Victorian London cover art

Victorian London

The Life of a City, 1840-1870

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Victorian London

By: Liza Picard
Narrated by: Anton Lesser
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Like her previous books, this book is the result of the author's passionate interest in the realities of everyday life, and the conditions in which most people lived, so often left out of history books.

This period of mid-Victorian London encompasses a huge range of subjects: Victoria's wedding and the place of the royals in popular esteem; how the very poor lived, the underworld, prostitution, crime, prisons and transportation; the public utilities, Bazalgette on sewers and road design, Chadwick on pollution and sanitation; private charities, Peabody, Burdett Coutts, and workhouses; new terraced housing and transport, trains, omnibuses, and the Underground; furniture and decor; families and the position of women; the prosperous middle classes and their new shops, e.g. Peter Jones, Harrods; entertaining and servants, food and drink; unlimited liability and bankruptcy; the rich, the marriage market, taxes and anti-semitism; the Empire, recruitment and press-gangs.

The period begins with the closing of the Fleet and Marshalsea prisons and ends with the first (steam-operated) Underground trains and the first Gilbert & Sullivan. All the splendours and horrors of Victorian life will be vividly recalled.

©2005 Liza Picard (P)2005 Orion Publishing Group Ltd.
19th Century Europe Great Britain England Transportation Ireland
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

A Brief History of Life in Victorian Britain cover art
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England cover art
London Labour and the London Poor cover art
Restoration London cover art
Dr. Johnson's London cover art
Elizabeth's London cover art
Jack the Ripper's Streets of Terror cover art
The Housekeeper's Tale cover art
London in the Nineteenth Century cover art
Murderesses in Victorian Britain cover art
Great and Horrible News cover art
The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones & Other Victorian Scandals cover art
London in the Eighteenth Century cover art
Londonwalks cover art
Uproar! cover art
Journal of the Plague Year cover art

Critic reviews

"Reading her book is like gazing at one of those energetic, crowded canvanses by the Victorian painter William Powell Frith." ( Evening Standard)

What listeners say about Victorian London

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    168
  • 4 Stars
    62
  • 3 Stars
    23
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    127
  • 4 Stars
    45
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    111
  • 4 Stars
    51
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

Fascinating, enjoyable and entertaining listen.

Another ten pointless words to meet a word count minimum.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Victorian London

Good narration & an exellent insight into Victorian Social history in London - highly recomended

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very engaging

well written and read. well researched. glad we are not living in these times. highly recommended for any social history fans.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

victorian london

this book gives a real insight to the grime of everyday life in victorian london to the extent that you can almost taste it especially the description of dogs turd used in the tanneries at bermodsy, the book drtaws you into the depths of london giving real insight into housing education and sanitation in victorian london

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What about that!

A good book with a good narrator = a good reading experience. This book has provided me with " I didn't know......" moments of discovery, further understand and most importantly I knew that moments. Would I recommend this book? Yes I would.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Puts Dickens in a very real context

This is a wonderful supplement to any reading of Victorian fiction - here is the background. Though the book depends perhaps a little too much on one or two particular sources (hence four stars, not five), this is vivacious, informative, and fascinating. It is beautifully read - Anton Lesser imparts the most complex information is a way which makes it all easy to follow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fabulous as it is fascinating!

Loved every chapter, every word. Anton’s voice is softer than butter and the book is utterly absorbing. Loved it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lots of information but not stuffy

The author has done a really good job in her research and presentation of Victorian London. I've listened through several times now and still hear new details that I've missed before. Lots to listen to and take on-board but it's not a stuffy book, I find it quite easy to listen to.

Narration by Anton Lesser is superb.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Simply wonderful!

Excellent narrator - best I've heard ....

Not too much detail - enough to wet your lips.

First time I looked at Victorians since primary school. Was always put off reading around that era - TV/media overload!!!

But this book has changed my mind!

Thank you!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very informative loved it!

Perfect for audio book.. great informative facts and takes you back to a sometimes awful time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!