WHY WAS LIFE EXPECTANCY SO LOW IN INDUSTRIAL CITIES?
             Life expectancy was extremely low in the Industrial Revolution because the average life of a poor person such as a factory worker was only seventeen years. The industrial cities such as Manchester, Liverpool or any other large city with factories would have been unhealthy to live in. The conditions in which the factory workers were living in were very poor. The cities were over–crowded so the house were packed tightly, streets were small, water supply was bad and so was sanitation because there were no building laws.
             The buildings in these industrial cities were built closely together. Factory owners and landlords wanted to build houses as rapidly and cheaply as possible so they were in long rows along the streets, back to back and were all terraced apart from the ones on the ends. The streets were fourteen foot wide. The houses were only one brick thick and contained two rooms. One was downstairs, used as a dining room, lounge and bedroom. Another room was upstairs.
             There were also places underground called 'cellars' which people used to live in. The walls were dripping with water and were covered in filth. The cellars had clay floors which were impervious to water causing them to flood. There was no ventilation or light in these cellars.
             In the industrial cities there was a pit used as a toilet. When Manchester was an industrial city, it was near the River Irk where people got their drinking water from. Also a burial ground was nearby. Dead animals were dumped there. On rainy days all the germs and filth could go into the River Irk and contaminate it making it unhealthy to drink. Other rivers changed colour because of all the dirt and filth in them. One source says that it looks like solid black marble but in sunlight it is a green tea colour.
             There were no sewers or drains in the cities so it flooded through the streets. If there was anything
             ...