WORK, LIFE AND LEISURE

GROWTH OF THE CITIES

LONDON
AND
BOMBAY
 Characteristics Of Cities
• When an increase in food supply supported a
wide range of non-food producers.
• Centre of political power, administrative
network, trade and industry, religious
institutions and intellectual activity.
• Supported various social groups such as
artisans, merchants and priests.
• Cities vary in size and complexity. Densely
settled modern-day cities are called
metropolis.
Industrialization And The Rise Of
Modern Cities
 London-A large city with
huge population. Its
population multiplied four
folds in the 70 years i.e.
1810-1880 from 1 million
to four million.
 It attracted many people
from country side.
 Major employment places in London were:-
• London dockyard
• Clothing and Footwear
• Wood and Furniture
• Metal and Engineering
• Precision Products as Surgical instruments, Objects of Precious Metals.

 By First World War, London began

manufacturing motor cars and electrical
goods.
 IMPACT OF URBANISATION
• LONDON GREW,CRIME FLOURISHED-20000
CRIMINALS IN 1870s
• Criminals belonged to poor families.
• To discipline the population, authorities imposed
penalties and offered jobs to deserving poor.
• Factories employed women; industrialization
created unemployment and forced them to do
domestic work,tailoring,washing and match-box
making. A low-paid work.
 HOUSING AND TRANSPORT
• Change in London city after the industrialization.
• No housing arrangement by factory owners for migrant workers.
• Houses-cheap and unsafe apartments.
• Poverty- both in countryside and in cities.
• Bad living conditions resulted in early deaths-life expectancy to
29yrs and 55yrs for middle and rich class respectively.

Westminister Transport & Lambeth Palace, residence

Abbey Multistoreyed Of Archbishop, Canterbury
buildings
• Rich class demanded removal of slums
• Reasons:-
– a serious threat to public health
– fire hazards due to poor housing
– Fear of social disorder
So workers’ mass housing schemes were planned
to prevent the poor from turning rebellious.
CLEANING LONDON-VARIETY OF STEPS
• To decongest localities, green open spaces, less
pollution-large blocks of apartments were built.
• Rent control was introduced to do with housing
shortage.
• Congestion in cities required cleaning-green belt by
architect and planner Ebenezer Howard ,later
Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker designed the
garden city of New Earswick
• Between 2WW(1919-1939) housing was taken care
by the British state.
 TRANSPORT IN THE CITY
• Underground railways-first
section of it was opened in
10Jan1863
• By 1880 train service carried
40milllion passengers
• Earlier people were afraid to
travel
• Better planned suburbs and a
good railway network helped
people to live outside central
London and travel to work.
 INDUSTRIALISATION AND
LIFE IN THE CITY
• Ties between members loosened-
institution of marriage was breaking down.
• Women worked for wages, had some
control over their lives.
• Social reformers needed that the
institution of family be saved.
• The city encouraged INDIVIDUALISM
among men and women and a freedom
from collective values.
• Men and women did not have equal
access to urban lives.
• Male-public space, women –domestic
sphere.
• Political movements-demanding vote for
all adults and limited hours of work in
factories.
• Women joined mvmt; demanded right to
vote or right to property to married
women(1870).
• The family now consisted of smaller units.
 LEISURE AND CONSUMPTION
• Wealthy Britishers-cultural events, opera, theatre and
classical music performance.
• Working class- met in pubs to drink, exchange news and
organize political actions.
• Libraries, art galleries and museums were established to
develop pride in the history and achievement of the
British.
• Lower classes preferred to go to music halls and cinema.
• British industrial workers spend their holidays by the sea.

