{"id":578,"date":"2018-09-29T21:08:04","date_gmt":"2018-09-29T21:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=578"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:37:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:37:26","slug":"cumbrian-lodging-houses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/29\/cumbrian-lodging-houses\/","title":{"rendered":"Cumbrian lodging houses \u2013 dens of disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you imagine Cumbrian lodging houses in the 1800s were in any way better than those in the big industrial cities elsewhere in England, you&#8217;d be wrong. Conditions for those forced to live in the were vile \u2013 and ripe for the spread of disease.<\/p>\n<h2>Disease and contagion in Carlisle in 1849<\/h2>\n<p>The 1849 inquiry into sanitation in Carlisle proved a source of so much information, I split it into several posts.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/02\/temperance-and-drains-in-carlisle\/\">first<\/a>\u00a0covered the somewhat tangential discussion about the \u2018link\u2019 between temperance and drains.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/31\/victorian-burials-health-risk\/\">second<\/a>\u00a0looked at over-crowding \u2013 in churchyards<\/p>\n<p>In the third, I\u2019ll look at Victorian theories on the spread of disease \u2013 and at the state of Cumbrian lodging houses in the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p>To recap: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gracesguide.co.uk\/Robert_Rawlinson\">Robert Rawlinson<\/a>\u00a0had been appointed by the General Board of Health to conduct the inquiry. Which was lengthy and attended by local doctors and some of Carlisle\u2019s prominent citizens.<\/p>\n<h2>The &#8216;theory&#8217; of contagion \u00a0<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>One of the key speakers in the inquiry was Carlisle physician <strong>Dr Thomas Barnes<\/strong>, who had 30 years\u2019 experience of (what we now know to be contagious) diseases in the city.<\/p>\n<p>He believed the want of drainage promoted fever and cholera. He also believed in contagion: giving an example of a man with some symptoms of cholera going to stay with friends in <strong>Scaleby<\/strong>. Cholera broke out in the house next door and several deaths ensued.<\/p>\n<p>He then got into a discussion with the inspector about contagion as a theory. The discussion makes it clear there was a divide between \u2018experts\u2019 who believed disease was spread by contagion, and others who were \u2018non-contagionists\u2019.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Dr Barnes thought the differences were \u2018little more than verbal\u2019. For disease to spread, he said, there had to be a) someone with it in the first place, and b) a \u2018perculiar state of the atmosphere\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The inspector felt that breathing the same atmosphere was like drinking from the same cup. But attention to cleanliness and ventilation might protect someone from disease even where it was prevalent.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Barnes said some beds had been put in the river at <strong>Carlisle<\/strong> and taken out at <strong>Cargo<\/strong>, before a lot of people there died of cholera.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Malaria\u2019 and \u2018miasma\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>It would seem the inspector subscribed to the <a href=\"http:\/\/broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk\/broughttolife\/techniques\/miasmatheory\">miasma theory<\/a><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 that diseases were spread by poisonous particles in the air. \u2018Malaria\u2019 is roughly \u2018bad air\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>As the Science Museum article says, the theory had its merits \u2013 the actions taken to tackle \u2018miasma\u2019 did reduce bacteria.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr Lonsdale<\/strong> was also interested in a new Bill that would put a stop to cellar dwellings (unless well-ventilated and with ceilings of a certain height). He referred to houses on <strong>the Bitts<\/strong>, where cellars were damp.<\/p>\n<p>He also gave the example of <strong>Duke Street<\/strong> where, in 1847, one section of houses had suffered a great deal of fever, due to effluvium and lack of ventilation. While another section had escaped, due to the clean and ventilating precautions taken by the landlord.<\/p>\n<p>The inspector suggested sewerage should flow into receiving tanks, to be used as (profitable) manure. But, it would have to be able to pass into the natural water course in time of flooding, to protect property.<\/p>\n<p>This led to concern about pollution in the river; it was pointed out sewerage went into the Eden now.<\/p>\n<h2>Cumbrian lodging houses \u2013 dens of filth<\/h2>\n<p>Dr Lonsdale spoke about \u2018the worst&#8217; Cumbrian lodging houses, in <strong>Drovers\u2019 Lane<\/strong> and <strong>East Tower Street<\/strong>: \u2018dens of filth\u2019 as bad even as any of the bigger towns of England and Scotland. He had inspected the worst lanes and lodging houses of Carlisle. Nos 21 and 29 in <strong>Jollie\u2019s Buildings<\/strong>, and others in Drovers\u2019 Lane and <strong>Caldcoats<\/strong> (sic) were in a more abominable condition than could be credited if you hadn\u2019t visited them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mr Rawlinson described some of the conditions he had seen. These included three grown men having to share one bed, with four or five beds in a single room. The atmosphere was foetid for want of ventilation.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d explained previously that windows were kept shut to keep out the foul smells from middens etc outside.<\/p>\n<p>People often slept naked to preserve themselves from vermin, and men, women and children lay together promiscuously.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Liverpool had regulated lodging houses \u2013 and vagrants had fled to unregulated towns where they were cheaper.<\/p>\n<p><strong>W Richardson<\/strong> said there were lodging houses of the worse possible description in the villages of <strong>Upperby<\/strong> and <a href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/14\/kingstown-carlisle-crime\/\">Kingstown<\/a>, resorted to by thieves and other bad characters.<\/p>\n<p>After debating topics such as houses being too close together, and filthy habits being handed down through the generations, the session closed.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Inspector Rawlinson said his next port of call would be Penrith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you imagine Cumbrian lodging houses in the 1800s were in any way better than those in the big industrial cities elsewhere in England, you&#8217;d be wrong. Conditions for those forced to live in the were vile \u2013 and ripe for the spread of disease. Disease and contagion in Carlisle in 1849 The 1849 inquiry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,99],"tags":[142,140,139,141],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cumbria-history","category-social-history","category-victorian-life","tag-cholera","tag-contagion","tag-disease","tag-miasma"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cumbrian lodging houses \u2013 dens of disease - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cumbrian lodging houses in the 1800s were &#039;dens of filth&#039; and disease, with conditions also deemed by authorities to be promiscuous.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/29\/cumbrian-lodging-houses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cumbrian lodging houses \u2013 dens of disease - 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