The common lodging house also catered for the needs of a largely forgotten section of the population, what Mary Higgs eloquently referred to as the ‘residuum’. It provided shelter, companionship and sustenance for those who would not or could not find it elsewhere. It provided vital income for many people, especially women, whose modest capital was their only resource. For those at the bottom of the economic pile, in the days before the welfare state, it enabled them to cling to the independence and self-respect that they lost when entering the workhouse. It even provided a place for those who would sleep among the pots and pans.
Plates
Orange Court, Drury Lane, was typical of the slums in which many of the worst lodging houses were located. (Author’s own collection)
Dorset Street, at the heart of the area where the Ripper’s victims lived.
A lodging house in Flower and Dean Street, ‘the foulest and most dangerous street in the metropolis’. (Spitalfields Life)
Cheap lodging houses such as this one located in the London docklands, pictured in the 1860s, were invaluable to those in precarious employment. (Author’s own collection)
The kitchen was the centre of the lodging house in more raucous establishments. (Author’s own collection)
Some lodging houses were a little more sedate than others. (Spitalsfields Life)
John Jay’s dosshouse in Shoreditch. (Author’s own collection)
One of the numerous cheap doss houses in the East End advertising beds for four pence a night. (Jack London, People of the Abyss (London: Inster & Co, 1903). With thanks to Simon Fowler)
This picture of the Manchester Ship Canal makes clear the enormous amount of physical labour required to carry out the great engineering feats of the nineteenth century. (Mark Fynn Postcards)
Men at Puddle on the Barton Aqueduct, demonstrating that every stage of construction of the Canal was labour intensive. (Mullineux Collection, Chetham’s Library)
Many respectable people considered navvies to be so far outside civilised society that they established missions, centred on mission huts such as this one in Leicestershire. (Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record Offce)
Many workers in precarious employment, such as dockers, lived in adjacent lodging houses. In the early twentieth century those near Cardiff Docks were at the centre of a national scandal. (Mark Fynn Postcards)
Flower-selling was a common trade among women living in lodging houses, requiring little capital. (Library of Congress)
The country-wide growth of well-stocked shops such as this Cooperative Society shop in Walkden, Manchester, threatened the livelihood of the itinerant hawker. (Mullineux Collection, Chetham’s Library)
Few types of convenience food could not be bought on the street. This man is selling sandwiches in Leicester. (Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record Offce)
There was an enormous market in second-hand clothes which were often sold by itinerant hawkers. (Author’s own collection)
One of the numerous ways in which deserted children eked a living was as crossing-sweepers. This also gave them the opportunity to make a few coppers while running errands. (Author’s own collection)
Bibliography and Sources
Books and Articles
Acton, W., Prostitution Considered in its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects (J. Churchill, 1870)
Adams, C., Ordinary Lives a Hundred Years Ago (Virago, 1982)
Archer, T., The Terrible Sights of London (1870; repr. Dodo Press, 2009) ——, The Pauper, the Thief and the Convict (1865; repr. Dodo Press, 2009)
Arnold, C., City of Sin: London and its Vices (Simon and Schuster, 2010)
Aspin, Chris (ed.), Manchester and the Textile Districts in 1849 by Angus Bethune Reach (Helmshore Local History Society, 1972)
Barret-Ducrocq, F., Love in the Time of Victoria: Sexuality and Desire among Working-Class Men and Women in Nineteenth Century London (Penguin, 1991)
