William Lewis Freeman

What people wore

Working-class menswear habits

Working-class men often wore their father's old suits for manual labor, leading to common sights of mismatched coats and trousers.

Getting around

Horses ruled the early 1900s streets

Before World War One, horses dominated town streets, pulling everything from carriages and taxicabs to delivery carts and buses.

At the table

Buying Meat for Home Cooking

Because many working-class homes lacked ovens, families often bought 3/4 pound of leg of beef and 1/2 pound of beef suet for meat puddings or rissoles.

Music

Pianos as status symbols in 1916

In 1916, a single gramophone cost as much as 200 music hall tickets, making it a luxury item, yet families often saved for years to purchase a piano as a symbol of respectability. By 1914, there were three million pianos in Britain, and in 1916 alone, 40,000 were sold.

Daily life

Water was often collected from outside taps

Many homes lacked running water, requiring families to collect it from an outside tap shared with neighbours and heat it on the stove for bathing.

What it cost

Bread prices at the century's end

By the late 19th century, bread prices declined to just above 1 penny per pound, a staple item for a subsistence-level family.