The Structure of Nineteenth Century Cities

James H Johnson, Colin Pooley, James H Johnson, Colin Pooley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780367772147
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000383508
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

When this book was first published in 1982, despite considerable research on 19th Century towns in Britain and America, there had been little attempt to search for links between these empirical studies and to relate them more to more general theories of 19th Century urban development. The book provides an integrated series of chapters which discuss trends and research problems in the study of 19th Century cities. It will be of value to researchers in urban geography, social history and historical geography.

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1
THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH CITY - AN OVERVIEW

James H. Johnson and Colin G. Pooley

The development of nineteenth-century urban research

The study of nineteenth-century cities has been one of the most rapidly expanding areas of British historical research in recent years. Review articles and research registers clearly show that during the last two decades nineteenth-century urban studies have moved from a position of comparative neglect to one almost of dominance (Dyos, 1968; Wild, 1980; Urban History Year-Book). Victorian commentators were well aware of the rapid and extensive urban growth which was taking place around them, and they produced many descriptive and statistical accounts of nineteenth-century urbanization (Vaughan, 1843; Engels, 1845; Booth, 1889; Weber, 1899). Modern interest in nineteenth-century towns, however, stems from the 1950s and 60s, with the beginnings of the present surge of activity being based on seminal studies by scholars such as Chaloner (1950), Barker and Harris (1954), Lawton (1955), Dyos (1961) and Briggs (1963). Dyos (1966) has reviewed a number of important early analyses of nineteenth century towns, but since he wrote the development of urban historical research has been even more rapid with the publication of several major books (Anderson, 1971; Stedman-Jones, 1971; Armstrong, 1974; Foster, 1974; Fraser, 1976; Daunton, 1977; Crossick, 1978) together with many important articles and numerous theses (Dyos and Wolff, 1973; Whitehand and Patten, 1977; Dennis, 1979).

Probably the most significant recent development for British urban history was the founding of the Urban History Group in 1963, under the energetic leadership of the late Professor H.J. Dyos, leading to the publication of the. proceedings of the 1966 Urban History Group meeting (Dyos, 1968). In 1966 Dyos was able to write ‘by contrast with the torpid interest in the subject before the war the volume of writing on the history of British towns now looks like a cataract’. Successive meetings of the Group have ensured that this research interest in nineteenth-century towns has continued unabated.

The upsurge of interest in the nineteenth-century city has not been confined to the United Kingdom, and one of the most productive strands of recent urban historical research has been the cross-fertilization of ideas between Britain and Europe, Australasia and, in particular, North America. The North American interest in nineteenth-century urban development emerged rather earlier and grew even more quickly than in Britain. By the early 1960s several major works on urban history had appeared (Handlin and Burchard, 1962; Glaab, 1963; Thernstrom, 1964; Hauser and Schnore, 1965). Each of these drew on earlier experiences and, most importantly, pointed the way forward to new and substantial studies including those by Goheen (1970), Knights (1971), Thernstrom (1973), Katz (1976) and Conzen (1976). Similarity of data sources and methods of analysis has meant that there is considerable scope for comparisons between British and American towns in the nineteenth century, although relatively few scholars have specifically tackled studies which involve transatlantic comparisons (Ward, 1964, 1974, 1975; Sharpless, 1976).

Elsewhere, developments in nineteenth-century urban history have been less rapid, but a substantial body of literature on the development of European and Antipodean towns is now emerging (Sutcliffe, 1970; Chevalier, 1973; Bater, 1976; Ogden, 1977; Lawson, 1973; Williams, 1974). Comparative studies would certainly aid our understanding of the processes of nineteenth-century urbanization in spite of detailed contrasts in the time and context of urban development, but such studies are few (Lees, 1973).

As well as the wide geographical spread of recent studies, urban historical research has also developed a strong interdisciplinary flavour, since most topics in urban history can be approached from a variety of viewpoints. As a result there are almost as many studies by geographers, sociologists and political scientists as have come from the pens of historians. Sometimes the disciplinary backgrounds of individual authors are almost indistinguishable in their writings, but there are a number of areas where specialists from different fields have devoted the major part of their research efforts, whilst differences in method and technique are also sometimes apparent.

Social and economic historians have concentrated most fully on the influence of class and ideology on the structure of nineteenth-century towns (Stedman-Jones, 1971; Neale, 1972; Gray, 1976; Crossick, 1976), on the effects of municipal policy and reform on subsequent urban structure (Sutcliffe,1970; Hennock, 1973; Kellett, 1978),on the related problems of health and housing in nineteenth-century towns (Chapman, 1971; Gauldie, 1974; Wohl, 1977), and on problems of the economic development of cities and the histories of individual trades (Hyde, 1971; Anderson, 1976; Floud, 1976). Although not their exclusive preserve, such topics have become dominated by the work of historians and are characterized by the careful evaluation of a wide range of disparate sources concerning the political, social and economic development of the city.

