Living Conditions in Towns and Cities (19 th Century)

Diseases There was many epidemics in the 19th century. Diseases such as Cholera and Typhus. The most feared was the water born disease Cholera. The first Cholera epidemic in Scotland was in 1832, lots of advice was given on how to protect against the disease however much of it was wrong because the cause of Cholera was yet to be found. There were many other epidemics such as Diphtheria, Typhus and smallpox all killing many.

Diseases Continued Disease spread like wildfire through slums and crowded hovels. Most diseases spread through unclean water, lice and the poor living conditions. Workers already weakened by lack of food and over working in factories were often first to die of diseases when epidemics occured. The average life expectancy was 19 years of age.

Sewage and Toilets Open sewers ran through the streets, young children would play out in the streets in bare feet picking up all kinds of diseases. In the early 1800s, toilets were outdoors and shared by many families living in the same tenement block, and few public washing facilities were available for bathing. Dung heaps were often situated too close to public wells and triggered complaints from citizens about their drinking water being contaminated with faeces. ( At the time they didn’t realise that the faeces were causing the disease in the water as well as other factors)

Sewage Continued Cess Pits housed animal and peoples waste and rubbish. Many of those families living in the cellars of a tenement found themselves living in pools of sewage that had come from a leaking cess pit nearby.

Layout of streets regarding Sewage

Dundee in the 19 th Century In the 19th century, Dundee would have been smelly and crowded, with noisy markets and narrow cobbled streets Filled by horses and carts and littered with deposits of horse dung. Street-side butchers and fish sellers like those found at Butchers Row and Fish Street would often toss innards and unwanted flesh into street gutters, and householders threw refuse from tenement windows into the streets below.

Housing Most of the housing in the 19 th century was poor and unhygienic this was mainly due to the low wages workers earned. Casual work meant that few people could afford anything more than basic accommodation. Builders new they couldn’t charge high rents so built houses cheaply and quickly often without facilities such as toilets and bathrooms. (Casual work was work that was seasonal or only got paid when work was available)

Housing in the cities Town Centre Inner Ring Outer Ring Southern Suburbs Small terraced houses no gardens; mainly artisans. Slums, poor houses, factories, mainly labouring class. Solid semi- detached villas of the middle class. Main Wind Direction Large Detached Houses with big gardens for the wealthy. This diagram shows the typical layout of housing in a city such as Manchester.

Conditions inside homes. In the average home there was rarely a toilet or sink, most families shared a toilet with the rest of there street. A bed often consisted of a mattress if you were lucky, but this usually housed thousands of bed bugs and lice that would bite and spread nasty diseases such as Typhoid. Other beds were simply heaps of dirty rags and straw for others the best they had was a hard wooden floor to sleep on.

Conditions in the home continued Water was stored in an old bucket in one corner of the room this allowed the filth in the water to settle before it was used. In the opposite corner another bucket served as the family lavatory. Waste from this as well as household rubbish was either thrown into the street or stored outside the door in a heap until there was enough to sell to a farmer as manure.

How housing in the centre of Cities was laid out. 1 Family 1 Family; living in the cellar Pump Lavatory for whole street Dirty water from toilet pollutes drinking water; spreading disease. 1 Family