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Step inside the Victorian home and discover what its rooms can tell us about the people who lived, worked and gathered there.

This course explores domestic life in the Victorian period, looking at how changing social expectations, new technologies, design movements and ideas about respectability shaped the structure and meaning of the home. Each week, we will focus on a different room or domestic space, using it as a way into the daily lives, values and aspirations of Victorian society.

We will consider the hallway as a statement of status and respectability, the drawing room as a display of taste, the dining room as a setting for ritual and sociability, and the bathroom as a place transformed by new ideas about sanitation and health. On the course we will also explore kitchens, nurseries, servants’ spaces and gardens, asking how domestic life varied across class, gender and age.

Through art, design, architecture and social history, you will build a richer picture of the Victorian home as both a private space and a public expression of identity.

Enrolment is open to everyone and no previous knowledge is needed.

Term dates

•  Autumn Term: week beginning 5 October 2026 until week ending 12 December 2026

For course content enquiries: Contact the Course tutor, Arthur Charlesworth at arthur.charlesworth@citystgeorges.ac.uk 

For enrolment and booking enquiries: Contact Christian Jacobi at c.jacobi@imperial.ac.uk

Class recordings

These classes are not recorded.

911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ certificates

This course has no exams or assessments, so you can focus on enjoying your learning. If you attend regularly, you may also receive an 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ attendance certificate. (T&Cs apply).