The English Urban Landscape

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The English Urban Landscape

Philip Waller ed., Oxford University Press 2000

'The urban landscape is not composed of only functional or solid entities. Its history cannot be depopulated. Part of the story consists of personal experiences, transient sounds and smells as well as sights - the townscape is an ideological as well as built environment, carrying iconographic and mythological significance. It is a disputed terrain, fought over from political, economic, and social causes and for metaphysical reasons.' (Waller's Introduction p11).

Such claims, though neatly sidestepping the problems (and literature) of land- and town-scape definition boded well for an excursion into historians' interpretations of urban landscape. The urban designer raised on Hoskins (1 reference), Pevsner and Betjeman, Conzen and the Birmingham School, on burgage plots and market charters might hope for a brisk upgrading of knowledge, as well as of field and documentary skills.

If so, then this is not the book for you, as these routes into history are barred. Indeed the editor's strange 'Acknowledgements' which preclude the fourteen authors from thanking anyone are also a warning that there is not one reference or citation throughout the work and only occasional hints in the 'Further Reading.' (the suggested 'Bibliographies' seem to have been edited out). Whilst I can remember 19th century histories where footnotes took over the text page, the absence of any credit or guidance for statistics, events or authors is unacceptable in a text which proclaims the academic credentials of its authors and, in density and coverage, can hardly claim to be a popularisation of history. This absence of research credentials overshadows my opinion of the work and cannot encourage recommendation to students for whom reference citation is already becoming a forgotten world. Evidently a part of editorial policy, it would be invidious to illustrate this inadequacy through one particular author - but, has history come to this?

The collection may be divided into four parts. In the first, four chapters cover English urban history from the Roman period to 1800. Of these the Roman survey by Shotter and Hinton's reappraisal of the 'Dark Ages' are most informative in their efforts to update popular perceptions of Roman investment and post-Roman destruction. Dividing 900 to 1800 between them, Keene and Borsay provide some useful examples within broad descriptions but fail to capitalise on the many detailed plans and case studies which could have added depth and insight to urban growth and modification. Has historical research ever connected with morphological analysis?

From the chronological chapters, Davis provides a bridge to the thematic via 'Modern London' which is well-illustrated and, as with other authors here, pays proper regard to Abercrombie and the growth of post-war planning, even to the battle over No.1 Poultry !

The second part includes a sequence of surveys of shopping and banking (by Winstanley), transport (by Armstrong) and, most notably, industry (by Morris). All offer links from process to form, all introduce illustrations and examples which deserve exploration, but Morris is most at home with a creative exploration of his topic, emphasising human experience, authority and time whilst still providing sufficient evidence for the novice reader and thought for those schooled in industrial history.

The third, and concluding set of chapters focus on leisure (Walton), public buildings (Tyack) and art and literature (Nenadic). All are interesting, and the first two draw together previously disconnected built-form elements within the social framework - good summaries of neglected fields.

A fourth element in the text is provided by eleven poorly inserted 'cameos' on places and themes, from York and Bath to the 'Fictional Detective as Modern Urban Hero' with Morse frowning from the page. The quality, and purpose, of these inserts is very variable and although they may provide suitable student 'reading-bites', more thought and editorial direction might have been expected. With one conserved pot-kiln, a large immigrant population, and local authority re-structuring of the 'Five Towns', can pottery really still make claim to shaping the urban landscape? (see Dupree). If nothing else, these essays are certainly provocative!

Here was a good idea which has been edited, or homogenised, into a much more modest work. Most authors seem to have taken the advice to expand a traditional concept of townscape, though some seem to have left the roots of the approach entirely. Most have taken effective account of the 20th century, with the experience of some prospective readers at this site now passing into history. There has been a healthy search for new illustrations (credit to Anne Lyons?) but some authors seem to regard the plan or illustrative sketch as part of another discipline. Not all have an ability in well-paced, engaging description.

As to sources, we know little in detail. The authors do not seem to have been alerted to the interest which geographers, planning historians, landscape historians and others have had in the subject, neither do they seem aware that it is the moving image which has fixed so many images of the city for current generations.

'Get Carter' might be the watchword for any subsequent edition, not only because that most urban of films said much about provincial England (Newcastle) which is not contained here, but also because the several updated editions of Harold Carter's urban geography text might have alerted historians to the techniques which a cognate discipline has long brought to bear on their subject.