Urban History

Table of Contents - 2004 - Volume 31, Issue 02  


Getting to know the city: the construction of spatial knowledge in London in the 1930s

COLIN G. POOLEY  1 a1
a1 Department of Geography, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YB

Article author query
pooley cg   [Google Scholar] 
 

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which a young woman who migrated from Londonderry to London in the 1930s acquired and used spatial knowledge of the city. Using detailed diary evidence the article maps everyday action spaces, and examines themes such as the use of visual cues in the accumulation of spatial knowledge, the use of maps and signs, the influence of previous travel experiences and the organization of search and exploration strategies in the city.


Footnotes

1 Thanks to Mrs Rhona Ward for making the diaries available, allowing them to be copied and agreeing to be interviewed; to the ESRC for funding a research project on the longitudinal analysis of residential histories during which the diaries were initially identified; and to Dr Jean Turnbull who was Research Associate on the ESRC project.