People. London’s population grew at a phenomenal rate. It was one million at the time of the first census in 1801; it had more than doubled half a century later and was over seven million by 1911. Much of this growth was the result of people migrating to the metropolis looking for work.

Lord Shaftesbury was president of the Ragged School Union, which promoted the education of poor children. He believed that children were to be treated and educated well. Ragged Schools gave poor children some education for the first time. They were called Ragged Schools because many pupils had nothing to wear but rags.

Ragged schools were charitable organisations dedicated to the free education of destitute children in 19th century Britain. The schools were developed in working-class districts. Ragged schools were intended for society’s most destitute children.

Upon entering the workhouse, the poor were stripped and bathed (under supervision). The food was tasteless and was the same day after day. The young and old as well as men and women were made to work hard, often doing unpleasant jobs. Children could also find themselves ‘hired out’ (sold) to work in factories or mines.

Its population expanded from 1 million in 1800 to 6.7 million a century later. During this period, London became a global political, financial, and trading capital.

Lundenburh

about 200,000

1831

Uruk: The world’s largest city in 3500 BC.

Jericho

The zircon crystals from Australia’s Jack Hills are believed to be the oldest thing ever discovered on Earth. Researchers have dated the crystals to about 4.375 billion years ago, just 165 million years after the Earth formed. The zircons provide insight into what the early conditions on Earth were like.

Hasankeyf, on the banks of the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on earth.

Excavations in Aşıklıhöyük have reached the bottom layer, revealing information about the first settled life that began there 10,300 years ago. The more than 80 skeletons found in the area show the approximate average lifespan of the people living there then was between 25 and 30 years.

But if a man got to the age of 21 and didn’t die by accident, violence or poison, he could be expected to live almost as long as men today: from 1200 to 1745, 21-year-olds would reach an average age of anywhere between 62 and 70 years – except for the 14th Century, when the bubonic plague cut life expectancy to a …

The average life expectancy for a male child born in the UK between 1276 and 1300 was 31.3 years. In 1998, it is 76. However, by the time the 13th-Century boy had reached 20 he could hope to live to 45, and if he made it to 30 he had a good chance of making it into his fifties.

around 30 to 35 years