But the impoverished proletariat that migrated from the countryside to the cities, often ended up in cheaply built slums, where they were exploited by slumlords and rackrenters.  James Kay reported in his 'Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Class' (1832) that “’houses are noisy, ill ventilated, unprovided with privies…the streets which are narrow, unpaved, and worn into deep ruts, become the common receptacles of mud, refuse, and disgusting ordure…’” These conditions of course contributed to the ill health of those living in them.

In 1845 two physicians, J. MARESKA & J. HEYMAN, wrote a booklet about the condition of cotton workers in Ghent , wherein they described one of the biggest workers houses complexes, the so-called ‘Batavia-beluik’ which was demolished after 1883. Although they said this city-in-the-city was not even the worst they encountered, their description leaves nothing to the imagination...After calculating the surfaces they conclude that each house occupied an average of 17 sqm. Most of the houses only had a ground floor serving as living room, sleeping room and kitchen, some had a storey which could be reached via a ladder. Taking in consideration that each household consisted, on average, of at least 5 persons the total population of the ‘Batavia-beluik’ counted 585 inhabitants, who each could claim 3,4 sqm or less...

These courtyards were not built by the factory owners, who didn’t have the need to bind their workforce to their textile mills - there were plenty of candidates to replace a worker when he was fired or when he left for another job. Worker’s houses were, with some exceptions, built by speculating middle classes, shopkeepers, pub holders, bakers and butchers, and by persons living off of their own investments.

The concentration of population in poor housing and hygienic conditions, with only a few water pumps and primitive or even no toilets, was the cause of many diseases that during the 19th c spread through the industrial cities. One of the most notorious diseases was cholera, while also typhus, yellow fever, etc. ravaged cities.

In 1830-1831cholera epidemics across Europe gave rise to the Cholera Riots in Russia and England. In 1832 cholera claims 6,536 victims in London and 20,000 in Paris, and is responsible for about 100,000 deaths in France as a whole.
In 1853–54, a cholera epidemic in London claimed over 10,000 lives, and there were 23,000 deaths for all of Great Britain.
In 1866 cholera caused 43400 deaths in Belgium, most of them in the industrialised provinces and towns. In Ghent, notorious for its slum courtyards one counted 2.769 deaths on a total of 115.354 inhabitants.

Yellow fever also accounted for a large number of the 19th-century's epidemic outbreaks. It is most prevalent in tropical-like climates, but was imported to Europe via harbours as a result of intensive trade and transport. Major outbreaks occurred in Gibraltar in 1804, 1814, and in 1828. Barcelona suffered the loss of several thousand citizens during an outbreak in 1821.

It is not enough known that the rise of the water towers however is intimately linked to the development of the railways, where steam locomotives in the main railway stations hat to be refilled. This needed a tank at some hight from where the water could flow into the engine.

The modern use of water towers for pressurized public water systems developed during the mid-19th century, as steam-pumping became more common, and better pipes that could handle higher pressures were developed. The German engineer Otto Intze discovered, around 1860 the advantages of steel in the construction of water towers. He enacted the principle of frustoconical tanks, built at the top of a pile masonry: provisions that balance the pressures of water on the structure and save the volume of masonry, so works.

Between 1850 and 1950, the distribution of water in cities was at very low pressure with low-flow water towers.
In the 19th century masonry water towers with Intzen-reservoirs where built on the highest points of many cities, but at the turn of the century concrete water towers - many according to the Hennebique system - became popular.

Due to the strong developments of the cities, the municipal authorities had to take more and more measures and build up facilities. One of the most important challenges was to keep urban development under control, with regulations and planning.

In many towns, from the mid-19th c onwards, the old Medieval city walls were demolished to create space for city extensions, while building houses and establishing factories went out of control, public and private transport jammed, and security was difficult to maintain.
New ideas rose about the layout of modern town

Later in the 19th c recognition of the need for recreation rises. Parks were developed to provide visual relief and places for healthful play or relaxation. Later, playgrounds were carved out in congested areas, and facilities for games and sports were established not only for children but also for adults, whose workdays gradually shortened. Supporters of the parks movement believed that the opportunity for outdoor recreation would have a civilizing effect on the working classes, who were otherwise consigned to overcrowded housing and unhealthful workplaces.

The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall Mall, London on 28 January 1807. In 1812, Parliament granted a charter to the London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company, and the first gas company in the world came into being. Less than two years later, on 31 December 1813, the Westminster Bridge was lit by gas - followed by other streets and squares
Following this success, gas lighting spread to other countries.
The First gas lamps on the streets of Paris appeared in January 1829 on the place du Carrousel and the rue de Rivoli, then on rue de la Paix, place Vendôme, rue de Castiglione; by 1857 the Grands Boulevards were all lit with gas.

At the end of the 19th century, when electricity came into use, electrical current had to be transported from the power stations to the places where it was needed. Electrical lamps replaced gas lamps for street lighting, electromotors drove machines, and ball rooms and houses where lighted by electricity.
Low voltages were inefficient for transmission. Long-distance transmission needed high voltage. Transformers would play the decisive role in the victory of alternating current over direct current for transmission and distribution systems. In 1876, the Russian engineer Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov (1847-1894) patented a precursor of a transformer, prior to the Paris Exposition demonstrating his arc lamps.

The French scientist Lucien Gaulard (1850-1888), together with the British engineer and financier John Dixon Gibbs (1834–1912) developed a more efficient device (the ‘secondary generatoir’, later called ‘transformer’) to transport electricity in the form of alternating current. The transformer was first exhibited in London in 1881 and demonstrated in 1883 at London's Royal Aquarium, where it attracted the attention of several scientists, including the American George Westinghouse

The first demonstrative long distance (34 km) AC line was built for the 1884 International Exhibition of Turin, Italy. It was powered by a 2-kV, 130-Hz Siemens & Halske alternator and featured several Gaulard secondary generators with their primary windings connected in series, which fed incandescent lamps. The system proved the feasibility of AC electric power transmission on long distances. After this success, between 1884 and 1885, Hungarian engineers Zipernowsky, Bláthy, and Déri from the Ganz company in Budapest created the efficient "Z.B.D." closed-core coils, as well as the modern electric distribution system.