'Houseless – Homeless – Hopeless!': Suburbs, Slums and Ghosts 1830
Notes 1 ‘Houseless – Homeless – Hopeless!’: Suburbs, Slums and Ghosts 1830–1870 1. John Summerson, in Georgian London (1991) in fact describes a fourfold originary suburban typology: i) overgrowth of existing villages; ii) building of remote villas; iii) roadside developments along key routes; iv) development of self-standing estates. 2. The Crystal Palace was of course of crucial architectural significance; the first iron and glass structure in the world, strong, durable, light, adaptable and moveable. It was also immensely popular and, despite its official role show- casing British scientific and imperial achievement, was actually dedicated to amusements, spectacles, games and sports. 3. See also Sanitary Ramblings, Being Sketches and Illustrations of Bethnal Green by Hector Gavin (London: Frank Cass, 1971), 1872’s London: a Pilgrimage by Jerrold and Dore ( Jerrold and Dore, 2004), In the Slums by the Rev. D. Rice- Jones (London: Dodo Press, 2009). 4. See http://booth.lse.ac.uk for reproductions of Booth’s maps. 5. Ironically, this prestigious lineage serves to further undermine Sparkin’s authenticity. Originally, the suffix ‘Fitz’ indicated that the person named was illegitimate, was in fact of Royal bastard lineage. 6. This lack of suburban individual substance reaches a comic, even uncanny, extreme in Great Expectations Here, Wemmick’s intended wife, at home in his Walworth ‘castle’, is portrayed as wind-up automaton, made from wood. Wemmick himself is a robotic commuter lacking free will. 7. First recorded, incidentally, in the 1860s, and according to one source: ‘The cheap, flimsy constructs of Jerry Brothers – a Liverpool building firm.’ See http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/211600.html.
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