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Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth Hardcover – November 25, 2014

by Lee Jackson (Author)

4.2 248 ratings

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In Victorian London, filth was everywhere: horse traffic filled the streets with dung, household rubbish went uncollected, cesspools brimmed with "night soil," graveyards teemed with rotting corpses, the air itself was choked with smoke. In this intimately visceral book, Lee Jackson guides us through the underbelly of the Victorian metropolis, introducing us to the men and women who struggled to stem a rising tide of pollution and dirt, and the forces that opposed them.

Through thematic chapters, Jackson describes how Victorian reformers met with both triumph and disaster. Full of individual stories and overlooked details—from the dustmen who grew rich from recycling, to the peculiar history of the public toilet—this riveting book gives us a fresh insight into the minutiae of daily life and the wider challenges posed by the unprecedented growth of the Victorian capital.

Print length

293 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

November 25, 2014
Dimensions

9.63 x 6.44 x 1.22 inches
ISBN-10

9780300192056
ISBN-13

978-0300192056
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Eric Hobsbawm
69
Paperback
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Judith Flanders
184
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Mikiso Hane
48
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a tightly argued, meticulously researched history of sanitation that reads like a novel."—Paula Byrne, The Times

"Lee Jackson stops to have a good poke around – and consider in fascinating, sometimes gruesome detail, the filth and nuisances of the time . . . Utterly engrossing."—Jo Baker, The New York Times Book Review

"Rich in wonderful contemporary details gleaned from newspapers and archives, Jackson’s study is a vivid account of the enormous challenges faced by a city expanding at an unprecedented rate."—P. D. Smith, The Guardian

"Mr Jackson has written a book that is neat and sparkling, unlike his subject matter."—Emily Cockayne, Wall Street Journal Europe

“Impressive . . . [Lee] Jackson has written a book that is neat and sparkling, unlike his subject matter.”—Emily Cockayne, The Wall Street Journal

“An atypical look at London’s social history. Jackson manages to make a disgusting topic much funnier than one would expect.”—Library Journal

“Jackson demonstrates the unimaginable filth that permeated London during the 19th century . . . A well-researched, if unpalatable, picture of a filthy city and the different factions fighting for and against reform using class distinctions, gender inequality and horrendous poor laws.”—Kirkus Reviews

"While the subject of Dirty Old London is often, unavoidably, off-putting, it is also endlessly intriguing.”—Shelf Awareness

“Disgusting and wonderful.”—Kelly Faircloth, Jezebel

"Dirty Old London is a treat – truly Victorian, in that it is shocking, entertaining, educational and grisly by turns."—Catharine Arnold, author of Necropolis: London and its Dead

"I can't think of a better companion with whom to explore London's underbelly - expert, engaging and approachable."—Sarah Wise, author of The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum

"So much meticulous research packaged into such a vividly readable narrative. I loved it."—Liza Picard, author of Victorian London

"The squalor of Victorian London was proverbial. Lee Jackson’s revelatory clean-up goes behind the headlines to allow us to see not just what, but why, London was so dirty."—Judith Flanders, author of The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London

About the Author

Lee Jackson is a well-known Victorianist and creator of a preeminent website on Victorian London (www.victorianlondon.org).

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0300192053
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; First Edition (November 25, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 293 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780300192056
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300192056
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.58 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.63 x 6.44 x 1.22 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,782,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,075 in England History
- #14,898 in Historical Study (Books)
- #48,023 in World History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 248 ratings

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Lee Jackson

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Lee Jackson is a Victorian enthusiast, creator of the popular online resource on the social history of Victorian London, www.victorianlondon.org. His book 'Dirty Old London' (Yale University Press, 2014) was described by The Times as 'a tightly argued, meticulously researched history of sanitation that reads like a novel' and by the Lancet as 'a triumph of popular scholarship'. His latest book 'Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens's London' (Yale University Press, 2023) delves into Dickensian tourism, charting the curious history of an imaginary world.

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4.2 out of 5

248 global ratings

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Monica S

Excellent documentary!

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2018

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A very interesting documentary on how England began to organize its sanitary system and how they used ashes, the River Thames, etc. Very, very good! Statistics, dates, etc. Well researched.

2 people found this helpful

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Thomas M. Sullivan

Outside the Victorian Home

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2015

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I count as one of the greatest pleasures of my several decades of History reading Judith Flanders’ splendid “Inside the Victorian Home.” Her innovative room-by-room, expertly-guided tour of the prototypical London house was, and remains, the very model of a popular history. And “Dirty Old London” serves as an extremely worthwhile, if unintentional, complement, explaining in great detail the efforts of public officials and interested private actors to clean up what had become by the turn of the nineteenth century a very, very “dirty” London. At least in my judgment, Jackson does not have the writing facility or narrative resourcefulness of a Flanders, but he nonetheless manages to convey these efforts in satisfying detail and demonstrate beyond peradventure that municipal government undertakings to ameliorate public health conditions were no more effective or efficient then than now. Oh, and if you enjoy this look at the "outside," believe me you will love Flanders' take on the "inside."

