The Urban History Group
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urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
The Urban History Group
@urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
2.5K followers 130 following 53 posts
https://urbanhistorygroup.wordpress.com/ We organise biennial conferences and occasional talks to promote the study of Urban History in the UK. Established in 1966 and now working with the Pre-Modern Towns Group on our conference in September 2025
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The Urban History Group @urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social · Jun 9
📣 Registration is now open for #UHG2025!

We're excited to welcome you to our first conference organised with the Pre-Modern Towns Group.

The Urban Commons: Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern

🗓️ 4-5 September 2025
📍 University of Leicester
Urban History Group conference 2025
The Urban Commons:Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern 4-5 September 2025, University of Leicester Registration is now open for the Urban History Group’s 2025 co…
urbanhistorygroup.wordpress.com
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imadgination03.bsky.social
📚New book!!! So happy to share that ‘Why Historic Places Matter Emotionally’ has just been published by Cambridge University Press.

Outlines a conceptual framework for ‘emotion’ comprised of responses, attachments, and communities built from evidence from places across England and Scotland.
Why Historic Places Matter Emotionally
Cambridge Core - Archaeology: General Interest - Why Historic Places Matter Emotionally
www.cambridge.org
October 27, 2025 at 12:44 PM
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urbanhistory.bsky.social
Really excited about this new #OpenAccess book by @imadgination03.bsky.social!

"Why Historic Places Matter Emotionally" explores emotional attachment to the historic built environment in Scotland and England, and offers a framework for understanding other historic places

👉 doi.org/10.1017/9781...
October 28, 2025 at 4:58 PM
urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
'Segregation in cities remains a major concern in many parts of the world, including Britain, so understanding what people experienced in Manchester, one of the world’s first industrialised cities, is really important'

www.theguardian.com/education/20...
October 21, 2025 at 5:28 PM
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emvchung.bsky.social
If you're looking for the short on my new article, Dr Tom Almeroth-Williams has made it easy for you! 👇👇
cam.ac.uk University of Cambridge @cam.ac.uk · Oct 21
The 'slums' of Victorian Manchester actually housed wealthy doctors and engineers, mixed in with poor weavers, a @camhistory.bsky.social study shows.

@stjohnscollege.bsky.social historian @emvchung.bsky.social surprise discovery undermines major assumptions about the city: bit.ly/3WLt3dl #history
Historian Emily Chung dressed in shades of brown, standing against the grey brick of a Victorian building.
October 21, 2025 at 7:18 AM
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emvchung.bsky.social
Was Manchester really as segregated as Engels said? What kept the rich and poor apart.... if anything? My first article is out today in @historicaljnl.bsky.social and I'm so pleased to share it with you all! doi:10.1017/S0018246X25101246
@stjohnscollege.bsky.social @camunicampop.bsky.social
October 21, 2025 at 7:17 AM
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profbarrydoyle.bsky.social
Hi @urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
CFP for @eurohealthhist.bsky.social session at European Association for Urban History conf in Barcelona (2-5 Sept 2026). Urban Healthcare Architecture: Networks and Exchanges in 20th Century www.eauhbarcelona2026.eu/sessions/#session83 deadline: 22 Oct 2025).
Sessions - EAUH2026
Sessions go to quick Sessions’ overview Session 1 Main Session The Cities that made the Empire: Connectivity and Urban Networks from Late Republican to Imperial Times Organizers Noelia Cases MoraUnive...
www.eauhbarcelona2026.eu
October 7, 2025 at 8:26 PM
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samgrinsell.bsky.social
Re-upping for the weekend crowd. New #OpenAccess #UrbanHist #EnvHums #interdisciplinarity
samgrinsell.bsky.social Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · Sep 25
Very pleased that my piece 'Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity' has been published in @urbanhistory.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S096...
Many thanks to @mctom.bsky.social for organising the roundtable that got these thoughts going back in 2023! #UrbanHist #EnvHums
Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity | Urban History | Cambridge Core
Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity
doi.org
September 27, 2025 at 9:28 AM
urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
Simon Gunn, Erika Hanna and Krista Cowman spoke about their contributions to this book at #UHG2025 a few weeks ago. Very excited to see this out soon 👇
urbanhistory.bsky.social Urban History @urbanhistory.bsky.social · Sep 24
"Our purpose in The Modern British City is not merely to describe urban change but to explain why British cities, in all their extraordinary multifariousness, look and feel the way they do today"

Really excited for this expansive new book coming out in November www.lundhumphries.com/blogs/featur...
Front cover - white text on green background reads: The Modern British City 1945-2000. Edited by Simon Gunn, Peter Mandler and Otto Saumarez Smith. Photo on cover depicts twe semi-detached (possibly formerly terraced) houses on a street corner in front of the modernist Park Hill estate in Sheffield.
September 24, 2025 at 8:35 AM
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urbanhistory.bsky.social
📣 We're looking for a new Bibliographer to join the #UrbanHistory team!

