London Residents Research Articles

A Study on Food Supply during the Great Plague of London in 1665

In 1665, the Great Plague swept through London, killing nearly 100,000 people. The London municipal government issued a decree to control the development of the epidemic. Its primary task was to ensure adequate food supply for residents, in order to stabilize social order. If a large number of deaths were caused by food shortage, it was likely to lead to riots and insurrections. Therefore, the government had established a relatively mature food supply system by regulating the market to stabilize prices, ensuring various food supply channels and arranging food delivery persons to deliver food. Merchants and people also took various measures to help each other to ensure food supplies, so that fewer people died of famine in the Great Plague of London in 1665. The epidemic prevention measures taken by the London government and residents at both the food supply and consumption end have effectively solved the food shortage caused by the outbreak of the epidemic and quickly stabilized the public sentiment, which provides a reference for countries under the epidemic to further improve their national governance mechanism and response mechanism to large public health emergencies.

Mutual Aid in north London during the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Between March and June 2020, residents in north London faced the Covid-19 pandemic by creating neighbourhood Mutual Aid groups on WhatsApp and Facebook. These groups not only addressed basic survival needs such as bringing groceries and medicines to infected people, the elderly, and other vulnerable populations in quarantine; they also offered opportunities for social interactions between strangers living in the same neighbourhood during lockdown. Their success was linked to their rapid mobilization, adaptability and local knowledge. A study of their meso-level organization on Facebook shows that we should pay attention to the potential for mobilization of these grassroots structures. Their bottom-up organization, based on the principle ‘Solidarity not Charity’, showed a singular way to express dissent with policy response to the pandemic, and brought them closer to the horizontal social movements of the 2010s.

GENDERED GEOGRAPHIES OF POWER

This paper poses a parallel analysis of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Jean Rhys’s Voyage in the Dark, two novels set in London around the First World War that complement one another with regard to representation of women in the city. In focus are Woolf’s and Rhys’s heroines who belong different social classes. With a view to producing a fuller picture of the London strata of the time, the essay concentrates on a dual front: it examines the position the protagonists enjoy in respect to their gender as well as in respect to their social status. While Rhys’s Anna is a young woman from a distant colony, that is an outsider with no permanent residence in London, Woolf’s Clarissa Dalloway, however seemingly privileged, is greatly disadvantaged by her restricted experience of the metropolis. The essay argues that in these two novels London is a source of double marginalisation – a city unjust to the colonial subjects but unjust to women of all strata. As a theoretical background, the essay uses the concept of gendered geographies of power, which are supposed to help us reveal how different power structures affect the cityscape on both macro and micro level.

The public and its assets: Performing appraisal and advocacy for blue and green infrastructure in London, England

London's water sector professionals seek to secure public funds for blue and green infrastructure projects while also engaging with local advocates for river improvement. This paper argues that current project appraisal practice forms a barrier to aligning public investment with local demand because justifying investment requires the enactment of a utilitarian public good that is at odds with the non-instrumental values motivating local advocacy. Drawing on qualitative evidence and performativity theory, we show how the appraisal practices of water sector professionals and the environmental advocacy of London residents both enact publics in different arenas of water management: appraisal enacts a general public to secure funding, while advocacy enacts a particular public that serves to articulate local demand for environmental improvement. Whereas the performativity of a general public works through demonstrating nature's economic value to people, the performativity of local publics is animated by people's responsibility towards nature. We find that the general public that is enacted through cost-benefit analysis legitimizes public expenditure on readily demonstrable economic benefits, such as flood risk mitigation, while withholding funds from the water quality improvement valued by local publics. Comparing the performativities of general and local publics, we discuss the conditions under which appraisal and advocacy practices enact their respective underlying values. We conclude that the current appraisal practice frustrates the delivery of blue and green infrastructure projects that would respond to local demand for improving rivers.

