widespread during the Victorian era in industry, homes, public buildings and the streets. The
invention of the incandescent gas mantle in the 1890s greatly improved light output and ensured
its survival as late as the 1960s. Hundreds of gasworks were constructed in cities and towns
across the country. In 1882, incandescent electric lights were introduced to London streets,
although it took many years before they were installed everywhere.

[edit] Health and medicine

Medicine progressed during Queen Victoria's reign.[11]

Although nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, had been proposed as an anaesthetic as far back as 1799
by Humphry Davy, it wasn't until 1846 when an American Dentist named William Morton
started using ether on his patients that anaesthetics became common in the medical profession.[12]
In 1847 chloroform was introduced as an anaesthetic by James Young Simpson.[13] Chloroform
was favored by doctors and hospital staff because it is much less flammable than ether, but
critics complained that it could cause the patient to have a heart attack.[13] Chloroform gained in
popularity in England and Germany after Dr. John Snow gave Queen Victoria chloroform for the
birth of her eighth child (Prince Leopold).[14] By 1920, chloroform was used in 80 to 95% of all
narcoses performed in UK and German-speaking countries.[13]

Anaesthetics made painless dentistry possible. At the same time the European diet grew a great
deal sweeter as the use of sugar became more widespread.[15] As a result, more and more people
were having teeth pulled and needed replacements. This gave rise to "Waterloo Teeth", which
were real human teeth set into hand-carved chunks of ivory from hippopotamus or walrus jaws.
[15][16]
The teeth were obtained from executed criminals, victims of battlefields, from grave-
robbers, and were even bought directly from the desperately impoverished.[15]

Medicine also benefited from the introduction of antiseptics by Joseph Lister in 1867 in the form
of Carbolic acid (phenol).[17] He instructed the hospital staff to wear gloves and wash their hands,
instruments, and dressings with a phenol solution and, in 1869, he invented a machine that would
spray carbolic acid in the operating theatre during surgery.[17]

[edit] Poverty

Part of Charles Booth's poverty map showing the Old Nichol, a slum in the East End of London.
Published 1889 in Life and Labour of the People in London. The red areas are "middle class,
well-to-do", light blue areas are “poor, 18s to 21s a week for a moderate family”, dark blue areas
are “very poor, casual, chronic want”, and black areas are the "lowest class...occasional
labourers, street sellers, loafers, criminals and semi-criminals".

Working class life in Victorian Wetherby, West Yorkshire

19th century Britain saw a huge population increase accompanied by rapid urbanization
stimulated by the Industrial Revolution. The large numbers of skilled and unskilled people
looking for work kept wages down to barely subsistence level. Available housing was scarce and
expensive, resulting in overcrowding. These problems were magnified in London, where the
population grew at record rates. Large houses were turned into flats and tenements, and as
landlords failed to maintain these dwellings slum housing developed. Kellow Chesney described
the situation as follows: "Hideous slums, some of them acres wide, some no more than crannies
of obscure misery, make up a substantial part of the metropolis... In big, once handsome houses,
thirty or more people of all ages may inhabit a single room."[18]

[edit] Child labour

Girl pulling a coal tub in mine. From official report of the parliamentary commission in the mid
19th century.[19]

The Victorian era became notorious for the employment of young children in factories and mines
and as chimney sweeps.[20] Child labour, often brought about by economic hardship, played an
important role in the Industrial Revolution from its outset: Charles Dickens, for example, worked
at the age of 12 in a blacking factory, with his family in a debtors' prison. In 1840 only about 20
percent of the children in London had any schooling. By 1860 about half of the children between
5 and 15 were in school (including Sunday school).[21]

The children of the poor were expected to help towards the family budget, often working long
hours in dangerous jobs for low wages.[18] Agile boys were employed by the chimney sweeps;
small children were employed to scramble under machinery to retrieve cotton bobbins; and
children were also employed to work in coal mines, crawling through tunnels too narrow and low
for adults. Children also worked as errand boys, crossing sweepers, or shoe blacks, or selling
matches, flowers, and other cheap goods.[18] Some children undertook work as apprentices to
respectable trades, such as building, or as domestic servants (there were over 120,000 domestic
servants in London in the mid 18th century). Working hours were long: builders might work 64
hours a week in summer and 52 in winter, while domestic servants worked 80 hour weeks. Many
young people worked as prostitutes (the majority of prostitutes in London were between 15 and
22 years of age).[21]

"Mother bides at home, she is troubled with bad breath, and is sair weak in her body from early
labour. I am wrought with sister and brother, it is very sore work; cannot say how many rakes or
journeys I make from pit's bottom to wall face and back, thinks about 30 or 25 on the average;
the distance varies from 100 to 250 fathom. I carry about 1 cwt. and a quarter on my back; have
to stoop much and creep through water, which is frequently up to the calves of my legs."
(Isabella Read, 12 years old, coal-bearer, testimony gathered by Ashley's Mines Commission
1842)[19]

