How Often Do You Think The Victorians Actually Bathed, and Were They Really Dirty?

How Often Do You Think The Victorians Actually Bathed, and Were They Really Dirty?

Today I want to look at something that might surprise you, and that is how often did Victorians actually bathe?

The answer depended heavily on your class, money, and where you lived, just like everything else in Victorian Britain.

For wealthy Victorians, bathing became more common as plumbing began to slowly improve during the 19th century. Dedicated indoor bathrooms only began appearing in some wealthy British homes from around the 1850s to 1870s, and by the 1880s and 1890s some upper- and middle-class families even had the early indoor flushing toilets. Some rich households had tin or porcelain bathtubs, filled with hot water brought by servants and then also emptied by them.

But, daily full-body baths were still unusual by modern standards.

Before indoor bathrooms became common, even wealthy Victorians usually washed in their bedrooms using a washstand which was a small piece of furniture that held a bowl and jug of water. Full baths were often taken in tubs that were placed near a fire.

For the working classes, bathing was much harder. Many homes had no bathroom, no indoor toilet, and no running hot water. Washing often meant using a bowl, jug, and flannel to clean the face, hands, neck, and underarms rather than taking a full bath.

A proper bath was a big effort. Water had to be carried, heated on a stove or over a fire, and then poured into a tin tub placed in the kitchen or near the hearth. Because of the time, effort, and cost involved, many working-class families only had a full bath once a week, often on a Saturday night before Sunday church. And yes, families sometimes shared bath water, with the cleanest or youngest often going first and the dirtiest last.

Public bathhouses also became more common in Victorian Britain, especially after the Public Baths and Wash-houses Act of 1846 which encouraged towns to build them. These gave people without the facilities at home the chance to bathe and wash their clothes for a small fee.

When you think about the effort involved just to get clean, modern bathrooms suddenly feel like a real luxury.

Do you think you could cope with bathing the Victorian way?