A time and place for everything: An essay on recreation, re-Creation and the Victorians

Journal of Historical Geography

Volumn 22, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 443-459

  Billinge, Mark ^a  

^a Magdalene College   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL STUDY; LEISURE ACTIVITY; NINETEENTH CENTURY; RECREATIONAL HISTORY; SOCIAL CONTROL; VICTORIAN ERA;

UK;

EID: 0030436045     PISSN: 03057488     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1006/jhge.1996.0031     Document Type: Article

References (83)

1. James Ussher (or Usher). The calculation was published in his Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti (London 1650-54)
2. Tristan Bernard, Les Memoirs d'un Jeune Homme Range (Paris 1899) 102
3. Henry David Thoreau, Walden or Life in the Woods (various 1858). Work had, of course, been a central ingredient in a whole series of formulations most famously Samuel Smiles' self-help. See M. Billinge, Towards a cultural geography of industrialization in late-Georgian and early-Victorian England, in A. R. H. Baker and D. J. Gregory (Eds), Explorations in Historical Geography (Cambridge 1984) 28-67
4. Henry David Thoreau, Walden or Life in the Woods (various 1858). Work had, of course, been a central ingredient in a whole series of formulations most famously Samuel Smiles' self-help. See M. Billinge, Towards a cultural geography of industrialization in late-Georgian and early-Victorian England, in A. R. H. Baker and D. J. Gregory (Eds), Explorations in Historical Geography (Cambridge 1984) 28-67
5. George Eliot, Adam Bede (London 1859) 312
6. F. M. Colby, Essays (New York 1904) 161. It is clear that the word recreation was in common currency long before the reign of Victoria, being general used interchangeably with the more familiar term leisure. It was Victorian morality which defined the two differently and thereby opened the cleavage between pro- and in-activity.
7. The recreationists referred to throughout this paper were an assorted and ill-defined group drawn from sources as disparate as the church activists and Sabbatarians, the membership of radical urban intellectual societies and purveyors of the local press. Though they shared a middle-class background, they might be more closely identified as the ideological fraction of that group. Far from arguing then for a middle-class monolith, I refer readers to my differentiating arguments advanced in A. R. H. Baker and D. J. Gregory (Eds), op. cit.
8. The introduction and refinement of work discipline together with its consequences (particularly within the factory system) has been a significant object of Georgian and Victorian studies as well as a vital theorem of time-geography. An early and classic account remains E. P. Thompson, Time, work-discipline and industrial capitalism Past and Present 38 (1967) 98-125. See also T. Carlstein, D. Parkes and N. Thrift, Timing Space and Spacing Time (London 1978)
9. The introduction and refinement of work discipline together with its consequences (particularly within the factory system) has been a significant object of Georgian and Victorian studies as well as a vital theorem of time-geography. An early and classic account remains E. P. Thompson, Time, work-discipline and industrial capitalism Past and Present 38 (1967) 98-125. See also T. Carlstein, D. Parkes and N. Thrift, Timing Space and Spacing Time (London 1978)
10. See P. Keating (Ed.), Into Unknown England: Selections from the Social Explorers (London 1976)
11. Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844) (London 1969 edn)
12. See B. Harrison, Religion and recreation in nineteenth century England Past and Present 38 (1967) 98-125, and J. Briggs and I. Sellers (Eds) Victorian Nonconformity (London 1973)
13. See B. Harrison, Religion and recreation in nineteenth century England Past and Present 38 (1967) 98-125, and J. Briggs and I. Sellers (Eds) Victorian Nonconformity (London 1973)
14. Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867) (London 1967 edn) Vol 3, 204
15. Intellectual provision frequently took the form of the useful instruction provided by Mechanics Institutes. See M. Tylecote, The Mechanics Institutes of Lancashire and Cheshire before 1957 (Manchester 1957)
16. See for example R. Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (Harmondsworth 1982), G. Mingay, The Gentry (London 1967) and J. Cannon, Artistocratic Century (London 1984)
17. See for example R. Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (Harmondsworth 1982), G. Mingay, The Gentry (London 1967) G. Mingay, The Gentry (London 1967)
