Victorian Housing Problems Of The Working Class In London And Government's Countermeasures

The Victorian period is a transitional stage in the urbanization of England from its emergence to the basic realization. With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, the worker's housing problems in London were increasingly prominent, and correspondingly the government made many significant changes on the related housing policies. Although the overseas scholars had discussions on worker's housing problems and government's countermeasures, they mostly focused on the whole housing conditions of London and the civilian housing philanthropy, in contrast they did not think much of worker's housing problems, government's legislation and improvement measures as well as the correlation between housing problems and the specific historical stage of industrialization and urbanization. Also, the domestic scholars rarely were involved in above topics. This paper attempts to make much attention on Victorian worker's housing problems and the origin and causes of them; further to discuss government's housing legislation, measures and their profound influence.It is indicated that Victorian worker's housing conditions in London were bad mainly in such several aspects. One, most of the housing types could do harm to the health; Two, the construction quality was low, and the building materials were unqualified; Three, the living space became terribly crowded like sardines; Four, the house rent grew day by day, which was high in proportion to the worker's gross income; Five, the hygienic conditions in the housing community missed generally, and the necessary facilities were imperfect. The Victorian workers had made much contribution for industrialization and urbanization, but their own housing conditions day by day became worse actually. Its main reasons are summarized as follows: First, the major and direct reason of them is that the industrialization and the urbanization caused employment opportunities to increase in London, attracted immigrants massively to inrush the urban district. Thus, the population increased suddenly, but the municipal construction and the housing supply did not adapt actually to this population growth. Next, the worker's economic conditions including the low income, the unfixed occupation, and the frequent unemployment directly affected their housing quality and even caused the poverty. Finally, in the earlier and even intermediate Victorian period, the government adopted the laissez-faire policies barely with a threshold intervention, lack of an effective social control to the worker's hosing problems.