Victorian (1837 – 1901)
Explore objects, stories and blogs illuminating an era defined by the 63-year monarchy of Queen Victoria.
Blogs-And-Stories
A caricaturist takes on the Great Exhibition, 1851
George Cruikshank’s satirical sketches shine a light on the craze caused by this London event
Building a Victorian underground railway
Henry Flather’s photos of the Metropolitan District Railway show a transport revolution in action
Street life & work in 1877
John Thomson’s fascinating photographs reveal the lives of workers in 19th-century London
The Forty Elephants: South London’s supreme shoplifters
How an all-women clan of career criminals hounded West End department stores
The comic operas of Gilbert & Sullivan
The writer-composer pair behind the hottest shows in Victorian London
Victorian photographs of Barnet & Enfield
Roaming rural north London in the late 1800s
How Cleopatra’s Needle came to London
An ancient Egyptian obelisk – on the banks of the River Thames
Gustave Doré’s London pilgrimage
The artist’s gloomy illustrations recall his 19th-century trips through the poverty-stricken city
What were London’s turnpikes?
In the 1700s and 1800s, travelling on London’s main roads came with a cost
Speakers’ Corner: A home of free speech
Hyde Park’s historic spot for public speaking and debate
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson: A pioneering doctor
The first woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor
The sinking of the Princess Alice
Catastrophe struck on the River Thames in 1878 when a cargo ship collided with a tourist boat
Elizabeth Fry: Pioneering prison reformer
Fry’s injection of kindness transformed the prison experience for Victorian women
The punishing past of London’s prisons
A list of the most notorious and historic prisons in the city
Thomas Barnardo’s crusade against child poverty
The suffering children of London’s East End motivated Barnardo’s tireless social work
