The

Victorian
Age
A cultural overview

A cultural
overview
Was the period
of Queen
Victoria's reign
from 20 June
1837 until her
death, on 22
January 1901.

It was a long
period of peace,
prosperity,
refined
sensibilities and
national selfconfidence for
Britain.

The Victorians
made great
advances in
science,
technology, and
the arts, sought
creative solutions
to social problems,
and created a
body of literature
that continues to
fascinate and
inspire readers,
artists, and
scholars date the
beginning of the
period in terms of
sensibilities and
political concerns
to the passage of
the Reform Act
1832.

A cultural ov
The fields of
social history and
literature often
refer to the
Victorian era as
Victorianism,
especially in the
later two-thirds
of the 19th
century.

The study of Victorianism is often

specifically directed at Victorian morality,
which refers to highly moralistic,
language and behaviour.

The era was

preceded by the
Georgian period
and followed by
the Edwardian
period.

Politics

Disraeli,
favoured by the
Two especially
queen, was a
important figures
gregarious Tory.
in this period of
His rival
British history
Gladstone, a
are the prime
Liberal
ministers
distrusted by the
Gladstone and
Queen, served
Disraeli, whose
more terms and
contrasting
oversaw much of
views changed
the overall lawthe course of
making of the
history
era.
During the early part of the era, the House of Commons was
headed by the two parties, the Whigs and the
Conservatives.
From the late 1850s onwards, the Whigs became the
Liberals. These parties were led by many prominent
statesmen including Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord
Derby, Lord Palmerston, William Ewart Gladstone, Benjamin
Disraeli, and Lord Salisbury

Politics

Gladstone

Disraeli

Population
The Victorian
era was a
time of
unprecedente
d
demographic
increase in
Britain.
The
population
rose from
13.9 million in
1831 to 32.5
million in
1901.

Two major
factors
affecting
population
growth are
fertility rates
and mortality
rates. Britain
was the first
country to
undergo the
Demographic
transition and
the
Agricultural
and Industrial
Revolutions.

Population

Arts

Gothic Revival
The emergence of
architecture
photography,
became
showcased at the
increasingly
Great Exhibition,
significant
resulted
in
during the
significant
period, leading
changes
in
to the Battle
Victorian art with
of the Styles
Queen
Victoria
between
being
the
first
Gothic and
British monarch to
Classical
be photographed.
ideals. Barry's architecture for the new Palace of
Charles
Westminster, which had been badly damaged in an 1834 fire,
was built in the medieval style of Westminster Hall, the
surviving part of the building.
The middle of the 19th century saw The Great Exhibition of
1851, the first World's Fair, which showcased the greatest
innovations of the century.
At its centre was the Crystal Palace,
considered the
prototype of Modern architecture.

Arts
The Crystal
Palace
The Westminster
Palace

Entertainment

Michael Balfe was the

most popular British
grand opera composer
of the period.
Drama ranged from low
comedy to Shakespeare
.

Popular forms of entertainment varied by social class.

Victorian Britain, like the periods before it, was interested in
literature (Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charlotte
Bront and her sisters and William Makepeace Thackeray),
theatre and the arts ( Aesthetic movement and Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood), and music, drama, and opera were widely
attended.

Entertainm
ent

Michael Balfe
Opera composer

Arthur Conan Doyle

Writer

Entertainm
ent
Gentlemen went to
dining clubs, like the
Beefsteak club or the
Savage club.
Gambling at cards in
establishments
popularly called casinos
was wildly popular
during the period.
Brass bands and 'The
Bandstand' became
popular in the Victorian

The Victorian era marked the

golden age of the British
circus. Astley's Amphitheatre
in Lambeth, London,
featuring equestrian acts in a
42-foot wide circus ring, was
the epicentre of the 19th
century circus.
Another form of
entertainment involved
'spectacles' where
paranormal events, such as
mesmerism, communication
with the dead (by way of
mediumship or channelling),
ghost conjuring and the like,
were carried out to the
delight of crowds and

Entertainm
ent
Beefsteak Club

Astleys
Amphitheatr
e

Literature

Literacy increased
significantly in the
period, and publishers
could bring out more
material more cheaply
than ever before.
The most significant
development in
publishing was the
growth of the periodical.
Novels and long works of
non-fiction were
published in serial form.
Victorian novels seek to
represent a large and
comprehensive social
world, constructing a
tension between social
conditions and the
aspirations of the hero or
heroine.

