The big facts page

149 Victorian facts, all checked

Every fact on this site in one place, each linked to its source. Our build checks each one against the source text; see the sources page. Things that can change carry the date we checked them, and where sources disagree you’ll find both.

Queen Victoria

1 Victoria was queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901, and empress of India from 1876 to 1901. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
2 The Victorian Age is named after her. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
3 She was born on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
4 She died on 22 January 1901 at Osborne, near Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
5 Her father died when she was a baby, and she was brought up by her mother at Kensington Palace. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
6 She found out during a history lesson, aged 10, that she would one day be queen. Her governess later said that Victoria replied: “I will be good.” Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
7 She became queen at the age of 18. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
8 She learned in the early hours of 20 June 1837 that King William IV had died and that she was queen. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
9 Her coronation was on 28 June 1838. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
10 A woman could not inherit the throne of Hanover, so when she became queen the crowns of Great Britain and Hanover were separated. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
11 Victoria proposed to her cousin Albert on 15 October 1839, just five days after he arrived at Windsor. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
12 They married on 10 February 1840. The queen was dressed entirely in things made in Britain. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
13 Victoria and Albert had nine children. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
14 Their eldest son, Albert Edward (1841–1910), became King Edward VII. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
15 Through their children’s marriages, many of Europe’s royal families were descended from Victoria. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
16 When she died, 37 of her great-grandchildren were alive. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
17 She kept a journal all through her life. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
18 For Victoria and Albert, the high point of the reign came in 1851, with the opening of the Great Exhibition. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, relations with Peel
19 Two royal homes were built in this period: Osborne, on the Isle of Wight, and Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, relations with Peel
20 Victoria called Osborne “our island home”, but she was happiest at Balmoral. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, relations with Peel
21 Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, relations with Peel
22 After Albert died, Victoria remained in mourning and in partial retirement from public life. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, widowhood
23 Without the railway and the telegraph, her long stays at Osborne and Balmoral would have been impossible. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, widowhood
24 “Empress of India” was added to her title in 1876. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, widowhood
25 She supported Disraeli’s reform of the franchise (who could vote) in 1867. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, widowhood
26 Her Jubilees of 1887 and 1897 showed that she had become popular. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, last years
27 During her reign the British monarchy took on its modern ceremonial character. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
28 Her reign was the longest in British history until that of Elizabeth II. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, last years
29 She was buried beside Prince Albert in the mausoleum at Frogmore, near Windsor. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, last years
30 Britannica says Victoria had no interest in social issues, yet the 19th century in Britain was an age of reform. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom
31 She was against votes for women: she thought the idea of female suffrage “anathema”. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, last years

The Great Exhibition and the V&A

32 Over six million visitors came to the Great Exhibition in London’s Hyde Park during its five and a half months in 1851. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
33 It was the first “world’s fair”. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
34 More than 100,000 objects were shown by nearly 14,000 exhibitors from 34 nations and more than 30 territories of the British Empire. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
35 The Crystal Palace was the largest man-made covered space on earth. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
36 The idea grew from the Royal Society of Arts, whose president was Prince Albert. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
37 The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 was set up on 3 January 1850. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
38 There were 245 proposals for the building. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
39 On 11 June 1850 Joseph Paxton sketched his idea for the building, inspired by the Lily House he had built at Chatsworth in Derbyshire. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
40 The design was changed so that ten huge elm trees could be saved. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
41 Chance Brothers of Birmingham supplied 293,655 panes of glass. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
42 On average 2,000 workers and 200 horses were on the building site each day. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
43 The building was finished at the end of January 1851, only seven months after work began. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
44 On 19 October 1850 the Illustrated London News reported a speech in which Paxton called it “The Crystal Palace”. The nickname stuck. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
45 Owen Jones painted the ironwork yellow, white, blue and red. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
46 The doors opened at 9 am on 1 May 1851 to 25,000 season-ticket holders. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
47 Instead of cash prizes there were medals. The top award, the Council Medal, went to around 170 of the 14,000 exhibitors. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
48 Experts especially admired the art and crafts from India, above all the textiles. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
49 The exhibition closed on 11 October 1851. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
50 After the exhibition, experts chose 244 objects, which were bought for the Government School of Design. They became part of the V&A’s founding collections when it opened in 1857. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
51 The Crystal Palace was rebuilt at Sydenham, and Victoria and Albert opened it there on 10 June 1854. It was destroyed by fire in 1936. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
52 Profits from the Great Exhibition paid for what became the South Kensington museums and colleges, including the museum that became the V&A. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Victoria, relations with Peel
53 Britannica says one million “pop” bottles were consumed at the Great Exhibition. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Great Exhibition of 1851
54 The museum was founded in 1852 and moved to its home on Exhibition Road in 1857. V&A: Building the Museum
55 For over 40 years it was called the South Kensington Museum. Then it was renamed after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. V&A: Building the Museum
56 In May 1899, at what turned out to be her last public ceremony, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for Aston Webb’s new museum building. V&A: Building the Museum
57 The museum’s refreshment rooms were the first of their kind in the world. V&A: Building the Museum
58 Gas lighting let the museum stay open into the evening in winter. V&A: Building the Museum
59 The V&A says the six million visitors were about one-third of the British population, and included Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens. V&A: Building the Museum

