The Spatial Morphology of Community in Chipping Barnet c.1800–2015: An Historical Dialogue of Tangible and Intangible Heritages

Abstract

This article presents a case study of the London suburb of Chipping Barnet to show how a spatial-morphological approach to tangible heritage challenges its archetypal image as an affluent commuter suburb by highlighting its resilience as a generative patterning of social space that has weathered successive phases of social change. We argue that the enduring spatial-morphological definition of Barnet as a local centre explains how it has been possible to preserve something less tangible—namely its identity as a suburban community. We show how Barnet’s street network constitutes community heritage through a combination of local- and wider-scale affiliations that have sustained diverse localised socio-economic activity over an extended period of time. Noting how local histories often go further than sociological studies in emphasising the importance of the built environment for indexing the effects of social change on everyday life, we draw on a range of archive sources including the analysis of historical maps using space syntax techniques, to reveal Barnet’s street network as a dialogue of both tangible and intangible heritages that are formative of a suburban community.