Lifestyles of the poor and anonymous in 19th century London

[Angela]

See:
https://www.archaeology.org/news/7182-181204-london-industrial-poor

No wonder the WWI men were so short and scrawny. Meanwhile, the Victorians were priding themselves on their achievements at the Crystal Palace. Industrialization wasn't so great for everybody.

"Excavation of an early nineteenth-century cemetery in southwest London has revealed evidence that the population endured disease, deformities, malnutrition, violence, dangerous working conditions, and pollution, according to a report in The Guardian. Osteoarchaeologist Kirsten Egging Dinwiddy of Wessex Archaeology said the people who were buried in the cemetery at the church of St. George the Martyr led “a life of drudgery and just-about surviving.” The bones of one of the women, she explained, showed that she suffered from congenital syphilis. Her shoulders and upper arms showed signs of strenuous work, her nose was broken, and a wound in her skull made with a thin blade is thought to have been fatal. A flattened nose, a depression in his left brow, and battered knuckles suggest that one man, who also suffered from syphilis, had “several violent altercations,” Dinwiddy said. Many of the graves in the cemetery contained the remains of children under the age of 12, she added. "

 

[bicicleur 2]

only 50 years ago, meat was a luxury, many had only on sundays
now there is overconsumption

 

[Angela]

only 50 years ago, meat was a luxury, many had only on sundays
now there is overconsumption

That was mostly true even for farmers. In my mother's memory of her youth she says they ate a chicken every Sunday, but other than that it was eggs, cheese and cured meats for protein, or the combination of grains and beans, with some fresh pork when the pigs were butchered and maybe lamb at easter. They ate every part of those animals too. The cattle and oxen were too valuable to eat until they were really old.

It was much worse for factory workers or even the rural poor who didn't own or lease land.

 

[bicicleur 2]

That was mostly true even for farmers. In my mother's memory of her youth she says they ate a chicken every Sunday, but other than that it was eggs, cheese and cured meats for protein, or the combination of grains and beans, with some fresh pork when the pigs were butchered and maybe lamb at easter. They ate every part of those animals too. The cattle and oxen were too valuable to eat until they were really old.

It was much worse for factory workers or even the rural poor who didn't own or lease land.

If you want to see what parts of the animals are all prepared for food, visit a supermarket in a black neighbourhood in South-Africa.
I should have taken pics.
It was the food the Boers used to pay their black tribal labourers with.