18. See for example R. Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (Harmondsworth 1982), G. Mingay, The Gentry (London 1967) and J. Cannon, Artistocratic Century (London 1984) and J. Cannon, Artistocratic Century (London 1984)
19. See G. R. Cragg, Reason and Authority in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge 1964)
20. See P. Langford, A Polite and Commercial People England 1727-1783 (Oxford 1989)
21. Thorsten Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (New York 1899) 26
22. See L. Davidoff, The Best Circles. (London 1973) for a later portrait.
23. Sir James Matthew Barrie, novelist, dramatist and creator of Peter Pan. The quotation is from his stage success The Admirable Crichton (London 1902) 55
24. R. Porter, op. cit.
25. See W. E. Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind (Yale 1957)
26. Elizabeth Montague, quoted in L. Melville, Bath Under Beau Nash (London 1907) 47. and P. J. N. Havins, The Spas of England (London 1976)
27. Elizabeth Montague, quoted in L. Melville, Bath Under Beau Nash (London 1907) 47. See also Edith Sitwell, Bath (London 1932), See also Edith Sitwell, Bath (London 1932),
28. Elizabeth Montague, quoted in L. Melville, Bath Under Beau Nash (London 1907) 47. See also Edith Sitwell, Bath (London 1932), and P. J. N. Havins, The Spas of England (London 1976) and P. J. N. Havins, The Spas of England (London 1976)
29. Walter Baghot. An economist, journalist and constitutional expert Bagehot's central work was The English Constitution (London 1867)
30. See N. Sykes, Church and State in the Eighteenth Century (London 1982).
31. See N. Sykes, Church and State in the Eighteenth Century (London 1982). The phrase is the Bishop of Durham's quoted in A. Barrow, The Flesh is Weak: an Intimate History of the Church of England (London 1980) 72 The phrase is the Bishop of Durham's quoted in A. Barrow, The Flesh is Weak: an Intimate History of the Church of England (London 1980) 72 as well as W. R. Ward, Religion and Society in England 1710-1850 (London 1972). E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (Harmondsworth 1963) argues powerfully for the role of Methodism rather than voluntarism, Anglican evangelism or the Calvinist revival in charting the course of Victorian intervention in secular and semi-secular matters.
32. See A. D. Gilbert, Religion and Society in Industrial England: Church Chapel and Social Change 1740-1914 (London 1976) E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (Harmondsworth 1963) argues powerfully for the role of Methodism rather than voluntarism, Anglican evangelism or the Calvinist revival in charting the course of Victorian intervention in secular and semi-secular matters.
33. See A. D. Gilbert, Religion and Society in Industrial England: Church Chapel and Social Change 1740-1914 (London 1976) as well as W. R. Ward, Religion and Society in England 1710-1850 (London 1972). as well as W. R. Ward, Religion and Society in England 1710-1850 (London 1972).
34. See A. D. Gilbert, Religion and Society in Industrial England: Church Chapel and Social Change 1740-1914 (London 1976) as well as W. R. Ward, Religion and Society in England 1710-1850 (London 1972). E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (Harmondsworth 1963) argues powerfully for the role of Methodism rather than voluntarism, Anglican evangelism or the Calvinist revival in charting the course of Victorian intervention in secular and semi-secular matters. E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (Harmondsworth 1963) argues powerfully for the role of Methodism rather than voluntarism, Anglican evangelism or the Calvinist revival in charting the course of Victorian intervention in secular and semi-secular matters.
35. Benjamin Disraeli, later Lord Beaconsfield (1804-1881). Politician, prime minister and novelist, the quotation is taken from Sybil (London 1846) 32
36. Henry James, Notes of a Son and Brother Volume 2 (New York 1914) 50
37. See R. S. Neale, Bath: A Social History 1680-1850 (London 1981)
38. See D. Parkes and N. Thrift, Times, Spaces and Places: A Chronogeographic Perspective (Chichester 1980)
39. A common thesis which linked moral and physical degeneracy together, it was a staple of much political thinking concerning the city. See for example G. Stedman Jones, Outcast London (Oxford 1971)
40. This is not to deny that Georgian urban estates (particularly those realized under the central influence of a given land-owning family) were not produced to a plan or without regard to social regulation. The argument is rather that an aesthetic sense together with an assumed view of social politesse dominated their construction. Nineteenth-century estates and street reorganizations were built to a different prescription in which matters of regulation and civil obedience were paramount. See D. Canadine, Lords and Landlords: The Aristocracy and the Towns 1774-1967 (Leicester 1980)
