Assume You’ve Obtained It Unhealthy? Attempt Dwelling in ‘Victorian Slum Home’

© PBS Photo Credit: Joe Sarah 2016

It turns out it’s even less glamorous to be a 19th-century London chimney sweep, clerk or street kid than Charles Dickens made it appear.

When London’s economic boom in the Victorian era brought prosperity to the upper and middle classes, many others suffered from unimaginable living and working conditions in the slums of the East End. The new five-part stationery series Victorian Slum House (premiering Tuesday) transports participants to a newly created slum to experience firsthand the desperation of the urban poor. The slum dwellers take their places as shopkeepers, tailors, rent collectors, destitute immigrants or low-wage piecework workers who assemble matchboxes and scratch past groceries and rent money every day.

The Victorian Slum House will air Tuesdays starting May 2nd at 8 p.m. (see local listings).

Slum speak

Know your basic colloquial language in East End London:
Doss House: Cheap accommodation for the poor or the homeless.
Two Cent Hangover: For two cents, a lodger could sit on a bench the night and lean on a taut rope.
Fourpenny Coffin: A lodger could sleep in a wooden box on the floor for four cents a night.
Black Monday: Rent pick-up day.
Shoddy: A cheap material made from recycled rags.
Tick: A customer credit system agreed with shopkeepers.
Trample: Walking the streets in search of work.
Slumming: Wealthy Londoners who consider the slums a tourist attraction.
Eel in aspic: Dinner. Mmmm.

What will happen when modern people recreate life in the slums of late 19th century London? #VictorianSlumPBS https://t.co/wunyozdLjU

– Thirteen (@ThirteenWNET) May 2, 2017

Some things I like (in no particular order): sports, Star Wars, LEGO, beer, ‘The Simpsons’ Seasons 1-13, my family, and the few friends who aren’t embarrassed to be seen with me. Why yes, I’m very interested in how much you like Alaskan Bush People. #LynxForLife