A London street in the early nineteenth century. Except for the costumes the scene would have been very similar a hundred years earlier. Note the presence of animals, the different forms of transportation -- evoking both work and leisure -- and the ways in which church towers punctuate the skyline, helping to orient people to their location.
Thematic Geography
We can study London geography from the perspective of a map, by describing the location and boundaries of major neighborhoods. Alternatively, we may ask how contemporary Londoners experienced urban space and ordered their lives within it. Where did they live, work and play? How did they move around the city and what did they encounter as they did so? What urban landmarks did they use to orient themselves? How did men and women, rich and poor meet or avoid each other within the grids provided by the city's topography? In what ways did urban spaces acquire social, sexual and moral connotations? The pages in this section attempt to address questions of this kind.
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University of Massachusetts President's Office | Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies UMass Amherst | University of Massachusetts BostonResearch Center for Urban Cultural History | University of Massachusetts Boston, College of Liberal Arts, History Department
A website developed at the University of Massachusetts to facilitate the teaching of courses on the cultural, political and literary history of London, with a grant from the the University of Massachusetts System Office, through the Information Technology Council's Subcommittee on Academic Technology, and in collaboration with the Research Center for Urban Cultural History of the University of Massachusetts Boston, the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Five College Early Music Program.