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Victoria Road - Victoria Road
Wellington's Filthy Tenements
Although Wellington's population did not greatly expand between 1837 and 1901, staying at around 6000 inhabitants, the physical expansion of the town was quite pronounced. This was particularly evident in the New Street area where scores of cheap workmen's houses were put up to satisfy the demand for labour created by Wellington's commercial and industrial expansion during the first half of the 19th Century. New Street itself was already built up and, as in many early Victorian towns and cities, existing housing was either sub-divided, or newly built in rows or squares of terraces away from the road. These houses mostly stood behind the yards of existing shops and businesses in the main street, or at the end of small shuts or alleyways. In Wellington, Stone's Yard, Summer's Yard, Corbett's Row and Gloucester Row, which all ran off New Street, were typical examples of this trend. A typical family living here in the 1840s might well have expected to live in a single room, with no ventilation, while sharing washing and drinking facilities, and a common privy or ash pit.