Victorian Slum House

Victorian Slum House, or Victorian Slum, is a historical reality television programme made by Wall to Wall and Channel 4 for the BBC in 2016, narrated by Michael Mosley. It was shown on BBC in the United Kingdom and on PBS in America for the first time in May 2017. The narrative programme focuses on families and individuals trying to survive in a recreated slum of the East End of London from the 1860s to 1900s. It has a similar concept to, as well as the same producer of, The 1900 House. The series was aired by SBS in Australia in July 2017 under the title Michael Mosley: Queen Victoria's Slum[1] to avoid possible confusion with the state of Victoria.

Queen Victoria photographed by J. J. E. Mayall, 1860

Episodes

Episode 1 - The 1860s (Premiered 2 May 2017)[2]

The participants, many of whom are interested in learning how their ancestors lived, move into an 1860s tenement containing sparse rooms, a single outdoor water pump and outhouses. The lower floor contains a simulated dosshouse for those who may find they cannot make their rent. They attempt to earn money by doing piece work, selling foods or flowers, woodturning, running a grocery store, or tailoring.

Episode 2 - The 1870s (Premiered 9 May 2017)

Irish immigrants arrive, seeking work and depressing the English economy, which is felt by all. Various participants are more successful than others at earning money, and the less skilled must work harder with long hours to try to settle their debts.

Part of Charles Booth's poverty map showing Commercial Road in Whitechapel 1889. The red areas are "well-to-do", and black areas are the "lowest class...occasional labourers, street sellers, loafers, criminals and semi-criminals". The latter regions were targeted for demolition.

Episode 3 - The 1880s (Premiered 16 May 2017)

The economy is still bad, but desperate conditions in their own countries continue to force immigrants to London. The participants are horrified to be subjected to gawking inside of their homes by "upper class" visitors paying to being taken through as slum tourists.

Episode 4 - The 1890s (Premiered 23 May 2017)

Reform programs being initiated for the poor and their children both help and hinder various residents. The introduction of wide-scale manufacturing also offers hope for a change in fortune. A water shortage impacts the business of one of the residents and makes life harder for the rest.

Episode 5 - The 1900s (Premiered 30 May 2017)

The slum house is marked for demolition and the residents consider their follow up options as they prepare to move. The residents reflect on their experiences throughout their time at the slum house and have a feast together, courtesy of King Edward VII.

Production

The structure used to house the participants was the Alice Billings House, near Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It was built in 1877 as part of the West Ham fire station as a residence for firemen and their families. The building was so run down that it had to have safety improvements added prior to the film crew dressing it for the series. Three tons of mud were brought into the courtyard to help simulate conditions of the era.[3]

Some modern requirements had to remain in place. Flushing toilets were available (although there were outhouses in the courtyard as there would have been in that setting), and a nutritional baseline was adhered to for the children, although the food provided was typical of the time as much as possible. The participants also did not experience the diseases such as cholera that afflicted people in the slums.[4]

The participants were kept "in character" during their entire stay. The crew did not eat in front of them, and knocked before entering their living quarters. When Mandy Holworth, the tailor's wife, found a hole in her shoe, she approached the crew and they asked her "What would a poor Victorian do?" instead of giving her a replacement set. Her family had two buckets of water - one for rinsing dishes and the other for rinsing their faces and armpits. She said that after the production, the dirt was so embedded under her toenails that it took two weeks to come clean.[4]

Cognate series

Victorian Slum House is one in a line of "time capsule" reality television series. Others in the genre from the same production company include (in order of their airing in various locations):

UK
  • The 1900 House – A modern family attempts to live like a family in 1900 (the first series to air)
  • The 1940s House – A family chooses to experience life as people did during the Second World War in London, England.
  • The Edwardian Country House – A modern family lives like a wealthy Edwardian manor house family, while a group of disparate strangers portrays the manor house servants and staff (the third series to air). This series was known as The Manor House in the United States.
  • The Regency House Party – Ten modern men and women attend a manor house party set during the British Regency of the 1810s (the fourth series to air)
  • Coal House – A modern family attempts to live like a family in a 1920s Welsh mining community (with two seasons, this was the fifth and sixth series to air). Coal House at war was the second season of this series, set in 1944.

Australia

New Zealand
  • Pioneer House – essentially a New Zealand production of The 1900 House.
  • Colonial House – a recreation of the experiences of typical British immigrants to Canterbury, c. 1850; complete with a sea voyage from Auckland to Lyttelton, tramping over the Bridle Path to Christchurch with their children and belongings, setting up house in a canvas tent, and eventually, building their own house.
  • One Land – Also a recreation of New Zealand in the 1850s. It featured three families, one Pakeha and two Māori, and aimed to replicate the experiences of British migrants and the indigenous Māori of the period. The Māori families were housed in a traditional pa, and one of those families was specifically chosen for their knowledge of Māori language and customs. This family was asked to speak only Māori throughout the series.

Germany
  • Schwarzwaldhaus 1902 (Black Forest House 1902) – a family "living" without electricity in a traditional Black Forest house, on rural Kaltwasserhof in Münstertal (August 2001 – January 2002)
  • Windstärke 8 – Das Auswandererschiff 1855 – about an emigration ship for the United States
  • Die Bräuteschule 1958 – teenage girls attending a domestic science school in the 1950s
  • Abenteuer 1900 – Leben im Gutshaus (The 1900 Adventure) – about a noble family and their servants in a manor in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
  • Abenteuer 1927 – Sommerfrische (The 1927 Adventure) – life in the manor from Abenteuer 1900, this time in the Roaring Twenties
  • Steinzeit – Das Experiment (The Stone Age Experiment) – life under conditions of the Stone Age.
  • Die harte Schule der 50er Jahre (Difficult 1950s School) – teachers and students experiencing a boarding school under 1950s conditions.
  • Abenteuer Mittelalter – Leben im 15. Jahrhundert (The Medieval Adventure) – people living in a 15th-century castle.

USA
  • Frontier House – three families live as 1883 homesteaders in Montana
  • Manor House – British family of five and staff of 14 live in a 1900 English manor house (re-presentation of The Edwardian Country House, exactly the same but with bonus footage)
  • Colonial House – set in the American frontier of 1628 (shown in the UK as Pioneer House)
  • Texas Ranch House – set in the American frontier of 1867

Switzerland
  • Leben wie zu Gotthelfs Zeiten (2004 TV series) – about a Swiss family living without modern technology in a traditional Swiss farmhouse as in the era of the Swiss author Jeremias Gotthelf (1797–1854), similar setting as in the German TV series Schwarzwaldhaus 1902, mentioned above
gollark: Some things are not very commonsensical. Especially complex longer term trends.
gollark: Apart from that quote people keep repeating about repeating history.
gollark: This is why we also have history erasure memetics. Sure, they may not actually work well (like the gender erasure ones), but there's no particular downside.
gollark: Names are also passed down from the olden times. People have these books explaining the "meaning" of every name they might pick for a child.
gollark: Historically it was. Languages were mostly made then.

See also

References
  1. Michael Mosley: Queen Victoria's Slum. SBS One, July 2017
  2. "Victorian Slum House". PBS. 2 May 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  3. "The Victorian Slum reveals the filthy reality of 19th-century life beyond the palace walls". Radio Times. 10 October 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  4. Blake, Meredith (15 May 2017). "Little food, no showers, but at least no one had cholera: what it was like to star in 'Victorian Slum House'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
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