By the second half of the nineteenth century Britain was a mature industrial society and was able to experience many of the benefits of the industrial revolution. Discuss.

By the end of the nineteenth century, Britain experienced enormous industrial expansion, thereby creating an improvement in the lives of most of its people. The middle classes fare well by the opening of new opportunities in employment, residing, for the most part, in the new suburbs of the industrial cities and towns. They surrounded themselves with the clutter of possessions associated with a new consumer age. There were modest improvements in the working and living conditions of working class people, many of whom were drawn to the cities from rural areas in the hope of a better life. This essay will examine the conditions of life in late Victorian Britain in order to establish the extent of the benefits brought about by industrial transformation, insofar as they affected the lives of the different classes.

In 1800, twenty five per cent of the population of England lived in the cities and towns. Within a period of eighty years this position was reversed. In 1850, the year of the Great Exhibition, which was a celebration of British industrial achievement, the ‘number of urban dwellers exceeded those who dwelt in the countryside’. The cities of Birmingham and Manchester more than doubled their populations between 1801 and 1831. The industrial revolution was synonymous with the cotton industry in the early part of the century. This was followed by the development of the coal and iron industries, essential to the construction and running of the railways. By the eighteen-eighties, the new industries of steel, engineering and chemicals were well established. British engineering was, for the most part, involved in the manufacture of steam engines and locomotives. Shipping was another area in which Britain was heavily engaged. The expanding empire created a demand for increased shipbuilding, especially steamers. Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Jarrow in England and Glasgow in Scotland were the main centres of shipbuilding, giving massive employment in their areas. Factory work gave steady employment to a large section of the working population, due to the introduction of mass production and the consequent demand for cheaper goods.

In 1873, eighty per cent of the land of the United Kingdom was owned by an elite seven thousand, out of a population of thirty two million. This group dominated thinking, not only politics and government, but in most aspects of life including education, the arts and fashion. Queen Victoria, who gave her name to this era together with her husband Prince Albert, carved out a role for the monarchy. They identified with the values of the middle-class, which encompassed sobriety, hard work and strict sexual morality. Following the headline set by the Royal family, the nobility got involved in philantrophic works. This sector of society was accepted unquestioningly as an elite group and they, in turn found common cause with the middle classes. What bound these groups together was their mutual interest in the ownership of property and involvement in capital investment. Furthermore, there was a practice of younger sons of the nobility and gentry opting for careers in trade and the professions, which helped to lower barriers between themselves and the middle classes. There was also ‘integration through marriage, of merchant bankers from the city of London and landed aristocrats, being particularly striking’. Changes to the electoral system watered down the political influence of the ruling elite. The franchise was extended in 1867 to urban householders and to those paying ten pounds or more per annum in rent. This had the effect of doubling the electorate. While not adequate, these changes ‘sounded the death knell of the rule of the elite’. The organisation of party machines on a large scale with a central office heralded the movement of power towards the urban areas. This was the result of a changed Britain in the aftermath of the industrial revolution.

The rising middle classes were not clearly defined but varied from skilled workers to entrepreneurs. The widest definition of the middle class or those who aspired to imitate them was that of keeping domestic servants. Although it has been thought that Victorian Britain was a middle class nation in fact Hobsbaum claims that they were a relatively small community. They were mainly urban dwellers involved in manufacturing industry or shopkeeping. Between 1850 to 1870, the number of shopkeepers rose by fifty-four per cent. In the ranks of the upper middle class were groups of professional men. They had organisations to represent them, such as the British institute of architects, founded in 1834 and the Institute of Mechanical Engineers formed in 1847. These organisations reflect not only the affirmation of the status of these professionals, but the rise of Britain as an industrial power in the Victorian era. The middle class professionals lived for the most part in the newly-developed suburbs of the cities and towns. It was increasingly an urban phenomenon, or perhaps as Hobsbaum described it a suburban phenomenon with the migration of the non-proletarians to the outskirts of the cities increasing so much that townsmen outnumbered countrymen for the first time in 1851 and by 1881 two out every five Englishmen lived in the six giant conurbations of London, Merseyside and Tyneside. These professionals built substantial villas, detached and semi-detached, with gardens. They housed their servants in attic rooms and basements. This class benefited from new innovations such as running water and bathrooms, which became features of up-market housing of the late Victorian era. The rising upper middle class, although deferential towards the aristocracy and gentry, were aware of their new-found status and comparative wealth.