This is a great opportunity to get involved with a world-leading academic journal and find out about the latest urban history publications.

Apply by 5pm on Friday 6 November. Contact Roey Sweet for more details.
Call for Bibliographer for Urban History Urban History seeks to appoint a new bibliographer to compile our annual bibliography of publication in urban history. This is an exciting opportunity to become involved with a world-leading journal for urban historical research. Urban History is published by Cambridge University Press and occupies a central place in historical scholarship, with an outstanding record of interdisciplinary contributions, and a broad-based and distinguished panel of referees and international advisors. Each issue features wide-ranging research articles covering social, economic, political and cultural aspects of the history of towns and cities and supplementary material including periodical reviews, thesis reviews and book reviews. The bibliography, which has a global coverage, provides an essential tool for researchers interested in exploring recent publications and historiographical trends in their fields. About the bibliographer role The role involves the following tasks: • Searching for books, book chapters and journal articles published in the preceding calendar year, using online resources (journal websites, the Bibliography of British and Irish History and publishers’ websites). • Compiling a bibliography of all the entries ordered by thematic categories (typically 1000 entries). • Working with the production team at Cambridge University Press to check and proof-read copy edits before final production. We expect the new bibliographer to be able to start on 1 January 2026. We are happy to receive applications from individuals at different career stages and we welcome applications from historians – working in any context – from under-represented groups, including those from minoritized ethnic groups, disabled people, LGBTQIA+ people, and those who are ‘first generation’ in Higher Education. The positions attract an annual honorarium. Continues on next image Successful candidates will be fully supported by the the journal editors (Shane Ewen, Prashant Kidambi, Roey Sweet, Domenic Vitiello and Rosemary Wakeman). How to apply Those interested in making an application for the position of review editor should send to Roey Sweet (rhs4@le.ac.uk) • a CV (no more than 3 pages) • a summary of 300 words outlining your interest in the role Enquiries Informal enquiries about the role, including honorarium payments, can be made to: Professor Roey Sweet rhs4@le.ac.uk Deadline Deadline for applications: 5.00pm on Friday 6 November
September 22, 2025 at 2:33 PM
urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
Well that was good! Thank you so much to all the speakers and delegates for making our first joint conference with the Pre-Modern Towns Group so enlivening and stimulating. It's #EAUH2026 in Barcelona next year but watch this space for news of #UHG2027!
urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social The Urban History Group @urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social · Sep 4
Setting up for #UHG2025

Thank you @royalhistsoc.org for helping us show we know the value of history @uniofleicester.bsky.social!
Conference programme with Royal Historical Society badges reading ‘I know the value of history’, ‘trust me, I’m a historian’, and ‘this is what a historian looks like’
September 5, 2025 at 3:11 PM
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adam-dixon.bsky.social
Was great to share an aspect of my research with the Urban History Group yesterday, it's been a great conference so far! Many thanks to the @urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social organisers!
September 5, 2025 at 7:18 AM
urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
Setting up for #UHG2025

Thank you @royalhistsoc.org for helping us show we know the value of history @uniofleicester.bsky.social!
Conference programme with Royal Historical Society badges reading ‘I know the value of history’, ‘trust me, I’m a historian’, and ‘this is what a historian looks like’
September 4, 2025 at 10:24 AM
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shaneewen.bsky.social
Latest version of What is Urban History?, published in Korean! A true transnational volume,
Four editions of What is Urban History
August 29, 2025 at 1:18 PM
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historywill.bsky.social
I enjoyed writing my contribution to this blog (see the 🧵) but enjoyed reading the others even more. Very exciting to see how vibrant urban history research currently is
August 28, 2025 at 12:52 PM
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historywill.bsky.social
Publication day for "State-Making in an Age of Revolution, 1830-1880"!

The full book - including my chapter "‘A Dead Letter in the Hands of Local Authorities’? Implementing Public Health Legislation in French Provincial Cities, 1850–60" - is here www.jstor.org/stable/jj.31...
August 28, 2025 at 3:39 PM
urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
This time next week, we'll be in Leicester for #UHG2025!

