Written by staff member, Vicky
"Victorian Era Halifax"
It evokes a certain elegance, doesn't it? Named after Queen Victoria - the reigning British monarch through the era (1820-1914) - the name carries with it a sense of majesty. It's easy to envision beautiful gowns and stylish top hats, grand balls and refined dining halls, sophisticated tastes tempered by delicate sensibilities. But not all people enjoyed such a lavish lifestyle.
You see, during the Victorian Era the British Empire loved few things more than its highly divided social class system.
At the top were the Upper Class, consisting of one percent of the population. Members of this group included royal relatives and other nobles, wealthy business owners, and land barons. "They did not have to work for generations and could afford to live a luxurious life..." (Rochelle, June 7, 2022). These families were not only rich, but highly educated and very influential. "As they inherited massive wealth from their previous generations, it gave them great access and authority" (Rochelle, June 7, 2022). They set the social standards of the day and expected others to live by them.
Next was the Middle Class - about fifteen percent of the population. These families consisted of moderately successful men of business and their families. They were often somewhat educated, or at least very skilled. The Middle Class did their best to follow in the footsteps of their "betters", and adopted the social rules put in place by the Upper Class as much as they were able.
At the bottom of the class system were the Working/Lower Class, which made up nearly eighty-five percent of the population. These families were typically uneducated and very poor. These citizens didn't prioritize being considered socially acceptable in the eyes of others and focused simply on living another day. Though many attempted to scrape out an honest living as best they could, many others turned to lives of crime in order to survive.
During this time period, a large portion of the Lower Class citizens of Halifax - men, women, and children alike - found themselves living in a neighbourhood referred to as The Upper Streets.
The Upper Streets: Not Upper Class
The Upper Streets encompassed a considerable area of downtown Halifax. East of the Citadel at Fort George it included Barrack Street (now Brunswick Street), Albermarle Street, and Grafton Street, and spread from Sackville Street in the south to City Street (now Maynard Street) in the North. These streets were called the Upper streets because of their location, as the neighbourhood was up the hill from the waterfront. The population consisted primarily of Irish immigrants and their descendants who had originally settled in Cape Breton, or Newfoundland, as well as Afro-Nova Scotians who were descendants of refugees from the War of 1812. These people lived an extremely hard life.
The Upper Streets were extremely overcrowded. Individuals and families living in the Upper Streets could not afford to live on their own. It was not uncommon to see multiple families sharing a single apartment. For example, in March of 1847, the Novascotian newspaper described a four room apartment in which at least five separate families lived, or an estimated 25 people. According to city directories, by the 1850's, Albermarle and Grafton Streets were considered to be two of the most highly populated streets in the city.
The neighbourhood was also extremely dirty. This was caused in part by the overpopulation of the area, but also by the inaction of the city government. The Upper Streets were often ignored by city officials when it came to basic city services like garbage collection and waste services. As early as 1830, citizens were petitioning the government to improve the conditions of Albermarle Street, saying in a letter to the Commissioners of Streets that Albermarle was in a "...filthy and unwholesome condition. That while your petitioners are subject to these hardships and grievances they cannot but observe with indignation that in other parts of the Town large sums of money are expended annually..." (Nova Scotia House of Assembly Petitions and Correspondence, Nova Scotia Archives). Unfortunately, it does not seem that the petition did much to aid their cause.
In 1866, the Morning Chronicle described City Street as: "...in an abominably filthy condition, and that not a scavenger cart is at work in the locality." In the 1880's when Health Inspectors visited homes on Albermarle Street, they discovered a home in which a pipe from the water closet simply emptied out into the street. Forty-two people lived at the address.
The conditions of the Upper Streets caused the neighbourhood to be known for something else, disease. The close proximity of people coupled with the squalid conditions made the perfect breeding ground for illness. As an example, in 1870 Dr. Edward Farrell attended to a house on Albermarle Street that had been infected with typhoid fever. Dr. Farrell concluded that the cause of the disease could be traced to "a cartload of rotting filth" in the backyard, and stated that the city was only likely to deal with it when the disease spread to the homes of the Upper Classes. Thankfully, there was pharmacy of sorts in the neighbourhood. The Visiting dispensary, later known as the Halifax Dispensary, was originally established in 1827. In 1855, the organization went through an extensive overhaul in an attempt to better serve the community. The doctors at the Dispensary were responsible for distributing medicines, offering medical advice, and even conducting small surgeries when required. In 1867, nearly 60 percent of the patients at the dispensary resided on Barrack, Albermarle, and Grafton Streets. By the 1880's, that number was around 50 percent, with another 20 percent living in and around City Street.