A new lower middle class became more defined towards the latter end of the nineteenth century. This class emerged through the growth in trade, transport and communications. They included railway clerical employees, bank and shipping clerks and insurance officials. A feature of the Victorian era was the rise in bureaucracy. The industrial revolution and population explosion created problems which central government was forced to tackle. The idea that the state had a role to play in solving social problems was in itself novel, and worked only from the ‘negative premise that unless government intervened things would only generate into chaos’. By its intervention, the state was guaranteeing that ‘private enterprise would flourish unimpeded.’ This was the view of the utilitarian Jeremy Bentham. Once the state intervention was acceptable the way was paved for further control into most aspects of daily life. The phenomenon of the Royal Commission, set up to investigate a particular issue, became a feature of Victorian government. This, together with the establishment of a census office, which produced statistics on the population every ten years, created a burgeoning bureaucracy. The expansion of the civil service together with the introduction of primary education in 1870, necessitating the recruitment of teachers, created a new group in the ranks of the lower middle class. These people had guaranteed employment and were in a position to purchase modest terraced houses in the cities or towns. They were conservative in character and enjoyed a reasonably comfortable standard of living for the time. Bureaucracy was very much a feature of the expansion of the middle classes in the Victorian era.

The middle classes, happy to have the approbation of the aristocracy and gentry, offered little recognition to the working classes. They, in turn, maintained their own pecking order. First, there was the skilled worker or artisan, then the factory operative and lastly the unskilled labourer. The skilled workers fiercely guarded any ‘incursion into their ranks from below.’ There was no solidarity between these groups of workers, yet they were all vulnerable to unemployment due to illness or accident in the workplace.

In addition to the massive migration of country people to the cities and towns in the Victorian era, three million emigrated between 1853 – 1880. This is an indication of the large numbers of people who had no place in the social hierarchy and decided to escape a life of poverty and dependence on charity. In the early and middle years of the century the poorest people crowded into slums which, for the most part, were ‘back to back houses’ with no facilities for decent living. The sanitary conditions in the slums contributed to disease such as cholera and diphtheria. The Public Health Act of 1875 created a public health authority in every area. This legislation was followed by the ‘Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act,’ which enabled local authorities to embark on slum clearance. The terraced houses consisted of four rooms, ‘two up two down’ with a scullery and yard. They were restricted to those of the artisan class, who could afford to pay the rent. Often extended families resided in the dwellings, defeating the purpose of relieving overcrowding. Studies of family structures suggest that many families lived in a household that included relatives outside the immediate parent/child relationship – an aunt, uncle, grandparent, etc. and that families functioned as a form of safety net offering support in crises, such an unemployment or illness. By the end of century, outside toilets, together with piped water were added to the houses. It is difficult for this generation to appreciate the major innovation this wrought in the quality of life of the occupants. These improvements gave protection from diseases caused by contaminated water and unsanitary conditions.

The proliferation of the cotton industry necessitated the building of large factories, which were situation for the most party, in the north west of England, more especially in Lancashire. The work was monotonous and dangerous. Those employed in this industry were mainly women and children, a source of cheap labour. A report in 1863 dealt wit the work of children in the potteries. It reiterates what social reformers had been saying, that male and female children as young as six years were working long hours in unhealthy conditions. The grim evidence given by doctors was summed up by the words ‘each successive generation of potters becomes more dwarfed and less robust than the preceding one’. By 1867, children under eight were excluded from employment and those under thirteen could only work part-time. There seems to have been a change in thinking in the importance of childhood. It must be remembered, however, that poor families relied on the meagre wages of their children to supplement the family budget. From 1870 onwards, child labour was prohibited in most places of work. This ban was reinforced by the introduction education, though not compulsory until 1880. The foundation of the Society for the Protection of Children in 1889 and the work of Charles Booth and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree which exposed the extent of poverty is indicative of an awareness of the vulnerability of children to abuse and exploitation. It is also evidence of a change in attitude to children’s welfare. By 1870 onwards child labour was prohibited in most places of work and this ban was reinforced by compulsory school attendance in 1876 and 1880. It has been argued that the child labour laws were not considered much of a deterrent to employers or families as the fines were not large and enforcement not strict, the implicit tax placed on employers or family was quite low in comparison to wages or profits the children generated.

The workplace in Victorian England was extremely dangerous when compared to that of the present day. The accident rate was high, necessitating the introduction of legislation to provide for factory inspectors. The Irish land reformer Michael Davitt lost an arm in a mill accident at the age of twelve. The accident rate among railway workers was also high. In 1875, seven hundred and sixty seven railway workers were killed and well over two thousand injured. On average, one thousand miners lost their lives every year. The accident rate in the chemical industries was also high. Industries such as the cotton trade were particularly hard for workers to endure long hours of labour. The nature of the work being done meant that workplace had to be very hot, steam engines contributing further to the heat in this and other industries. Machinery was not always fenced off and workers would be exposed to the moving parts of the machines whilst they worked. Children were often employed to move between these dangerous machines as they were small enough which led them being placed in danger and mortality rates were high. There was no compensation paid to victims of industrial accidents, often resulting in the impoverishment of the family. Friendly societies were set up to provide some insurance against industrial accidents. Reformers Robert Owen and Titus Salt managed to force changes which culminated in the Factory Acts which reduced the hours children worked and reduced those of women and young people. The Acts also provided for a national system of factory inspectors albeit patchy and did take some time for the practice to catch up with the theory.

