Working-Class Privatism: An Historical Case Study of Bedminster, Bristol

Abstract

Against those who have recently argued that the working class in England and Wales have increasingly retreated into the private sphere of the home, historical data are presented from Bedminster, Bristol where the opposite appears to have occurred. In Bedminster at least, the early part of the 20th century was characterised by restricted sociability, small networks, and a highly privatised, family-centred, home-based life-style. It is shown how the arrival of new industries and labour processes, together with the new leisure industries and necessary or preferred housing moves outside crowded natal localities created a local working class with new social expectations and the social skills to achieve them. In addition to the new leisure centres of workers' lives, the home was thus opened up to more elaborate forms of social use by the friendship networks of men, women, ‘couples’, and children.