Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840-1870

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Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840-1870

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 369 ratings · 29 reviews

Like her previous books, this book is the product of the author's passionate interest in the realities of everyday life - and the conditions in which most people lived - so often left out of history books.

This period of mid-Victorian London covers a huge span: Victoria's wedding and the place of the royals in popular esteem; how the very poor lived, the underworld, prosti...more

Paperback, 496 pages

Published June 1st 2006 by Phoenix House (first published March 7th 2006)

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Jan 04, 2008 Marte Patel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Marte by: Victoria

Shelves: non-fiction, history

I enjoyed this book, although I got a little bit repetitive towards the end. The author chose to focus only on the years 1840-1870, which is definitely a good thing. Almost just the right length, with beautiful photos and a very interesting insight into Victorian London. Definitely recommended! Thanks Victoria!

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Jan 30, 2012 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: winter-20112012, victoriana, nonfiction, lifestyles-deathstyles, london, britain-england, history, fraudio

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 14, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

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Feb 25, 2010 Andrea Bowhill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Liza Picard opens up this book To Londoners, but I can safely add to history lovers, tourist and anyone fascinated with this Victorian era for the years of 1840-1870 there is simply a wealth of information about the social everyday life of Londoners. For all modern day Londoners living the life no need to look down at the pavement on your daily drudge to work because after reading this book you may look up and have thoughts of enlightenment and wonder. This era gives you an account of how you ca...more Liza Picard opens up this book To Londoners, but I can safely add to history lovers, tourist and anyone fascinated with this Victorian era for the years of 1840-1870 there is simply a wealth of information about the social everyday life of Londoners. For all modern day Londoners living the life no need to look down at the pavement on your daily drudge to work because after reading this book you may look up and have thoughts of enlightenment and wonder. This era gives you an account of how you came to travel the underground so next time you hear that automated voice over at the station "This train is delayed, due to the previous train being delayed.. and so on" for clarification, the delay started back in the 19th century. Victorian buildings you may pass were a base from which a great idea was formed, everything is right before our very eyes, this book welcomes us back to a fascinating city.

I'm firstly going to bring everyone into the lay out and expectations when reading through. Incredibly researched, primary sources have been used but its been investigated much much further for detail. Its then I would say been divided into themed references and then themes form chapters, each broken down into many small sub-sections. Themes: Buildings, the river, the streets, working, middle, upper classes and royalty, domestic service, poverty, railway, Crystal Palace at Sydenham, Great Exhibition, health, fashions, language, food, and so on. Theme example: Under Practicalities: The postal services, subs: the stamp introduction, letterboxes, post offices when the first uniforms were worn and fashion ect ect. This builds up an image in the mind, of people, a place, an area and a sense of time in an observant way. Letters left behind of those times which is about real peoples lives, voices from all walks of life, at the workhouses, a ladies maid, the upper class as they sit down to dinner or a butler who kept a diary for a year noting his daily grind. These voices form and produce a much more vivid picture as we follow through the book.

Smell: Pick the worst smell you can think of and hold that thought because that is the odor you'll be walking around London with before a sewerage system was devised. Once the sewers were in place the book explains in detail the trails and tribulations, first problems it caused water pipes and sewers were run to close together and how the matter was resolved, the huge overhaul, which saved lives. We then go on to costs, how much to have a lavatory installed, the flush system that were put into a middle class family home. It made for a dramatic change to a bustling city and an idea used in others cities around the world.

1840 -1870 the dwellers of London were thriving with new ideas and invention during the Victorian age these were the years London was ripped apart to make way for railway lines and stations even showing the first congestion of traffic as London came to a stand still while this upheaval took place but again the outcome, it generated work or allowed people in every day life to travel to locations they had only heard of. A man named Thomas Cook set up a business venture in 1841 and made his first deal with the railways, trips were organized in groups and were made cost effective. known in those days as the Thomas Cook Excursions in 1851 he was a successful entrepreneur making it possible for people to travel far and wide, he was prepared at affordable prices to let many see with their own eyes the Great Exhibition.

Liza Picard has added a sense of humor everywhere in this book from mens latest fashion in beards and dress entire, hat problems at the opera or ladies fashion problems when getting on the omnibuses. We are also given a crash course by leaflets issued at that time on the art of fainting, corsets being tight to the point of not breathing, "make sure there's a couch behind you if you feel you must faint, we can't always rely on a gentleman to lunge and catch". The Marriage certificate was framed and used to decorate the wall at home in the 1850's...... how many would go up if that came back into fashion today?

