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Changing home and workplace in Victorian London: the life of Henry Jaques, shirtmaker

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2009

Abstract

The paper uses unusually rich evidence from a manuscript life history written in 1901 from personal diaries to explore the changing relationship between home and workplace in Victorian London. The life history of Henry Jaques demonstrates the way in which decisions about employment and residence were related both to each other and to stages of the family life course. The uncertainty of work, lack of income to support a growing family, rising aspirations, the constant threat of illness, the ease of moving between rented property, close ties between home and workplace, the stresses produced by home working, and the attractions of suburbanization all interacted to shape the residential and employment history of Jaques and his family. The themes exemplified by this detailed life history were also relevant to many other people. Evidence collected from a large-scale project on lifetime residential histories is used to place the experiences of Henry Jaques in a broader context, and to show how they related to the changing social and economic structure of Victorian London.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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Footnotes

*

We are indebted to A.M. Giller for providing a copy of the Henry Jaques manuscript and allowing us to quote from it, to all the family historians and genealogists who provided data for the wider research project, and to The Nuffield Foundation and the ESRC for providing financial support for the research. Barry Rowlingson provided invaluable help with GIS and Nicola Higgitt prepared the maps for publication. Many thanks to David Green who commented on an earlier version of the paper.

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