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The ‘window tax’ in Victorian England was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. Poor families closed windows to avoid the tax. Charles Dickens opposed the tax and became a successful writer despite his difficult upbringing.
It seems unfathomable today, but if you owned a home in Victorian England and wanted to bring sunshine and fresh air into your daily life, you’d have to pay handsomely for the privilege. The hated ‘window tax’ was introduced by Parliament in 1696 in England and Wales and provided revenue to the British government for 156 years. It was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house or other residential building. In English cities, poor families often lived in crowded council houses. The tax burden of the windows fell on their owners, who responded by closing the windows with brick and wood, blocking out fresh air and natural light.
Charles Dickens railed against the window tax in his writings and public speeches, until the law was finally repealed in 1851.
The pen is mightier than the sword:
In 1824, when Charles Dickens was 12, his father was imprisoned because he could not pay his debts. Young Charles was forced to work 10-hour days in a factory, pasting labels on shoe polish bottles.
Unable to afford a college education, Dickens honed his writing skills on his own. He later became a journalist and covered Parliament.
Today, Dickens is remembered as a best-selling novelist, with such classic short stories as Great Expectations, The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist.