Writing in the shadow of

Romanticism, the Victorians
developed a poetry of mood
and character. Victorian poetry
tends to be pictorial, and often
uses sound to convey meaning.
The theater, a flourishing and
popular institution throughout
the period, was transformed in
the 1890s by the comic
masterpieces of George
Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.
Very different from each other,
both took aim at Victorian
pretense and hypocrisy.

Literature

Charles Dickens

Charlotte
Bront

Oscar Wilde

Natural
Science

Natural history
became increasingly
an "amateur" activity.
Particularly in Britain
and the United
States, this grew into
specialist hobbies
such as the study of
birds, butterflies,
seashells
(malacology/concholo
gy), beetles and wild
flowers.
Amateur collectors
and natural history
entrepreneurs played
an important role in
building the large
natural history
collections of the
nineteenth and early

During the Victorian

era, science grew
into the discipline it
is today. In addition
to the increasing
professionalism of
university science,
many Victorian
gentlemen devoted
their time to the
study of natural
history.
This study of natural
history was most
powerfully advanced
by Charles Darwin
and his theory of
evolution first
published in his book

Natural Science

Charles
Darwin

Tourism &
Travelling

Many people used

the train services to
visit the seaside,
helped by the Bank
Holiday Act of 1871,
which created a
number of fixed
holidays which all
sectors of society
could enjoy.

Large numbers travelling

to quiet fishing villages
such as Worthing,
Brighton, Morecambe and
Scarborough began turning
them into major tourist
centres.
People like Thomas Cook
saw tourism and even
overseas travel as viable
businesses.

Tourism &
Travelling

Thomas Cook
Brighton Beach
1890s

Technology &
Engineering
An important development during
the Victorian era was the
improvement of communication
links.
Trains became another important
factor ordering society, with
"railway time" being the standard
by which clocks were set
throughout Britain.

Steam ships such as

the SS Great Britain
and SS Great Western
made international
travel more common
but also advanced
trade, such as raw
materials such as corn
and cotton from the
United States and meat
and wool from
Australia.
One more important
innovation in
communications was
the Penny Black, the
first postage stamp,
which standardised
postage to a flat price
regardless of distance

Technology &
Engineering

SS Great Britain
Ship
The Penny Black
Postage Stamp

Technology &
Engineering

Even later
communication
methods such as
cinema, telegraph,
telephones, cars and
aircraft, had an impact.
Photography was
realised in 1839 by
Louis Daguerre in
France and William Fox
Talbot in the UK. By
1889, hand-held
cameras were
available.
Although initially
developed in the early
years of the 19th
century, gas lighting
became widespread
during the Victorian era
in industry, homes,

The invention of the

incandescent gas
mantle in the 1890s
greatly improved
light output and
ensured its survival
as late as the
1960s.
Hundreds of
gasworks were
constructed in cities
and towns across
the country. In
1882, incandescent
electric lights were
introduced to
London streets,
although it took
many years before
they were installed

Technology &
Engineering

London Public
Illumination
1878

Louis Daguerre
Photographer

Sports

The Victorian Era saw the

introduction and
development of many
modern sports. Cricket,
bicycling, croquet, roller
skating, horseback riding,
and water activities are
examples of some of the
popular sports in the
Victorian Era.

Sports

Cricke
t

Cycling

Rollerskating

Did you know?

Dense fog London

Victorian era was
well known for fog
so dense that saw
only a stone's
throw. The fog
arises from a
combination of fog
river Thames burned
coal smoke, which
were an essential
part of Victorian life.
London fog suffered
because of these
hundreds of years,
and in 1952 12,000
Londoners died from
smoke. These
conditions allowed
many things to
happen, favoring

The modern
game of tennis
originated in
Birmingham,
England,
between 1859
and 1865.

English food was scary in

the Victorian era. For
example, the Victorians
used to eat all the guts,
without omitting any part
of the animal cooking.
Another very odd
assortment of food was
turtle soup, animal that
was particularly valued
for its green and
gelatinous fat, used to
flavor soup boiling stringy
flesh of the turtle

Did you know?

Quen Victoria in iteself was strange,

especially after the death of her husband
Albert in 1861, wore mourning until her own
death. In addition, it is expected that the
whole nation to do so. Avoid public
appearances and has not stepped in London
in the coming years. For this reason earned
the nickname "widow of Winsdor". He threw
her a black veil over the UK. Ironically, its
funeral in London was decorated purple and
white.

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