The Nineteenth Century
The nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of London as the capital of an empire that stretched across the globe. The city's population grew from just over one million in 1801 to nearly seven million by 1901. The world's largest enclosed dock system was built in the marshes to the east of the City, and the world's first public transport network was created, with horse-buses, trains, trams and an underground railway. Industrialization , however, brought pollution and overcrowding, especially in the slums of the East End; smallpox, measles, scarlet fever and cholera killed thousands of working-class families. It is this era of slum-life, and huge social divides, that Dickens evoked in his novels. The accession of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) coincided with a period in which the country's international standing reached unprecedented heights, and as a result Victoria became as much a national icon as Elizabeth I had been. The spirit of the era was perhaps best embodied by the Great Exhibition of 1851, a display of manufacturing achievements from all over the world, which took place in the Crystal Palace erected in Hyde Park. Local government arrived in 1855 with the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW), followed in 1888 by the directly-elected London County Council (LCC). The achievements of the MBW and the LCC were immense, in particular those of its chief engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, who helped create an underground sewer system (much of it still in use), and greatly improved transport routes. While half of London struggled to make ends meet, the other half enjoyed the fruits of the richest nation in the world. Luxury establishments such as the Ritz and Harrods belong to this period, personified by the dissolute Prince of Wales, later Edward VII (1901-10). For the masses, too, there were new entertainments to be enjoyed: music halls boomed and public houses prospered. The first "Test" cricket match between England and Australia took place in 1880 at the Kennington Oval, and during the following 25 years, nearly all of London's professional football clubs were founded.
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