“Room[s] of her Own”: Libraries and Residences in the Later Career of Mary Hays, 1814–1828

ABSTRACT Mary Hays’s use of private and public libraries, as well as circulating and subscription libraries, began during the period in which she researched and composed her six volumes of Female Biography (1798-1803). Her use of libraries resurfaced in the final phase of her career (1814-28), revealing much about the strategic locations of her residences in central London and elsewhere, especially Bristol, where her involvement with a benevolent society helped propel two publications (The Brothers and Family Annals) as well as her introduction to a circle of women writers, printers and booksellers previously unexplored in relation to Hays. Upon her return to London, Hays developed a mentoring relationship with Mary Ann Starling Hookham (1801-76), the wife of Thomas Hookham, proprietor of Hookham’s Circulating Library and Reading Room, and later with Matilda Mary Hays (1820-97), one of Hays’s many nieces who benefited from her vast knowledge and opinions derived from a lifetime of reading and research.

Delivering higher density suburban development: The impact of building design and residents’ attitudes

The urgent need for housing in London will be met almost exclusively through building on brownfield sites. While Inner and suburban Outer London are both home to a range of brownfield sites, the politics of delivering new housing varies between the two. First, Outer London is built at significantly lower density and therefore densification has a more noticeable impact. Second, many residents in Outer London value living at lower density and will see densification as undermining that which they value. Third, homeownership is more common in Outer London and as housing is the most significant asset for most homeowners any threat to its value is likely to be strongly resisted. Our research tests whether design can positively impact both the perception and acceptability of densification. For this, we run a randomised control trial presenting 939 Outer London residents with simulated images representing different design features. We find that the effects of building design are limited and relate almost exclusively to low and medium density options. Our research shows that vernacular design can make some increase in density acceptable but for significantly higher density the influence of design declines. As density increases, the perception and acceptability of density are more influenced by people’s views on, for example, the extent of London’s housing crisis. This indicates that planners and politicians must reach beyond design and seek to better inform and persuade residents about housing need if the impasse on densification is to be overcome.

Police visibility, trust in police fairness, and collective efficacy: A multilevel Structural Equation Model

Areas high in collective efficacy – where residents know and trust one another and are willing to intervene to solve neighbourhood problems – tend to experience less crime. Policing is thought to be one antecedent to collective efficacy, but little empirical research has explored this question. Using three waves of survey data collected from London residents over three consecutive years, and multilevel Structural Equation Modelling, this study tested the impact of police visibility and police–community engagement on collective efficacy. We explored direct effects as well as indirect effects through trust in police. The findings showed levels of police visibility predicted trust in police. Trust in police fairness, in turn, predicted collective efficacy. There was a small indirect relationship between police visibility and collective efficacy, through trust in police fairness. In other words, police presence in neighbourhoods was associated with more positive views about officer behaviour, which in turn was associated with collective efficacy. The findings have important implications for policies designed to build stronger, more resilient communities.

Urinary Amino-Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Urban Residents: Finding a Biomarker for Residential Exposure to Diesel Traffic.

Despite substantial evidence of marked exposure to and ill-health effects from diesel exhaust (DE) emissions among occupational population (e.g., miners, truck drivers, and taxi drivers), it is less understood to what extent non-occupational population was exposed to DE among various combustion sources, largely due to the lack of biomarkers that would indicate specific exposure to DE. We evaluated whether urinary amino-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (APAHs), such as major metabolites of DE-specific nitrated PAHs, can be used as DE exposure biomarkers in residential settings. We measured five urinary APAHs in 177 urine samples from 98 UK residents, 89 (91%) of them were London residents, and estimated their residential proximity to various traffic indicators (e.g., the road type, road length, traffic flow, and traffic volume). Participants living within 100 m of major roads exhibited increased levels of all five APAHs, among which 2-amino-fluorene (2-AFLU) reached statistical significance (p < 0.05). We estimated that a 10 m increase in the length of nearby major roads (<100 m) was associated with a 4.4% (95% CI of 1.1 to 7.6%) increase in 2-AFLU levels. Levels of 2-AFLU were significantly associated with the traffic flow of nearby buses and heavy-duty vehicles but not motorbikes, taxis, or coaches. We did not observe a significant association between distance to major roads or the sum of the major road length within 100 m with the other four biomarker concentrations. These results suggest the use of urinary 2-AFLU as a biomarker of DE exposure in urban residents.

