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

A black and white illustration shows a man in smart clothes slumped in a chair. To the left, a woman in a long skirt and jacket bends over him, taking his pocket watch from him

Victorian Britain's fearless female felons. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What did Victorians do with their poo? The battle over the 19th-century excrement explosion

Week six quiz: Victorian life. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian family life | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Living in sin: unmarried relationships in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Week five quiz: work and labour rights in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian working life | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How gruelling was the Victorian workhouse?

What working-class autobiographies can tell us about the Industrial Revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Victorian cult: inside the strange world of the Agapemone. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

'Monster soup commonly called Thames water, being a correct representation of that precious stuff doled out to us!!!', 1828; showing an ugly woman holding a spy glass which touches the circumference of a large circle representing a magnified drop of water filled with grotesque aquatic creatures. A satire on the Metropolitan Water Supply.

From murder bottles to arsenic wallpaper: 5 hidden killers in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian healthcare | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Week four quiz: medicine and health in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The opthalmoscope revolutionised ophthalmology, allowing physicians to examine the inside of the human eye. (Image by Getty Images)

Victorian medicine: why the 19th century was a time of seismic medical change

The surgeon Robert Liston prepares to cut open a patient in the first half of the 19th century. Known as the “fastest knife in the west end”, Liston could remove a leg in less than 30 seconds. For most patients, however, the agony was more prolonged. (Wellcome Library, London)

An appointment at the house of death: the horror of the early Victorian hospital. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian education and school | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Week three quiz: education and school in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Schools of hard knocks: Georgian and Victorian public schools. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The school for girls imprisoned at Tothill Fields in the late 1850s. A dedicated schoolmistress was employed to teach that institution’s large female population; in other prisons, the matron took lessons. (Engraving from Chronicle, via Alamy)

Reading, writing and retribution: inside Victorian prison schools. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Shaftesbury Welcome Ragged School in Battersea , 1899. Classes of 40 were not rare, and they could stretch to 80 during staff shortages. (Photo by Mary Evans)

Class warfare: a day in the life of a Victorian schoolchild. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian schools: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Visitors promenade alongside a lake with Surrey Zoological Gardens in the background, 1844 (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Victorian zoosAnimal attraction in the 19th century. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Manchester dog show, c1909

The surprising history of Victorian dog shows. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian leisure | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Week two quiz: leisure in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian cricket. (Photo by Getty Images)

Cricket, cocaine and cocoa houses: 5 ways Victorians spent their free time. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Week one quiz: Victorian life. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian life | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Gustave Doré's famous engraving, produced to illustrate the 1872 book 'London: A Pilgrimage', depicts (and exaggerates) the squalor of tightly packed terraced houses. Yes, as Rosalind Crone observes, the washing lines in Doré's picture demonstrate that "slum-dwellers were not all very dirty - or, at least, they didn't choose to be". (Photo by Getty Images)

Was Victorian life really so grim? 5 reasons why the Victorians were 'happy'. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Workhouses were meant to be unpleasant. Inmates worked hard (like these women hanging out laundry c1880). (Photo by Sean Sexton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Victorian daily life: what was it like for 'ordinary' Victorians?