"My father has been dead about a year; my mother is living and has ten children, five lads and
five lasses; the oldest is about thirty, the youngest is four; three lasses go to mill; all the lads are
colliers, two getters and three hurriers; one lives at home and does nothing; mother does nought
but look after home. All my sisters have been hurriers, but three went to the mill. Alice went
because her legs swelled from hurrying in cold water when she was hot. I never went to day-
school; I go to Sunday-school, but I cannot read or write; I go to pit at five o'clock in the
morning and come out at five in the evening; I get my breakfast of porridge and milk first; I take
my dinner with me, a cake, and eat it as I go; I do not stop or rest any time for the purpose; I get
nothing else until I get home, and then have potatoes and meat, not every day meat. I hurry in the
clothes I have now got on, trousers and ragged jacket; the bald place upon my head is made by
thrusting the corves; my legs have never swelled, but sisters' did when they went to mill; I hurry
the corves a mile and more under ground and back; they weigh 300 cwt.; I hurry 11 a-day; I wear
a belt and chain at the workings, to get the corves out;" (Patience Kershaw, 17 years old, coal-
bearer, testimony gathered by Ashley's Mines Commission 1842)[19]

Children as young as three were put to work. In coal mines children began work at the age of 5
and generally died before the age of 25. Many children (and adults) worked 16 hour days. As
early as 1802 and 1819, Factory Acts were passed to limit the working hours of workhouse
children in factories and cotton mills to 12 hours per day. These acts were largely ineffective and
after radical agitation, by for example the "Short Time Committees" in 1831, a Royal
Commission recommended in 1833 that children aged 11–18 should work a maximum of 12
hours per day, children aged 9–11 a maximum of eight hours, and children under the age of nine
should no longer be permitted to work. This act, however, only applied to the textile industry,
and further agitation led to another act in 1847 limiting both adults and children to 10 hour
working days.[21]

[edit] Prostitution
See also: Victorian morality and Women in the Victorian era
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (September 2009)

Beginning in the late 1840s, major news organizations, clergymen, and single women became
increasingly concerned about prostitution, which came to be known as "The Great Social Evil".
Estimates of the number of prostitutes in London in the 1850s vary widely (in his landmark
study, Prostitution, William Acton reported that the police estimated there were 8,600 in London
alone in 1857). When the United Kingdom Census 1851 publicly revealed a 4% demographic
imbalance in favour of women (i.e., 4% more women than men), the problem of prostitution
began to shift from a moral/religious cause to a socio-economic one. The 1851 census showed
that the population of Great Britain was roughly 18 million; this meant that roughly 750,000
women would remain unmarried simply because there were not enough men. These women
came to be referred to as "superfluous women" or "redundant women", and many essays were
published discussing what, precisely, ought to be done with them.[22] "Why are Women
Redundant" William Rathbone Greg, N. Trubner & Co. 1869]

While the Magdalene Asylums had been "reforming" prostitutes since the mid-18th century, the
years between 1848 and 1870 saw a veritable explosion in the number of institutions working to
"reclaim" these "fallen women" from the streets and retrain them for entry into respectable
society — usually for work as domestic servants. The theme of prostitution and the "fallen
woman" (an umbrella term used to describe any women who had sexual intercourse out of
wedlock) became a staple feature of mid-Victorian literature and politics. In the writings of
Henry Mayhew, Charles Booth, and others, prostitution began to be seen as a social problem.
When Parliament passed the first of the Contagious Diseases Acts in 1864 (which allowed the
local constabulary to force any woman suspected of venereal disease to submit to its inspection),
Josephine Butler's crusade to repeal the CD Acts yoked the anti-prostitution cause with the
emergent feminist movement. Butler attacked the long-established double standard of sexual
morality.

Prostitutes were often presented as victims in sentimental literature such as Thomas Hood's poem
The Bridge of Sighs, Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Mary Barton, and Dickens' novel Oliver Twist.
The emphasis on the purity of women found in such works as Coventry Patmore's The Angel in
the House led to the portrayal of the prostitute and fallen woman as soiled, corrupted, and in
need of cleansing.

This emphasis on female purity was allied to the stress on the homemaking role of women,[citation
needed]
who helped to create a space free from the pollution and corruption of the city. In this
respect, the prostitute came to have symbolic significance as the embodiment of the violation of
that divide. The double standard remained in force. Divorce legislation introduced in 1857
allowed for a man to divorce his wife for adultery, but a woman could only divorce if adultery
were accompanied by cruelty. The anonymity of the city led to a large increase in prostitution
and unsanctioned sexual relationships. Dickens and other writers associated prostitution with the
mechanisation and industrialisation of modern life, portraying prostitutes as human commodities
consumed and thrown away like refuse when they were used up. Moral reform movements
attempted to close down brothels, something that has sometimes been argued to have been a
factor in the concentration of street-prostitution in Whitechapel, in the East End of London, by
the 1880s (near the end of the 19th century)

[edit] See also