Country Life - Victorian Houses (2024)

FAQs

What were the facts about Victorian poor houses? ›

The homes of the poor were small, cold and damp and often infested with lice and vermin. Water would be collected from a dirty pump in the street and filthy outdoor toilets would be shared with dozens of neighbours. Stoves were new and expensive, so many homes didn't have any way of making hot meals.

“Recognizable characteristics are steep, tiled roofs, painted brick, bay windows, and asymmetrical design,” Dadswell says. “Wooden floorboards, plaster cornicing, sweeping staircases, wooden sash windows, and tiled entrance hallways would have been incorporated into most Victorian homes.”

The houses were cheap, most had between two and four rooms – one or two rooms downstairs, and one or two rooms upstairs, but Victorian families were big with perhaps four or five children. There was no water, and no toilet. A whole street (sometimes more) would have to share a couple of toilets and a pump.

Victorian homes are usually large and imposing. Wood or stone exterior. The majority of Victorian styles use wood siding, but the Second Empire and Romanesque styles almost always have outer walls made of stone. Complicated, asymmetrical shape.

Poor families ate more carbohydrates, such as bread, potatoes and porridge oats, as these were cheaper and more filling. Bread with lard or dripping spread across it was a staple meal.

Most poor houses only had one or two rooms downstairs and one or two upstairs. Families would crowd into these rooms, with several in each room and some living in the cellars. Poorer families, if they owned a bath at all, put it in front of the kitchen rang.

Victorian homes are often known for the two-roomed 'back to backs' where poorly paid industrial workers would live in cramped conditions. It wasn't unheard of to see 250 houses per hectare at a time when families typically had six children.

But it is probably the ornate details, such as decorative mouldings, intricate tile work, and stained-glass windows, which Victorian properties are most loved and appreciated for.

Poor structural integrity

As Victorian homes could be close to 200 years old, the possibility of structural issues is much higher than in a more modern home. Again, there may be tell-tale signs of structural issues as you look around a property. Cracks in walls, uneven plaster and loose bricks can all be warning signs.

Balloon framing replaced the costly and cumbersome post-and-beam construction in use since Colonial times with relatively thin, light pieces of lumber–today's familiar two-by-fours. These expedients made it possible to build houses faster, cheaper, and also larger and more elaborate than ever before.

What did Victorian houses have? ›

Common features of Victorian houses

Iron railings: front iron railings and gates were popular in the Victorian era. Barge boards – the inverted v-shaped fascias on the side of a roof - were popular. Slate roofs, often with ridge tiles made of terracotta, and decorative wooden panels on the ends.

By the end of the Victorian era, many houses had gas. A basem*nt with a cellar for the storage of coal, required for open fires and to heat water. Sash windows but with larger panes of glass, from the 1850s, than the characteristic 6 plus 6 smaller panes seen in Georgian and Regency architecture.

Queen Anne homes are the quintessential Victorian home: They are asymmetrical, two or three (or more) stories tall, have steeply pitched roofs, and feature large wrap-around porches.

In these facilities, poor people ate thrifty, unpalatable food, slept in crowded, often unsanitary conditions, and were put to work breaking stones, crushing bones, spinning cloth or doing domestic labor, among other jobs.

"poor-house") was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment.

There was a big difference between rich and poor in Victorian times. Rich people could afford lots of treats like holidays, fancy clothes, and even telephones when they were invented. Poor people – even children – had to work hard in factories, mines or workhouses. They didn't get paid very much money.