41. See R. E. Wycherley, How the Greeks Built Cities (New York 1976)
42. See L. Mumford, The City in History: its Origins, its Transformations and its Prospects (London 1961) On the whole, I find Vance's description of the pre-capitalist city far more persuasive than the more spatially ordered view offered by Gideon Sjoberg in The Pre-Industrial City Past and Present (Chicago 1960). Possibly the medieval town centre with its association of church, elite and commerce represents the only real geographical regularity of significant longevity.
43. See L. Mumford, The City in History: its Origins, its Transformations and its Prospects (London 1961) as well as J. E. Vance, This Scene of Man: the Role of the City in the Geography of Western Civilization (New York 1977). as well as J. E. Vance, This Scene of Man: the Role of the City in the Geography of Western Civilization (New York 1977).
44. See L. Mumford, The City in History: its Origins, its Transformations and its Prospects (London 1961) as well as J. E. Vance, This Scene of Man: the Role of the City in the Geography of Western Civilization (New York 1977). On the whole, I find Vance's description of the pre-capitalist city far more persuasive than the more spatially ordered view offered by Gideon Sjoberg in The Pre-Industrial City Past and Present (Chicago 1960). Possibly the medieval town centre with its association of church, elite and commerce represents the only real geographical regularity of significant longevity. On the whole, I find Vance's description of the pre-capitalist city far more persuasive than the more spatially ordered view offered by Gideon Sjoberg in The Pre-Industrial City Past and Present (Chicago 1960). Possibly the medieval town centre with its association of church, elite and commerce represents the only real geographical regularity of significant longevity. H. Carter, An Introduction to Urban Historical Geography (London 1983) and more specifically J. Summerson, Georgian London (London 1945) and C. W. Chalklin, The Provincial Towns of Georgian England: a Study of the Building Process 1740-1820 (London 1974)
45. See for example: W. Ashworth, The Genesis of Modern British Town Planning (London 1954), and more specifically J. Summerson, Georgian London (London 1945) and C. W. Chalklin, The Provincial Towns of Georgian England: a Study of the Building Process 1740-1820 (London 1974)
46. See for example: W. Ashworth, The Genesis of Modern British Town Planning (London 1954), H. Carter, An Introduction to Urban Historical Geography (London 1983) H. Carter, An Introduction to Urban Historical Geography (London 1983) and C. W. Chalklin, The Provincial Towns of Georgian England: a Study of the Building Process 1740-1820 (London 1974)
47. See for example: W. Ashworth, The Genesis of Modern British Town Planning (London 1954), H. Carter, An Introduction to Urban Historical Geography (London 1983) and more specifically J. Summerson, Georgian London (London 1945) and more specifically J. Summerson, Georgian London (London 1945)
48. See for example: W. Ashworth, The Genesis of Modern British Town Planning (London 1954), H. Carter, An Introduction to Urban Historical Geography (London 1983) and more specifically J. Summerson, Georgian London (London 1945) and C. W. Chalklin, The Provincial Towns of Georgian England: a Study of the Building Process 1740-1820 (London 1974) and C. W. Chalklin, The Provincial Towns of Georgian England: a Study of the Building Process 1740-1820 (London 1974) as well as J. Lowerson and J. Myerscough, Time to Spare in Victorian England (London 1976)
49. See E. Black (Ed), Victorian Culture and Society (London 1973)
50. See E. Black (Ed), Victorian Culture and Society (London 1973) as well as J. Lowerson and J. Myerscough, Time to Spare in Victorian England (London 1976) as well as J. Lowerson and J. Myerscough, Time to Spare in Victorian England (London 1976) and later Garden Cities of Tomorrow (London 1946)
51. Sir Ebenezer Howard, pioneer of the garden city movement outlined in Tomorrow (London 1898);
52. Sir Ebenezer Howard, pioneer of the garden city movement outlined in Tomorrow (London 1898); and later Garden Cities of Tomorrow (London 1946) and later Garden Cities of Tomorrow (London 1946) as well as J. W. R. Whitehand, The Making of the Urban Landscape (Oxford 1982)
53. For a specific study see H. J. Dyos, Victorian Suburb: A Study of the Growth of Camberwell (London 1961)
54. For a specific study see H. J. Dyos, Victorian Suburb: A Study of the Growth of Camberwell (London 1961) as well as J. W. R. Whitehand, The Making of the Urban Landscape (Oxford 1982) as well as J. W. R. Whitehand, The Making of the Urban Landscape (Oxford 1982)
