Life in Victorian Britain

What was daily life like for people in the Victorian era? From the slums of 19th-century London and life in the workhouse to the court of Queen Victoria and the revolution of the railways, we bring you the facts

An illustration from 1883 shows the phrenology chart of the skull

The Victorian phrenology craze

Hallie Rubenhold. (Photo by Fran Monks)

The women killed by Jack the Ripper

Queen Victoria with her daughter Princess Beatrice at Balmoral Castle. Dogs seem to have been Victoria's favourite animal, writes Richard Sugg. (De Agostini Picture Library)

Queen Victoria’s pets and animals

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History on film: Queen Victoria’s funeral

Three medieval carol singers, image dated 1911. (Photo by Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo)

Christmas carols: the history behind 5 festive favourites

The characters Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, from Charles Dickens's work 'A Christmas Carol'. (Photo by Alamy/Mary Evans)

Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas as we know it today?

In 1945 there were two million more ‘potential’ households than actual homes, in part exacerbated by the wartime damage to housing stock (Coventry, for example, lost one third of its homes in the Blitz). Here, displaced people in east London wait on the street. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A history of homelessness

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Top 5 Dickensian recipes

Left: Historian Lucy Worsley at Kensington Palace, the childhood home of Queen Victoria, ahead of her interview for the History Extra podcast. Right: Queen Victoria sits for a portrait photograph. (Photo by W&D Downey via Getty Images)

Lucy Worsley on Queen Victoria: your questions answered

LAL295681 In 1797, troops were called in the quell rioting schoolboys at Rugby by Hook, Richard (b.1938); Private Collection; (add.info.: Unwillingly to School: Flogging and Fagging. In 1797, troops were called in the quell rioting schoolboys at Rugby. Original artwork from Look and Learn no. 463 (28 November 1970).); © Look and Learn; English, out of copyright

The Library Schools of hard knocks: Georgian and Victorian public schools

Intellectuals, dieting businessmen, Indian students and fitness fanatics were among those to exhort the benefits of a meat-free diet in the 19th century, as shown in our illustration. (Illustration by Femke de Jong for BBC History Magazine)

Veggie Victorians

An 1870s illustration of a typical London artisan terraced houses with washhouses, privies and yards leading on to an alley, all dominated by railway viaducts. (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Victorian London’s East End: what can a foul murder tell us about life in the city?

London & North Western Railway locomotive, 1848. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

8 ways railway travel changed everything for Britain

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The Library Florence Nightingale: nursing by numbers