Dear Fact Feast- your channel is one of quality and excellence! SO glad to be a recent sub! Just want to turn you in to another couple of channels I think you'd like ,they deal more with mysteries,crimes and murder cases that are around your same eras and genre.They are truly wonderful too,perhaps you enjoy contacting them and might do a Collab one day! They are "Brief Case" ,"The Crime Reel" and another most excellent bio channel done by a brilliant young man that is superb (with people if bygone similar eras! ) Called "Forgotten Lives"...please enjoy,and I hope you agree! Much Love!
I really enjoy your videos as they are totally different from others I have seen. Your ability to tell a story along with the accompanying pictures really draws the audience in to the situation of what you are telling. Well done and keep up the good work you are doing. I have subscribed and I look forward to seeing a lot more.
The story of the little girl at 18:22 was adorable. It’s fascinating really how I can see a little girl today doing this exact same thing. Hundreds of years later and you could absolutely find a kid so proud of her work that she stands like a hawk making sure evil little boys don’t mess it all up. Hundreds of years later, this exact same thing played out in Detroit when a Mayor paid to have all the smashed windows in a neighborhood fixed. The care the tenants took increased immediately and immensely.
Yep, when it feels hopeless, getting some dignity given makes you feel the pride you need to make your surroundings better. When you haven't got glazed windows, you know you're at the bottom and it feels like you'll never get out.
These videos are of significant historical importance and your contribution to the documentation of this era is incredible. Everyone should see these videos as it reminds us of the hardships endured by our ancestors and adds to the appreciation for standard amenities and luxuries of our current daily lives today.
It's Octavia Hill's work, but I'm just presenting and narrating in a way I hope viewers find interesting and engaging. I'm glad you think these stories are worth telling here. Thank you for your comment.
Still many that live below the living standards today, maybe they have plumbing and heating but plenty are one pay cheque away from bankrupt and homeless
Yes, there were philanthropists, though not many landladies like Octavia Hill. Luckily there were some willing landowners as well to allow her to do her good work.
So glad you drew attention to these unscrupulous landlords who further exacerbated the squalid and miserable conditions the poor and vulnerable were subjected to Great video
It’s very nice to see that others were working towards bettering their communities and society as a whole. I can just imagine how much more agreeable the downtrodden people’s lives became after such reforms were put in place. I truly hope that it improved their lives for the better.
Octavia Hill improved peoples' lives and suggested that she still returned a profit for investors. Her worked continued and she was strongly involved in social housing. Thank you for your comment!
Thank you, I think so too. There were good people, but only a few had the means and will to change things for the better. Octavia Hill was one of them.
The only thing keeping landlords from doing this still, are a few modern laws. They’d be happy to push us around for that money if there were no consequences.
Sad that we cold be headed this way again. Just looking at apartments this morning. Over $1200.00 a month for a studio in an ok building in an ok neighborhood.
What an amazing persson to put herself out there! All it takes is a leap of faith? And look what can be accomplished? An amazing story! I hope she was forever recognized? Thank you for sharing this.
I found this very interesting, because I come from a family that that Octavia Hill helped. She was a witness at my gt gt parents marriage, and they lived for a short while at least in one of her houses. I do not know why they left, but they were also frequently in prison or the workhouse. (My gt grandfather was born in prison) I have several newspaper reports of them, one for being drunk and disorderly, and upsetting a market table of haddock, and another about about my gt gt grandfather coming home and finding his wife lying drunk on the floor. He thought no more of it, because it happened frequently, but then a neighbour told him, that she was dead. (He was married at least three times )
This is a really interesting link that you have with Octavia Hill and thank you for sharing. Do you know where the houses were in which your ancestors lived?
@@FactFeast First a small correction, it was Emma Cons that signed the marriage certificate, but she was a close associate of Octavia Hill. Both my gt. gt grandparents were living at 18, Walmer Place, St Marylebone according to the marriage certificate.17th November 1873.
Thank you for your reply. Looking at a map, there appear to still be some Victorian era buildings around Walmer Place, though many of the houses have been replaced by the modern school. There is a blue plaque dedicated to Emma Cons on the façade of 136 Seymour Place at the junction of Walmer Street.
I have been to Brick Lane several times, it's interesting how narrow and long the lane is, especially when compared to the adjacent Commercial Street, that runs parallel to Brick Lane and is a lot wider.
