'By drawing on census reports as well as court records and coroners' inquests, Holmes challenges the myths that have developed around both the lodgers and the householders who rented out the rooms. (…)The work reveals many of the financial circumstances that destabilized working-class families and provides a more complicated understanding of working-class homes.’
— R. J. Bates, Berea College, CHOICE Recommended
‘Lodging in private houses played an important role both in accommodating the Victorian working class and in supplementing hosts’ household income. Vicky Holmes’ account of the issues and relationships it created is original, intimate and lively. It is invaluable for anyone interested in nineteenth-century social history.’
—Gillian Williamson, Author of Lodgers, Landlords, and Landladies in Georgian London
‘Vicky Holmes’s new book is an illuminating look into the lives of lodgers and householders between 1840 and 1900… This well-written and worthwhile book will be of interest to historians of material culture, gender, domesticity, and the working class.’
—Susie Steinbach, Hamline University

Introduction
1 The necessary lodger
2 The necessity for lodgings
3 The lodging exchange
4 Compromised spaces?
5 Beyond the boundaries
6 Notice to quit
Conclusion