Homes for the Homeless: the experience of Victorian poverty

We have to be honest, we usually find ourselves at the Geffrye Museum only around Christmas time. And for this, we are ashamed. For on a recent visit on a sunny spring day, not only did we realise that the building and its gardens are glorious in the sunshine, but it's exhibitions and displays are fascinating all year round. On this particular trip we were there to see 'Homes for the Homeless: Seeking Shelter in Victorian London' exhibition because, well, you know how we feel about the Victorians. (We love them in case that wasn't clear). What we found was a thoughtful, beautiful designed, multi-faceted exhibition that brought home the realities of life in the nineteenth century city.

The Pinch of Poverty - Thomas Benjamin Kennington 1891

Why is it that we are so fascinated by the Victorians? I think there's something fascinating about being able to look back at history through the medium of photography- which seems so immediate and 'real'. I also think we recognise a lot of ourselves in them - their socialising, family life, businesses, travel, aspirations : the Victorians are really the birth of the modern age we are still living in. But for all of the exciting technical innovations and fabulous clothes, Victorian London was a place of poverty, illness, and a pre-welfare state which left most of the work of looking after the vulnerable to charity organisations.

Meal-time at Holborn workhouse, 1885

We get pretty used to seeing images of Victorian families in slum conditions, dirty children playing in the street, or homeless people sleeping on benches. But we forget that for the homeless of nineteenth century London, they had to figure out everyday how to find a place to sleep and something to eat. How they achieved that shows the maze that was the Poor Law system (hospitals, workhouses), charity, and sometimes just sheer determination.

Corridor at a casual ward, early 20th c.

The Geffrye exhibition really aims to try and humanize all those black-and-white pictures of Victorian poverty that most of us have become desensitised to. Sure it's history, but those are really people's lives. Through recreated voice-recordings of contemporary testimonies, we hear about the experience of getting into a casual ward, living in a crowded common lodging house, or the best places to sleep rough. You can try the harrowing task of picking apart rope or sleeping in a coffin-like box bed. The displays show the savvy needed to navigate what relief was available, the conditions people endured, but also how people made the best of a bad situation.

Sleek, graphics-dense exhibition design

The messages of the exhibition are really hit home by a complimentary exhibition in the corridor in which vulnerable teens and children from the New Horizons Centre in Kings Cross. The participants reflect on their own experiences of homelessness, and see a surprising number of similarities with the situation as it was experienced over 100 years ago. With the new government possibly preparing to slash disability benefits, the Geffrye's exhibition takes on a new meaning as both a well-crated temporary display, and a meaningful warning for the future. 

 Homes for the Homeless is on at the Geffrye Museum until the 12th of July 

My History Valentine: An Ode to Mrs. Beeton

In the last of our #historyvalentine series, Ministry member Laura waxes romantic about that icon of domesticity, Mrs. Beeton (completely in verse no less).

Ode to Mrs Beeton

A love-letter to good taste and sweet ordering…

Some say it was just lucky
You were wedded to a spouse
Who happened to own and operate
His own publishing house.

Too many dull historians
(Most of whom are male)
Discount your work as trivial

A trifling travail.

But it is a masterpiece

That no home should be without

After all, what modern girl

Could make so many meals from trout?!

Although she only lived to 28, her legacy
lives on in this ode

All your modern copycats

Are better left unread

It can’t be called a cookbook

Without a page on quadrupeds.

And as for being topical,

Your work has stayed the course

There is an entire chapter

On what to do with horse.

Who among us doesn’t love

A brunch of Plover’s eggs

Followed by Dutch Flummery

Or curried Lobster legs?

And you’re strong on family harmony

Your well-reasoned discourse

Prevents a mal-cooked Parrot Pie

From ending in divorce

But if it does go horribly wrong

You thought of all that too

It might not have been explicit

But you showed us what to do.

A husband struck with Manflu

(Or ‘Concussion of the Brain’)

Treated with lead and camphor pills

Will never moan again!

Or if a restless child

Is keeping you up at night

Some Calomel and Opium

Should set the noisy bugger right.

 
And so to Isabella
Who taught our Nans and Mums
And who, now that the world has changed
Will begin to teach our sons

I write a simple ode of thanks
For your well-read kitchen file
I may not like your forcemeat balls,
But I bloody love your style.

Laura is an accidental historical geographer, scholar of the Victorian home and urban forager. Follow her on twitter @tweetingbogart