Industrial Revolution

Quality Of Life

Industrial Revolution
Life Before The Industrial Revolution
--Types Of Industry
--Lifestyle Of The People
--Quality Of Life
Beginnings In England
--How It All Started
Spread Of Industry
--Where Did It Spread?
--How Was It Funded?
Major Inventions
Impact On Society
--Lifestyles And Working Conditions
--Quality Of Life
Impact On Movement
--Changes To Transport
Impact On Industry
--How Was Industry Changed?
Impact On Environment
Vocabulary
Bibliography

Housing

Living conditions during the Industrial Revolution varied from the splendour of the homes of the owners to the squalor of the lives of the workers. Cliffe Castle, Keighley, is a good example of how the newly rich chose to live. This is a large home modelled loosely on a castle with towers and garden walls. The home is very large and was surrounded by a massive garden, the estate itself stretching for a number of miles. Cliffe Castle is now open to the public as a museum.

Poor people lived in small houses in cramped streets. These homes would share toilet facilities, have open sewers and would be at risk of damp. Conditions did improve during the 19th century as public health acts were introduced covering things such as sewage, hygiene and making some boundaries upon the construction of homes. Not everybody lived in homes like these. The Industrial Revolution created a larger middle class of professionals such as lawyers and doctors. The conditions for the poor improved over the course of the 19th century because of government and local plans which led to cities becoming cleaner places, but life had not been easy for the poor before industrialisation.