Shopping — Victorian Style

Women of the Victorian era enjoyed shopping as much as women do today. By the middle of the 19^th century, shopping had evolved into a way for middle-class Victorian women to get out and explore the city without male companions.

The first prototype of the shopping mall might be said to have been the Great Exhibition of 1851, which displayed consumer goods from around the globe.

A Victorian woman in the 1860s on a shopping expedition in London would probably head toward the West End, where the shops catered to fashionable upper-middle-class ladies. She might also go to Regent Street, which was designed as a promenade and shopping area with small stores selling luxury goods.

While Victorians placed a great deal of importance on items that were handed down from generation to generation (a symbol of historical wealth and family connections), they also enjoyed the latest in luxuries. Consider the recitative sung by Josephine, the young heroine of H.M.S. Pinafore, as she thinks about the comforts and elegancies of her father Captain Corcoran’s home – things she would have to give up if she were to marry the handsome but penniless sailor Ralph Rackstraw:

On the one hand, Papa’s luxurious home,
Hung with ancestral armour and old brasses,
Carved oak and tapestry from distant Rome,
Rare “blue and white,” Venetian finger-glasses,
Rich oriental rugs, luxurious sofa pillows,
And everything that isn’t old, from Gillow’s.

So here you have the inherited, “ancestral” items – which are still important indicators of status. In far more recent times, a British MP dismissed another politician as the kind of person “who bought his own furniture”— perhaps an indication that it was better to furnish a house with antiques that had long been in the family, than to have new stuff.

Also described by Josephine are the imported treasures like oriental rugs, tapestries from Rome, and Venetian finger-glasses (we would call them finger-bowls, filled with warm water and placed so that each diner at a fancy meal could rinse their fingertips after eating finger food).

The rare “blue and white” she mentions refers to the collections of Chinese porcelain so beloved by aesthetes of the Victorian age, including Oscar Wilde.

Not only that, but everything that isn’t old comes from Gillow’s – furniture makers renowned for creating high quality items.   (Gillows furniture is referred to by Jane Austen, Thackeray and the first Lord Lytton, which shows that our comic opera heroine Josephine has very good taste.)

But how could a woman get to the shops? Well, she could walk, take a carriage, or ride in an omnibus or even a train.

Not only were Victorian women more visible walking down the streets to get to the shops, but they also could be seen making use of various modes of public transportation. In an attempt to control and limit women in public areas, etiquette manuals strictly prescribed the way a “well-bred” woman was to act when outside the confines of her home.

According to “Daily Life of Victorian Women” by Lydia Murdoch, Victorian etiquette manuals stated that “one can almost invariably distinguish the well-bred girl at the first glance, whether she is walking, shopping, in an omnibus, descending from a carriage or cab, or sauntering up and down in the Park.” The key was their restrained behavior – their “self-effacement.”

Victorian women usually traveled in pairs or groups, but sometimes traveled by themselves. A comprehensive network of trains allowed women to travel throughout the cities, although for decades a debate raged over whether it was safe or proper for a woman to travel alone by rail. Some even argued that the speed of a train caused damage to the female organs.

Within a city, a woman might choose a horse-drawn vehicle to get to her destination. Privately owned and maintained carriages could only be afforded by the wealthy. Hiring a four-wheeler was expensive, but might be suitable for a group of ladies traveling together with luggage. However, by the middle of the century the lighter, two-wheeled “safety cab” or hansom, was a good option for those who could afford the fare.

Luckily, by the 1840s, the horse-drawn omnibus became a good and inexpensive way to get around the city – provided, of course, that a woman could manage to squeeze her hoops and crinolines into the vehicle!

For more on shopping and department stores, take a look at the BBC’s article here.

Later on, in the Edwardian era, Selfridge’s would dazzle the buying public, as depicted in the BBC series Mr. Selfridge.