Before the nineteenth century most of the world’s population lived in the countryside and worked on the land. But after 1800 more and more people flocked to the cities to work in factories. London had a population of 1 million in 1800; this had risen to 6.7 million in 1900; the new town of Chicago had 300 people in 1830, 1.7 million by the end of that century. Such growth brought unprecedented challenges for builders, architects and everyone involved in local government. Houses had to be built rapidly – and the results were often substandard dwellings that condemned workers to live in squalid conditions, especially in cities such as London that had grown haphazardly out of densely planned ancient settlements. There were also enormous pressures on infrastructure, especially transportation systems and waste disposal. Unsanitary conditions put millions of families at risk from dread diseases such as cholera.
Some of the most ambitious schemes drawn up by nineteenth-century architects were attempts at addressing these problems. Britain, the first country to industrialize, produced many of the most outstanding. A quay and new drainage system, a vast circular complex combining road, railway and shops, a multi-storey cemetery in the form of a pyramid – these were just some of the proposals put forward to improve London. Other cities addressed different issues, from cultural provision in Washington DC to a project for a royal palace in Athens for the newly independent nation of Greece.
The diversity of these schemes is typical of their period. Some such as Joseph Paxton’s startling Great Victorian Way are daringly modern, using an exposed iron framework, which was new technology in the middle of the nineteenth century. Others such as the enormous plan for an American National Gallery of History and Art in Washington are designed in revivalist styles – in this case in every historical style from ancient Babylonian to Roman. One, Robert Owen’s plan for New Harmony, Indiana, emulates the ideals of earlier eras and offers a design for an entire town. They are all responses to specific needs, and all bring typical nineteenth-century inventiveness to bear, either stylistically or in terms of layout and planning. But many also point the way forward, to improvements in sanitation, conservation or museum provision, giving these very Victorian designs an enduring life and relevance.
