General Chat

BBC 2 at 9pm

Starting tonight is the 1st of 5 episodes of present day people trying to live in the type of conditions of poverty, mud and hardship of their Victorian urban ancestors.

A slum has been re created at Alice Billings House in Stratford, east London

I saw the clip Gwyn, then forgot all about it.

So thank you for the reminder...........Prickles ;o))

Watching now, thanks

x

Thank you for the reminder I almost forgot it

I watched it too. Heaven help us.

Hard work, hunger, and no heat.

Some of my distant rellies worked as silk merchants in Spitalfields, so maybe their lot was a bit better.

But I know a great deal of the rest were the great unwashed, general labourers.

It was ok, but didn't (couldn't) completely reproduce the awful conditions people lived in then. There would have been vermin, cockcroaches, headlice and God knows what else to cope with; the people were just too well fed and too clean!! The diseases that are now eradicated would have been rampant tooth decay a nightmare drunkenness, constant pregnancies, filthy privie, ragged children without shoes in all weathers, and on it goes! I think Ripper Street gave a better view of life though it was 50 years late, so 6 out of 10 for me!

Do you think there would have been much tooth decay?

I believe there was a lot of lead poisoning because the children would chew on lead paintwork because it had a bit of sweetness to it which they enjoyed.

Most men had a hernia then as well.

Do you think there would have been much tooth decay?

I believe there was a lot of lead poisoning because the children would chew on lead paintwork because it had a bit of sweetness to it which they enjoyed.

Most men had a hernia then as well.

I should think people's teeth were pretty grim and I extremely painful!! Imagine how noisy it would have been, the feral dogs and cats roaming around, crying babies, . I think 'Oliver' gives a better view of life in this era.

There was not a lot to rot teeth.

Now, babies crying may not have been as bad as you might think. There was a very popular product available called Godfrey's Cordial I think and it was mostly opium. A drop of that was guaranteed to keep 'em quiet.

Cattle were kept in towns too, in pens, to provide milk.

Stan Jasper's book "Child of the Jago" is worth a read to give a good insight into Victorian urban life.

I think life in the slums of the Eastend in the 1860's would have been much grimmer than was portrayed last night. Hygiene would have been virtually non existent, so that and the very fact of such a dreadful diet would have led to no end of health problems including dental, not to mention typhoid, outbreaks of cholera, even smallpox, Infant mortality would have been extremely high, and yes you could, and did drug your babies, but in doing so you could, and often did, kill them! Milk was relatively expensive, and of course, no way to keep it from going off. The same went for all food, plus the problem of weevils in bread, rancid butter, rats and mice contamination etc. All pretty horrible.

Don't forget that the Thames was a sewer at the time as well, streets full of horses not well known for the control of thei bowel functions.

Abbatoirs would often be below ground level, so the animals would break their legs when they were pushed down into them and so were far easier to deal with.

All the muck from the shambles would be on the street.

Of course, the people who were working in the programme last night were exhausted but, with the exception of the doss house keeper, they had strong, straight, modern bones and not the bent rickety legs that many would have had then.

I though it was a good watch to be honest :-D :-D

Very interesting

Think of the flies, particularly in that privy!!!!! Yuk! As you say the people last night were well fed, with straight strong bones, proper health care and no vermin! TB would have been rife, syphilis not to mention fumes from the tanning factories, slaughter houses (the cruelty unbelievable!) and chimney stacks belching out god knows what! Obviously you couldn't re create all that, health and safety might have had a thing or two to say!!

I think it was quite good given that not all the realities above could be re-created. If nothing else, it highlights the 'living on the edge' and how the slightest misfortune could mean work/no work, and consequently, bed/no bed, food/no food, life/death. Hand to mouth, day to day, never-ending.

But, of course, this was not a new situation. I think we must remember the position from which we are observing the situation.

They got on and endured because that was as good as they had ever known it to be and they expected no better. They probably had ways to deal withit that we could not even think of because they had learned them from previous generations and we have the luxury of being able to forget them.

It was OK but the first thing I said to hubby was "that's not a slum they have doors".

The children were all shod, the men had a trade, they had candles!

Lastly the market day, how on earth did they manage to sell their goods in their yard when they would have been surrounded by people equally as poor as them?

Now I admit my in depth knowledge of London is around Stepney, Bethnal Green, Deptford and Southwark but the general conditions would have been the same.

It was, in my view, rather romanticised, maybe it will improve.

Sue

They needed to attract an audience.

and not a bed bug in sight.

;-) :-D.

I believe it gives a hint of the conditions to be found at the time. We are aware it's just skimming the surface because it would be inhuman to put a modern family through the conditions and health issues suffered by our ancestors.

It did show some of the pressures on the families and how close they were to disaster at all times. What you also have to take into consideration is our ancestors were used to these conditions and just got on with life. My grandparents were born in Victorian times, dates ranging from 1873 - 1891. My gran born 1891 lived to 1969 - what a difference by then.

I applaud the people taking part as they go through the stress and the emotions and they are only coping for a short while. It brings home to those watching, especially those who know little of history, about what conditions were like for their ancestors. It may get them more interested in their ancestors and social history as opposed to what the king/queen and those in power were doing.

The programme has it's short comings but you have to look at it as a whole and say have I learnt anything and would others learn from what is in the programme.

I think over all it's a good programme and I for one will be watching the rest of it. I have a husband who has no interest in history and he stayed with the programme so it's doing something right.


:-)