The View from the Street: The Landscape of Polite Shopping in Georgian York



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Conclusion

The aim of this paper has been to demonstrate how the detailed consideration of standing buildings evidence can illuminate our understanding of the urban environment during the eighteenth century.

The current scholarly model places an emphasis on the increasing uniformity of the street façade during the Georgian period, together with accompanying meanings of order and regulation. This study has shown that the actual composition of the street could be extremely varied, including both polite architecture and surviving fabric from the medieval and early modern periods. There was therefore a complex interaction of individuals and the physical environment, of how old and new architectural fabric was encountered and the messages it conveyed. Scholars have highlighted the fashionable architecture and decoration of high-status shopping areas, which helped to draw-in and entice customers. However, in York the high-status shops also displayed considerable variation, a variation that cannot simply be ascribed to degrees of wealth. There is evidence of the conscious use of medieval buildings to project a specific identity, often associated with prominent members of the city’s corporation.

The material remains also have the potential to inform the physical features of interior shopping space and how it was experienced. The physical evidence has rarely been incorporated into studies of shopping and the redistricted space in many shops has not been previously discussed. This has important implications for consumer interaction in the shop interior. While the counter was the focus for eighteenth-century browsing, there is evidence that rest of the shop was also used for display and for sitting and gossiping with friends. The limited space would have affected the performance of these activities and opened up the possibility of social confrontation.

The material considered here only relates to York, although, as has previously been discussed, is representative of a number of other provincial capitals that were focal points for polite society and also had substantial survivals of medieval architecture. There has been recognition by historians of politeness and improvement of the need to identify different categories of eighteenth-century towns, and in particular to make distinctions between burgeoning manufacturing towns and older prominent foundations106. This is coupled with discussion that there was not necessarily a consensus of what politeness entailed107. This paper argues that a similar distinction needs to be made to different categories of eighteenth-century towns in regard to the interaction between the physical environment and improvement and politeness. While contemporary attitudes and attempts to improve the townscape are important, so are the physical realities that existed at the time and how this helped to structure social behaviour. The evidence from Girouard points to large-scale improvement frequently occurring only at the very end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth 108. Even in newly constructed areas there was still considerable potential for diversity. This has briefly been discussed here but can fruitfully be explored in further studies.

Even in London, Mayfair, for example, often viewed as the apogee of improvement, there was considerable variety in facades, in terms of size and decorative detail109. The outward appearance of a building might provide some clues as to the inhabitants but these did not always perfectly align and these was a complex interaction of individual status, wealth, age, decorative details and precise location. A detailed, street-eye view of a town can therefore inform and problematise our understanding of the wider social process occurring during the Georgian period, particularly improvement and shopping as a form of elite leisure.



Acknowledgements

This article formed part of my PhD thesis ‘The View From the Street: Housing and Shopping in York during the Long Eighteenth Century’, which was completed at the Department of Archaeology, University of York. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Kate Giles, for her advice and her warm support and encouragement. I am grateful to the very helpful comments of the two anonymous referees, as well as those of the editor Professor Rosemary Sweet. I would also like to thank the staff of the York Art Gallery and the City of York Archives for their assistance and the owners and occupiers on Pavement and High Ousegate who generously allowed me access to their properties.





1 York Art Gallery (YAG), YORAG R230, St Crux’s Church and Pavement, 1802, by Thomas White.


2 P. Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town, 1660-1770 (Oxford 1989).



3 Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance, 52.


4 J. Stobart, A. Hann, and V. Morgan, Spaces of Consumption: Leisure and Shopping in the English Town, c.1680-1830 (London 2007); J. Stobart, ‘Shopping streets as social space: leisure, consumerism and improvement in an eighteenth century county town’, Urban History 25 (1998), 3-21; S. Tarlow The Archaeology of Improvement in Britain, 1750-1850 (Cambridge 2007).


5 M. Hallett, ‘Pictorial improvement: York in Eighteenth-Century graphic art’ in M. Hallett and J. Rendall (eds.), Eighteenth-Century York: Culture, Space and Society (York 2003), 24-49; R. Sweet The Writing of Urban Histories in Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford 1997).


6 R. Sweet, The English Town 1680-1840: Government, Society and Culture (New York 1999); P. Borsay, ‘Politeness and elegance: the cultural re-fashioning of eighteenth-century York’ in M. Hallett and J. Rendall (eds.), Eighteenth-Century York: Culture, Space and Society (York 2003), 1-12.


7 M. Ogborn, Spaces of Modernity: London’s Geographies, 1680-1780 (New York 1998).


8 R. Sweet, ‘Topographies of Politeness’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 12 (2002), 355-374.


9 P. Borsay, ‘Early Modern Urban Landscapes, 1540-1800’ in P.J. Waller (ed.), The English Urban Landscape (Oxford 2000), 99-124.


10 Stobart et al, Spaces of Consumption, 97.


11 Ogborn, Spaces of Modernity, 76.


12 Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance, 42.


