Victorians | English Heritage

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Victorians
Victorian England
The Victorian era spans the 63 years of Queen Victoria’s reign over Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901. It was a time of great power and wealth for Britain as it expanded its empire across the globe. It was also a period of rapid advancement in science, industry and the arts, and saw much political and social reform.
Use the links below to learn more about life and culture in the Victorian era and to explore some of the Victorian sites that English Heritages cares for, including Queen Victoria’s home on the Isle of Wight, Osborne House.
Introduction to Victorian England
Life in Victorian England
Below Stairs at Audley End
What were Victorian servants’ lives like? Discover the stories of the men, women and children who worked at Audley End House, Essex, in the 1880s.
Victorian Daily Life
Although the Victorian era was a period of extreme social inequality, industrialisation brought about rapid changes in everyday life.
Victorian Food and Health
In the Victorian period the growth of the railways made it possible to transport food to markets. But there was still no cure for most diseases and life expectancy remained low.
Victorian Religion
The Victorian era saw the Church of England become increasingly only one part of a vibrant and often competitive religious culture.
Victorian People
The Darwin Family at Down House
Read about Charles and Emma Darwin’s children and their boisterous childhood at Down House in Kent.
Charles Dickens
Find out about the short but significant period of Dickens’s life spent living at 48 Doughty Street, London, where he is commemorated with a blue plaque.
Sarah Forbes Bonetta
Discover the extraordinary life story of the African child who was ‘gifted’ to Queen Victoria and became her protégée. Both Sarah and her daughter visited the queen at Osborne.
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria was crowned when she was just 18, and her reign lasted 63 years. Find out more about her life and reign.
Ellen and William Craft
Ellen and William Craft were African American freedom fighters who escaped from enslavement in the USA and fled to Britain in the mid 19th century.
Edith Cavell
Read the story Edith Cavell, a pioneer of modern nursing and heroine of the First World War. And discover where you can find her London blue plaque.
Princess Beatrice
Princess Beatrice was the youngest of Queen Victoria’s nine children. As Governor of the Isle of Wight, she had strong links with Carisbrooke Castle.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde reached the height of his fame while living at Tite Street, Chelsea, where he is commemorated with a blue plaque.
Stories from the Victorian Period
How Dracula came to Whitby
How Bram Stoker’s visit to the harbour town of Whitby on the Yorkshire coast in 1890 provided him with atmospheric locations for a Gothic novel – and a name for his famous vampire.
The Match Girls’ Strike
Read about one of the most important strikes in modern British history, which took place at the Bryant and May match factory in 1888.
The Dilessi Massacre and a Gothic Revival Masterpiece
How the death of a young English aristocrat taken hostage in Greece inspired the building of St Mary’s Church, Studley Royal.
Child Labour in the Lake District
Stott Park Bobbin Mill is located in an idyllic spot, but life was far from ideal for the ‘bobbin boys’ who worked there in the 19th century.
Victorian Power and Politics
Although England in the late 1830s was still ruled by a propertied upper class, there had long been a degree of social mobility.
Victorian Architecture
The architectural profession is largely a Victorian creation. From the 1820s, architects began to experiment with a profusion of styles.
The 'Osborne Style': from Naples to Melbourne
Discover how Osborne House’s Italianate design – the inspiration of Prince Albert – came to be imitated in public buildings throughout the British Empire.
Birthdays at Osborne
Find out how Queen Victoria and Prince Albert celebrated their birthdays, and what the gifts they exchanged tell us about their private lives.
Listen to a Podcast
Listen to these podcast episodes to learn more about some of our Victorian sites and the collections and people associated with them.
Discover more podcasts here
Speaking with Shadows - The Workhouse at Framlingham Castle
Speaking with Shadows - The Patients of Chiswick House Asylum
Episode 158 - Ask the experts: Everything you want to know about the Victorians
Episode 116 - Family life with the Darwins at Down House
Episode 124 - A Victorian play palace: Inside Osborne’s Swiss Cottage
Episode 132 - Freedom fighters: the story of Ellen and William Craft
Episode 198 - Osborne and Victorian politics, diplomacy and Empire
Episode 215 - Natural history at home: scientific collecting at Audley End in the Victorian era
Places to visit
Visit some of our sites with Victorian history.
Osborne
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s beloved seaside palace on the Isle of Wight.
Brodsworth Hall and Gardens
Catch a glimpse of Victorian life at this 'conserved as found' country estate. Brodsworth Hall was built and the pleasure gardens laid out in the 1860s as an up-to-date new home for the Thellusson family and their servants.
Home of Charles Darwin - Down House
The great scientist’s country-house home and ‘outdoor laboratory’
Audley End House and Gardens
Discover the fascinating life of a Victorian servant in our 1880s Service Wing including historic kitchens, a dairy and laundry rooms to see what life would have been like for the servants that worked here.
St Mary's Church, Studley Royal
This magnificent High Victorian Anglican church was designed in the1870s by the flamboyant architect William Burges, and has been called his 'ecclesiastical masterpiece'.
Witley Court and Gardens
Enjoy a grand family adventure in Witley Court’s vast and varied country house estate.
Stott Park Bobbin Mill
Fully working Industrial Revolution mill in a lovely woodland setting
Apsley House
Dazzling interiors, glittering treasures and fabulous art collections
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