The everyday lived experiences of Airbnbification in London

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of Airbnb on the everyday lived experiences of residents in London. We focus on three spatial scales – the city, neighbourhood, and an individual building. Short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb have transformed socio-cultural urban landscapes by turning homes into informal hotels. We argue that many of the consequences of Airbnb echo and support those of gentrification; this includes indirect displacement, buy-to-let investment, and transient communities. Using mixed-methods, including geodata, online surveys, focus groups, resident diaries, and auto/ethnography, we explore the impact of Airbnb across London, in Kensington, and inside a specific building on Kensington High Street.

Air Travel and Urbanity: The Role of Migration, Social Networks, Airport Accessibility, and ‘Rebound’

Residents of urban areas, and particularly urban cores, have higher levels of long-distance travel activity and related emissions, mostly on account of greater frequency of air travel. This relationship typically remains after controlling for basic socio-economic correlates of long-distance travel. There is an ongoing debate in the literature about what causes this association, and whether it calls into question urban densification strategies. Understanding this is important from a climate policy perspective. In this article, we investigate the role of three factors: i) access to airports; ii) the concentration of people with migration background and/or geographically dispersed social networks in urban areas; and iii) greater air travel by urban residents without cars (‘rebound effect’). We use representative survey data for the UK including information on respondents’ air travel frequency for private purposes and derive estimates of greenhouse gas emissions. The dataset also includes detailed information on migration generation, residential location of close family and friends, car ownership and use, as well as low-level geographical identifiers. The findings of regression analysis show that Greater London residents stand out in terms of emissions from air travel. Airport accessibility, migration background, and dispersion of social networks each explain part of this association, whereas we find no evidence of a rebound effect. However, proximity to town centres remains associated with higher emissions after accounting for these issues, indicating that this association is due to other factors than those considered here. We conclude by discussing implications for urban and climate policy, as well as future research.

Common Factors of Stress Change under the First COVID-19 Outbreak as Observed in Four Global Cities

Research focusing on stress change comparing before and after being affected by the first COVID-19 outbreak is still limited. This study examined the model between the stress changes during the first COVID-19 outbreak and social attributes (age, sex, occupation, etc.) among residents of four cities around the globe. We obtained 741 valid responses from the residents of London (11.5%), New York (13.8%), Amsterdam (11.7%), and Tokyo (53.4%), through a web-based questionnaire survey conducted in collaboration with a private research firm. We identified 16 statistically significant variables out of 36 explanatory variables, which explained a significant stress change compared to the pre-outbreak period. This result showed that whether living alone or not and the number of times going out for walk or jogging during the first COVID-19 outbreak were the explanatory variables with higher significance for the reduced stress. In addition, those who lived in a place different from their hometowns, who were dissatisfied with their work or their family relationships were more stressed, with statistically significant differences.

Investigating the impact of COVID-19 on primary care antibiotic prescribing in North West London across two epidemic waves

ObjectivesWe investigated the impact of COVID-19 and national pandemic response on primary care antibiotic prescribing in London. MethodsIndividual prescribing records between 2015 and 2020 for 2 million residents in north west London were analysed. Prescribing records were linked to SARS-CoV-2 test results. Prescribing volumes, in total, and stratified by patient characteristics, antibiotic class and AWaRe classification, were investigated. Interrupted time series analysis was performed to detect measurable change in the trend of prescribing volume since the national lockdown in March 2020, immediately before the first COVID-19 peak in London. ResultsRecords covering 366 059 patients, 730 001 antibiotic items and 848 201 SARS-CoV-2 tests between January and November 2020 were analysed. Before March 2020, there was a background downward trend (decreasing by 584 items/month) in primary care antibiotic prescribing. This reduction rate accelerated to 3504 items/month from March 2020. This rate of decrease was sustained beyond the initial peak, continuing into winter and the second peak. Despite an overall reduction in prescribing volume, co-amoxiclav, a broad-spectrum “Access” antibiotic, prescribing rose by 70.1% in patients aged 50 and older from February to April. Commonly prescribed antibiotics within 14 days of a positive SARS-CoV-2 test were amoxicillin (863/2474, 34.9%) and doxycycline (678/2474, 27.4%). This aligned with national guidelines on management of community pneumonia of unclear cause. The proportion of “Watch” antibiotics used decreased during the peak in COVID-19. DiscussionA sustained reduction in community antibiotic prescribing has been observed since the first lockdown. Investigation of community-onset infectious diseases and potential unintended consequences of reduced prescribing is urgently needed.

Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me—A Memoir by Deirdre Bair

Reviewed by: Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me—A Memoir by Deirdre Bair Alice J. Strange Bair, Deirdre. Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me—A Memoir. Doubleday, 2019. ISBN 978-0-385-54245-6. Pp. 347. Bair recalls two decades of her life, which were intertwined with the lives of Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir, whose biographies she researched and wrote in the 1970s and 1980s. Beckett and Beauvoir lived in the Montparnasse area of Paris, where Bair met with them numerous times, first Beckett, in cafés, and then Beauvoir, in her small apartment. The work encompasses implicit lessons for biographers while portraying the personalities of her subjects and her own work habits. The account begins in 1971, when Bair was completing a dissertation on Beckett. Failing to secure an academic job, she daringly wrote to Beckett to propose her first biography. To her surprise, he casually agreed to the project and she was off on her first trip to Paris. When she met him, she realized that he was doubtful about her abilities, although he promised to neither help nor hinder her work. Seven years later, Beckett's biography was complete. During this time, Bair was juggling family duties and patching together financial support through grants and part-time teaching. Beckett was not available for in-depth interviews, but he directed her to friends and relatives for information. Bair visited Beckett's residences in Dublin and London and spoke to anyone who had known him at any stage of his life. In interviews, informants sometimes tried to sway her opinion of Beckett to agree with theirs or exaggerated their importance in his life. Bair did not consider any detail as factual without corroboration by two credible sources. Following complications with agents and publishers, another lesson for biographers, the work was published in 1978. It was generally well-received but criticized by some old-guard Beckett scholars, mostly male, who questioned her status as his biographer. Nonetheless, Bair continued her career and her frequent trips to Paris. She approached her next subject, Simone de Beauvoir, with the same trepidation. Beauvoir not only accepted Bair as a biographer but invited her into her small apartment for dozens of interviews, concluding each afternoon session with a relaxing drink. Unlike the formal and reserved Beckett, who frequently failed to appear for their appointments, Beauvoir welcomed Bair's company and talked freely about herself. Again, Bair met with the family and friends of her subject, and, unlike with Beckett, occasionally joined Beauvoir on social occasions. Her meeting with Beauvoir's sister is memorable, and her detailed description of Beauvoir's life during her final years is the work's most compelling aspect. When Beauvoir died unexpectedly in 1986, before the biography was completed, Bair felt a deep personal loss. She was among the prominent group of mourners who led the cortège from the hospital to the Montparnasse cemetery. Her biography of Beauvoir appeared in 1990, after ten years of effort. The work at hand is an account of the struggles and rewards of a biographer, [End Page 246] along with glimpses into academic politics. This evocative and appealing work will be welcomed by a broad general audience and is essential for anyone interested in Beckett or Beauvoir. Alice J. Strange Southeast Missouri State University, emerita Copyright © 2021 American Association of Teachers of French

Displacement and estate demolition: multi-scalar place attachment among relocated social housing residents in London

The forced relocation—displacement—of social housing residents resulting from estate regeneration involving demolition has been the subject of considerable academic and policy debate. While some scholars and policy makers regard such displacement as having harmful outcomes in relation to loss of homes and community relations, others argue that residents benefit from relocation as they move to ‘better places’. This paper contributes to this debate, and to the wider 'post-displacement' research agenda, by providing an experiential perspective on residential relocation with reference to in-depth interviews with social housing residents in London who returned to new-build flats at the redeveloped mixed-tenure estates. The paper employs a multi-scalar approach to place attachment which is illustrated and analysed at three spatial scales: domestic (home/dwelling), intermediate (block of flats) and neighbourhood (estate). The home scale is the most positive albeit not unequivocal aspect of residents’ post-displacement experiences, whereas place attachments at the block and neighbourhood scales are characterized by extensive and intensive disruptions and losses.

