What the Victorians Threw Away

Talk and a chance to get old household items identified and dated by a historian.

Items could include old glass bottles, ornaments, clay pipes, pottery or other household items found in a cellar or garden, or perhaps a baffling object that once belonged to an ancestor.

Tom Licence, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an academic at the University of East Anglia and author of 'What the Victorians Threw Away', will talk about how rubbish can reveal stories about the people who threw it away, the rise of brands and packaging, and the origins of our throwaway society.

He describes the Victorians as 'the generation that invented landfill'.

To research his book, Dr Licence dug up rubbish dumps around the country. As part of his project to investigate old rubbish dumps, he built a website with a database and pictures of various objects:
www.whatthevictoriansthrewaway.com/

What the Victorians Threw Away will be at 7.30pm, Wednesday 20 January, at Islington Town Hall