What was life like in the time that Oliver Twist was published (1837)?

It was the start of the Victorian period. In the period running up to the time of writing the story (or serial in fact) there had been a period of prosperity, wit and elegance as well as scandal, change and social ferment. The Duke of Wellington became Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel began the Metropolitan Police and slavery was abolished in the British Empire.

In the US there was a run on the banks which started a depression which lasted 5 years - though unlikely to have impacted on London, the young Dickens (he was about 25 at the time he wrote Twist) was something of an Americanphile.

Dickens gives us probably the best example, through his writing, as to what life was like in 1837.

I suggest you read the book, and find out. It's quite an eye opener.

It was nasty, brutish, painful and short: the public whipping of woman had been abolished only 7 years earlier.

If you are in, or visiting London, go to see his house (48, Doughty Street, not far from the University (of London)) which has papers, his writing desk, letters and manuscripts, etc, etc. You have to pay to get in - I think it may be £3 these days.

I wasn't born until 1945 and I'm probably one of the oldest on here, so you're really going to have to research it.

I can't remember I was only a wee lad at the time