The Cry from Victorian CitiesBy 1850 rural Britain had been transformed into the workshop of the world, but in the hearts of cites terrible slums developed. Thousands lived in disease-ridden houses with streets full of rotting filth. The government did little to help the poor.
• People with Christian values sought election to local councils in order to improve conditions. Others established housing charities or built entire new villages for their workers. Poverty was widespread. By 1890 one-third of the population of Britain lived on less than one pound a week.
• A major force for social welfare was the work of William and Catherine Booth and the Salvation Army. Sharing the Christian message they also provided food, clothing, shelter and employment training. Many churches and chapels started soup kitchens and distributed to young mothers what were known as ‘maternity parcels’.
| Christians lobbied hard to control the hours and improve the conditions of women and children who worked down the mines or in the mills for sixteen hours a day. Alcohol was the major drug of the nineteenth century and it wrecked families. Christian groups popularised the Temperance Movement and opened coffee houses and alcohol free centres for workmen and their families. Poor diet, dirty water and filthy sanitation meant that thousands of children died before their first birthday. Long before the National Health Service began, Christians set up medical missions providing free health care and medicine. Our modern Community Nursing owes its origin to church visitors giving care and advice on hygiene and medical matters. | | 
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Many without jobs turned to crime. Police Court Missionaries worked with the police and courts to supervise those convicted of minor offences. This significantly influenced the beginning of our modern Probation Service.
Nearly three-quarters of all charity organisations in the late nineteenth century were run by evangelical Christians. Click Here to find out more
Copyright Day One Publications, used with permission | 
