The View from the Street: Housing and Shopping in York during the Long Eighteenth Century

This PhD investigates housing and shopping in York during the long eighteenth century. It focuses on the use of buildings biographies. This method links buildings with particular individuals, facilitating the study of how both house and owner influenced each other. These biographies were then used to examine three major themes. Firstly, the appearance and perception of the streetscape, particularly in light of scholarly theories of urban improvement. Secondly, room use and the experience of domestic space. Thirdly, the use of retail space and in particular how the physical fabric can inform our understanding of how these spaces were encountered. This enables eighteenth-century urban spaces to be considered not just as the products of improvement, but as a complex mixture of old and new architecture that influenced the social practices that they housed.