A Tale of Three Victorian Cities: Exploring Local Case Studies

Abstract

This chapter introduces the local case studies, which are taken from areas of London, Glasgow and Melbourne, which were the largest cities in the British Empire towards the end of the nineteenth century. Small, insignificant streets are chosen that few readers will recognise, but they are still able to demonstrate important ideas, which are explored on a larger spatial scale in subsequent chapters. The case studies demonstrate the importance of geology and topography to the initial establishment of the neighbourhoods, how the social structure of the streets exhibit a high degree of persistence over long periods of time, but how the streets are subject to irregular large innovations that change their structure. The innovations arise from wars, government policy, migration, and changes in technology. In some cases, processes of change were gradual, but in others change occurred quickly in response to chance events.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester: My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn,

I saw good strawberries in your garden there:

I do beseech you send for some of them.

Bishop of Ely: Marry, and will, my Lord, with all my heart.

(Richard the Third, Act 3 Scene 3, William Shakespeare c1592, describing events c1485)

… it was nearly eleven o’clock when they reached the turnpike at Islington. They crossed from the Angel into St. John’s Road; struck down the small street which terminates at Saddler’s Wells Theatre; through Exmouth Street and Coppice Row; down the little court by the side of the workhouse; across the classic ground which once bore the name Hockley-in-the Hole; thence into Little Saffron Hill; and so into Saffron Hill the Great… a dirtier or more wretched place he had never seen. The street was very narrow and muddy, and the air was impregnated with filthy odours.

(Oliver Twist, Chapter VIII, Charles Dickens 1837)