‘Houseless — Homeless — Hopeless!’: Suburbs, Slums and Ghosts: 1830–1870

Abstract

Suburbs have been a feature of London for centuries, yet London’s first recognisably modern suburbs, in the sense of living permanently near the city but not part of it began to appear in the latter decades of the eighteenth century with the establishment of single-family large detached houses, set in landscaped parks, at Clapham and Regent’s Park West. ‘By the second half of the eighteenth century’ Robert Fishman argues, ‘all the elements were in place for the creation of modern suburbia’ (Fishman, 1987: 26). These were grandly aristocratic suburbs pioneered by affluent Evangelists, including the Wilberforce and Macaulay families. This was the first attempt to carve out a dedicated domestic zone close to, and dependent on, the urban centre.