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The Growth of Towns, Living Conditions & Public Health
Population Growth Britain’s population
doubled in the 50 years between 1801 & 1851, from 10.5 to 21 Million
By 1901 it had doubled again to 42 Million
There had been nothing like this before
The Growth of Towns
This growing population crowded into expanding industrial towns
This process is called Urbanisation
People were driven away from the countryside because of Enclosure
They were drawn to the towns to find work in the new factories
Urbanisation Places like Manchester,
Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Bradford, Glasgow and Sheffield grew into huge cities in a few years
This growth was unplanned
It was also unregulated- there were no laws about planning, building or sanitation
The main political belief of the time – Laissez-faire – government should not interfere
19th C. Attitudes Laissez-faire- most
politicians believed that things would work out better if government didn’t interfere
They believed it was wrong to interfere with the rights of landlords
They felt that the poor were to blame for their own living conditions
There was little understanding of what caused disease
Living Conditions Housing for the poor was Jerry-Built (badly built) Poor foundations, damp walls,leaky roofs, poor
ventilation Massive overcrowding, thousands lived in filthy
cellars Back-to-backs took up less space and crowded
more people in Courts were accessed by narrow alleys – little
sunlight penetrated
Back-to-backs
Back-to-backs could crowd more people in, more cheaply
They were built next factories
Families often shared with other workers
Cooking facilities were minimal
Sewage, Sanitation and Refuse This picture of Jacob’s Island,
East London, is typical The privvies(toilets) emptied
straight into the river Elsewhere sewerage was simply
left in cess pits or open sewers Sometimes the cess pit was
emptied by Night Men who made a living selling manure to local farmers
In rain, the filth washed through the alleys and into the cellars
Animal dung added to the stench
Other refuse was not collected
Water Supply
Water was drawn from rivers or wells Raw sewerage leaked from un-lined cess-pits
and contaminated the wells Most towns used the rivers as a vast sewer Water pumps were shared by hundreds of
people Water was dirty and carried many germs
Dangers to Health The cartoon of 1858 shows
the Thames bringing 3 deadly diseases to London
Smoke form factories and chimneys caused lung disorders
Uncooked meat and impure water caused diarrhoea and dysentery
People had lice because they couldn’t keep clean – the lice spread Typhus
Rats spread disease Diseases like TB spread
easily in overcrowded conditions
Cholera There were serious cholera
epidemics in 1831-2, 1848, & 1854, killing thousands
Cholera was terrifying. It was unknown in Britain before 1831. The symptoms were frightening – diarrhoea and vomiting, dehydration, pain, fever. Patients turned blue!
No-one knew the cause No-one knew how to treat it It killed the rich as well as
the poor
Edwin Chadwick’s Report 1842
Chadwick’s Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population, 1842, was deeply shocking
It was a thorough, statistical survey of living conditions throughout Britain
The most startling evidence was on average life expectancies
In Manchester 50% of babies died before they were 5
The average age of death in Manchester was 17 for a labourer, and only 38 for a well-off middle class professional
The Public Health Act 1848
Shocked by Cholera and Chadwick’s Report Parliament passed the first Public Health Act in 1848
The Act set up a General Board of Health with the power to create local Boards of Health
BUT, the act did not compel towns to take responsibility for drainage, sewerage, refuse and water
The “Great Stink” in London in 1858, led to London’s sewage being dumped downstream, instead of in the middle of the Thames!
Slow Progress 1848-1875 The so-called Dirty Party
continued to argue that government should follow “laissez-faire” principles
The poor were blamed for their living conditions, but Chadwick argued that poor living conditions caused poverty
Edwin Chadwick quarreled with the doctors and was unpopular
The problem seemed too vast to cope with and still no-one knew what caused disease till Pasteur discovered germs in 1861
The Public Health Acts of 1875
Primeminister Benjamin Disraeli (1874-80) passed two important reforms:-
1. The Public Health Act 1875 which compelled towns to provide clean water, drains and sewers
2. The Artizans Dwellings Act 1875 which allowed Local authorities to take over and pull down slums
There was still a lot to do!
Joseph Chamberlain Mayor of Birmingham 1872-6
Chamberlain used the new legal powers (1875) to pull down 40 acres of slums in the middle of Birmingham. He replaced them with Corporation Street
But, Chamberlain took no steps to re-house the poor who simply moved into even more over-crowded districts
Other Improvers Titus Salt moved his workers
out of Bradford and built the model town of Saltaire (picture)
George Cadbury built model village of Bournville for his Birmingham workers
William Lever built model town of Port Sunlight for his “Sunlight Soap” workers
George Peabody founded the Peabody Trust which built good apartment blocks for working people
Octavia Hill bought and repaired slums in London
Conclusions
The problems of poor living conditions and public health were not solved in the 19thC.
The problem was very big There was ignorance about the causes of disease The Government was reluctant to move away
from “Laissez-faire” Local government had few powers Politicians did not want to put up rates and taxes
to pay for drains, water, paving, etc… The problem was closely linked to POVERTY, and
there was no 19thC solution to this