13 Stobart et al, Spaces of Consumption, 110.


14 C. Walsh, ‘Shops, shopping, and the art of decision making in eighteenth-century England’ in J. Styles and A. Vickery (eds.), Gender, Taste, and Material Culture in Britain and North America (New Haven 2006), 151-177.


15 N. Cox and C. Walsh, ‘ “Their shops are Dens, the buyer is their prey”: shop design and sales techniques’ in N. Cox, The Complete Tradesman (Aldershot 2000), 76-115.


16 A. Hann and J. Stobart, ‘Sites of consumption: The display of goods in provincial shops in eighteenth-century England’, Cultural and Social History 2 (2005), 165-187.


17 Cox and Walsh, ‘ “Their shops are Dens” ’, 96.


18 Borsay, ‘Politeness and elegance’, 1; Victoria County History (VCH), A History of the County of York: The City of York (Oxford 1961), 245-250.


19 Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance, 8.


20 City of York Archive (CYA) YA/Acc 163 Analecta Eboracensia or Memorandum of Events from January 1st 1782 by Wm White M.D., annotated maps; Universal British Directory Vol IV 1798, York section, 953-980; R. Davies, Walks Through the City of York (London 1880), 226-244.


21 Royal Commission on Historic Monuments England (RCHME), An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in the City of York. Vol 5. The Central Area (London 1981), 147 and 174.


22 R. Letellier, Recording, Documentation, and Information Management For the Conservation of Heritage Places: Guiding Principles (Shaftesbury 2011).


23 T. Tatlioglu, ‘Biographies of place: the joiners’ workshop at Harewood, West Yorkshire’, Post-Medieval Archaeology 44 (2) (2010), 273-293.


24 P.C. Graves, ‘Social space in the English medieval parish church’, Economy and Society, 18 (3) (1989), 297-322; K. Giles, An Archaeology of Social Identity: Guildhalls in York c.1350-1630. British Archaeological Reports British Series 315 (Oxford 2000).


25 G. Lucas, ‘Historical archaeology and time’ in D. Hicks and M. Beaudry (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology (Cambridge 2006), 34-47. See also I. Kopytoff ‘The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process’, in A Appadurai (ed.) The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge 1986); H. Mytum, ‘Ways of writing in post-medieval and historical archaeology: introducing biography’, Post-Medieval Archaeology 44 (2010), 237-254; R. Yamin, ‘Lurid tales and homely stories of New York’s notorious Five Points’, Historical Archaeology 32 (1998), 74-85; M. Beaudry, ‘Farm Journal: First Person, Four Voices’, Historical Archaeology 32 (1998), 20-33.


26 C. Gosden and Y. Marshall, ‘The cultural biography of objects’, World Archaeology 31 (1999), 169-178.


27 D. Hicks, ‘From “Questions that Count” to Stories that “Matter” in Historical Archaeology’, Antiquity 78 (302) (2004), 934-939.


28 CYA YA/Acc 163 Analecta Eboracensia


29 S.D. Hogarth, ‘Dr William White (1744-1790) of Castlegate “a physician of considerable talent” ’, York Historian 24 (2007), 19-36.


30 RCHME, City of York Vol V, 173.


31 Ibid, 199.


32 YAG, YORAG R230, St Crux’s Church and Pavement.


33 CYA, y9 pav 550.


34 RCHME An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in the City of York. Vol 3. South-West of the Ouse (London 1972), 88; RCHME, City of York Vol V, 143.


35 J. Grenville, Medieval Housing (London 1997).


36 YAG, YORAG R1539, Pavement 1803 by J.C. Nattes.


37 RCHME, City of York Vol V, 176.


38 The York Guide 1787; Universal British Directory Vol IV 1798; Pigot’s General Directory 1816-17.


39 York Chronicle (YCh) 11 November 1774.


40 YCh 12 August 1774.


41 YORAG, R5114 View of Pavement leading into High Ousegate, by an unknown artist, c.1780-1810


42 York Courant 9 July 1782.


43 National Monuments Record ‘The Herbert House, Lady Peckett’s Yard, City of York’.


44 J. Stobart, Spend, Spend, Spend (Stroud 2008), 55.


45 CYA, YA/Acc 163 Analecta Eboracensia.


46 YC 6 November 1809.


47 Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York (BI UY), Will of Thomas Willans of York, prog, January 1810, PR154, f1.


48 YC 8 November 1785.


49 YC 11 February 1783; YC 9 July 1782.


50 J. Stobart et al, Spaces of Consumption, 5, 21.


51 J.C. Barrett, Fragments From Antiquity: An Archaeology of Social Life in Britain, 2900-1200 BC (Oxford 1994); K. Giles, An Archaeology of Social Identity; P.C. Graves, The Form and Fabric of Belief: An Archaeology of the Lay Experience of Religion in Medieval Norfolk and Devon, BAR British Series 311 (Oxford 2000).


52 Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance, 203.


53 M. Jenkins, ‘The View from the Street: Housing and Shopping in York During the Long Eighteenth Century’, University of York Ph.D thesis (2013).


