Mobility in Nineteenth Century British Cities

Abstract

Two aspects of urban mobility in nineteenth-century Britain are discussed: the size and characteristics of migration towards towns, and the structure of intraurban movement in relation to the changing residential and social structure of cities. Studies based on published census tabulations of birthplaces are limited by the data to the contribution of migration to regional and local variations in population trends and to the general pattern of lifetime migration, though estimates may be made of new migration over decennial periods. Recent studies of individual towns using census enumerators' books have greatly extended knowledge of the structure of migrant streams by cross-tabulation of birth? places with occupation, age and sex, and household structure as, for example, in a study of Liverpool in 1871. The role of various migrant groups in shaping the social structure of the city is related to the development of social areas in midVictorian Liverpool. Intra-urban mobility, an important factor in the development of social areas in the nineteenth-century city, isstudiedfor 1851? 61 and 1871-81 from census enumerators' books and directories and the processes involved, including the part played by individual perceptions of the city, in shaping patterns of residential movement are suggested.