Although the physical state of the Upper Streets was deplorable, it was still for many a place of hope. It was, after all, one of the few places where men and women alike, no matter their skill, education level, or race, could find some manner of work. This was thanks, in part, to the British Military.
The Upper Streets and the Men Who Loved Them
British Halifax has always been a military port. Hundreds of men in the army and navy, as well as commercial sailors and the like, came and went through the city on a regular basis. According to author Judith Fingard, military officers "...enhanced the genteel tone of the urban elite..." (pg. 16). British officers typically purchased their commissions in the military, which meant that they almost always came from wealthier families who were at least in the upper echelon of the Middle Class. This meant that the officers in Halifax added a certain respectability to the garrison port. The enlisted men, however, had a very different reputation. The general soldier population in Halifax was considered, according to one Church of England Bishop, "...a curse to this city and were the cause of a great deal of demoralization among our poor" (pg. 16). But why?
For starters, many of the enlisted soldiers and sailors came from the Lower Classes themselves. Joining the army, or heading out to sea, was their attempt to support themselves and/or their families. However, due to their status, the group was immediately considered "less than" by the Middle and Upper classes. Additionally, like all people after a hard day's work, the men went in search of a "good time" - eating, drinking, dancing, fornicating, or some combination of all four. Overindulgence in some of these activities occasionally added another pursuit, fighting. And while some of the officers, or other members of the Middle and Upper Classes, may very well have been seeking out the same "fun", their status and pedigree offered them some degree of protection, or at least discretion. The enlisted men were not offered such a courtesy.
It's also important to note that there were a lot of them! As early as the War of 1812, Halifax became inundated with military personnel,
The effects of the war upon the people of Halifax were very marked. Our harbour had become the temporary home of the ships of war... The little capital, then occupying a restricted space, became crowded... Rents of houses and buildings in the town were doubled and trebled... The moral condition of the town had become dreadful in the extreme. Eight or ten thousand soldiers, sailors, and prisoners of war let loose in a little town of less than 10,000 inhabitants can well be imagined. (Murdoch, Beamish, quoted from Akins, T. B., pg.158).
Although this war ended in 1815, this influx of military personnel continued well into the 20th Century.
Whatever society thought of their behaviour, the military and transient seafarers who visited the Upper Streets offered the one thing valued most by all classes, money. Their off-duty desires provided ways and means for the Lower Classes to make it through another day, even if those ways were not always legal.
The Upper Streets: A Dance of Delinquency and Desperation
Although many people in the Upper Streets did their best to earn a living through legitimate businesses, many others turned to more illicit means, either by choice or out of necessity.
Sex work was a common form of employment for women of the time, and in Halifax's case a very popular one. In her book, Fingard mentions Dinah Pickering, a Black brothel-keeper in the mid 1850's, who, when confronted about having too many women in her employ, replied: "not half girls enough" (pg. 99). Some women, like Margaret Power, chose sex work to earn a living. In 1867, Margaret left her respectable family home to become a high class (or officer class) sex worker.
Many turned to sex work because they could not make ends meet in other professions such as service, tailoring, or because they had been turned out of their jobs without character references. Kitty Morricay is an excellent example of the latter. Kitty had been employed as a servant since the age of fourteen. Seduced by the young son of a baker, she was dismissed and 'could not get another place as she had no certificate of character'. Since her father refused to help her, she was reduced to seeking a job in a 'bad house' where 'she fell into a set of the lowest girls of the town, and was soon out in the streets' (Fingard, pg 100). It was also not uncommon for parents to use their daughters to lure soldiers and sailors into their establishments, offering them as part of their shop's services was thought to make the business more attractive.
Theft was also a common practice in the Upper Streets. Although the number of incidents varied from year to year, annual reports from Rockhead Prison show an average of 47 people per year being sentenced to Rockhead Prison for larceny (years 1862-1900, not inclusive). Theft was not just used as a means of collecting supplies or money, it was sometimes used as a different kind of lifeline. Many people living in the Upper Streets, or "living rough" in one of Halifax's green spaces like The Commons, Point Pleasant Park, or the Public Gardens thought of Rockhead Prison as a better alternative, particularly as the weather turned poor. James Smith is an excellent example of this. In 1867, Smith stole a sheep from the local market with the specific intention of being sent to Rockhead for the winter. Others in similar situations would find themselves in the City's Poor Home.