We go into schools looking at education, we also look at religion, places for amusement, prisons, crime, punishment even death and cemeteries the information is plenty and sometimes surprising. This books recreates the industries, inventions and London life with all its many sides, splendor, misery, cruelty, vices or pleasures all the while keeping it entertaining you also have illustrations showing this extraordinary age. I can honestly say I learnt much from this book and thoroughly enjoyed every minuet. Congratulations Liza Picard has my attention and I will be looking at other books written.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in this History era

Andrea Bowhill(less)

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Jul 12, 2012 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: england, history, victorians, library, cities, 19th-century-history, london, the-stacks

If Guy Ritchie has one excuse to make another Sherlock Holmes movie, it is to be the filmmaker who built a scale model of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham and then blew it up. Or blew part of it up. I'd settle for a wing, and pay the twenty bucks to see it done in IMAX.

'Reclaimed', in the modern parlance, from the glass hall built for the Great Exhbition in 1851, the Crystal Palace was a Victorian Epcot Center of the ancient and prehistoric , built in the center of a three story hothouse, overdon...more If Guy Ritchie has one excuse to make another Sherlock Holmes movie, it is to be the filmmaker who built a scale model of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham and then blew it up. Or blew part of it up. I'd settle for a wing, and pay the twenty bucks to see it done in IMAX.

'Reclaimed', in the modern parlance, from the glass hall built for the Great Exhbition in 1851, the Crystal Palace was a Victorian Epcot Center of the ancient and prehistoric , built in the center of a three story hothouse, overdone and cluttered as only the Victorians could clutter and overdo:

The ethos of the new Cystal Palace was to be the education of the masses, by giving them an 'Illustrated Encyclopedia'. To that end, a historical theme park awaited them, with prehistory in the grounds, and the march of time in ten 'Architectural Courts' . . .
There was an eact replica of the Court of Lions in the Alhambra Court, and an authentic copy of an elaborate Moorish stalactite-honeycomb roof, in 5000 separate pieces of gelatine. [Edible? Kate wonders.]The Pompeian and Italian courts exploded with color. [That is your cue, Mr. Ritchie!] The Assyrian Palace was guarded by gigantic winged and bearded figures. The Egyptian court glowed wit the pharaonic temples . . .Two of the colossal figures at Abu Simbel were reproduced in painted plaster, 51 feet high, towering into the vaulted transept roof. The Greek court was peopled with white plaster casts of ancient statues, the damage time had inflicted on the originals made good in Sydenham. (p227-8)

Anyone who has ever seen a picture of a Victorian Drawing room knows: this just wasn't enough.

. . .this grand design got tangled up with . . . Zoological collections, and freak shows and the Directors concern to make money. The many beautiful illustrations show greenery dripping from every projection and palm trees everywhere. There were bazaars selling everything from shawls to pianos, toys to furniture. . .Attentive visitors in search of enlightenment found themselves confronted by models of grotesque people and collections of stuffed animals, including a hippopotamus. . . One of the iguanadons was 34 feet long, big enough for twenty gentlemen to sit under the mould prepared for it and enjoy a splendid dinner, in 1853.

The palace itself contained 400 tons of glass and 4000 tons of iron. It was twice the size of the Great Exhbition hall with three stories and three vaulted transepts and could bee seen on its perch on sydenham hill from Hammersmith, some 12 miles away, if the night was clear. it sounds amazing, and somehow this is the first I've heard mention of it. It burned to the ground in1936 (there are spectacular photographs of the fire available on line), too late for Mr. Holmes, and has largely been forgotten by history. Let's hope historical fiction and period films can one day bring it back.

* * *

I could never get into Our Mutual Friend , though I wanted to so badly. Bleak House struck my fancy immediately, and remains one of my all time favorites, but OMF, though the book blurb sounded right up my alley, was a slog. I out in down, hoping to pick it up again before I reached my deathbed, but this was more from sheer obstinacy than a true desire to read OMF from cover to cover. Reading Victorian London, however, I kept thinking back to it. More than BH, which takes as its target the whole of Victorian society, OMF, from it's Thames watermen to the wealthy 'dust pile' owner, all described in vivid detail by this fine history, is a novel of London itself. I think Victorian London may have filled in the pieces I need to finish OMF and enjoy it. (less)

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Apr 27, 2009 rabbitprincess rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: history buffs

Recommended to rabbitprincess by: uncle

Shelves: cadeau, non-fiction, 2009

It's a mighty big effort to write about 30 years in the life of a city, especially one as big as London that was going through so many changes at that time. Still, Liza Picard manages to cover the essentials while packing in lots of interesting tidbits and providing her own witty commentary in places. Each chapter covers an aspect of life in London: for example, death, religion, education, and my favourite (the first chapter), smells. I was particularly interested in the section that covered the...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Ade Cox rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolute gold! This is history as I had never read before. Liza Picard takes an era of history (in this case Victorian) and tells it with the trivia of the day. You learn huge amounts very, very quickly by her conjuring up the sights, sounds and smells of London in the time she is portraying. I cannot recommend Liza Picard books whether written or audiobooks. Am now listening to Dr Johnson's London and that is at least as good if not better.

