Octavia Hill, Dickens and the Houses of the London Poor

This book deals with the topic of housing during the Victorian Age, with a particular regard to the dwellings of the poor of London. Great attention has been given to Octavia Hill, a pioneer of English housing system who has been included among the most important philanthropists of the nineteenth century. Octavia developed a method to improve the housing service in London during the Victorian Age by giving particular assistance to the London outcasts. After analysing the general historical background of the Victorian England, details on Octavia's life, thoughts and ideas have been elaborated in order to shed light on her important work among the Londoners. Finally, the last part of this book has been focused on the houses of the poor as they appeared in several articles published in Dickens' magazine, "Household Words" and in his famous novel "Little Dorrit". While examining both articles and extracts from the novel, a particular consideration has been devoted to the descriptions of dwellings in order to find any connections between the work Octavia Hill did to enhance the homes of poor and the real conditions of the houses of the poor in London during the nineteenth century.