The effects of terrorist incidents on public worry of future attacks, views of the police and social cohesion

Abstract Despite a growing body of research examining the psychological effects of terrorist incidents, there remains comparatively little empirical assessment of their impacts on citizens’ worry about further attacks, perceptions of the police or social cohesion. Drawing on interviews with nearly 100,000 London residents, we find higher levels of worry following most domestic attacks. Improvements in overall ratings of the police are tempered by more negative assessments of their ability to handle future threats. We also find that far-right incidents are less closely linked to changes in public ratings of the police and concerns about future attacks compared to Islamic terror attacks. Effects on social cohesion are less predictable. We find reductions in cohesion following some attacks but increases following others.

HIV prevalence and HIV clinical outcomes of transgender and gender-diverse people in England.

We provide the first estimate of HIV prevalence among trans and gender-diverse people living in England and compare outcomes of people living with HIV according to gender identity. We analysed a comprehensive national HIV cohort and a nationally representative self-reported survey of people accessing HIV care in England (Positive Voices). Gender identity was recorded using a two-step question co-designed with community members and civil society. Responses were validated by clinic follow-up and/or self-report. Population estimates were obtained from national government offices. In 2017, HIV prevalence among trans and gender-diverse people was estimated at 0.46-4.78 per 1000, compared with 1.7 (95% credible interval: 1.6-1.7) in the general population. Of 94885 people living with diagnosed HIV in England, 178 (0.19%) identified as trans or gender-diverse. Compared with cisgender people, trans and gender-diverse people were more likely to be London residents (57% vs. 43%), younger (median age 42 vs. 46 years), of white ethnicity (61% vs. 52%), under psychiatric care (11% vs. 4%), to report problems with self-care (37% vs. 13%), and to have been refused or delayed healthcare (23% vs. 11%). Antiretroviral uptake and viral suppression were high in both groups. HIV prevalence among trans and gender-diverse people living in England is relatively low compared with international estimates. Furthermore, no inequalities were observed with regard to HIV care. Nevertheless, trans and gender-diverse people with HIV report poorer mental health and higher levels of discrimination compared with cisgender people.

Application of time-activity estimates in a representative population to a cohort study: the ELSA cohort

Background/AimApplication of modelled air pollution exposure estimates to cohort study respondents most often rely on the assumption that the individual remains outside (at their residential address) and static throughout the exposure period. This method likely leads to overestimation of exposure to outdoor air pollution. A lack of information on time-activity patterns and movement of a population throughout a study area therefore has the potential to limit heterogeneity in exposure estimates applied to cohort respondents in epidemiological study. In the present study, the London Travel Demand Survey (LTDS) and London Hybrid Exposure Model (LHEM) incorporate time-activity information of London residents alongside air pollution model estimates applied to respondents of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).MethodsAnnual average CMAQ-urban (Community Multiscale Air Quality) dispersion model estimates were applied to the residential address of ELSA respondents. LTDS data for ~75,000 London residents were incorporated into the LHEM in order to calculate average time-activity patterns stratified by age and location. Estimates of exposure to NO2, PM10 and PM2.5 for ELSA respondents were then calculated as a reflection of both CMAQ-urban and LTDS/LHEM adjustments.ResultsTime-activity patterns were shown to be significantly different between age groups, as well as by location across London. At recruitment to the ELSA study, London-based respondents (n = 1,037) showed a 62.9% reduction in modelled NO2 exposure when representative time-activity estimates were incorporated. A reduction of 67.7% and 38.3% were observed for PM10 and PM2.5, respectively.ConclusionsA framework through which estimates of time-activity patterns in representative populations are calculated will likely improve the accuracy of modelled outdoor air pollution estimates when both are applied to respondents of cohorts in epidemiological study. The framework described here will be utilised in a study assessing the true association of air pollution on cognition in the elderly respondents of ELSA.

