Slum housing and cholera epidemics

the facts

A dead victim of cholera

the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th century led to a huge population growth in factory towns and cities. Wages were poor, and cheap back-to-back housing was built to accommodate the thousands of men and women who worked in the factories and mills. Communal wells provided water to streets, but there were few facilities for removing sewage. Waste products were thrown onto the streets and courtyards, often polluting the wells and waterways. Factories polluted the air and rivers with their by-products.

the poor, cramped living conditions meant that infectious diseases spread easily. Smallpox, tuberculosis (TB) and typhoid fever were joined in the 19th century by cholera, a germ-based disease spread by infected water. the disease attacked the intestines of victims, who after severe diarrhoea and vomiting, often died within hours.

Doctors at the time had no idea what caused the disease; many blamed miasma, or 'bad air'. By the mid-1830s, over 21,000 people had died in Britain of the cholera epidemic. the government finally acted in 1842, when Edwin Chadwick published his report into Britain's public health. In 1848, after cholera had struck again, the Public Health Act was launched, with recommendations that water supplies and sewage facilities be improved in the country's towns and cities. At this stage, the cause of Cholera was still not understood. the link between the spread of cholera and water was not made until 1854 by Dr John Snow. A second Public Health Act in 1875 compelled local authorites to provide sewage disposal facilities and clean water to all. By 1900 the death rate had fallen dramatically and most towns had effective, hygienic sewers and water sytems.

Memory time...

• the Industrial Revolution brought many improvements in communications (telegraph) and transport (trains) but heightened the misery of thousands of people living in towns and cities in poor housing with no proper sanitation
• the Cholera epidemic was caused by infected water supplies. Doctors did not realise this at the time, and instead blamed factors like poverty and miasma ('bad air')
• the link between Cholera and polluted water was not made until 1854. This forced the government to provide better living conditions for the poor in Britain's towns and cities.