a history of public space

What is public space?

Has it always been public?

What is private space?

Who has the right to use it?

How has it been contested?

This website is the project of Dr Katrina Navickas, exploring the history of public space in England from 1700 to today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From enclosure and improvement acts in the 18th century, through planned settlements in the 19th century, to slum clearance, new towns and Business Improvement Districts, and private-public initiatives in the 20th and 21st centuries, public space has been contested and privatised.

I am exploring the history of contested public spaces in particularly resonant sites in England, including north Manchester terraces and squares used for demonstrations, disputed rights of way and common rights on Pennine moors, landownership in Croydon, planning in Stevenage and other towns.

I am also conducting a survey of commons and footpath disputes as part of my Open Spaces Society fellowship at the Museum of English Rural Life. Go to: https://historyofpublicspace.uk/my-oss-fellowship-at-merl-2021/ 

I’m particularly interested in planning disputes and protests that have resonance to the present day. Contact me.

Dr Katrina Navickas, a historian of popular protest and public space in England

My job is Reader in History, University of Hertfordshire:  link to staff page

I was Open Spaces Society Fellow 2020-21 at the Museum of English Rural Life

Twitter: @katrinanavickas and Rural Modernism: @RuralModernism

My books

• Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789-1848 (Manchester University Press, 2016) – see its accompanying website http://protesthistory.org.uk
• Loyalism and Radicalism in Lancashire, 1789-1815 (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Recent press

• At Womad 2022, I chaired a panel of writers for Comma Press’s collection, The Cuckoo Cage: Bidisha, Courttia Newland and Irfan Master.

• I gave the Frow Lecture at the Working Class Movement Library, June 2022

• Dan Snow’s HistoryHit, podcast, ‘enclosures’, 2022:

https://podfollow.com/1042631089/episode/13ee7d03c66a922fc552b292897a4cb33bdac080/view

• Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, podcast, ‘Architecture and Protest’: https://www.sahgb.org.uk/podcast/architecture-and-protest

https://pod.link/1562980101/episode/1f5b0b2e216325dd3bb357af05503efa

• John McDonnell’s People’s History, episode 3, ‘The Chartists’: https://peoples-history.simplecast.com/episodes/episode-3-the-chartists

• BBC One’s The One Show, 1 March 2021, interviewed by Bill Bailey on the Ramblers’ Association’s campaign to save lost footpaths. With Jack Cornish of the Ramblers.

• BBC Newsnight, August 2019, on the Peterloo 2019 commemorations:

Writing:

I’ve written for the LRB, Tribune, History Today, and Open City.

• Review of Historic England’s guide to Stevenage, for Tribune magazine, winter 2022 edition: https://tribunemag.co.uk/issue/winter-2022

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/05/utopia-and-reality

• Central Croydon Pocket Tour map for Open City, which you can purchase from their website: https://shop.openhouselondon.org.uk/collections/printed-tours/products/pocket-london-croydon-printed-tour-guide

• Chapter, ‘Croydon’, in The Alternative Guide to the Boroughs of London, edited by Owen Hatherley for Open City London: https://open-city.org.uk/blog/the-alternative-guide-to-the-boroughs-of-london

• Essay in The Cuckoo Cage, edited by Ra Page (Comma Press, 2022)

https://commapress.co.uk/books/the-cuckoo-cage

• Essay on Peterloo for the LRB, 20 Dec 2018: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n24/katrina-navickas/opprobrious-epithets
• Essay on E. P. Thompson, Karl Polanyi and R. H. Tawney for the LRB, 11 Oct 2018: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n19/katrina-navickas/whats-missing
• Essay in Protest: Stories of Resistance, edited by Ra Page (Comma Press): https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/interview-ra-page-on-stories-of-uprising-and-protest-in-the-age-of-coronavirus/