Unsavory Facts About Victorian England That Weren't In The History Books
When you think of Victorian England, your first thoughts probably drift to fancy palaces, stuffy outfits, and funny hairdos. But it turns out beneath that beautiful facade, things were pretty grim for Victorian Brits. From toxic fog to disturbing medical practices, living in this time period was probably a nightmare for many average folks. If anyone tried these practices today, we'd be severely disgusted.
Toothpaste Ingredients
Toothpaste wasn't invented until later, so Victorian Brits used homemade "Dentifrices" instead. Some of these included ingredients like chalk and bleach, and one particularly popular solution was made of charcoal and honey — yuck!
Uses For Arsenic
We know now that arsenic is a dangerous poison, but back in the Victorian Era, it had a completely different use. Men used it as a sexual stimulant, and women used it to prevent wrinkles.
Grim Tokens of Remembrance
Mourning was taken very seriously in Victorian England. Mourners would often wear jewelry that included hair from the deceased, and special bottles were used to collect tears. They weren't messing around!
Raw Meat Skincare
Raw meat: good for all purposes! Well, that's what Victorian Brits thought after reading a popular beauty column that advertised laying strips of raw beef on your face at night to improve your complexion. Needless to say, don't try this at home.
Shock Therapy
With the Industrial Revolution came a number of... strange uses for the newfound technology. Doctors started using electricity as a form of "shock therapy," basically hoping to zap ailments like gout and arthritis out of patients. Spoiler alert: it didn't work.
Water Solution
If electricity wasn't your thing, Victorian doctors had another form of therapy you could try: water! So-called "hydrotherapy" was used to treat everything from baldness in men to "hysteria" in women.
One Noxious River
The River Thames may be beautiful to look at now, but back in the 1800s it was so full of sewage that the smell was often sickening. This was obviously a major issue, as the river was also Londoners' main source of drinking water.
Beer Over Water
Clean water wasn't always so easy to come by in Victorian England. In fact, many people would just avoid the risk of drinking it altogether and settle for the next best thing: beer. You know what, maybe Victorian England wasn't so bad after all.
Child Labor
Before child labor laws were a thing, some kids were forced to work long hours in terrible conditions as chimney sweeps or textile mill operators. Thankfully, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was formed in 1891, and children were granted some protections.
The Royal Disease
Hemophilia was well known for a long time as "the royal disease" because it ravaged several royal families across Europe. Queen Victoria herself was actually the first to carry it in the British royal family, passing it down for generations to come.
Popular Eats
Food trucks aren't just a modern invention; in Victorian Britain, street vendors were everywhere. The most popular choice of the era? Sheep's feet. Customers would buy these "trotters" and then suck the meat and fat right off the bone. Yuck.
They Got Tattoos
Don't underestimate them; Victorian Brits rocked pretty hard. After the Prince of Wales spotted some killer tattoos on a trip to Jerusalem, he kickstarted a trend back in England and pretty soon almost 100,000 Brits had gotten inked.
Creepy Pastime
Here's a hobby that we don't need making a comeback: taxidermy. A popular pasttime in Victorian England was stuffing dead animals and rearranging them into little "scenes." Some say cute — we say creepy.
What Caused The Fog
For decades, London was known for its thick, pungent fog that blanketed the entire city. The fog was a byproduct of all the new factories, coal pollution, and sewage dumped into the Thames. Until the Clean Air Act was passed in 1956, thousands died from inhaling the stuff.
Beauty Practices
Makeup may be commonplace now, but a few hundred years ago it was usually considered tacky. Instead, women would pinch their cheeks or apply cold cream to get the desired effects. Seems like a lot of work for a little payoff.
Mad About Mummies
Ever wondered why museums dedicate so much space to the Ancient Egyptians? We've got Victorian Brits to thank for that. Egyptology became a huge hit in the 1800s, and people would flock to museums to see the latest mummies and artifacts.
Paranormal Practices
Victorians were also to thank for hobbies like hypnotism and divination. Bored victorians would flock to any event where someone would perform hypnosis, speak to the dead, or read palms. No surprises here: a lot of these "mystics" were just hucksters making a quick buck.
Stayed Awake During Surgery
Surgery wasn't widely available in the Victorian Era, but for those ailments where it was an option, it was a horrifying one. Because anesthesia and painkillers weren't around, patients would have to be awake and fully conscious for the procedures.
High Stakes Games
Holy smokes, were Victorian Brits bored or what? A popular parlor game in the Victorian era was "Snapdragon," in which people would try and fish raisins out of a flaming bowl and eat them while they burned.
