Living with Lodgers - by Vicky Holmes

About the Book

For the Victorian working class, lodging in someone else's home was commonplace. Drawing on hundreds of coroners' inquests reported in the Victorian press, Living with lodgers traverses England's domestic dwelling lodgings, providing an intimate portrayal of the lives of the inhabitants.

Book Synopsis

For the Victorian working class, lodging in someone else's home was commonplace. Drawing on hundreds of coroners' inquests reported in the Victorian press, Living with lodgers traverses England's domestic dwelling lodgings, providing an intimate portrayal of the lives of the inhabitants.

From the Back Cover

Living with lodgers takes readers behind the closed doors of Victorian England's domestic lodgings. For the Victorian working class, lodging in someone else's home was commonplace. Indeed, at no other time did the lodger occupy such a central place in the home. Yet, despite this, lodgers and the households that accommodated them have remained significantly under-researched. This is the first book-length study to tell their story.

Drawing on almost 900 coroners' inquests reported in the Victorian press, alongside census enumerators' books and other court records, this book delves into the day-to-day business of lodging in someone else's home. It challenges many current perceptions and myths surrounding living with lodgers in Victorian England, revealing a more complicated picture of who lodged and why. It also examines the networks and monetary arrangements that shaped the lodging exchange, and explores the daily interactions between lodgers and householders. By exploring the lines drawn and crossed in the householder-lodger relationship, this book reshapes our understanding of household dynamics in the Victorian working-class home.

Living with lodgers not only brings the domestic dwelling lodger out of the shadows but casts new light upon Victorian England's working-class homes, making it a vital resource for academics and students across a range of disciplines seeking insight into these spaces.

Review Quotes

'By drawing on census reports as well as court records and coroners' inquests, Holmes challenges the myths that have developed around both the lodgers and the householders who rented out the rooms. (...)The work reveals many of the financial circumstances that destabilized working-class families and provides a more complicated understanding of working-class homes.'
- R. J. Bates, Berea College, CHOICE Recommended
'Lodging in private houses played an important role both in accommodating the Victorian working class and in supplementing hosts' household income. Vicky Holmes' account of the issues and relationships it created is original, intimate and lively. It is invaluable for anyone interested in nineteenth-century social history.'
-Gillian Williamson, Author of Lodgers, Landlords, and Landladies in Georgian London
'Vicky Holmes's new book is an illuminating look into the lives of lodgers and householders between 1840 and 1900... This well-written and worthwhile book will be of interest to historians of material culture, gender, domesticity, and the working class.'
-Susie Steinbach, Hamline University

'By drawing on census reports as well as court records and coroners' inquests, Holmes challenges the myths that have developed around both the lodgers and the householders who rented out the rooms. (...)The work reveals many of the financial circumstances that destabilized working-class families and provides a more complicated understanding of working-class homes.'
-- R. J. Bates, Berea College, CHOICE Recommended
'Lodging in private houses played an important role both in accommodating the Victorian working class and in supplementing hosts' household income. Vicky Holmes' account of the issues and relationships it created is original, intimate and lively. It is invaluable for anyone interested in nineteenth-century social history.'
--Gillian Williamson, Author of Lodgers, Landlords, and Landladies in Georgian London
'Vicky Holmes's new book is an illuminating look into the lives of lodgers and householders between 1840 and 1900... This well-written and worthwhile book will be of interest to historians of material culture, gender, domesticity, and the working class.'
--Susie Steinbach, Hamline University

About the Author

Vicky Holmes is an adjunct Assistant Professor in History at Notre Dame London, The University of Notre Dame (USA) in England