10 Gruesome Jobs from the Victorian Era That Will Change Your Mind
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Open the pages of any Dickens novel, and you're transported to a time filled with overflowing sewers, thick coal smoke, and murky opium dens. Many of these stories feature characters succumbing to cholera or dysentery, and there's a reason behind that grim reality.
By 1841, London's population had surged, leading to a rise in cesspits. The streets were awash with the stench of horse manure, deceased animals, and human waste. On the south bank of the Thames, the tanning of hides was done with foul-smelling urine and feces. The olfactory assault of Victorian London was overwhelming.
Though the water closet (toilet) became a fashionable addition by 1857, allowing people to stop tossing their chamber pot contents into the streets, sanitation issues persisted. These toilets simply emptied into the Thames, culminating in what became infamously known as the Great Stink of 1858.
A solution was necessary, but with no trash collectors or landfills, the Victorians had to innovate. Below are some of the most revolting jobs that might just make you thankful for your current tasks.
Toshers
If you took an early morning walk along the River Thames in Victorian London, you might spot figures bent over at the water's edge. Known as toshers or sewer-hunters, these individuals affixed lanterns to their chests to navigate the morning fog and donned long coats to shield themselves from the elements. Equipped with poles, they poked through filth and debris, searching for hidden treasures.
Their bounty was not gold but small pieces of copper found along the shore, which was quite valuable. Other items included jewelry, cutlery, coal, iron, and coins. Country toshers had it easier, while city toshers braved the underground sewers, battling fierce rats and noxious waters. The toxic stench sometimes concealed deadly pockets of methane gas, posing a serious risk.
So, the next time your boss inundates you with paperwork, remember that your current plight could be far worse.
Mudlarks
At the bottom of the waste-collecting hierarchy were mudlarks. Typically impoverished children dressed in ragged clothes, they scavenged through debris, hoping to find items overlooked by toshers—coal lumps, scrap wood, old ropes, or anything others deemed too filthy to touch.
This job was perilous; a cut from broken glass could lead to septicemia, risking amputation or even death.
Bone Grubber
In today's world, discovering a deceased animal or human in a river would prompt a call to the authorities. However, for the Victorians, dead bodies in the water were valuable resources. Bones were sold to bone-boilers for use in everyday items like toothbrush handles and cheap combs. Those that couldn't be used were turned into fertilizers or soaps, effectively recycling the dead to benefit the living.
Night-Soil Men
In the realm of waste management, humans often prefer to shift the burden elsewhere. Such was the case with human excrement spilling into the Thames from toilets. Realizing that the unpleasant odors were detrimental to tourism, officials hired night-soil men to remove waste from beneath homes.
These men worked during the night, from midnight to 5 AM, lowering ladders into holds under buildings to collect human waste, which was then carted away. This waste was sold to farmers for fertilizer, and some learned to extract nitrogen from it to produce gunpowder.
Stone Pickers
Think your job is tough? Imagine spending all day bending over in cold, rainy conditions, filling buckets with stones. To make matters worse, a menacing figure loomed behind with a whip