Air Pollution in York 1850–1900

Abstract

There was considerable concern about urban sanitation in Victorian England (classically Chadwick 1842). This interest was driven by observations of increases in mortality as the population shifted its locus into cities. Brenner has argued that the statutory regulation of pollution during the last century formed part of a general movement to improve the sanitary conditions of urban life (Brenner 1974). Like other sanitary concerns, agitation about city smoke lead to the inclusion of pollution control clauses in 19th-century sanitary legislation. Despite the passage of such well-meant laws, they seem to have been largely unsuccessful in bringing about any marked reduction of the smoke in British cities.