The transformation of the London suburb of Penge from a quiet, rural hamlet into a bustling railway hub over the course of a century is the focus of this engaging historical study. London’s rapid development as a center of international capitalism in the 19th century and the social, economic, and political ramifications of this transformation on surrounding areas is examined. Attention is also given to the ways in which land was used and exploited. More than a quaint local history, this is a dynamic case study that unveils the grassroots impact of urban development.

A study of London suburban-set writing, exploring the links between place and fiction. This book charts a picture of evolving themes and concerns around the legibility and meaning of habitat and home for the individual, and the serious challenges that suburbia sets for literature.

A pioneering social and economic study, which sheds new light on London's social history. Chapters on demography, social and occupational structure, topography, population turnover and residential mobility, and neighbourly relations, lead to a discussion of the involvement of the district's inhabitants in local government and church ceremonial.

Originally published in 1960, the authors of Family and Kinship in East London then made an intensive study of a middle-class dormitory suburb. Here families were more often on their own than in the East End, but, despite the differences between the districts, there were some similarities. The bond between mother and married daughter was almost as strong in the suburb as in the city. Most old people, too, were cared for in both places by their children and other relatives, though the authors show how serious were the special problems of the aged in this suburban setting. The enquiry examined the influence of social class upon community life. This is reviewed in relation to club and church membership and to friendship patterns, and the behaviour of middle and working-class people to each other is discussed. Class tensions, and their effect on the otherwise friendly and neighbourly atmosphere that the authors found in the suburb, provide the main theme of the final chapters.

A revisionist interdisciplinary study of the transformation of England into an imperial power between 1550 and 1850.

A study of the fast-growing Victorian suburbs as places of connection, creativity, and professional advance, especially for women Literature has, from the start of the nineteenth century, cast the suburbs as dull, vulgar, and unimaginative margins where, by definition, nothing important takes place. Sarah Bilston argues that such attitudes were forged to undermine the cultural authority of the emerging middle class and to reinforce patriarchy by trivializing women's work. Resisting these stereotypes, Bilston reveals that suburban life offered ambitious women, especially writers, access to supportive communities and opportunities for literary and artistic experimentation as well as professional advancement. Bilston interprets both familiar figures (sensation novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon) and less well-known writers (including interior design journalist Jane Ellen Panton and garden writer Jane Loudon) to reveal how women and society at large navigated a fast-growing, rapidly changing landscape. Far from being a cultural dead end, the new suburbs promised women access to the exciting opportunities of modernity.

The majority of the world’s population is now urban, and for most this will mean a life lived in the suburbs. City Suburbs considers contemporary Anglo-American suburbia, drawing on research in outer London it looks at life on the edge of a world city from the perspective of residents. Interpreted through Bourdieu’s theory of practice it argues that the contemporary suburban life is one where place and participation are, in combination, strong determinants of the suburban experience. From this perspective suburbia is better seen as a process, an on-going practice of the suburban which is influenced but not determined by the history of suburban development. How residents engage with the city and the legacy of particular places combine powerfully to produce very different experiences across outer London. In some cases suburban residents are able to combine the benefits of the city and their residential location to their advantage but in marginal middle-class areas the relationship with the city is more circumspect as the city represents more threat than opportunity. The importance of this relational experience with the city informs a call to integrate more fully the suburbs into studies of the city.

London’s Urban Landscape is the first major study of a global city to adopt a materialist perspective and stress the significance of place and the built environment to the urban landscape. Edited by Christopher Tilley, the volume is inspired by phenomenological thinking and presents fine-grained ethnographies of the practices of everyday life in London. In doing so, it charts a unique perspective on the city that integrates ethnographies of daily life with an analysis of material culture. The first part of the volume considers the residential sphere of urban life, discussing in detailed case studies ordinary residential streets, housing estates, suburbia and London’s mobile ‘linear village’ of houseboats. The second part analyses the public sphere, including ethnographies of markets, a park, the social rhythms of a taxi rank, and graffiti and street art. London’s Urban Landscape returns us to the everyday lives of people and the manner in which they understand their lives. The deeply sensuous character of the embodied experience of the city is invoked in the thick descriptions of entangled relationships between people and places, and the paths of movement between them. What stories do door bells and house facades tell us about contemporary life in a Victorian terrace? How do antiques acquire value and significance in a market? How does living in a concrete megastructure relate to the lives of the people who dwell there? These and a host of other questions are addressed in this fascinating book that will appeal widely to all readers interested in London or contemporary urban life.

This book is the first comprehensive economic, social and political study of the London suburb of Croydon from 1900 up to the present day. One of the largest London boroughs, Croydon, has always been a mixed residential suburb (mainly private but with some municipal housing), which has strongly influenced the nature of its political representation. It was never just an affluent middle-class suburb or ‘bourgeoise utopia,’ as suggested by traditional definitions of suburbia and in popular imagination. In economic terms it was also an industrial suburb after 1918. It was then transformed into a vibrant post-industrial service economy following rapid deindustrialisation and remarkable commercial and office redevelopment after 1960. In this respect Croydon is also an ex-industrial suburb, similar to many other outer London areas and other peripheral metropolitan areas. Croydon’s civic identity as a previously independent town on the outskirts of London remains unresolved to this day, even as its political representatives seek to redefine the borough as a more independent ‘Edge City.’ Author Michael Tichelar examines this suburb by looking at the suburban development of London, the changing politics of Croydon and policy issues during the twentieth century. Labour in the Suburbs will be of interest to the general reader as well as students of modern British history with special interests in electoral sociology, political representation and suburbanisation. It provides a template against which to measure the process of suburbanisation in the UK and internationally.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1971.