Steam, railways and Brunel

60 Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a British engineer, born in Portsmouth on 9 April 1806. He died on 15 September 1859. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
61 He was resident engineer on the Thames Tunnel, under his father, when work began in 1825. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
62 In 1833 he was made chief engineer of the Great Western Railway. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
63 His broad-gauge railway had rails 2 metres (7 feet) apart. It led to the famous “battle of the gauges”. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
64 His first notable railway works were the Box Tunnel and the Maidenhead Railway Bridge. His last were the Chepstow and Saltash (Royal Albert) bridges. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
65 One of Brunel’s designs was used for the Clifton Suspension Bridge over the Avon Gorge in Bristol (1830–63). Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
66 His three ships, the Great Western (1837), Great Britain (1843) and Great Eastern (1858), were each the largest in the world when launched. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
67 The Great Western, a wooden paddle steamer, was the first steamship to run a regular service across the Atlantic. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
68 The Great Britain had an iron hull and was the first large ship driven by a screw propeller. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
69 No ship was bigger than the Great Eastern for 40 years. It laid the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
70 In 1712 Thomas Newcomen unveiled a steam engine for pumping water out of deep mines. British Library: The Industrial Revolution
71 By 1800 perhaps 2,000 steam engines were at work in Britain. British Library: The Industrial Revolution
72 By 1815 over 2,000 miles of canals were in use in Britain. British Library: The Industrial Revolution
73 Many people left the countryside to find work in towns and cities. British Library: The Industrial Revolution
74 A working day of 12 hours was not uncommon in factories. British Library: The Industrial Revolution
75 Many children were sent from workhouses or orphanages to work long hours in factories. British Library: The Industrial Revolution

