Victorian - Getty Images

Victorian

The Victorian era takes its name from Queen Victoria, who ruled between 1837-1901. There were nine British prime ministers during the Victorian era. The Victorians are popularised by famed author Charles Dickens; the technological and social change caused by the industrial revolution; serial killer Jack the Ripper; and the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Find out everything you need to know about the Victorians here…

The massacre that shattered the old Ottoman world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Week six quiz: Victorian life. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Part fiveWhat was work like in Victorian Britain?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Part fourWhat was health and medicine like in the 19th century?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian family life | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Living in sin: unmarried relationships in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How to celebrate a Victorian wedding. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

American actress Charlotte Cushman and Matilda Hayes. (Image by Alamy)

How Georgian and Victorian same-sex couples co-opted marital traditions and made them their own. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Week five quiz: work and labour rights in Victorian Britain

Victorian working life | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How gruelling was the Victorian workhouse?

What working-class autobiographies can tell us about the Industrial Revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of King John of England

9 of the worst monarchs in history

A Victorian cult: inside the strange world of the Agapemone. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A group of men in front of cannon with a ruined building behind them and rubble on the street

The war Britain won in 38 minutes

'Monster soup commonly called Thames water, being a correct representation of that precious stuff doled out to us!!!', 1828; showing an ugly woman holding a spy glass which touches the circumference of a large circle representing a magnified drop of water filled with grotesque aquatic creatures. A satire on the Metropolitan Water Supply.

From murder bottles to arsenic wallpaper: 5 hidden killers in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian healthcare | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Week four quiz: medicine and health in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The opthalmoscope revolutionised ophthalmology, allowing physicians to examine the inside of the human eye. (Image by Getty Images)

Victorian medicine: why the 19th century was a time of seismic medical change

The surgeon Robert Liston prepares to cut open a patient in the first half of the 19th century. Known as the “fastest knife in the west end”, Liston could remove a leg in less than 30 seconds. For most patients, however, the agony was more prolonged. (Wellcome Library, London)

An appointment at the house of death: the horror of the early Victorian hospital. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Part threeWhat was school and education like in Victorian Britain?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian education and school | HistoryExtra Academy video lecture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Week three quiz: education and school in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Schools of hard knocks: Georgian and Victorian public schools. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The school for girls imprisoned at Tothill Fields in the late 1850s. A dedicated schoolmistress was employed to teach that institution’s large female population; in other prisons, the matron took lessons. (Engraving from Chronicle, via Alamy)

Reading, writing and retribution: inside Victorian prison schools. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Shaftesbury Welcome Ragged School in Battersea , 1899. Classes of 40 were not rare, and they could stretch to 80 during staff shortages. (Photo by Mary Evans)

Class warfare: a day in the life of a Victorian schoolchild. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The golden age of the country house. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian schools: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

HistoryExtra AcademyLife in Victorian Britain, with Ruth Goodman. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Part twoLeisure: how did people spend their free time in the 19th century?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.