The development of the trade union movement had its origin in the Chartist movement. This was a working class pressure group, which demanded social reform in the new industrial order. It made numerous petitions to parliament for reform during the eighteen thirties without success. As Britain became relatively prosperous in the second half of the century, Chartism lost its momentum. The spirit of the movement however, survived to serve the working class and see its original demands met. The trade union movement became active in the eighteen sixties and was initially looked upon with suspicion and seen as a threat to public order. The unions were divided amongst themselves, fearing ‘interlopers of their own class as well as the tricks of capitalists.’ The trade union movement was careful not to get involved with radical elements, such as the International Association of Working Men, a group that ‘alarmed the governments of Europe in 1870.’ There is a view that the working class might have gained more had the trade union movement been more radical, but, on the other hand, a revolutionary stance might have lost them hard won public support. The Disraeli government passed the Employers and Workmen act of 1875, putting ‘masters and men on an equal footing as regards breaches of contract.’ A further act the same year allowed for peaceful picketing. While improvements of working conditions had been achieved, there was a need for the representatives of workers to have a voice in politics. Slowly, workers began to realise the strength they could possess if they were a unified force in an effort to improve their lot of having no political influence in a land where the government followed a laissez-faire policy. The Fabian Society, founded in London in 1883, aimed to establish a democratic socialist state in Britain. This movement, a forerunner of the Labour Party, aimed at social change by peaceful evolution rather that revolution. Its members included George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb. They tried to introduce socialist ideas to the Liberal and Tory parties without success and then organised a separate Labour representative committee, which later became the Labour Party. A movement was beginning to free workers from the injustices of the factory system.

The squalor of working class life in London in the mid-eighteen seventies had ‘sprung quite suddenly into heightened middle and upper class notice,’ The works of Dickens, published a decade earlier, along with other newspaper articles and pamphlets, highlighted the plight of the poor. In addition to earlier schemes, further action was needed in the area of re-housing the poor. A Royal Commission on the housing of the working class (1884-1885) was instituted as a result of public interest. The presence of the Prince of Wales on the commission give it added weight. In 1890, the Housing of the Working Classes Act was passed. The bill ‘encouraged the initiation of some municipal housing schemes.’ Loans were available to local authorities for slum clearance, yet few of these took up the offer as they were ‘inhibited by having to buy slums dear, even though they wished to rehouse slum dwellers cheap.’ Rents charged for new houses were too high to attract many slum dwellers. There was little acceptance by local authorities, at the time, of a duty to those who lived in squalid conditions. There were, however, some improvements in the housing conditions of working class people during the eighteen-nineties. The Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1911 attributed these to ‘the spread of electric tram-cars which had made the suburbs more accessible to the working classes’. The invention of the pneumatic tyre in 1888 made the bicycle a popular mode of transport for the middle and working classes. It was also favoured for recreational purposes across all classes.

The decline in church attendance towards the end of the century became a feature of family life. Rural migrants enjoyed the anonymity of city life and were free of the constraints of a church-going rural community. An increase in earnings together with a reduction in working hours gave working-class people the option of enjoying professional entertainment such as concerts and music-hall variety shows. Railway excursions to the seaside became a feature of Victorian working-class life after the introduction of Bank Holidays. Football, formed into an association in 1863, became increasingly a working class game.

The most striking ‘manifestation of improvement’ in Victorian life was to be found in the area of education. Compulsory school attendance, introduced in 1880, helped to raise literacy rates to ninety five per cent of both sexes. This in turn caused an expansion of the Post Office, public libraries and the newspaper industry.

In conclusion, it is true to say that remarkable strides were made in the enhancement of living conditions in the late Victorian era. It must be emphasised, however, that these improvements benefited the middle and new lower middle classes most. They could afford further education for their children, enabling them to become more socially mobile. The working class improvements were modest but important nonetheless, especially in the area of primary education, working conditions and health care, not enjoyed by previous generations. There was, however, an under-class, trapped in poverty, bordering on destitution, for whom little was done in the comparative prosperity of the second half of the century. Fifty years would pass before slum clearance was finally tackled and a welfare state with a motto ‘for each according to his need’ was introduced.

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