8 thoughts on “Slumming it as a Victorian

  1. Probably not as I am asthmatic and have LOTS of allergies. I would probably die of a combination of that and typhus, cholera and consumption. Unless I was lucky to marry or get a job outside of the slums. Like Miss Skerrett on Victoria.

  2. I remember seeing the casting call a while back, and was actually in the process of writing my entry when I went back to the page and realized that it was UK only (duh). It made sense, but I was still disappointed. I once lived in rural Guatemala for 6 months with no hot water, no stove, no fridge, washing everything by hand…. *shakes fist* I coulda been a contender!

    1. There’s a place in Maine called Washburn-Norlands Living History Center that sometimes has live-in weekends for the public where you get to live and work like it’s the 1870s or the 1770s. Having done both [one in the Maine winter time! Cut ice out of a pond and stacked it in an ice house! Tapped maple trees! carded and spun wool!], it was certainly eye-opening to me the differences that advances in technology made between the two eras. They were always melded in my mind, but, boy, oil lamps give off way more light than candles and what a luxury to have a water pump inside the house rather than having to go to the river all day long.

        1. The winter one was pretty cold. Did the 1770s one in the fall, though, and that was really fun. We pressed fresh apple cider every day, took a hay ride, and even had a 1770s picnic with cheese, bread and fried chicken in an apple orchard.

  3. I will now be adding this to my BBC Youtube trolling. Last year they did a series called 24 hours in the past and put 6 British Celebrities through similar experiences. It was eye opening and I used what was worn on that show to model my Dickens Faire Lady’s Maid costume after. No stupidly wide hoops for my. My stuff was neat but about 10 years out of style.

  4. I can’t wait to watch this series. I’m not sure I would have made it in the past with allergies, asthma, and eczema.

    I recently stumbled across all of these great series with Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn, and Alex Langlands they are informative and educational. Last night I watched Victorian Bakers. I really wish America could create an equivalent from the American perspective. The closest I’ve seen was Colonial House. BUT the participants refused to play along … so it sucked. :/

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