Vicky Holmes
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The necessity for lodgings
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When Mrs Mary Ann Allen started taking lodgers into her Burnley home, No. 17 Lomas Street, most of the men who arrived at her door in search of lodgings were far from the usual candidates: a middle-aged bachelor, a married man, a recently widowed man, as well as a man whom no one knew anything about. The stereotype of the Victorian lodger is that of the young single male, often having arrived in a place searching for work and lodgings. Yet at least three of the four lodgers living under Allen’s roof challenge such a stereotype. Expanding our understanding of those taking up lodgings in Victorian England, Chapter 2 reveals the various types of persons – male and female – and their motives for seeking lodgings. Alongside the migrant lodgers, Chapter 2 uncovers the prominence of lodging among the non-migrant population, encompassing a wide range of persons for whom a sudden change in circumstance compelled them into lodgings. Using the inquest reports to divulge ‘why’ non-migrants moved into lodgings, this chapter demonstrates that while death was at the crux of many such moves, there was often a far more complex story behind non-migrant and migrants’ motivations for taking up lodgings. Furthermore, while domestic dwelling lodgings were, for most, a temporary living arrangement, the inquest reports reveal some of those among the Victorian working class for whom lodgings were a perpetual way of life.

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Living with lodgers

Everyday life, household economy, and social relations in working-class Victorian England

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