The first major cholera pandemic to cross the Channel began in Sunderland in September 1831, spread throughout the country, and was not determined to be over until more than a year later, in December of 1832.

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Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"

In July 1842 Edwin Chadwick, with Dr. Thomas Southwood Smith, published his ‘The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population,’ at his own expense. The report detailed the sanitary conditions of the poor and advocated reform, tracing public health problems directly to the awful state of urban housing the poor endured. Chadwick’s report launched the mid-century sanitary movement, though it had a slow start because change was expensive. Image: Photograph of Sir Edwin Chadwick. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"

Barbara Leckie, “‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London’ (1883): Print Exposé and Print Reprise”

Spurred by the 1848 cholera epidemic and Edwin Chadwick’s report on The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population, a Central Board of Health was established that provided for taxation to enforce sanitary reform and the creation of local Boards of Health. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"

Barbara Leckie, “‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London’ (1883): Print Exposé and Print Reprise”

The second major cholera epidemic in the UK began in Scotland in October 1848 and is generally agreed to have largely subsided in the UK by the end of 1849.

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Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"

The third major cholera epidemic in the UK began in August 1853 and extended through November 1854. It is during this epidemic that John Snow deduced the mode of transmission, by water contaminated with feces.

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Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"

The last cholera epidemic is conventionally termed “of 1866” as that was the period of the highest mortality. The epidemic arrived in Britain in September 1865 and ended in November 1866.

Articles

Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"