• The early industrial cities of Britain such as Leeds and Manchester attracted large numbers of migrants to the textile mills set up in the late eighteenth century. In 1851, more than three-quarters of the adults living in Manchester were migrants from rural areas.
• London was a densely packed industrial city
  • Clothing
  • Footwear
  • Furniture
  • Metal and Engineering
  • Surgical instruments
  • Watches
  • Cars
  • Electric goods

Marginal groups/Crime

• As London grew, crime flourished
• In attempt to discipline the population authorities imposed high fines for people caught engaging in criminal activity

During the population boom of London, the amount of crime increased. In the 1870s, it was estimated that there were 20,000 criminals. Police were afraid that order would break down, philanthropists were worried about public morality, industrialist were afraid that their working population would no longer be hard working and orderly. As a result criminals were observed, their population counted, and their ways of life investigated.$^0$

In order to achieve order, the authorities enforced strict penalties for crimes, and offered work to the “deserving poor”.$^0$ These were poor people who, the authorities, considered deserving.

Many criminals were actually poor people that lived by stealing. They stole lead from roofs, food from shops, lumps of coal, and clothes drying on ledges.$^0$

Workers and Working conditions

• As machines could be operated by just about anybody, many women and children were employed as factory workers
• women and children were paid less.
• The working conditions were brutal, they caused children's bodies to be deformed
  • Due to working in factories for over 12 hours a day and limited food
• Later on, factory reforms were made by the british government to improve the working conditions of their people

! Housing

• As more working labor began migrating towards industrial cities such as london, they became densely packed
  • London’s population demography changed dramatically
• Factory and workshop owners did not provide housing for their workers, instead the workers were housed by individual landlords
  • These landlords put up cheap and unsafe tenements (apartments). These tenements were
    • Overcrowded
    • Poorly ventilated
    • Lacked sanitation
    • They were a threat to public health
• Poverty was very visible in the cities
• Richer city dwellers continually demanded the clearance of slums

Cleaning London

• Demands were made to give the city of london new lungs