Dwell I Never: The City of London''s Lost Residents
English
By (author): Cathy Ross
An account of placemaking, people and politics in the City of London from 1850 to the present day. It explores the City's transformation from overcrowded old town into a business district with only a handful of residents. Why did 130,000 people leave? What role did the local authority, the Corporation of London, play in the exodus. The book tells a London story but its general subject matter - how local government engages, or not, with its residents - has far wider resonances. It is well illustrated with appealing historic images of the City, mixed with dramatic contemporary views of the Square Mile's skyscraper landscape today.
The book's chapters form case studies of change in particular City neighbourhoods.
- 'Labourers in Farringdon' recounts the reaction to appallingly insanitary conditions, particularly around Smithfield Market, which led the City Corporation to build London's earliest council housing in the 1870s.
- 'Opulent citizens in Finsbury Circus' traces residents' battles to save their houses and gardens from destruction at the hands of railway companies.
- 'Artisans in Houndsditch' explores the Corporation's battles with national government out of which came five blocks of industrial dwellings built on the eastern edge of the City
- 'Voters in Villages' looks at the Corporation's post-war U turn, encouraging residents to return to the Square Mile via the Barbican and Golden Lane estates.
- A final chapter ruminates on the current 'residential reset' as the Corporation promises to re-engage with its by now tiny residential population.
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