The Housing Problem in Victorian London

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Applied Geography, grade: 2,1, University of Paderborn, language: English, abstract: The housing problem was probably the most urgent and dangerous social problem that Victorian society had to face. Through industrialisation and population explosion, population in cities, especially in London rose to a level that made it difficult to house all these people. Moreover, public transport was only developing and very expensive so that people were not mobile enough to live in suburban areas. So how did Victorian society try to tackle this problem? Did they try to tackle it at all?

Today¿s idea of Victorian London seems to be a mixture of elegant urban villas for the upper classes and dirty slums for the working classes. It appeared to be a clear distinction between the classes and overcrowding was an inevitable evil in the slums. Too many people and too little space, as space in the city was limited and could not be expanded. However, as the slums were a nidus for diseases and criminality of all kinds, something had to be done about them.