Work, poverty and the workhouse

76 A new Poor Law was brought in in 1834. It was meant to cut the cost of looking after the poor and make the system the same all over the country. The National Archives: Examine an anti-Poor Law poster
77 Parishes were grouped into unions, and each union had to build a workhouse if it did not already have one. The National Archives: Examine an anti-Poor Law poster
78 Apart from special cases, poor people could now only get help if they left their homes and went into a workhouse. The National Archives: Examine an anti-Poor Law poster
79 Conditions inside the workhouse were made harsh on purpose. The National Archives: Examine an anti-Poor Law poster
80 Families were split up, and inmates had to wear a uniform. The National Archives: Examine an anti-Poor Law poster
81 Inmates did unpleasant work such as picking oakum or breaking stones. The National Archives: Examine an anti-Poor Law poster
82 Children who entered the workhouse would receive some schooling. The National Archives: Examine an anti-Poor Law poster
83 The campaigner Richard Oastler called workhouses “Prisons for the Poor”. The National Archives: Examine an anti-Poor Law poster
84 The new Poor Law was very unpopular, and there were riots in northern towns. The National Archives: Examine an anti-Poor Law poster
85 Workhouses were not abolished until 1930. British Library: Charles Booth’s poverty map of London
86 In 1886 the businessman Charles Booth set out to find the truth about poverty in London. British Library: Charles Booth’s poverty map of London
87 Booth lived with working-class families for several weeks at a time. British Library: Charles Booth’s poverty map of London
88 Booth thought reformers had exaggerated London’s poverty, said to be about a quarter. He found that as many as one third of Londoners lived in poverty. British Library: Charles Booth’s poverty map of London
89 His study, Life and Labour of the People in London, filled 17 volumes and used a colour code to map poverty street by street. British Library: Charles Booth’s poverty map of London
90 Booth’s map shows poor and rich Londoners living side by side. British Library: Charles Booth’s poverty map of London
91 His work helped bring in the old age pension. The first pensions were paid on 1 January 1909. British Library: Charles Booth’s poverty map of London
92 An apprenticeship usually lasted seven years. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain

Schools and childhood

93 Ragged schools were charities that aimed to give free education to poor children. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
94 Ragged schools grew out of the Sunday School started in Gloucester in 1780 by Robert Raikes. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
95 John Pounds, a cobbler in Portsmouth, had a class of 30 or 40 children by 1818. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
96 In 1844, 19 ragged schools joined to form the Ragged School Union, headed by Lord Shaftesbury. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
97 By 1861 ragged schools were teaching over 40,000 children in London. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
98 By 1870 there were 250 ragged schools in London and over 100 in the rest of the country. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
99 Some schools used the Lancaster system, where the brightest pupil taught what they had learned to other pupils. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
100 In 1846 this was replaced by properly trained pupil-teachers. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
101 By 1870 the Jews’ Free School in east London had 2,400 pupils, and was perhaps the largest school in the world. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
102 The Factory Act of 1833 said employers must provide half-time education for workers under 13, but this was easily ignored. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
103 The big breakthrough came in 1870: elected school boards could raise a local rate to build new schools, giving education up to the age of 10. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
104 In 1880 elementary schooling was made compulsory for boys and girls, and the age was raised to 13. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
105 By 1874 there were 5,000 “Board Schools”. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
106 Queen’s College, in Harley Street, London, was founded in 1848. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
107 Cheltenham Ladies’ College was founded in 1853. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
108 By 1898, 90 grammar schools for girls had been founded. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
109 In 1878 London University became the first in Britain to accept women students. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain
110 A “Golden Age” of children’s books began in the 1860s, with Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies (1863) and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). British Library: Perceptions of childhood

Crime and punishment

111 The National Archives says recorded crimes rose from about 5,000 a year in 1800 to 20,000 a year in the 1830s. The National Archives: Victorian children in trouble with the law
112 The National Archives says that between 1842 and 1877, 90 new prisons were built in Britain. The National Archives: Victorian children in trouble with the law
113 Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, published in 1837, features Fagin’s gang of young pickpockets, led by the Artful Dodger. The National Archives: Victorian children in trouble with the law
114 The Juvenile Offences Act of 1847 said young people under 14 (soon raised to 16) should be tried in a special court, not an adult court. The National Archives: Victorian children in trouble with the law
115 The first reformatory schools were set up in 1854. The National Archives: Victorian children in trouble with the law
116 From 1899 children were no longer sent to adult prisons. The National Archives: Victorian children in trouble with the law
117 In 1902 an experimental school for young offenders was set up at Borstal in Kent. The National Archives: Victorian children in trouble with the law
118 Before the big prison-building programme, prisons were mostly small and old, and common punishments included transportation: sending people to America, Australia or Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). The National Archives: Victorian prisons
119 Walking a treadwheel or picking oakum (separating strands of rope) were the most common kinds of hard labour. The National Archives: Victorian prisons
120 In the 1840s “the Separate System” was tried: prisoners were kept on their own in their cells most of the time. The National Archives: Victorian prisons
121 Prisoners doing hard labour were not allowed to talk. The punishment book at Coldbath Fields prison records 11,624 offences against this rule in one year. The National Archives: Victorian prisons
122 Many Victorian prisons are still in use today. The National Archives: Victorian prisons

