INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION - WORKING CLASS HOME IN ENGLAND

How to live like common people, late-18th century & 19th century, England.

The Industrial Revolution saw a huge influx of workers from the countryside to the cities, over a very short space of time. The cities needed more affordable housing – and they needed it fast. The solution was back-to-back houses. These were small, terraced homes where around nine adults and children lived, slept and ate together in incredibly cramped conditions. With few building regulations, houses were often poorly constructed and suffered from damp and bad drainage. Those who could only afford cellar dwellings lived in the worst conditions, as damp would seep to the lowest part of the house, and basements were often flooded by overflowing cesspools.

Attic

Beds in the attic were mainly rented out to single workers, but sometimes it was occupied by more than one family.

Outdoor toilet

Back-to-back houses didn’t have their own bathroom. Instead, one outdoor toilet would have been shared between seven houses – that’s around 60 people in total!

Washing

Working-class people would wash in a tin bath in front of the kitchen range. Clothes would be washed in a bowl and dried using a mangle – an invention of the Industrial Revolution.

Bedroom

An entire family slept in one room, with two or three children sharing a single bed. Girls and boys as young as four would be sent out to work.

Living room

One room served as a kitchen, dining and living room. Here, multiple workers and families ate together. A typical meal consisted of bread and gruel.

Walls

These were thin and badly built. Noise travelled easily through the walls, not to mention the damp and sewage.

In "All About History", UK, issue 22, 2015 excerpt p.22. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.