Victorian 1837 – 1901

Sir Thomas Lipton

Sir Thomas Lipton

Sir Thomas Lipton, the very embodiment of the cliche, ‘Poor boy makes good’, was born in 1850 of working class Northern Irish parents in Glasgow. Lipton started work as n errand boy and became a millionaire through the vast chain of grocers shops that he had created and by 1908 he was one of the…

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The Khaki Election

Khaki Election 1900

The Khaki Election of 1900 In Britain any election called as a result of war either pre , during or post, is called a Khaki Election and there have been a number of these in the C20th. The Khaki election of 1900 was really a turning point in Britain for many reasons. Within the year…

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Hyde Park Riot 1866

Hyde Park Riots 1866
This entry is part [part not set] of 15 in the series Reformers and Radicals
This entry is part [part not set] of 6 in the series Reform

There is nothing new in Governments facing opposition to the passage of bills over which there has been much heated debate. During the 1860’s and following on the heals of the Chartists, there emerged in 1864, a Reform League. The Reform League wanted fundamental changes to the voting rights of ordinary working class men and…

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Octavia Hill

Octavia Hill

Octavia Hill, social reformer and one of the founders of the National Trust. Octavia Hill was born in 1838 into a family of social reformers, her grandfather was Thomas Southwood Smith a public health reformer and her father was a friend of Jeremy Bentham so from an early age she was exposed to the need…

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Chimney Sweeps Act 1834

The Chimney Sweeps Act 1834 was enacted in an attempt to protect the children employed by the ‘sweeping’ masters from cruel exploitation. The act forbade the apprenticing of any boy under the age of 10 years and the employment of children under 14 in chimney sweeping unless they were apprenticed or on trial. There seemed…

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The Old Music Halls

Old Music Halls

The old music halls filled the ordinary Victorians with a sense of fun and joy in what might otherwise be a pretty desolate life. Their tenure was to be fairly brief though as music halls gave way to picture houses.

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Public Drinking Fountains

Drinking Fountain Movement

Public drinking fountains in London resulted from the Public Drinking Foundation Movement established in 1858 to provide clean water to London’s poor.

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