54 Borsay, ‘Politeness and elegance’, 1.


55 e.g. A. Brown (ed.), The Rows of Chester: The Chester Rows Research Project (London 1999); R. Smith and A. Carter, ‘Function and Site: aspects of Norwich buildings before 1700’, Vernacular Architecture 14 (1983), 5-18; RCHME, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in the Town of Stamford (London 1977); RCHME, City of York Vols III-V; D. Lloyd, Broad Street: Its Houses and Residents Through Eight Centuries (Birmingham 1979).


56 Sweet, ‘Topographies of Politeness’, 361; Ogborn, Spaces of Modernity, 79, 91.


57 Stobart et al, Spaces of Consumption, 97.


58 RCHME, City of York Vol V, 147.


59 Green, ‘The polite threshold’, 6.


60 CYA, YA/Acc 163 Analecta Eboracensia.


61 BI UY, Will of Robert Spence of the City of York, prog, September 1824, PR170, f153.


62 Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping, 128.


63 K.A. Morrison, English Shops and Shopping: An Architectural History (New Haven 2003).


64 Davies, Walks Through the City of York, 243.


65 Hallett, ‘Pictorial Improvement’, 24-49.


66 Stobart, Spend, Spend, Spend, 83.


67 Stobart et al, Spaces of Consumption, 96.


68 Stobart, Spend, Spend, Spend, 83; C. Walsh ‘Stalls, bulks, shops and long-term change in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England’ in J.H. Furnée and C. Lesger (eds) The Landscape of Consumption: Shopping Streets and Cultures in Western Europe, 1600-1900 (Basingstoke 2014), 38.


69 Walsh ‘Stalls, Bulks, Shops’, 53.


70 Sweet, ‘Topographies of Politeness’, 363.


71 Morrison, English Shops and Shopping, 41.


72 Stobart et al, Spaces of Consumption, 110.


73 CYA, YA/Acc 163.


74 BI UY, Will of Henry Raper of York, Esq, prog, April 1809, PR153, f127.


75 YC 6 February 1809.


76 Sweet, The English Town 1680-1840, 260.


77 R. Sweet, ‘History and identity in eighteenth-century York: Francis Drake’s Eboracum (1736)’ in M. Hallett and J. Rendall (eds.), Eighteenth-Century York: Culture, Space and Society (York 2003), 20.


78 Borsay, ‘Politeness and elegance’, 2.


79 C. King, ‘The interpretation of urban buildings: power, memory and appropriation in Norwich merchant’s houses, c.1400-1660’, World Archaeology 41 (3) (2009), 471-488.


80 C. King ‘The interpretation of urban buildings’, 484.


81 RCHME, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in the City of York. Vol 3. South-West of the Ouse (London 1972), 68.


82 Green, ‘The Polite Threshold’, 5.


83 P. Wallis, ‘Consumption, retailing, and medicine in early-modern London’, Economic History Review 61 (1) (2008), 26-53.


84 C. Walsh, ‘Shop design and the display of goods in eighteenth-century London’, Journal Design History, 8 (3) (1995), 157-176; Cox and Walsh, ‘ “Their shops are Dens” ’.


85 Cox and Walsh, ‘ “Their shops are Dens” ’, 101.


86 Walsh, ‘Shop design’, 161.


87 P. Guillery, The Small House in Eighteenth-Century London: A Social and Architectural History (New Haven 2004), 40.


88 Walsh, ‘Shop design’, 161; Hann and Stobart, ‘Sites of consumption’, 183.


89 Walsh, ‘Shop design’, 162.


90 Cox and Walsh, ‘ “Their shops are Dens” ’, 100; Morrison, English Shops and Shopping, 39.


91 Jenkins, ‘The View from the Street’.


92 Hann and Stobart, ‘Sites of consumption’, 183.


93 Stobart et al, Spaces of Consumption, 126.


94 Walsh, ‘Shop design’, 172.


95 I. Mitchell, Tradition and Innovation in English Retailing, 1700 to 1850, (Farnham 2014), 102.


96 J. Arnold, Patterns of Fashion: Volume 1 1660-1860. (London 1972).


97 F. Burney, Evelina, Or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World, E.A. Bloom (ed) (Oxford 2002), 25.


98 Cox and Walsh, ‘ “Their shops are Dens” ’, 87.


99 York City Library (YCL), Y769.5.


100 Hann and Stobart, ‘Sites of consumption’, 171.


101 Morrison, English Shops and Shopping, 38.


102 A. Vickery, Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England (New Haven 2009), 128.


103 YCL, Y769.5.


104 Hann and Stobart, ‘Sites of consumption’, 172.


105 YCL, Y769.5.


106 Sweet, ‘Topographies of Politeness’, 367.


107 Ibid, 368.


108 M. Girouard, The English Town (New Haven and London, 1990), 176-188.


109 F.H.W. Sheppard (ed), Survey of London, Vol 39: The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part I: General History (London 1977); M. Jenkins and C. Newman, ‘London in pieces: a biography of a lost London streetscape’, in A. Buxton (ed) InHabit (New York, Oxford, forthcoming).



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