In contrast the work of geographers has tended to concentrate on the spatial aspects of nineteenth-century urban development, often focused on a smaller range of sources such as the census, cartographic evidence and other data which facilitate spatial referencing. A number of topics particularly lend themselves to this approach and thus have attracted geographical research. Studies of urban physical morphology perhaps best exemplify the spatial approach (Conzen, 1960; Carter, 1965; Whitehand, 1978; Fox, 1979), but in recent years this has been more generally extended to the identification of social areas in cities. In most cases these studies have involved the extension of current urban geographical theories and techniques back to the nineteenth-century town, leading to analyses of socio-spatial variation, based mainly on the census enumerators’ books (Warnes, 1972; Lawton and Pooley, 1976; Shaw, 1977; Cowlard, 1979), but also using other sources such as urban rate books (Gordon, 1979). As well as the identification of broad social areas, geographers have also concentrated on particular aspects of urban demography and social structure, including rural-urban migration, the formation of immigrant areas in cities (Lawton, 1958; Ward, 1971; Pooley, 1977), and the processes of residential mobility and spatial change in urban areas (Pritchard, 1976; Dennis, 1977b; Pooley, 1979a). Again, although not the sole preserve of geographers, spatial studies of nineteenth-century towns by workers from other disciplines are relatively uncommon (Cannadine, 1977; Daunton,1977).

Work by sociologists on the nineteenth century city has expanded less rapidly than studies by historians and geographers, but there are a number of areas where a distinctive sociological contribution can be discerned. Family structure and the role of the family in the process of urbanization is one important area of sociological interest (Smelser, 1959; Anderson, 1971, 1976), whilst the study of kinship patterns and neighbourhood communities in nineteenth-century towns involves a combination of geographical and sociological skills (Pahl, 1970; Dennis, 1977a; Macfarlane, 1977a). Much of this work has been carried out at a micro-scale, involving the reconstruction of household and family characteristics, although the detailed historical-anthropological work which has been attempted for earlier periods has yet to be properly extended to the nineteenth century (Macfarlane, 1977b). One of the aims of the seminar series from which the essays in this volume are derived was to explore the distinctive approaches of different researchers to the study of the internal structure of the nineteenth-century city. Undoubtedly most good research draws inspiration from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, but as contributions to this volume demonstrate, there remain important differences in approaches and methods of analysis. It would seem that there is still much to be gained from the cross-fertilization of ideas between scholars from different disciplines.

Why study the nineteenth-century city?

The sudden upsurge of interest in the study of nineteenth-century towns is difficult to explain. Some of this activity may be attributed to a ‘snowball’ effect following the first few major studies and the formation of the Urban History Group, but there are three substantive reasons why nineteenth-century urban research is important today and should remain so in the future.

First, the process of nineteenth-century urban development has much wider implications. Industrialization and urbanization in the nineteenth century brought with them fundamental changes in the spatial organisation of towns and in the relationship between classes and groups within urban society. Such changes have occurred in all developed nations at some time in the recent past, while related processes are still operating in developing nations today. The study of nineteenth-century cities can thus lead into attempts to generate more generally-applicable theories about the processes of modernization, urbanization and associated social changes (Reissman, 1964; Germani, 1969).

Second, not only may nineteenth-century urban experiences be usefully compared with the process of urbanization in the developing world today (McGee, 1971; Friedman and Wulff, 1976), but the effects of nineteenth-century growth are still being felt in urban areas in Britain and Europe. Recent inner-area studies of British cities (Department of Environment, 1977a, 1977b) highlight the constraints which nineteenth-century housing stocks, road systems and public utilities place on modern urban regeneration, whilst the processes of suburbanization and inner-city decay have their roots firmly in the nineteenth-century industrial city. A greater understanding of the nineteenth-century city helps us to appreciate more fully the complex mechanisms operating within the modern metropolis.

Finally, scholars have also been attracted to the nineteenth-century city because of the fairly-ready availability of comprehensive data sources. In comparison with earlier periods, the mass of social, economic, demographic and political information which is available for nineteenth-century towns is almost overwhelming. This information is available at a variety of scales, ranging from the individual to large groups and whole urban populations. It is thus possible to examine the most complex processes operating within urban society and to apply theories culled from modern urban research. Indeed, because it is no longer necessary to preserve confidentiality, the volume of individually-based information is often better for the mid-nineteenth century than it is for the more recent past. This fact is undoubtedly significant in explaining the upsurge of interest in nineteenth-century towns, particularly focusing on the period 1841-1881 for which detailed census enumerators’ returns are available. This mass of factual data also allows the reinterpretation of contemporary accounts of the process of urbanization, since their accuracy can be checked against precise statistical information which can often be analysed in spatial terms.

Data and method

Unusually for historical researchers, the student of the nineteenth-century town is often faced with a surfeit of data, alt...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• Preface
• Part One - Introduction
• Part Two - Housing and the Nineteenth-Century Urban Environment
• Part Three - Retailing and the Nineteenth-Century Urban Economy
• Part Four - The Social Structure of the Nineteenth-Century Town
• Part Five - Conclusions
• The Contributors
• Index