Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Cheap Street: London’s street markets and the cultures of informality, c.1850–1939
ISBN: 9781526131706
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Manchester University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Economics ; History ; British Studies ; European Studies;

Cheap street is a lively and scholarly account of London's street markets, which were an overlooked site of urban modernity and the most vigorous outgrowth of the informal economy that flourished below and beyond the recognised institutions of the consumer city. Kelley brings together design and material culture history, urban studies and social and cultural history to analyse the street markets' distinct characteristics. These included the flaring naked flames of their naphtha lights, their impermanent yet persistent unofficial occupation of space, and the noisy performative selling that took place there. The result is a new interpretation of London's urban geographies, moving beyond the accepted view of the West End as the consumer city and the East as the city of poverty, and demonstrating that the informality of the street markets was a powerful force in shaping representations of London and its people.

Victoria Kelley is Reader in Design and Material Culture History at University for the Creative Arts, and teaches in the School of Fashion and Textile Design, Central Saint Saint Martins College of Art and Design