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Visualization, decentralization and metropolitan improvement: ‘light-and-air’ and London County Council photographs, 1899–1908

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2013

DAVID ROONEY
DAVID ROONEY*
Affiliation:
Social and Cultural Geography Research Group, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK
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Abstract:

In the 1890s, the London County Council began a project to photograph old buildings in the capital. The common interpretation is that this was preservationist activity to record architectural treasures being ‘lost’. However, after 1899, many images appear not to fit neatly into a story of selective preservation. By examining metropolitan improvement schemes and the politics of housing, this article examines alternative contexts in which the images were made. It suggests the photographs acted in political dialogues about geographies of light and air, time and space, and the right place of working Londoners, as well as more mundane concerns over spending.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , August 2013 , pp. 462 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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