Living with Lodgers: Household Economy and Social Relations in Working Class Victorian England

For the Victorian working class, lodging in someone else’s home was commonplace. Drawing on hundreds of coroners’ inquests reported in the Victorian press, Living with lodgers traverses England’s domestic dwelling lodgings, providing an intimate portrayal of the lives of the inhabitants. Living with lodgers takes readers behind the closed doors of Victorian England’s domestic lodgings. For the Victorian working class, lodging in someone else’s home was commonplace. Indeed, at no other time did the lodger occupy such a central place in the home. Yet, despite this, lodgers and the households that accommodated them have remained significantly under-researched. This is the first book-length study to tell their story.Drawing on almost 900 coroners’ inquests reported in the Victorian press, alongside census enumerators’ books and other court records, this book delves into the day-to-day business of lodging in someone else’s home. It challenges many current perceptions and myths surrounding living with lodgers in Victorian England, revealing a more complicated picture of who lodged and why. It also examines the networks and monetary arrangements that shaped the lodging exchange, and explores the daily interactions between lodgers and householders. By exploring the lines drawn and crossed in the householder-lodger relationship, this book reshapes our understanding of household dynamics in the Victorian working-class home.Living with lodgers not only brings the domestic dwelling lodger out of the shadows but casts new light upon Victorian England’s working-class homes, making it a vital resource for academics and students across a range of disciplines seeking insight into these spaces. For the Victorian working class, lodging in someone else’s home was commonplace. Yet, despite their prevalence, lodgers and their householders have received little scholarly attention. Drawing on hundreds of coroners’ inquests reported in the Victorian press, Living with lodgers traverses many domestic dwelling lodgings in England at this time, providing an extraordinary, intimate portrayal of the lives of the inhabitants therein.