4 people found this helpful

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Paul

Tiny type and narrow margins make the paperback a horror ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2015

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Tiny type and narrow margins make the paperback a horror to read for all but the most myopic among us. That said, the text is erudite and amusing, and makes one profoundly grateful not to have shared the city with Sherlock Holmes.

One person found this helpful

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Gerald E. Peterson

19th Century London struggles to clean itself up

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2015

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I'm in the process of reading this book, so this review isn't as comprehensive as it might be. However, so far, I've found it to be very comprehensive -- much more than a quick voyeuristic look at the deplorable sanitary conditions under which are ancestors were forced to live. Dirty Old London details the not inconsiderable resistance by many segments of society to improvements in sanitation throughout the 19th Century. Much of this resistance was the result of the inevitable bureaucratic reluctance to invest scarce cash in projects which would cause wide disruption and have uncertain outcomes, but also from indifference by the general population to the accumulation of filth that had been part of the urban London scene for centuries.

Dirty Old London isn't light reading. The wealth of detail makes it rather slow and plodding at times, but for the serious scholar of urban development history, it has much to offer.

3 people found this helpful

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Lucy's Mom

The Truth about Sewers, Clean Drinking Water, and Recycling in the Nineteenth Century and the Men Who Changed Our Lives

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2015

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Jackson's synthesis of legislation, newspaper reports, and anecdotes regarding sanitary issues is impressive. The book is written by a scholar who has dug through archival materials and assembled an interesting narrative of the various kinds of dirt that impacted the lives of people who lived in London in the last couple centuries. I'm a college English professor who has read a great deal about Victorian sanitation largely to provide a historical context when I teach Dickens and other nineteenth-century writers, but Jackson had unearthed (the pun entirely intended) information that surprised both me and my students. While there may be too much detail for the casual reader, anyone who really wants to understand the material conditions that impacted our ancestors should read this. It should also inspire anyone today who is interested in recycling. It should also demonstrate how much we owe to those who preceded us and inspire us to do better for OUR children.

4 people found this helpful

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Frank Peter Schelp

History of Public Health

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2024

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Hygiene during the Industrial Revolution and history of public health

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Carol A. Marks

A jolly good read! if

Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2015

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A jolly good read! if, you are interested in how the Victorians coped with the smells and pollution in their environment. An uncomfortable read which goes a long way to clarify why folk died so young back then. With no idea of germs and only the most rudimentary sanitation solutions life for most Londoners was a short brutish affair.

4 people found this helpful

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Susan M

Not my cup of tea

Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2015

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I didn't care for the tone of this book. It is written in a more political than an everyman sort of vein. There is more focus on the politics of the time and how the different factions fought over who had the responsibility for the filth. I found it difficult to stay interested in the politics and power struggles among the beaurocrats. I would much rather have read about how individuals were affected and how they managed to live in and through the mess. That is what I was expecting.
I didn't even finish this one. Wish I hadn't paid $20.00 for it. I rarely pay that much for a Kindle book, but thought this one would be worth it. It was not.

3 people found this helpful

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Churchill

Great!

Reviewed in Canada on February 6, 2020

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Excellent book, my husband loved it.

Petra Ganns

Sollte Pflichtlektüre für alle Komunalpolitiker werden

Reviewed in Germany on June 16, 2015

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Hervorragend und verständlich geschriebenes Sachbuch, das nicht nur die Zustände im viktorianischen London beschreibt, sondern auch die politischen Grundlagen sehr anschaulich vermittelt. Das Buch beschreibt, auch ohne explizit darauf einzugehen, Zustände, die auch heute noch große, wachsende Metropolen vor fast unlösbare Probleme stellt.

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Richmonde

Cleanliness is next to godliness

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2015

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Wonderful and funny book about London's struggle to deal with its own waste, supply clean water and give people somewhere to wash. Did you know cesspits were outlawed in the 1850s? Reformers as always lock horns with local bigwigs who love power and committee meetings, and builders who say "we've always done it this way" and decline to run sewer pipes from new houses to the new sewer that now runs down the street. The century ends with magnificent civic swimming baths, temples to cleanliness. One that supplied actual baths operated here in Stoke Newington in living memory. We're still living with Victorian sewers and cemeteries. The same author is now researching gin palaces...

4 people found this helpful

Rowan Parker

Unimaginable Today.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 6, 2016

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Full of interesting and well-researched information (if anything over-detailed, historically), and insight into the extremes of squalor, dirt and total lack of hygiene in which the bulk of London's population lived particularly in the early-to-mid 19th century, which are quite unimaginable today.

It also tells us the real meaning of "poor" - having to live in pestilential dwellings without adequate food, clothing, or even drinking water - a very far cry from what (by the political left and other do-gooders) today regard as "below the poverty line".

My only criticism is of the author's constant, irritating use of "incredibly" for "very", and "toilets" for "lavatories".

fiona bromiley

Very informative book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2023

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I am a lover of social history and this book covers a lot of aspects of the subject.

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