Victorian (1837 – 1901)
Explore objects, stories and blogs illuminating an era defined by the 63-year monarchy of Queen Victoria.
Blogs-And-Stories
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
When did London get electricity?
Between 1901 and 1910, London began to find its spark
The jobs that made London’s docks run
London’s port relied on dock workers doing an array of back-breaking and highly skilled jobs
