1837 in the United Kingdom

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1837 in the United Kingdom

This year started the Victorian era. It was the year when Queen Victoria became queen and the personal union with Hanover ended.

Incumbents
- Monarch: William IV until 20 June; Victoria from 20 June
- Prime Minister: William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (Whig)
- Foreign Secretary: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
- Home Secretary: Lord John Russell

Key events
- January–February: a serious influenza outbreak
- 11 January: the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) receives its royal charter
- 13 February: postal reform ideas emerge, including prepaid postage and the concept of stamps
- March: a new city in Australia is named Melbourne after the Prime Minister
- March–May: Central England temperature coolens spring at 5.63 °C, the coldest on record
- around June: smallpox epidemic begins (1837–40)
- 1 June: the Normal School of Design opens at Somerset House (later the Royal College of Art)
- 3 June: Kensington Hippodrome opens
- 12 June: Cooke and Wheatstone file a patent for the electrical telegraph
- 20 June: King William IV dies; Victoria becomes queen at age 18; the Hanover royal connection ends
- 30 June: pillory punishments are abolished
- 1 July: General Register Office begins civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales
- 3 July: Wills Act clarifies how to make a valid will (in force from 1838)
- 13 July: Queen Victoria moves from Kensington Palace to Buckingham Palace
- 19 July: the steamship SS Great Western is launched in Bristol
- 19 July–18 August: a general election results in a Whig victory (the fourth in a row)
- 17 August: John Kent becomes Britain’s first Black police officer (Carlisle)
- 28 August: Lea & Perrins begin making Worcestershire sauce
- October: a possible first sighting of Spring-heeled Jack in London
- 1 October: Punishment of Offences Act removes capital punishment for burglary, arson, forgery and “shooting at”
- 9 November: Moses Montefiore becomes the first Jewish knight
- 15 November: Isaac Pitman publishes Pitman Shorthand
- Undated: Joseph Paxton designs the Great Conservatory at Chatsworth House, the world’s largest glass building at the time

Publications
- The Ingoldsby Legends begin appearing in Bentley’s Miscellany
- Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution: A History
- Charles Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist appears in Bentley’s Miscellany (from February)
- Robert Southey’s The Story of the Three Bears appears in The Doctor
- Martin Farquhar Tupper’s Proverbial Philosophy
- Andrew Ure’s A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines

Births of note
- 7 January: Thomas Henry Ismay, shipowner
- 30 January: Augusta Webster, poet
- 7 February: James Murray, lexicographer
- 23 March: Charles Wyndham, actor and manager
- 5 April: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet
- 7 April: Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, writer
- 28 May: George Ashlin, architect
- 9 June: Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, novelist and essayist
- 14 November: Lucas Barrett, naturalist
- 23 November: Joseph Leycester Lyne, Anglican abbot
- 5 December: Richard Thomas, tin plate manufacturer
- 26 December: William Boyd Dawkins, geologist

Deaths of note
- 20 January: Sir John Soane, architect
- 23 January: John Field, composer
- 31 January: John Rolls of The Hendre, judge
- 1 February: Edward Donovan, writer and traveller
- 19 February: Thomas Burgess, bishop and writer
- 31 March: John Constable, painter
- 31 May: Joseph Grimaldi, clown
- 20 June: William IV
- 24 June: Henry Thynne, 3rd Marquess of Bath
- 1 August: Walter Geikie, painter
- 22 September: William George Horner, mathematician
- 7 December: Robert Nicoll, poet

Overview
1837 was a year of change and new beginnings. It saw the start of Queen Victoria’s long reign, the end of Britain’s personal union with Hanover, and several important reforms and innovations in politics, design, transport, and culture.