INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

1. FACTORY WORK INCREASED.

2. PEOPLE MOVED IN GREAT NUMBERS FROM THE COUNTRY TO WORK IN THE TOWNS.

3. MORE PEOPLE MEANT MORE HOUSES

4. BUILDERS COULD NOT KEEP UP WITH THIS DEMAND.

5. INSTEAD OF BECOMING HOMELESS, POOR PEOPLE SHARED THEIR HOUSES WITH MANY OTHERS

6. THIS LED TO SERIOUS OVERCROWDING

7. YOUR HOME HAD TO BE NEAR TO YOUR PLACE OF WORK

8. MANY HOUSES WERE NEAR TO FOUL-SMELLING CANALS, RIVERS, RAILWAY-LINES,SMOKING FACTORY CHIMNEYS AND EVEN SEWERS.

9. YOU HAD AN UNHEALTHY LIFE

10. YOU HAD AN EARLY DEATH!

INVENTIONS AND INNOVATIONS

The first national postal system was introduced in 1840 and was known as the Penny Post because it cost one penny to send a letter anywhere in Great Britain. Communication was completely transformed with the invention of the telegraph and the telephone. The invention of the railway revolutionized travel and transportation- industries and farms were able to transport their goods to all parts of the country. Thanks to the railway

Victorians started going on day trips and taking holidays at the seaside. Sailing ships were gradually replaced by steamships, making ocean travel faster.

Rain, Steam and Speed (1844) by Joseph W. Turner

The train symbolized modernity in Victorian times, the invention of the steam train meant that travel was now much faster. The new sensation of speed was expressed brilliantly by Joseph W. Turner in his painting Rain, Steam and Speed. Considered by some to be the greatest English artist, Turner was an expert at capturing light, which becomes the protagonist of his paintings.

Instead of the details of the train and carriages we see a mass of golden colours. Turner shows the train racing through the rain and cloud of steam, emphasizing the feeling of speed. The artist was fascinated by machines, factories and steamships, the inspiration for his most poetic works. For this reason Turner was an exception in the Victorian Age, many others painted trains, but they were mostly shown standing at stations surrounded by group portraits of Victorian society.

The Inauguration of the Great Exhibition, 1 May 1851 (1852-4)by David Roberts.

During Victorian times, Britain became more prosperous than any other nation. The growth of the iron, steel and textile industries meant there were now great numbers of mass-produced goods to be sold in Britain, Europe and the Colonies. One of the best ways of publicizing new goods was to show them at one of the Universal Expositions, the most famous of which was the Great Exhibition, held in London´s Hyde Park in 1851. It attracted 7,000 exhibitors from Britain, 6,000 from other countries, and over 6 million visitors.

This painting shows the Queen and her husband on a visit to the Exhibition. It is a highly detailed record of the event, which the royals checked several times to make sure it was true to life. The Exhibition was held in the Crystal Palace, a spectacular new building made of sheets of glass in a cast iron framework designed by Joseph Paxton. The architect built the structure around the huge trees of the park to save them from being cut down. Crystal Palace, which was taken and moved to a new site after the Exhibition, was the first great building to be made from glass and a metal frame. The building opened a new era in architecture.