I’m currently working on the history of litter, litter bins, and anti-litter campaigns. Orange peel comes up a lot in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Council bye laws often had specific clauses against the dropping of orange peel in particular, with
‘contested public space and protest in urban Britain from the 18th century to today’
The ancient rights of man, woman, hog and ghost are kept on the many commons of the county. pic.twitter.com/118FVq9zB8 — Hookland (@HooklandGuide) November 30, 2018 A major part of this project is on the long history of commons and enclosure. I’ve not
I’m currently working my way through the council bye laws of my case study towns, especially those produced in c.1890-1920 in relation to the Municipal Corporations Act of 1882, section 23, ‘power of councils to make bye-laws’. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1882/50/pdfs/ukpga_18820050_en.pdf Much of the literature
There are two excellent books that chart the planning processes that shaped open green space in London in the 19th and 20th centuries: Matti O Hannikainen, The Greening of London, 1920-2000 (Routledge, Abingdon, 2016) Peter Clark, Jean-Luc Pinol and Richard Rodgers, eds,
There seems to be a glut of commentary on the decline or privatisation of public space at the moment. In particular, there’s been lots of publicity around geographer Andrew Smith’s research on councils hiring out their parks for events: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/31/londons-parks-accused-of-creeping-privatisation-of-public-spaces https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/01/uk-parks-protection-organised-fun-councils-peace [his
The National Archives, HLG 116/523, enquiry into amenities and open space in new towns, 1968-9
I’m working on terminology and usage this week. Reading through and keyword searching the local newspapers, it is evident that ‘open space’ is by far the more common term for places that we would now call ‘public space’. I will do some
James Greenhalgh’s book, Reconstructing Modernity: space, power and governance in mid-twentieth century British cities (Manchester UP, 2017) is a thought-provoking account of the development of postwar planning, especially in Manchester and Hull. His main point concerns the continuities between planning in the
I’ve recently visited three US cities: Boulder CO, Portland OR and Seattle WA. Wandering round neighbourhoods in all three, I saw similar placards in front gardens, driveways and windows. These are liberal cities, so the most common placards to see were defiant