@@FactFeast thank you for taking the time to reply! keep doing historical videos and ill keep watching. your one of the few people on youtube i watch not just for content but for your narration and voice.
Thank you again for such illuminating insight into past times, fantastic emphasis on the real people's lives. Quite a stark contrast to now but somehow mirrors the struggles of many today.
Why did school not teach me about Octavia Hill. A wonderful, kind visionary who's standards should still be relevant in this day and age but sadly are not. This lady did so much and her work should still be carried on today. For many today life has gone down the pan, we need someone like her to bring it back. Thank you for making me aware of this awesome lady.
Wow, Octavia certainly achieved a lot in helping the tenants! I found the photos of the interiors of the courts fascinating. I'd never seen those before.
One thing to note is that Octavia Hill was only able to do what she did because she had two wealthy men supporting her cause. Without them, she wouldn't've been able to start her business in the first place. She used the chance well.
It's just like today in America. If you work minimum wage you can only afford a dump in the bad part of town with like 10 other people living in one room.
Where I live there is a severe housing shortage and my landlord is doing her best to provide housing for people with dogs and at an affordable rate, she could easily be renting this 6 bedroom house out for $6,000 a month instead she's renting it for $3,500, I'm paying $1,000 for the lower floor with two bedrooms so many people in my community are renting one bedroom in their home without privacy for over a thousand.. she is also an Ethics lawyer who deals with mental health problems and has been super supportive to me for the last few years as I deal with issues,, fortunately those issues just involve my mental health not failing to pay rent
It's good to know there are landlords that care about their tenants today, just like Octavia Hill. I hope you are well and thank you very much for your comment.
When tenants were behind with their rent they would do 'a moonlight flit'. As they had little or no furniture it was just a matter of walking the family from one place to another. There are many cases like the Camberwell Starvation case of March 1895. The most tragic one, for me, is the unemployed London docker who after his wife had been placed in Banstead Lunatic Asylum sought to bring his two girls up and on his first day in work for some time died of malnutrition in the employers warehouse. In Charles Booth's map of London poverty it can be seen that total squalor is within a couple of streets of great wealth. This is mainly because 'daily' servants had to live near their employment.
This video was excellent! Very well researched, and so tastefully done. I learned things I never realized about the slums in Victorian England. Your attention to detail is impeccable! I also like your narration voice!
It's great that you enjoyed the presentation, though I must credit and thank Octavia Hill for her work. Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment.
@@FactFeast Absolutely, I say all credit to Octavia Hill and the work she did, to help people have a decent place to live, to stand up for tenants rights, that's a true hero to me!
Terrible conditions, though these tenants were lucky to eventually find a caring landlady - but these were just a handful of homes among thousands. Thank you for your comment.
Octavia Hill was, apparently, very strong minded - I think she needed to be to have the energy to force through change in buildings, people and legislators.
History has shown lots of improvement in how poverty level and any tenements are treated and housed . Now days there are still those who don’t care about the property they rent and that needs to be changed and laws enforced as well as stricter punishments instead of just slapping them on the wrist with a fine. Instead of fining the owners give them jail time up to 10 years in prison and they lose all property that has to be divided up between those renting from the slum lords and then on top of that all money returned to those tenants that they paid in rent so they can fix and maintain what the slum lords wouldn’t. This is what should happen to slum lords and that all laws be strictly enforced. When I lived in another state I got paid to help maintain the property we rented from . On several occasions I had to check off a list of things that the state required to have been done in order for the owner to be allowed to rent out the place after I turned in the paperwork to the property owner the owner then had to hand it to the state inspector on inspection of the property if it passed he could rent it if not he had to make it right and fix whatever the state required to be fixed. In the state I moved to they don’t do that and I really wish they would because it’s definitely needed.
@@FactFeast Oh yes. Given that he died in 1870 (with 31 more years of Victoria's regime left) it was still an astonishing amount of time when the sheer amount of hell that these people had to go through. The Edwardian era was not much better. The thing that pisses me off so much that is that there are so many people who believe we should go back to this type of 'work ethic' and giving control over the disadvantaged. They're slowly getting their way, too.