Beames, T., The Rookeries of London (T. Bosworth, 1852)
Booth, C., Life and Labour of the People of London (Forgotten Books, 1899)
Burton, E., The Early Victorians at Home (Longman, 1972)
Dare, J., ‘Reports’, in Working Class Life in Victorian Leicester, ed. Barry Haynes (Leicestershire Museums, Arts & Records Service, 1991)
Edwards, Reverend George Zachariah, Vicar As Vagrant (1910)
Gauldie, E., Cruel Habitations: a History of Working Class Housing, 1780–1918 (Allen and Unwin, 1974)
Gavin, H., Sanitary Ramblings: Being Sketches and Illustrations of Bethnal Green (J. Churchill, 1848)
Glazier, M., ‘Common Lodging Houses in Chester, 1841–1871’, in Victorian Chester, ed. R. Swift (Liverpool University Press, 1996)
Greenwood, J., Mysteries of Modern London (1883, repr. Dodo, 2009)
——, Toilers in London (1883, repr. Dodo, 2009)
——, In Strange Company (Henry S. King & Co.,1874)
——, The Seven Curses of London (Basil Blackwell, 1867)
Hammond, J.L and B., The Village Labourer (Nonsuch Publishing, 2005)
Haynes, B., ‘Working Class Respectability in Leicester c 1845–1880’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological & Historical Society, Vol. 65 (1991), pp. 55–70
——, ‘Working Class Perceptions: Aspects of the Experience of Working-Class Life Victorian Leicester’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological & Historical Society, Vol. 63 (1989), pp. 71–84
Higgs, M., Where Shall She Live? (P.S. King & Son, 1910)
——, Three Nights in a Women’s Lodging-House (P.S. King & Son, 1905)
Hollingshead, J., Ragged London (Smith, Elder & Co., 1861)
Hollyer, B., Coster Girls and Mudlarks (Scholastic, 2006)
Jones, G.S., Outcast London (Peregrine, 1971)
Joseph, H.S., Memoirs of Convicted Criminals (London 1853)
Kay, A., The Foundation of Female Entrepreneurship (Routledge, 2009)
——, ‘A Little Enterprise of her Own: Lodging House Keeping and the Accommodation Business in 19th Century London’, London Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2 (November 2003), pp. 41–53
Kay, Dr James, ‘The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Class Employed in the Cotton Manufacture in Manchester’ (Ridgway, 1832)
Keating, P., Into Unknown England (Fontana, 1981)
Levy, M., Doctor Barnardo: Champion of Victorian Children (Amberley, 2013)
London, J., The People of the Abyss (1902; repr. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013)
Mayhew, H., London Labour and the London Poor, Vol. 1 (Dover, 1861)
Mayhew, H., ‘Letters to the Morning Chronicle’ (1849–50, British Library, LD16)
Murray, J.F., ‘The Physiology of London Life’, in Bentley’s Miscellany, Richard Bentley (1844)
Nixon, G., ‘An East End Lodging House in the 1880s’, Ripperologist, No. 22, 1999
O’Donnell, W., Ins and Outs of London (Lamb, 1959)
Page, S.F., ‘Lodging and Poverty in Late Victorian Leicester: a Socio-Geographic Perspective’, Proceedings of the Leicestershire Architectural and Historical Society, Vol. 68 (1994), p. 121–35
——, ‘Pauperism and the Leicester Workhouse in 1881’, Proceedings of the Leicestershire Architectural and Historical Society, Vol. 63 (1989), pp. 85–95
——, ‘Late Victorian Pauperism and the Poor Law in Leicester’, Proceedings of the Leicestershire Architectural and Historical Society, Vol. 60 (1986), pp. 48–62
Picard, L., Victorian London: the Life of a City, 1840–1870 (Phoenix, 2006
Pictorial Handbook of London (1854)
Ritchie, J.E., Days and Nights in London (Tinsley Bros, 1880)
Rogers, H.B., ‘The Suburban Growth of Victorian Manchester’, Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society, Vol. LVIII (1961–2), pp. 2–12
Rose, L., Rogues and Vagabonds: Vagrant Underlife in Britain, 1815–1985 (Routledge, Keegan Paul, 1988)
Rowe, R., Life in the London Streets (1881)
; Rule, F., The Worst Street in London (Ian Allen, 2008)
Sala, G.A., Gaslight and Daylight (Chapman and Hall, 1859)
Seabrook, J., Pauperland: Poverty and the Poor in Britain (Hurst, 2013)