55. See H. E. Mellor, Recreation and the Changing City 1870-1914 (London 1976)
56. See for example J. Strutt, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (London 1903), and E. Dunning, Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process: Critique and Counter-critique (London 1992). The trick was to encourage competition, but discourage rivalry.
57. See for example J. Strutt, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (London 1903), E. Dunning (Ed.), The Sociology of Sport (London 1971) and E. Dunning, Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process: Critique and Counter-critique (London 1992). The trick was to encourage competition, but discourage rivalry. E. Dunning (Ed.), The Sociology of Sport (London 1971)
58. and E. Dunning, Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process: Critique and Counter-critique (London 1992). The trick was to encourage competition, but discourage rivalry.
59. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Philosopher, mathematician and founder of the optimists, his belief in the best of all possible worlds was heavily satirized in Voltaire's Candide (Paris 1759)
60. Like much of the flummery the concept was as old as time: Mens sana in corpore sanum.
61. See H. E. Mellor, op. cit. and Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities (Harmondsworth 1963)
62. See H. E. Mellor, op. cit. as well as G. F. Chadwick, The Park and the Town (London 1966), J. W. R. Whitehand, op. cit. as well as G. F. Chadwick, The Park and the Town (London 1966),
63. See H. E. Mellor, op. cit. as well as G. F. Chadwick, The Park and the Town (London 1966), J. W. R. Whitehand, op. cit. and Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities (Harmondsworth 1963) J. W. R. Whitehand, op. cit.
64. and Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities (Harmondsworth 1963)
65. There is of course more to the symbolism of the park even than this. God had created man in Eden and the expulsion had been from the garden. Naturally Creation and re-Creation could be fused in a single mental image - a blissful pastorale: innocent, natural, and redemptive. It was simultaneously original sin remembered and the promise of salvation restored.
66. William Cowper, English poet, quoted in A. R. H. Baker and J. B. Harley (Eds), Man Made the Land: Essays in English Historical Geography (Newton Abbot 1973) 1
67. See M. Billinge, Trading history: the Crystal Palace as cultural icon, in C. Philo and G. Kearns (Eds), Selling Places: The City as Cultural Capital Past and Present (Oxford 1993),
68. and T. Richards, The Commodity Culture of Victorian England; Advertising and Spectacle 1851-1914 (Stanford 1990)
69. James Connolly, an Irish labour leader and significant participant in the Easter rebellion of 1916. The quotation is taken from D. Ryan, James Connolly (London 1924) 53
70. On the general matter of the micro-topography of the home, see R. Sack, Conceptions of Space in Social Thought (Basingstoke 1980)
71. S. Chapman (Ed.), The History of Working Class Housing: A Symposium (Newton Abbot 1971)
72. See J. K. Walton, The English Seaside Resort: A Social History 1750-1914 (Leicester 1983)
73. See J. A. R. Pimlott, The Englishman's Holiday (London 1947)
74. See for example J. Walvin, Beside the Seaside (London 1978)
75. P. Brandon, Thomas Cook (London 1991).
76. See also J. Pemble, The Mediterranean Passion: Victorians and Edwardians in the South (Oxford 1987)
77. See D. Elliston Alien, The Naturalist in Britain: A Social History (Harmondsworth 1976)
78. J. K. Walton, op. cit.
79. See J. K. Walton, Residential amenity, respectable morality and the rise of the entertainment industry: the case of Blackpool Literature and History 1 (1975) 72-89
80. Attempting a further refinement, we might add that the pier - the structure which physically projected into the sea and thereby left the realm altogether - was home to the most risque of all activities - from low-key penny-in-the-slot gambling [later bingo] to naughty reviews and "what the butler saw" machines. Its physical magnificence clearly transcended its original role as jetty, was the subject of immense inter-resort competition as well as significant private and municipal investment. (Pace Blackpool) it was frequently the focal point of a resort's claim to pre-eminence.
81. For an elaboration of some parallel ideas see A. Corbin, The Lure of the Sea: The Discovery of the Seaside in the Western World 1750-1840 (Cambridge 1994)
82. George Bernard Shaw, Shaw's Music (London 1981) 3 vols, Vol 2, 804
83. Robert Benchley, From Bed to Worse (London 1950) 121