Most of the money you earned went to rent, and most of the rental homes were squalid hellholes? Hmmm... 🤔 Sounds a bit like my apartment life here in Southern California. 2k a month for a one bedroom in which a pipe burst under the floor of my living room and basically flooded it, ruining a good portion of my furniture and giving off a most delightful rotting mold smell. But that's ok - My landlord got right on it and it only took... well... nearly 2 WEEKS to fix it. But it was a truly joyful 2 weeks, bumping into my TV stand in the kitchen (had to move everything out of the living room and attempt to shove it all somewhere into the already sardine packed bedroom or kitchen). But you know what? Watching this video really made me appreciate what I have! 😂😂😂 I'm serious!
I haven't been a sub very long ,but I am always so happy when I find such a wonderful channel to add to my personal list of highly excellent ones! You deserve a million subs and I'm telling everyone I know to check it out! Yours is such a wonderful channel! The amount of research and info,the way you present and write the script for the topics ..and most important to me - the personality and great narration and style! I adore your voice! Part pirate,part VIctorian Cockney with a major sense of authenticity! Are you a time traveler from then? Because you are superb !As you narrate it sets the mood and sends my mind into believing I'm actually there and feeling like I am suddenly Oliver Twist or walking there like I'm in a Dickens novel myself!Bravo!!!!!! I'm loving this channel very much!!!!
I’m glad you found my channel and it’s great that you enjoy the content here - we aim to give atmosphere to history and give life to voices from the past! Thank you for your comment and a big thanks for sharing my videos with friends and family, as that really is a huge help for the channel, which I appreciate very much. Lots more to come.
A tale that has been passed down is of spring heeled Jack , from the slums of Liverpool, he would jump from roof top to roof top, at night. Now I am wondering if he too was after coal ?
It’s nice to hear about the improvement in the lives of her tenants. These sort of things aren’t always recorded by history. Thank you for your comment.
Let's not forget the savagery that was part of daily life in European cities from both the ruling and working classes. Back-alleyway murders, thuggish gambling dens, prostitution and deception, theft and beatings, the selling and mistreatment of children, a death sentence for those hungry people that were caught 'stealing' bread, the neglect and chastisement of the vulnerable and mentally ill. There's no such thing as the *good ol' days*. It's good to see videos like this that highlight the misery of our lives, both past and present.
Thank you for describing these sources and the reality of Britain's social history. I really look forward to Sunday. I wonder where Blank Court was? Although not precisely located, I imagine it would have been in the region of either Berners Mews or Bourlet Close where working class buildings of the era survive amidst the expensive houses of the Victorian and Edwardian upper and higher middle classes. It will, I hope, be located on contemporary maps. Thank you for the inspiration.
It's not easy to pinpoint exactly where Octavia Hill's 'court' was. Apparently she started managing houses firstly at Paradise Place and then a terrace named Freshwater Place. A quick look at Wikipedia identifies Freshwater Place - these were between modern Homer Street and Homer Row (Octavia House now stands here which connects with her name), but this location is near Edgeware Road and distant from Cavendish Square, which she identifies as being near the houses she managed. So, if she was talking about Paradise Place in her account, then the locations you suggest would seem to be good candidates, though perhaps also the Mews between Oxford Street and Manchester Square, just west of Cavendish Square. Thank you for your comment - I'm glad you enjoyed watching.
My Grand mother was born to the slums of Dublin in the 1890s. There are photographs of her in the 1950s smiling happily with my mother who was very young at the time. She was a very short woman in stature, her growth stunted by her bow legs which i can only surmise was because of a lack of Vitamin D. What her early life would have been like living in the slums of Dublin can only be guessed upon. Surely, i thought, she as a young girl saw the light of day somewhere within the city.surely her existence was not that of being imprisoned within the dark dank walls of a narrow lane, or basement? surely she could walk in the healthy light of day and be free of what ever perpetual darkness that prevailed in her lodgings? Then is am informed by your series of documentaries of what it really was like to be poor within the British Isles in such times,and now i understand, that between the perpetual darkness of the slums, and the laws of the time that prevented the poor from resting too long in one place in fear of being seen as a vagrant.. I understand now her condition. Happily, she did not die in those slums, but lived to move to a new council house in the suburbs in the 1940s. Keep up the wonderful work you do, bringing to light the hardships of our ancestors so that we all might know a little of where we are comming from, and pray never to return!!