Charles Library The Royal Albert Hall

Dickens hosts the concerts.
 POLITICS
• In 1886- the London poor exploded in a riot demanding
relief from poverty.
• In 1887-similar riot, which was brutally suppressed by the
police-BLOODY SUNDAY of Nov 1887.
• In 1889-thousands of dockworkers went on strikes and
marched through the city.
• A large city population was both a threat and opportunity.
 THE CITY OF COLONIAL INDIA
• The pace of urbanization was
slow in colonial INDIA-11% lived
in cities; esp. 3 Presidency cities-
Bombay, Bengal and Madras.
• These were multifunctional cities-
major ports, warehouses, homes
and offices, army, educational
institutions, museums and
libraries.
• BOMBAY –premier city of INDIA.
Islands of Bombay
 BOMBAY
• In the 17th century, Bombay was a group of seven
islands under Portuguese control.
• In 1661 it was passed to British after the marriage
of Britain’s King Charles II to the Portuguese
princess as dowry.
• At first, Bombay was major outlet for cotton
textiles from Gujarat later large quantities of raw
material as cotton and opium would pass.
• Later a major administrative and industrial centre.
 WORK
• Bombay became a capital of
Bombay presidency in 1819.
• Growth of trade in cotton and
opium, large communities of
traders, bankers, artisans and
shopkeepers came to settle.
• Ist cotton mill estd in 1854 led to
lot of people migrating to Bombay.
• Women formed a part of mill
workforce, but by 1930s women’s
jobs were taken away by
machines and men.
• Bombay dominated sea trade of
INDIA till 20th century.
• Railways also encouraged an
even higher scale of migration.
 HOUSING
• Bombay was an overcrowded city-9.4 sq yds per person in 1840s as
compared to 155 sq yds in London.London had 8 persons per
house as compared to 20 in Bombay.
• The Bombay fort area in 1800s was divided into native towns where
Indians lived and a European or white section.
• A European suburb and an industrial zone in the north and
cantonment in the south of the Fort. A racial pattern also prevalent
in other two Presidencies.
Chawl
• Water and housing problems were created due
to expansion of the city.
• Rich Parsis, Muslim and upper class traders and
industrialists lived in bungalows and about 70%
of the population lived in congested chawls .
• Chawls were also place of exchange of news of
jobs, strikes, riots and demonstrations.
• Many people lived as tenants in one room(4 to
5).In the case of high rent people used to share
homes.
• People were living in a miserable conditions.
• The jobber in a mill used to be neighborhood
leader-who settled disputes, organized food
supplies and credits.
 TRANSPORT

Trams, Tongas, Horse carts, buses, cars and

trains.
 LAND RECLAMATION IN
BOMBAY
• The seven islands of Bombay were joined as
one over a period of time
• The Bombay Governor William Hornby
approved the building of the great wall to
prevent the flooding of low lying areas of
Bombay.
• Need for more space led to reclamation of land
from sea.
• In 1864, the Back Bay reclamation company
reclaim the western foreshore from the tip of
Malabar Hill to the end of Colaba.
• With population
increase more area was
reclaimed from the sea.
To improve the situation
of housing –The City of
Bombay Improvement
Trust was created in
1898 – clearing poorer
homes out of the city
centre.In 1918 Rent act
was to keep reasonable
rents.
 BOMBAY AS THE CITY OF DREAMS- CINEMA
AND CULTURE
• Bombay appears to many as a ‘mayapuri’-a city
of dreams.
• Many Bombay films deal with the arrival of new
migrants and their problems and real life
pressures.
• Bombay film industry- Harishchandra S B shot
a
scene of wrestling match in Bombay’s Hanging
gardens and it became India’s first movie.
• 1913-Raja Harishchandra by Dadasaheb
Phalke.
Asiatic Society of Bombay

Oldest Cinema Hall Regal Cinema Hall

• 1925- Bombay became first film capital.
• Most of the people in the industry were
migrants from Lahore, Calcutta, Madras
and contributed to the national character
of the industry.
• Bombay film industry contributed in a big
way to produce an image of the city as a
mixture of dream, and reality,of slums and
bungalows.
 CITIES AND CHALLENGES TO THE
ENVIRONMENT
• Harm to natural features due to more demand for space by
factories, housing and other institutions.
• Noise, air and water pollution.
• More use of coal in homes and industries- black smoke created
pollution hazards.
• Factory owners and steam engine owners did not want to spend on
technologies to improve their machines which produced a lot of
smokes.
Congested Living PRESENT--AMCHI MUMBAI
• Calcutta-too had a long history of air
pollution- a lot of smoke esp. in winter.
• Main pollutants were in industries and
establishments using steam power.
• The authorities tried to clean this but the
introduction of railway line brought new
pollutants.
• In 1863, Calcutta became the first city to
get smoke nuisance legislation.