Hell On Earth
Angel Meadow: sounds like a nice place, right? In reality, the residents of this Manchester slum weren't too fond of living there, and it got the nickname "hell on earth" because conditions were so terrible.
Anti Bathing Trend
Though keeping oneself clean is common practice in our day, hygiene was a somewhat controversial topic in the 18th century. Some doctors actually advocated against bathing regularly, as they believed the body's oils were essential to good health.
Morality Tied To Cleanliness
Religion and cleanliness also went hand in hand, as filth and dirt were often equated with sin and the devil. Morality came into play as well, as those who were clean were looked at as less likely to commit wrongdoings.
Only Babies Took Baths
While most rinsed their hands and faces each morning, full-body baths were uncommon among most men, women, and children. Infants, however, were bathed regularly, though this was more so in an effort to "harden" them than to clean them.
Woman Weaponized Hygiene
In some cases, women actually preferred not to bathe and used their uncleanliness as a means of self defense. Using their body odor, they hoped to repel the unwanted advances of overly persistent men.
Tiny Tubs
Another deterrent to bathing was the size of most wash basins, as only the extraordinarily wealthy could afford bathtubs large enough to hold an adult. Freshwater bodies like lakes served as basins of a sort for lower-class men, yet soap was rarely brought along.
Soap Was For Clothes
This was because lye soap — made from a mixture of animal fat, lye, and ash — was difficult to make and incredibly harsh on skin. Instead, this soap was used to wash clothing and dishes.
Washed Only The Dirtiest Items
Yet not all clothes were washed equally, as the process of drawing water, heating it, cleaning the clothes, and wringing them out to dry was a strenuous one. Therefore, only the dirtiest clothes — aprons, underwear, diapers, and the like — were cleaned.
So Many Bugs
Unfortunately, this meant that most blankets and bedsheets went unwashed, leading to frequent bug infestations. Fleas, cockroaches, and mosquitos were prevalent, and some even resorted to sleeping beside campfires to keep the bugs at bay. Others tried flea traps, wearing blood-soaked cloths around their necks to lure them inside.
Itchy Wigs
Lice were also a frequent nuisance, especially when it came to the powdered wigs that most upper-class colonists wore. Despite most men and women shaving their heads to prevent the bugs from nesting, their wigs served as the perfect place for lice to settle in.
Bug Repellent
Washing the wigs did little to rid them of infestation, leading colonists to coat them in bergamot, bay leaves, and other repellents to keep the bugs away. Unfortunately, the rich pomades used to style the wigs only served as a magnet for hungry lice.
Soldiers Spread Disease
George Washington wrote often about his experiences with such "vermin" and mandated that soldiers wash their shirts weekly and their hands and face daily during wartime. Close-quarter camps served as breeding grounds for parasites and disease, especially deadly smallpox.
Though They Did Have A Maid Service
To keep camps in order, "camp followers" traveled alongside the military and tended to their sanitary needs. These individuals — who were mostly women and slaves — ensured that the soldiers' meals were properly prepared and washed their uniforms as needed.
Embraced Body Hair
When a man needed a shave he visited a barber, who was typically a highly skilled man of color. Women, on the other hand, didn't shave at all, as common conventions dictated that they show very little skin.
Poisonous Creams
For those women that did seek to remove hair, plucking was a standard option (Eyebrows won't tweeze themselves!). Eighteenth-century medical journals suggest that depilatory creams — some of which utilized limestone and arsenic — were also used.
Dirty Mouths
Dental care was also somewhat of a mismanaged science, as most people had little concern for the health of their mouth. When toothaches did arise, remedies like chamomile, alcohol, and opium were used to dull the pain.
Who Pulled Teeth
In most cases an extraction was required, though taking a trip to the dentist wasn't an option back then. Instead, sufferers visited their local surgeon, apothecary, barber, or even blacksmith to have a tooth pulled.
Multipurpose Toothpicks
For those that were conscious of their oral health, metal tooth pickers were available for purchase. Unfortunately, these instruments were also used for a variety of other unsavory tasks, including picking the nails and scooping wax from the ears.
The Toilet Situation
On another level of unsavory, outhouses — or, more specifically, covered holes in the ground — served as bathrooms for most colonists. Chamberpots were also used, their contents simply dumped out the window once full.
Contaminated Water
Not only were these practices unsanitary, but they also posed serious health risks. Feces and other contaminants would typically seep into the groundwater or runoff into streams and lakes, leading to high levels of contamination.
Widespread Disease
This, perhaps, is why disease was so widespread within the colonies. Cholera, typhoid fever, and influenza were extremely prevalent, and dysentery — commonly known as the "bloody flux" — ravaged the population.
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