One of the biggest contributors to crime in Halifax during the Victorian era was alcohol.
Governor Edward Cornwallis and his original crew of British settlers arrived in Halifax in June, 1749. Before the year was out, Cornwallis authorized seventeen licenses for the sale of "intoxicating liquors". At this time, the population of the city was less than 3000 people. Before the winter of 1749/1750 was over, the municipal government was literally cracking the whip on those who were selling alcohol illegally: "Among the municipal regulations this winter, was an ordinance that all persons found breaking the liquor license law, should be put one hour in the public stocks, and for the second offence receive twenty lashes." (Akins, pg. 24)
Drinking became the norm, and people were willing to break the law to provide it and imbibe it: "It [alcohol] was such a normal part of daily routine that anyone who abstained was considered slightly deranged and physically less than robust. Particularly in urban life where the purity of the water was often suspect, rum was a safe beverage" (Dick, pg. 531). While all this drinking may have been good for business, it was bad for people.
Excessive drinking often lead to violence both at home and on the street. Violence in the Upper Streets was so common that Barrack Street was sometimes referred to as "Knock Him Down" Street because of the fights and deaths that occurred there (Akins, 158). Though physical altercations were not prejudice to sex, age, or gender, these attacks were often directed towards women and children. In the late 1800's, Andrew Doyle attacked his sister, sister-in-law, his own mother, and an unknown child. In the 1870's, James Pendergast assaulted his wife Mary with a knife.
Without a doubt, the Upper Streets were a difficult and dangerous place to live. This plight did not go unnoticed, and despite their differences in social class there were people in the community who wanted to help.
The Upper Streets: The Reformation and Revitalization
Before the rebirth of the Upper Streets can be discussed, it must be noted that while the Upper Streets were quite racially integrated, it was during this period of change that integration began to dissolve. Upper and Middle Class notions of white racial superiority were very much a part of the political and public landscape. Thus, those groups most able to generate change through government, religious organizations, etc., also toted those detrimental ideals. As a result, many of the positive changes that came out of the recovery of the Upper Streets did not apply to Black, or Indigenous people, or to any other people of colour.
The reformation and revitalization of the Upper Streets took many forms.
By the mid-1800's, even His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent had taken note of the drunken state of his soldiers in Halifax and he was not pleased. In 1874, after a particularly raucous brawl between a group of soldiers and sailors, Barrack and Albemarle Streets were deemed completely off limits to military personnel. This meant that many of the businesses that had established themselves in the Upper Streets were forced to move in order to keep serving their prime clientele. This redistribution of people helped to ease overpopulation in the area.
The temperance movement also had a profound effect on Halifax society. They believed that alcohol was the root of all of society's ills, and that the elimination of noxious beverages would bring about the end of many of the issues facing the city, especially in the Upper Streets. The Halifax Temperance Society (established in 1831) was the first group to attempt to put an end to Halifax's dependence on booze. "From 1828-1934 the number of temperance societies increased so rapidly there were soon several in each county of the province..." (Appendices to the Second Report of the Royal Commission on the Liquor Traffic in Canada, pg. 770). The temperance movement in Nova Scotia had a two pronged approach, one religious and one political.
The religious component came in the form of a surprising unity and did what many things in the Victorian Era could not, it crossed denominational lines. Officials from both Protestant and Catholic churches, the predominant religious movements of the day, evangelized the benefits of rejecting alcohol. As a result, the religious institutions and the temperance movement were able to reach a wide audience. In addition to religious leaders, women played a prominent role, many believing that an end to alcohol would bring an end to violence in the home. These women worked tirelessly to spread their gospel, and often succeeded in their conversions.
As temperance groups gathered strength, they put pressure on the government to amend legislation, and to enact changes to Nova Scotia's liquor laws. These changes included additional tariffs and taxation to make the selling of liquor less attractive, prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors, limiting the hours in which licensed establishments could sell alcohol, and placing liability for damages on the tavern keeper "...in the case of death by suicide, drowning or other accident caused by drinking to excess in such tavern" (Appendices to the Second Report of the Royal Commission on the Liquor Traffic in Canada, pg. 767). Prohibition bills that called for a full ban on alcohol sales and consumption were often put up for debate. This ultimately lead to the development of the Nova Scotia Temperance Act in 1910, which enforced prohibition throughout Nova Scotia (except in Halifax, which would fall under the Act in 1916. This Act also lead to illegal rum running and the law was later repealed, but that's a story for another day).