Votes and the Chartists

123 The Great Reform Act of 1832 gave the vote to property-owning middle-class men, but many working men still could not vote. The National Archives: What was Chartism?
124 Chartism was a working-class movement that began in London in 1836 and was most active between 1838 and 1848. The National Archives: What was Chartism?
125 The People’s Charter had six aims: a vote for all men over 21, a secret ballot, no property qualification to become an MP, pay for MPs, electoral districts of equal size, and elections for Parliament every year. The National Archives: What was Chartism?
126 The Chartists took petitions to Parliament in 1839, 1842 and 1848. Each one was rejected. The National Archives: What was Chartism?
127 In the 1842 “Plug Plots”, workers took the plugs out of boilers to stop factory machines. The National Archives: What was Chartism?
128 In 1848 the Chartists held a peaceful mass rally on Kennington Common in London. The National Archives: What was Chartism?
129 The Chartists claimed their 1848 petition had six million signatures. The National Archives: What was Chartism?
130 It was said to contain 1,975,496 names, and many forgeries, including “Queen Victoria” and “Mr Punch”. The National Archives: What was Chartism?
131 The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies was founded in 1897. British Library: Education in Victorian Britain

Florence Nightingale

132 Florence Nightingale (born 12 May 1820, died 13 August 1910) was a British nurse, statistician and social reformer. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Florence Nightingale
133 During the Crimean War she led a party of 38 women, who arrived at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari on 5 November 1854. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Florence Nightingale
134 Her night rounds of the wards made her famous as “the Lady with the Lamp”. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Florence Nightingale
135 She returned to her home in Derbyshire on 7 August 1856. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Florence Nightingale
136 The Crimean War ended with the Treaty of Paris on 30 March 1856. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Florence Nightingale
137 A Royal Commission based its findings on her statistics and analysis. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Florence Nightingale
138 The Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas’ Hospital in London opened in 1860. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Florence Nightingale
139 In 1907 she became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Florence Nightingale

School curriculum (dated)

140 At Key Stage 1, the national curriculum suggests comparing significant people such as Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. GOV.UK (DfE): National curriculum in England, history programmes of study · checked 30 Oct 2026
141 Florence Nightingale is also among the Key Stage 1 examples of significant individuals. GOV.UK (DfE): National curriculum in England, history programmes of study · checked 30 Oct 2026
142 At Key Stage 2, one suggested study is the changing power of monarchs, using case studies such as John, Anne and Victoria. GOV.UK (DfE): National curriculum in England, history programmes of study · checked 30 Oct 2026
143 Other Key Stage 2 examples include a significant turning point in British history, such as the first railways, and changes in an aspect of social history, such as crime and punishment. GOV.UK (DfE): National curriculum in England, history programmes of study · checked 30 Oct 2026
144 At Key Stage 3, pupils study “ideas, political power, industry and empire: Britain, 1745-1901”. GOV.UK (DfE): National curriculum in England, history programmes of study · checked 30 Oct 2026
145 The examples given include Britain as the first industrial nation, party politics, extension of the franchise and social reform, and Darwin’s “On The Origin of Species”. GOV.UK (DfE): National curriculum in England, history programmes of study · checked 30 Oct 2026

Where sources differ

146 The National Archives’ prisons page says crime went up from about 5,000 a year in 1800 to about 20,000 a year by 1840. The National Archives: Victorian prisons
147 The National Archives’ prisons page says that between 1842 and 1877, 90 prisons were built or added to. The National Archives: Victorian prisons
148 The V&A’s Great Exhibition article says there were over six million visitors. V&A: The Great Exhibition of 1851
149 The V&A’s museum history says six million people were estimated to have visited. V&A: Building the Museum