We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. This information will help us make improvements to the website. Suitable for: Key stage 2 , Key stage 3 Time period: Victorians Curriculum topics: Industrial Revolution , Political and social reform , Recreation through time , Victorians Suggested inquiry questions: What leisure activities were available to the Victorians?
How did the Industrial Revolution change leisure time? Potential activities: Answer the questions, create your own Victorian Poster for one of your favourite activities. Download: Lesson pack How did the Victorians have fun? Blood sports like bear baiting and cockfighting were banned. With the growth of the railways, people began to travel more and visiting the seaside became a popular pastime. But the railways also allowed local sporting teams to travel and so sports like cricket, football and rugby began to be organised with agreed rules and national competitions, such as the FA Cup.
Lawn Tennis was invented in the s and a new sight on the streets of Victorian Britain was the bicycle, in its various different designs. There were still old favourites such as going to the circus or the theatre but the invention of the moving picture during the s meant that a new dimension was added to theatre-going.
Use the posters, pictures and photographs in this lesson to understand how the Victorians enjoyed their leisure time. During the Victorian era there were many changes to how people lived, and the ways they spent their spare time. These shows included hypnotism or even communication with the dead using mediums! Circuses and performing menageries were also popular, with Britain being visited by some of the most famous of the time including the Barnam and Bailey Circus who frequently came over from America.
The rise in photography and moving pictures meant that people started going to the theatre, not only to enjoy plays and spectacles, but also to watch recordings of sporting events as you can see from the sources here.