Both religious and secular charitable organizations played important roles in assisting the citizens of the Upper Streets. Organizations like the Women's Home, the Young Girl's Home, the Home of the Good Shepherd, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, the Salvation Army Rescue Home, the Sailor's Home, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor were just a few of the active societies attempting to rescue people from the dangers of the Upper Streets. People were frequently re-homed, rehabilitated, and offered education through these societies in order to find honest work and stable living situations.
Private donations also contributed to the relief of the poor, citizens like Isabella Binney Cogswell donated their time and their fortunes to improving the local quality of life. Even the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation played a part in funding some of Halifax's social projects. Many of the people who lived in the Upper Streets did want help that was available. The above chart is a sample of the people who reached out to places like the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor for assistance.
Redevelopment also played a part in social change. New buildings, like the Halifax Academy and the Jost Mission Church were constructed on Brunswick Street. By the 1880's, new employment opportunities moved into the Upper Streets including Halifax Photography Co, Schaefer H & Sons Jewellers, R Taylor & Co Shoe Factory, Halifax Vinegar Works, Watson & Myers gasfitters, and Nova Scotia Printing Co.
Were there still boarding houses, saloons, and liquor sellers? Of course! But as more respectable businesses moved into the neighbourhood, the Upper Streets came to be seen in a different light. There were also changes in governmental policies relating to social programs. For example, in 1916, the city hired Jane Wisdom, a trained social worker, as head of the newly implemented social services department. There was also more focus placed on education, especially for young children. This new level of education provided future generations with more opportunities.
During the latter half of the Victorian Era, thanks at least in part to changes such as those listed above, many people were able to slowly move away from the Lower Class and out of poverty. The reformation of the Upper Streets certainly did not end classism or eliminate poverty, but it did put a lot of people onto a better, safer, path for generations to come.
The Finishing Lines
In his book Down But Not Out: Community and the Upper Streets in Halifax, 1890-1914, author David Wood states that during the Victorian era "...the residents of the town [Halifax] acquiesced to public rowdiness, particularly hard drinking and prostitution... long term exposure to such actions normalized it for many residents" (pg. 124). Because the issues in the Upper Streets had gone on for so long, the poverty, the drunkenness, the violence, and the crime were expected. They were just a part of every day life.
Prior to the Victorian Era, the division lines of the class hierarchy were so firmly drawn they were nearly etched in stone. During this era those lines began to blur, the assistance that was offered and accepted was an act of compassion and bravery from all sides. These metaphorical olive branches lead to social assistance, charitable support, changes in legislation, and increased public education. With this investment in each other, over time more and more people found themselves in a place of relative prosperity. The class system may not have disappeared, but it certainly expanded and diversified.
Library Sources
The Dark Side of Life in Victorian Halifax
Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, City Directory
Additional Sources
"Barroom Dancing", Krimmel, John Lewis, 1786-1821, 1820, Library of Congress
Class Structure and the British Army, Liverpool Scholarship Online
Class System in Victorian England, Marrison, Richard
The Death Shop of Trescat Cove, Men Fighting by F. Barnard, 1870, EBay
From Temperance to Prohibition in 19th Century Nova Scotia, Dick, Ernest J., Dalhousie University
Godey's Fashions for November 1874, Wearable History
Halifax Academy Building, Canada's Historic Places
Hopkins' City Atlas, 1878, Plate A, Nova Scotia Archives
In the tavern, Bertalan de Karlovsky, Art Renewal Centre
Many millennials are worse off than their parents - a first in American history, Luhby, Tami, CNN
Oxfam report confirms millennials are worse off than their parents, UFCW
New Map of the City of Halifax Compiled from the most recent Surveys, 1869, Nova Scotia Archives
Places: Halifax, Halifax Co.: Buildings: Rockhead Prison, Nova Scotia Archives
The Prohibition Era and Rum Running, Edward, Devonna, Fairview Historical Society Articles Archives
Social Life in Victorian England, British Literature Wiki
Street Scenes: Grafton Street: Aerial View from Spire of St. Mary's Cathedral, Nova Scotia Archives
Victorian Age: The Spirit of the Time, National Historic Park Alaska
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