ABSTRACT
Nineteenth century housing conditions attracted the attention of writers and social reformers, there is no lack of contemporary writing on this topic. But much of it is of dubious reliability, and it is rare to find useful comparative material. Even when the spread of industry to the countryside provided new housing possibilities, there is evidence from France that these were not always taken up. A classic early account of nineteenth century urban housing is Engels’ description of Manchester in the 1840s, remarkable for his analysis of the links between capitalist industrialisation and the spatial and social distribution of the population. Housing conditions elsewhere only improved slowly, if at all. In 1904 an observer noted that the working class lodgings in Paris were highly insanitary, overcrowded and inferior to their counterparts in London. Even the more expensive dwellings were often defective and insanitary and rent rises were frequent.
