Introduction
Dover, with its forbidding medieval castle and iconic white cliffs, lies on the coast of Kent in the southeast of England, providing the nearest sea-route to continental Europe. It saw massive changes in the Victorian period: "The town has overflowed its old boundaries in every possible direction," writes Samuel Statham, before producing the population figures that accompanied this growth, and a projection for what was to be the end of the era: "1801, 8657; 1811, 10,247; 1861, 24,970; 1881, 30,270 and we may believe that in 1901 the number will total over 40,000" (158). One of the reasons for this great expansion was undoubtedly the arrival of the South Eastern Railway in 1844, and subsequent improvements in communications, including the arrival of the telegraph in 1850, and the opening of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1860. It is interesting to see Statham citing advances in public health facilities as well, including the Public Health Act of 1849, the opening of Dover Hospital in 1850, and the installation of waterworks (completed in 1854) and modern drainage systems (completed in 1858 but with subsequent improvements). — Jacqueline Banerjee
Late Victorian Postcards and Prints of Dover
Some Representations of Dover in Victorian Culture
- Engraving of The Wreck of the "Tigress" off the Round-Down Cliff, Dover in the Illustrated London News of 3 February 1849
- Clarkson Stanfield's At Dover
- Ford Madox Brown's The Last of England
- Phiz's illustration for Dickens's David Copperfield: "I make myself known to my aunt"
- Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach"
Bibliography
Statham, Samuel Percy Hammond. The History of the Castle, Town and Port of Dover. London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1899. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the New York Public Library. Web. 31 July 2023.
Created 31 July 2023