The Victorian Age

The Victorian Age

Victoria became queen of England when she was 18, and she married her German cousin (prince Albert). In this period United Kingdom became the country powerful in all the word thanks the great statesmen of the time who Victoria entrusted the responsibility of public affairs.

The development of UK there was also tanks the industrial revolution and there was new inventions such as telegraph, telephone, which modified the communication, washing machine which revolutionised the domestic chores.

Moreover in this period queen Victoria and her husband opened the GREAT EXEBITION in Hyde Park  where the Crystal Palace, made of glass and iron, and it contained the exhibitions of modern industry and science such as machinery, jewellery and products of all kinds from all over the world, and a lot of visitors were impressed by the technical and scientific achievements of the country and they were very proud of their culture and civilisation. The Victorian age were also the period of Gothic  architecture in fact the church and other monuments such as ST PANCRAS STATION; WESTMINSTRER PALACE were built in the neo- gothic art . the Royal Botanic Gardens and Liverpool Street Station were built in iron and glass and they are the examples of public buildings made of these materials.

An other material when used in the buildings, the brick used for universities, town halls, and the Victorian universities were known as" red brick universities". The BIG BEN, VICTORIAN STATION, ALBERT AND VICTORIAN MUSEUM are other examples of Victorian Architecture.

The Victorian age is know like The gold age, for the progress and pace of this period and because she appeared an example fro the English, she was religious, loving mother, good wife.

Also the society appeared wonderful but there were a lot of contradictions because the progress didn't change the conditions of working class and the poor. The society was divided in three classes: the aristocracy, the middle classes(upper and lower) and the working class or the poor. The power of country were in the hands of factory owners and they believed in hard work and self-improved  and were very determinate and little time the worldly pleasure . a lot of people lived in towns and cities and they often worked in official and shops, some of them were known like white collar workers to distinguish them from factory and other manual workers. And in this period a new set of values were established which emphasise the hard work, self-control, religious observance, respectability and as so on. Charles Dickens written a novels Oliver Twist where he described the real conditions the working class in England, and the British Society can be ed with the novels Doctor Jacky and Mr Hide because the protagonist of this novels appeared a calm person , he represents English society from exterior, but in the night he became a monster, and represents real English society.

In the Victorian age social and political reforms took place such as improved in labour legislation, housing, sanitation, education and social security. There was a movement in defence of women's right an d emancipation, thee REORM ACT extended the vote to working classes, then Slavery was abolished in all British empire, FACTORY LAWS were approved and they limited the use of children and women in the factories, the EDUCTION became compulsory for the children until 13 years, in 1833 the first railway reached London and 30 years late the London UNDERGROUND RAILWAY was opened and the news swiftly spread thanks the newspapers and postal service.