The Commodification of Civic Culture in Early Nineteenth-century London

Abstract

This article re-examines the forces at play in antiquarianism and their impact upon the use of antiquarian design in the remodeling and expansion of London during the Regency and early Victorian periods. It contends that the commercial aspects involved in the antiquarian movement were manifest in the adaptation of the design traditions it retrieved and particularly for the construction of the new shopping precincts in London developed by John Nash. The cultural prestige of historical motif, purveyed like much fashionable taste through new print media, was appropriated to create new spaces of commodification. This profitable regulatory appropriation of knowledge was, however, subject to the disruptions attendant upon later modern urban expansion.