As you
can easily imagine there was no electricity, no running water 
or central heating in the
houses of the past, except for wealthy people. Most people still
used candles or oil lamps, a coal cooker. Toilets were 
outside. And, of course,
there was no need to have garage (on the left and right you can
see Charles' Dickens house in London).
During
Queen Victoria's reign, the Industrial Revolution took place: most people
moved to towns to find work in factories. Row of poor quality
terraced slums sprang up around the
factories to house them. Sanitary conditions were often very
poor. Only the rich could afford proper t
oilet facilities. The poor
had to share a communal lavatory, usually just a shed over a hole
in the ground treated with quicklime to dissolve effluent. The wealthy people, instead, lived in
confortable and elegant buildings, you can still see in London.
New technology and mass-production brought gradually
labour-saving devices. The rich could also retain some 
servants. Country life was different. Although
many of those who worked in the country still lived in the
primitive, one- roomed cottages, living conditions and
sanitations were much better than in town slums. These cottages
were often thatched houses. Moreover new machinery started to
improve the efficiency and profitability of many farms. In the
space of a few years, the heavy horses became obsolete.
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Now read a beautiful description of a true old English house: here is Valentina's mother, who is English, remembering her grandmother's house!
Have
a look to Charles
Dickens' House Museum in London
http://www.rmplc.co.uk/orgs/dickens/DHM/DHM2/index.html
or to
an interesting reconstruction of the life in an English village in the early 20th century:
http://education.ntu.ac.uk/resources/ict_resources/clifvillprog/
Here an English family lived in
a Victorian house for three months: look at their house, watch movies and
listen their voices... it was like a "Big Brother"
programme in a historical contest: www.pbs.org/wnet/1900house