Industrialization and Its Impact on Britain's Population in the 19th Century

The dwellings of the labouring manufacturers are in narrow streets and lanes, blocked up from light and air… crowded together because every inch of land is of such value, that room for light and air cannot be afforded them. Here in Manchester a great proportion of the poor lodge in cellars, damp and dark, where every kind of filth is sufferd to accumulate, because no exertions of domestic care can ever make such homes decent.

We know that, during the growth of this atrocious system, this new misery, to use the phrases of Mr. Southey, this new enormity, this birth of a portentous age, this pest which no man can approve whose heart is not seared or whose understanding has not been darkened, there has been a great diminution of mortality, and that this diminution has been greater in the manufacturing towns than anywhere else.

We had places given to us…to be present at what promised to be one of the most striking events in the scientific annals of our country. We started on Wednesday last, to the number of about eight hundred people, in carriages…. The most intense curiosity and excitement prevailed, and though the weather was uncertain, enormous masses of densely packed people lined the road, shouting and waving hats and handkerchiefs as we flew by them.

Everything in the outward appearance of this city attests to the individual powers of man; nothing to the direction power of society. Nowhere do you see happy ease taking his leisurely walk in the streets of the city or going to seek simple enjoyment in the surrounding country.

Disease caused or aggravated by atmospheric impurities produced by decomposing animal and vegetable substances, by damp and filth, and close and overcrowded dwellings, prevail among the laboring classes.

The condition of the factoy laborers has been vastly improved within the last quarter of a century. The Hours of Labor in Factories Act, passed in 1844, worked a thorough reform.

View from Blackfriars bridge over the River Irwell, depicting a city impacted by pollution and overcrowding from the Industrial Revolution.