Dancing Diffraction

everything that rises must dance (2018) is a dance performance produced by Complicite, premiered as part of Dance Umbrella Festival and created by choreographer Sasha Milavic Davies, composer Lucy Railton, dance artists Antigone Avdi, Makiko Aoyama, Amanda Dufour, Valentina Formenti, Jennifer Irons, Camilla Isola, Ciara Lynch, Gabrielle Nimo, Claudia Palazzo and Inês Pinheiro and 200 volunteer performers. This article focuses on the collaborative choreographic processes used with the volunteer community cast of 200 women residents of London, as a way to think through the term diffraction as employed in the works of feminist theorists Karen Barad and Kathrin Thiele. Barad (2014:168) reminds us that 'Diffraction owes as much to a thick legacy of feminist theorizing about difference as it does to physics'. She argues that diffraction is a material-discursive practice that can be employed to trouble dichotomies, explaining that ‘Diffraction is not a set pattern, but rather an iterative (re)configuring of patterns of differentiating-entangling’ (ibid). With everything that rises must dance (2018), Sasha Milavic Davies and Lucy Railton aimed to produce a response to the city of London, a ‘living archive of female movement’. This article examines the ways in which the volunteer performers involved in the project engaged in an iterative process of observation, embodiment and (re)configuring of patterns to create a complex dialogue between their bodies and performance site. I argue that the concept of diffraction allows for a critical reflection on how the choreographic strategies employed in everything that rises must dance might open up radical ways of being together, bringing our attention to others experiences, and of asking us to think about the dominant discourses that currently exist around how we share urban spaces and to invite us to think about ways to question, challenge or resist these.

A descriptive analysis of an outbreak of measles and a multilevel mixed-effects analysis of factors associated with case isolation in healthcare settings, London (February–June 2016)

ObjectivesWe described the epidemiology and healthcare exposures during a measles outbreak in London and identified factors associated with isolation on arrival to healthcare premises. Study designWe conducted a cohort study including all confirmed measles cases in London residents from February 1, 2016, to June 30, 2016, and semistructured interviews with two infection prevention and control teams (IPCTs). MethodsWe described the outbreak and conducted a multilevel mixed-effects analysis to assess the relationship between sociodemographic and clinical factors and isolation on arrival to healthcare premises. We summarised the interviews. ResultsThere were 182 cases, mostly aged 17–35 years (46%; 84). Excluding cases younger than one year, 76% (92/120) were unvaccinated, including two healthcare workers. The majority presented with rash (97%; 174), and 42% (70/166) required hospitalisation. Of the recorded cases, 93% of cases (164/178) had visited a healthcare setting during their infectious period (median number of visits = 2). In 33% (59/178) of the visits, the case was isolated on arrival; when not isolated, four healthcare exposures resulted in further transmission. Presenting to the hospital as opposed to a general practitioner (GP) was associated with higher odds of isolation (odds ratio = 2.23, 95% confidence interval = 1.1–4.4) when adjusted for age, gender and presenting with a cough. The IPCT identified measles training using standardised risk assessments by triage nurses in accident and emergency and intelligence regarding measles activity in the community as positive measures to prevent healthcare exposures. ConclusionsWe recommend opportunistic immunisation of unvaccinated young adults by GPs and that occupational health departments ensure their staff are protected against measles. Raising measles awareness in healthcare settings via training or regular sharing of current measles surveillance activity from public health to the IPCT and GP may improve triage and isolation of cases on arrival to healthcare premises.

Authority, autonomy and the first London Bills of Mortality

Publication of population-level data can help balance a government's need for authority with individual residents' practical need for autonomy, even during the chaos and urgency of an epidemic. Starting in the early 16th century, efforts to track the spread of epidemic plague across England and Wales included royal orders to compile weekly, parish-by-parish mortality reports. The City of London devised a novel, quantitative response: rather than producing lists of plague victims, its parishes counted up those who had died of plague and the total number buried that week to yield a local relative frequency of plague deaths. Initially, in keeping with common practices, these data were available only to London's Lord Mayor and aldermen, the sovereign, and the Privy Council. But during the plague of 1592, the City of London's printer posted large-format printed versions of each week's report in public places throughout the City, thus providing free, general access to the week's mortality data. These were the first London Bills of Mortality. Thanks to London's high numeracy rate, many residents could not only read numbers but use tables and interpret ratios. Even those with minimal numeracy could participate in discussions of the data and integrate the results into their lived experience, potentially assessing risks more accurately and making better choices. The fundamental concerns faced by London's government and residents in the 16th century are remarkably similar to those now raised by COVID-19. The broad requirements for and potential advantages of sharing a stream of useful, reliable statistical data with a numerate public also run in parallel.