Notes on Victoriana
A look inside the greater world of the Victorian Era.
Victorian England is possibly one of the romanticized eras in history. The mention of it evokes images of horse-drawn carriages, gaslit streets, and men and women in their finest strolling along foggy, cobbled laneways. The reality was often far more grim. Sharp class divides, deadly poverty, violent crime, and rampant illnesses were ever present, even in modern cities like London, and affected the vast majority of the struggling population. It was, however, the beginning of the modern world we now live in, as under the reign of Queen Victoria, who ruled the British Empire from 1837 to 1901, the Victorians embraced science, technology and political progress in a way that we now take for granted. In fact, much of the Victorian Era feels eerily recognizable and relatable, if only slightly more quaint than today.
Through a series of articles, Notes on Victoriana is designed to take the reader to the places, things, and events that shaped the Victorian Era, and hopefully make them more familiar within the context of the Adam Cole novels and stories.
From the Nineteenth Century obsession with death, to the romantic myth of the London fog, to the rise of modern policing, and other news and developments of the era, I intend to provide a guide of insight into a long gone but far from forgotten place in modern history. Once or twice a month, new vignettes on this fascinating time and its people will appear here, so please check in regularly!
Notes on Victoriana – 001
In my short story, “Memento Mori,” private investigator Adam Cole becomes involved in the hunt for a murderer whose signature is taking photos of his victims before and after death and sending them to their aggrieved families. While I am not aware of any Victorian English murderers who used this method (Harvey Glatman, the “Lonely Hearts Kil…
Notes on Victoriana - 002
In his book London In The 19th Century, history professor Jerry White states: It’s difficult to precisely set the value of English currency in the Victorian Era against its value today. For one, currency was quantified far more specifically than it is now.
Notes on Victoriana - 003
Before it was an over-priced coffee, the London Fog was a phenomenon that had haunted the great city for centuries. While earliest accounts of thick fog rolling over the Thames Valley date back to the 12th and 13th Centuries, it was the speedy advancement of the Industrial Age throughout the 18
Notes on Victoriana - 004
Dotted around modern London, one will see curious little green sheds from which one can buy a coffee, tea, or a simple breakfast sandwich. These squat structures with their steep-pitched, slated roofs are the remnants of a mid-Victorian perk put in place for the city’s many cab drivers.
Notes on Victoriana - 005
The 19th Century was a time of great advancement during which many modern fundamentals of science and technology were forged. A basic understanding of geology emerged through the work of Sir Charles Lyell, expanding the age of the Earth from thousands into billions of years. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace published works explainin…
Notes on Victoriana - 006
Along with rolling banks of impenetrable fog and the clopping of hooves down cobbled streets, the myopic glow of gaslights is one of the indelible romantic images to come to mind when one thinks of Victorian London. These precursors to modern incandescent streetlights were amongst the great metropolis’s first sentinels in the fight against t…