Thank you for sharing your story. Conditions were, unfortunately, similar in many of Britain and Ireland's towns and cities. I'm glad you find my channel content interesting and your comment is much appreciated.
Luckily for her tenants Octavia Hill was different to others landladies - and she still made it work financially. She showed what hard work and dedication could achieve for social improvement.
Sounds like NYCHA in New York 😴. Nothing changed. Rats roaches mice, infestations, violence, prostitution. Landlords not giving af, tenants, struggling. What changed?
I am going on year number 2 without heat. There is no obligation on the landlord's part to fix it provided by law in New Mexico, USA, as of 2023!! And there is no provision for tenent recourse. Things haven't changed all that much.
The same thing is going on today good landlords are jumping through hoops and slum landlords are turning out family's and renting out four bed home's room by room at £300 a week in Manchester in 2023 and all over the UK this must stop now
Does anyone else get a sense of humor listening to this narrator? These people suffered but the language they used back then paints a noble uphill battle lol
Regulated rent control ... price controls ... social services ...this would cure some of the pain here in the US if were available ...it isn't at least not enough; especially price & rent controls ... housing is a disgrace in many countries right now in 2022
I just have to admire Octavia for punishing that man because he didn’t send his kids to school even though he paid his rent. Instead she decided to rip their home out from under them instead what a saint lmao or at least everyone in the comment section thinks and didn’t hear or chose to ignore that part 😆
How are you doing sir thank you for your cultural documentary channel although victorian age was dark age misery especially for poor people low class but deserves reading and do research we appreciate your efforts as foreigners subscribers as overseas students want to increase our cultural level improve our English language as well we hope to have new topics as history of England or famous British figures any away as always iam gathering main information about topics you mentioned briefly here it’s actually most squalid areas of London most desirable are st rookery as one of most worst slums in Victorian London was in west end close to convent garden , devil acre, frying pan alley , Jacob island bermondsey , Bethnal green , Notting hill potter and piggies. During victorian reign there are numerous slums lurked behind the capital busy through fares hovels were sand whiched in between mile end road and commercial road stephey wretched rookeries lay behind during lane filthy tenants lined west side of borough high street. Slums are often defined by unsafe or unhealthy homes , lack of windows , dirt floor, leaks walls , overcrowded homes limited or no access to basic services as toilets , electricity, transportation.
Slums (rookeries) were never far away from the main streets, like the one mentioned in this video. There was also Seven Dials - near Covent Garden. I have a video about that rookery and St. Giles on my channel. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Last and most important part of my research at that time facing major slums tenants still pay higher rent about 16 percent on average slum tenants do pay rent premium of about 18 percent on average if they have one . Lords of slums and victorian authorities we’re happy to hand over problems of social housing to private landlords providing safe house for criminals , operating brothels , running illegal gambling racket , criminals earning them nickname ( thieves kitchen) . Henry Mayhew was journalist who wrote series of articles about London poverty during early years of Queen Victoria published in ground breaking book - London labor . Charles booth survey which looked at every street in London in queen victoria reign till her death in 1901 , in year 1905 unemployed workmen act save financial support for business. Charles booth and Henry May hew both are constantly pressed for improvement to Britain slums. In 1906 after liberal party put to power general elections more welfare’s reform were introduced pensions in 1908 seeds of welfare had been sown. Most of Victorians were ignorants or pretend to be ignorants of subhuman and slum life, outcome of laziness sins vice lower class life featured at slums vict squalor , drunkenness immortality, crime , lawlessness. Thank you for giving chance to read learn new information ihope you like my research rest of subscribers ilove to learn share which iknow with others . Stay safe blessed good luck to you your dearest ones
Charles Booth and Henry Mayhew did a lot of work documenting the state of housing and the lives of everyday people in Victorian London. Thank you very much for your interesting comment.
I read a very interesting book on Project Gutenberg, written by a housing inspector, detailing the NYC tenement housing around the very early 1900’s, and the various neighborhoods and describing the people living within. The author said that rent was often 3/4th or more of a monthly income, with it being higher for black people, especially.
Yes. I'm sure some tenants took a lot more effort and persuasion than others. She mentions the disreputable woman with the boy who just disappeared. She also mentions that there were still problems ('evil' as she calls it) remaining, despite vast improvement.