Simmons, J., ‘Joseph Dare and the Leicester Domestic Mission’, Proceedings of the Leicestershire Architectural and Historical Society, Vol. 46 (1970), pp. 65–80
Simms, G.R., How the Poor Live (Dodo Press, 2009)
Tobias, J.J., Crime and Industrial Society in the Nineteenth Century (Pelican, 1972)
Wise, S., The Blackest Streets: Life and Death of a Victorian Slum, (Vintage Books, 2009)
Wojtczak, H., Female Lodging-House Keepers in Victorian Hastings (English Social History, Hastings Press, 2002)
Woolley, L., ‘Disreputable Housing in a Disreputable Parish: Common Lodging-Houses in St Thomas’, Oxford, 1841–1901’ (unpublished thesis for MSc, Kellogg College, Oxford University, 2009)
Wright, T., The Pinch of Poverty (Isbister & Co., 1892)
Talks
Hamlett, J., ‘Lodgers and Lodging in Victorian and Edwardian London’ (public talk for the London Metropolitan Archives, 25 September 2010)
Web Addresses and Articles
Common Lodging Houses and Surrey Towns – www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/living/9-2/
Hamlett, J. and Preston, R., ‘Spaces and Material Cultures in Charitable Lodging Houses in London, 1840–1914’ (podcast via http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2010/09/jane-hamlett-rebecca-preston-spaces-and-material-cultures-in-charitable-lodging-houses-in-london-1840-1914/)
Kay, A., ‘Whitechapel’s Angel Alley: Prostitutes and Property’ (via www.alisonkay.com/historicaljunky/?p=124)
Mackenzie, Eneas, ‘The present state of Newcastle: Streets within the walls’, Historical Account of Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Including the Borough of Gateshead (1827, pp. 160–82, via URL: www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43337)
Matthews-Jones, L., ‘A Walking Tour or London’s Forgotten Model Lodging Houses’ (via http://myblogs.informa.com/jvc/2012/07/09/a-walking-tour-of-london%E2%80%99s-forgotten-model-lodging-houses)
Stanfield, A.W., ‘Midnight Tour among the Common Lodging Houses in the Borough of Wakefield’ (printed for private circulation 1870, available via www.archive.org/stream/midnighttouramon132engl#page/n1/mode/2p)
Victorian London: www.victorianlondon.org
Index
A
Akroyd, Col. Edward, 18
Aliens’ Act, 1905, 131
Angel Meadow, 5–7, 41–2, 51, 129, 151
Animals, 6, 74
Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Act, 1875, 41, 155
Ashley, Lord (Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury), 49, 149
B
Back-to-back houses, 7, 15, 18
Ballads, 45, 73, 87, 128
Banbury, 45, 62, 73, 80, 96, 160
Bath, 4, 102
Beer Act, 1830, 135
Beerhouse, 1, 42, 53, 108, 135
Beggars, x, 23, 27–8, 33–5, 37, 43–4, 58, 61, 67, 80, 87–103, 105, 107, 108, 110, 139, 145–6, 148, 153–4, 161, 164
Bethnal Green, 16, 57, 63, 119, 134, 153
Billingsgate, 60
Birmingham, 2–4, 14–15, 84, 87, 105, 108, 114, 130, 143, 153, 155, 162
Blackburn, 3
Blatchford, Robert, 1–2
Bolton, 3
Bournville, 19
Broadsheets, 39, 45, 73
Brothels, 41, 44, 46, 51, 118–120, 123, 126, 134, 149, 157
Bugs, 15, 46, 84, 87
Building trade, 56, 133–4
Building regulations, 4
C
Cadbury, George, 19
Caminada, Jerome, 99–101
Cellars, xi, 6–8, 15, 17, 63, 80
Casual Poor Act, 1882, 26
Charity Organisation Society, 94, 102
Children, 2, 5, 8, 13–4, 17–8, 28, 44, 46, 51, 54, 60, 73–76, 78–91, 95, 98–100, 103–114, 123, 126, 128, 134, 137, 141–4, 148, 152, 163
Clerks, 56, 63–5, 67, 96, 103, 109, 139
Collectors, 45, 56, 61, 78
Common Lodging House Acts, 70
Coroner, ix, x, 116
Costermongers, 3, 63–4, 77
Cotton mills, 5–7, 17, 41, 56, 94
Courts (houses built in), 1, 5–7, 15, 34, 38, 42, 44, 56, 63, 66, 88, 103, 133
Crime, x, xii, xiii, 8–9, 25–6, 28, 38–9, 41–5, 49, 51–4, 90, 93–4, 96, 100–1, 105–8, 111, 113, 114, 116, 120–2, 124, 126, 130–2, 140, 143–7, 149, 153, 155, 157
Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1886, 120
Crossing sweepers, 56, 80, 136
D
Dale, David, 17
Dockers, 5, 36, 39, 48, 55–7, 60–2, 119, 122–4, 130, 145, 164
Dorset Street, 39–40, 115–6, 124, 133–4, 140
Disabled, 28, 32–3, 73, 78, 96–7
Drainage, 4, 7, 67