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Dec 10, 2011 Alessandra Kelley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, england, sociology, daily-life, history

This book is a fun reference work of useful information. Ms. Picard covers London in the middle years of Victoria's reign and the nineteenth century, giving invaluable descriptions of daily life, public works, and entertainments. I would recommend it for anyone who would like a good grounding in mid-Victorian London.

Recommended for historical novelists, steampunk authors, and anyone with an interest in history of everyday life.

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May 29, 2012 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-history

This book covers the mid-years of Queen Victoria's reign and they were years of dramatic change and achievement.In 1840, London was basically a pest-hole, with sewage running in the streets and fouling the River Thames, crowded and filthy slums, appalling poverty, and disease. The author shows the reader the physical reality of daily living and it is not a pretty picture. But as the century moved forward, progress was made.....flushing lavatories, underground railways, umbrellas, letter boxes, a...more

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Apr 26, 2009 Starfish rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: joys_of_research, victorian

Really well written, this general history covers more than just the usual topics of a history, and strives to bring Victorian London to life. It has chapters on Smell, on clothing, Death, Education and more. Unfortunately, Picard can't go into depth, but by conscientiously acknowledging her sources (as well as assessing them), she provides you with a good starting point to find out for yourself what you want to know.

Excellent.

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Nov 16, 2012 Ratforce added it

Shelves: history

If you're interested in a more focused exploration of urban life during the time of Vanity Fair, then Victorian London could be a good choice. This book wasn't intended to clarify mid-nineteenth-century English life for readers, but could offer the snapshot of London at the time that you're looking for.

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Jan 31, 2010 Guido Henkel rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is a wonderful collection of all things London during the early Victorian days. To me it is an invaluable research tool for my own "Jason Dark" series. It is nicely structured and has so far covered everything I was looking for about life during that era.

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Jun 24, 2012 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Nancy by: Petra X

Shelves: history

While it may seem odd to give 4 stars to a book I tagged as "did-not-finish", this really is that sort of book. Ms. Picard covers a wide range of topics, some of which didn't interest me. Victorian London is not a linear read, like a novel or history book, but a collection of chapters about different aspects of Victorian life. Feel free to skip to the chapters on topics that you care about. I found the chapters on the day to day lives of people in various classes particularly engaging. This is...more

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Feb 21, 2010 Miramira Endevall rated it 2 of 5 stars

The writing is ridiculously biased rather than investigative, but informative nevertheless. I've picked and skimmed through it without really thoroughly reading it - the author's tone bothers me. Folks working Dicken's Fair would do well to read it.

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Jan 30, 2010 Cornelia rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic book for research on the Victorina era. Steampunk writers- get this book.

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Mar 10, 2010 Jen marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, victoriana, owned

$10 (at 50% off) at a bargain bookstore! You cannot imagine my delight at getting such a gem.

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Jan 03, 2011 Susanna Ives rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: research, victorian, london

Love Liza Picard's work. The money appendix was especially helpful to me.

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Dec 10, 2010 Whitaker rated it 4 of 5 stars

A really great book shows us how everything is great and worth to die for

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Jan 20, 2012 Cynthianatalia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely loved it. There is nothing else to say. Very detailed.

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Oct 21, 2011 William is currently reading it

Reading as background for my first book...

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Jan 29, 2013 Marina Sinelnikova rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: london, victoriana

Excellent and thorough.

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May 26, 2011 Cindy rated it 4 of 5 stars

brilliant compilation on everyday life during the period.

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Nov 05, 2009 Autumn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wonderfully written: comprehensive, entertaining, educational, humourous, horrible, and weird. Highly recommended.

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Aug 06, 2010 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

A great wealth of information, written in a way that is entertaining, just like her other time period books. Didn't read the whole thing, but when I need it, i'll keep coming back to it.

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Jul 12, 2008 The Library Lady rated it 3 of 5 stars

She seemed to run out of steam by the last few chapters. But overall her writing style made this entertaining as well as informative.

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Dec 31, 2012 Laura Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lots of fun tidbits! Some things I knew nothing about, as much Victorian literature I read.

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Aug 03, 2007 Ken rated it 3 of 5 stars

kinda long and with too much minute details that it ends up feeling more like a list than a book.

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Jul 04, 2008 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Gives good context for late 19th/early 20th c British novels.

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Jun 09, 2008 Stephanie Borders rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

In in-depth view of daily Victorian life.

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May 22, 2013 Rei rated it 3 of 5 stars

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About Liza Picard

Liza Picard was born in 1927. She read law at the London School of Economics and qualified as a barrister, but did not practise. She spent many years working in the office of the Solicitor of the Inland Revenue and lived in Gray’s Inn and Hackney, before retiring to live in Oxford.

Her legal training encouraged her to seek original evidence, rather than rely on other peoples' research. This she sa...more

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Books by Liza Picard

Elizabeth's London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London

Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education

The Life of London (4 Volume Set): Elizabeth's London, Dr. Johnson's London, Restoration London and Victorian London

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