Drink, vi, 1, 23, 25, 27–8, 31–3, 40, 47, 60, 62, 76, 90, 94, 97, 110, 120–1, 134, 141, 143, 146
E
East End, 13, 17, 38, 41, 49, 56, 69, 79, 121, 127, 130, 137–8, 155
Education Acts, 105, 113
Elderly, 6, 12, 25, 28, 45, 56, 61, 64, 72, 74, 81, 83, 87, 98, 106, 116, 137, 148, 163,
Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture Report, 1843, 8
Engels, Friedrich, 5–6, 17
Envelope addressers, 56
Entertainers, 72–4, 80, 91, 105, 127, 158, 160
F
Factories, 2, 4, 10, 17, 19, 45, 56, 81, 105, 158–9
Family, xii, xiii, 7, 10, 33, 52, 54, 57–9, 65, 67, 74, 80, 91, 97, 99, 105, 114, 135–6, 138, 140, 150
Farm labourers, 2, 8, 31, 58, 102, 136, 140, 148
Fielding, Henry, xi
Flower and Dean Street, 27, 39, 40, 48, 115, 139, 155
G
Germans, 15, 58, 73, 106, 127–30, 145
Gin, xi, 1, 121
Goldsmid, Howard, 52, 106
Great Exhibition, 67–8, 113
Gridlers, 99
H
Hampshire, 2
Hampstead, 3, 138
Harvesters, 29, 72, 79
Hawkers, 3, 7, 43, 45, 53, 56, 63, 67, 72, 76–8, 80, 82–3, 98, 108–10, 128, 136, 158, 163
Holborn, 3
Homelessness, 23, 59, 91–3, 107, 155
Housing of the Working Class Act, 1885, 16, 70, 155–6
Hull, 5, 55, 127, 130
I
Industrial Revolution, 2, 105
Schools, 17–19, 49, 106, 109, 113–4,
Irish, the, x, 2, 6–7, 29–31, 43, 47, 50–1, 53, 58, 60, 63, 66, 73, 77, 79–81, 91–2, 128–30, 134, 136, 156, 159
Italians, 19, 58, 73, 105, 110, 127–9, 138
Itinerants, vii, 23–4, 28, 30, 35, 63, 66, 72–3, 76–7, 84, 158
J
Jews, 58, 69, 127, 130
Journalists, x, 1, 7, 32, 49, 128
Juveniles, x, 105–7, 113–4, 144, 147
K
Kitchen fire, 7, 15, 21, 33–4, 36, 40, 48, 60, 64, 77, 108, 112, 124, 150
L
Leicester, xii, 41–2, 50, 58, 77–8, 86, 106, 137
Leicester Domestic Mission, 50, 78
Lever, Lord, 19
Lincolnshire, 79, 136
Liverpool, 3, 7–8, 12, 15, 17, 19, 33, 55, 58, 92, 94, 100, 127, 129–30, 147
London, x, 3, 12, 14, 16–7, 19, 26, 28, 36, 41–5, 47, 49, 53, 55–7, 60–2, 64, 66, 68–9, 76, 81–2, 84, 89–90, 93, 95, 102, 105–6, 108–9, 114, 117–21, 123–4, 126–7, 129–30, 134–5, 137–40, 143, 145–6, 148, 151–61
London County Council, 66, 157, 159
London, Jack, 47, 61
M
Macclesfield, 148–9, 151
Magistrates, 93, 100, 103, 112, 114
Manchester, xi, 1–8, 12, 14–5, 17, 23, 32–3, 41, 44, 51, 89–90, 98–101, 106, 107, 111, 118, 122, 127–30, 142, 147, 151, 159, 162
Manchester Guardian, 129
Marine sto
res, 45, 78, 92, 110
Marriage, 28, 54, 64, 80, 83, 85, 113, 118, 123, 125, 135–6, 141, 153–5, 163–4
Medical Officers, 25, 154
Metropolitan Association for the Improvement of the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes, 62
Middle classes, x, 1, 5–6, 14, 17, 32, 50, 59, 64, 78, 137, 139–40, 148, 156–8, 163
Model lodging houses, 47–8, 61–8, 152, 158
Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes Employed in Cotton Manufacture in Manchester, 1832, 6
Murder, x, 37–8, 47, 55, 115–6, 125
Music hall, 34, 45
Musicians, 37, 75–6, 87, 128
N
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), 113
Navvies, viii, 26, 29–33, 48, 79–81, 148, 162
Navvy Mission Society, 31
Newport, 53, 129
Night shelters, 24
Nottingham, x, 4, 15, 17
O
Organs (musical instruments), 74–5, 105, 127–8
Overcrowding, 4, 16–7, 46, 83, 106, 117, 149–51, 153
Owen, Robert, 17–8
Oxford, 28, 62, 78, 80, 82, 87, 93, 100, 106, 129, 135, 137, 156, 160
P
Pawnbroker, 99
Peabody Trust, 19, 62, 68
Penny gaffs, 53, 108
Pickpockets, 44, 52, 61, 103, 145, 146
Poorhouse, 13, 20–38
Poor Law, 24, 26, 91, 94, 103, 139, 149, 161
Port Sunlight, 19
Prisons, 23, 26–7, 49, 52, 91, 100, 108, 122, 126, 146
Privies / lavatories, 4, 5, 15, 62, 47, 151
Prostitution, x, 8, 13, 35, 39, 40–4, 46, 51, 60, 66, 81, 87, 94–5, 111–2, 115–26, 145–6
Public Health Acts, 14, 153–4
Public houses, 8, 33–4, 45, 59, 85, 94, 97, 99, 106–8, 119–21, 130, 133–7
R
Race meetings, 52, 82, 85
Railways, 29–33, 79, 81, 92, 119, 146, 160–1
Rookeries,x, xi, 16, 41–4, 49, 66, 69, 86, 126, 137, 139, 151, 153, 155
Rothchilds, 69
Rowton Houses, 64–6, 69, 102, 160
The Secret World of the Victorian Lodging House Page 20