In the meantime, why not check out our blog series ft. research by early career urban historians.

👉 Aaron Andrews on the past, present and future of urban history (group) urbanhistorygroup.wordpress.com/2025/01/27/t...
The Past, Present and Future of Urban History (Group)
After a brief hiatus in 2024, the Urban History Group (UHG) conference is returning in September 2025. Kindly hosted by the Centre for Urban History in Leicester, which incidentally will be celebra…
urbanhistorygroup.wordpress.com
August 28, 2025 at 11:53 AM
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royalhistsoc.org
Published today: 'Waterscapes: Reservoirs, Environment and Identity in Modern England and Wales', by Andrew McTominey bit.ly/4n4LkxB

'Waterscapes' is the 23rd title in the Society's New Historical perspectives book series, published @uolpress.bsky.social. Available free Open Access and in print 1/2
Cover for: Waterscapes: Reservoirs, Environment and Identity in Modern England and Wales, by Andrew McTominey
August 28, 2025 at 9:18 AM
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jsegerink.bsky.social
📢CfP! At the #EAUH2026 in Barcelona (sept 26), Hilde, Rosa and I are organising a session on the long term history of lodgers/boarders. We welcome papers on any area between 1500 and now.
Interested? www.eauhbarcelona2026.eu/sessions/#se... Or DM me directly. Sharing is welcome #UrbanHistory
August 22, 2025 at 2:23 PM
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urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
🚨 There's only a week left to register for #UHG2026 🚨

Join us @uniofleicester.bsky.social for lots of great papers, fantastic people (if we do say so ourselves), and a reception to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Centre for Urban History!

www.tickettailor.com/events/urban...
Book your place – Urban History Group 2025 – University of Leicester
The Urban Commons: Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern Our 2025 conference represents a particul...
www.tickettailor.com
August 18, 2025 at 8:30 AM
urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
🚨 There's only a week left to register for #UHG2026 🚨

Join us @uniofleicester.bsky.social for lots of great papers, fantastic people (if we do say so ourselves), and a reception to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Centre for Urban History!

www.tickettailor.com/events/urban...
Book your place – Urban History Group 2025 – University of Leicester
The Urban Commons: Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern Our 2025 conference represents a particul...
www.tickettailor.com
August 18, 2025 at 8:30 AM
urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
📣 Book your place for #UHG2025

👉 The Urban Commons: Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern

🗓️ 4-5 September
📍 University of Leicester

🔗 www.tickettailor.com/events/urban...
Early twentieth century picture of Leicester's Clock Tower and its surroundings
August 13, 2025 at 10:20 AM
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urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
📣 Don't forget to book your place for #UHG2025

👉 The Urban Commons: Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern

🗓️ 4-5 September
📍 University of Leicester

🔗 www.tickettailor.com/events/urban...
Book your place – Urban History Group 2025 – University of Leicester
The Urban Commons: Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern Our 2025 conference represents a particul...
www.tickettailor.com
August 9, 2025 at 8:44 AM
urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
📣 Don't forget to book your place for #UHG2025

👉 The Urban Commons: Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern

🗓️ 4-5 September
📍 University of Leicester

🔗 www.tickettailor.com/events/urban...
Book your place – Urban History Group 2025 – University of Leicester
The Urban Commons: Rights and Citizenship in the City from the Medieval to the Modern Our 2025 conference represents a particul...
www.tickettailor.com
August 9, 2025 at 8:44 AM
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urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
Papers cover everything from medieval smocks to the London queer scene in the 1990s

#UHGIsBack!
FRIDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER 09.00-10.30 Session 4: Parallel Sessions 4.1: Sex, Sexuality and Queer Spaces (Ken Edwards 526) ‘Mapping Eli Pritchard’s Uncommon Urban Observations, 25 June 1912 - 31 December 1912’ Lucinda Matthews Jones (Liverpool John Moores University) Orientalism, Leisure Culture and Sex work: Cigar divans in Victorian city life Hilde Greefs (University of Antwerp) & Anne Winter (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Rebels in the City: S/M exclusions in the London queer scene, 1980s-1990s Bethan Downs (University of Birmingham) 4.2: Urban Life Cycles (Ken Edwards 527) Junior Town and City Councils: young people and urban citizenship in postwar Britain Helen Sunderland (University of Oxford) ‘A Happier Old Age’? Architecture, planning and older people in the post-war British city Alistair Fair (University of Edinburgh) School Meal Spaces in post-1945 Britain’. Isabelle Carter (University of Birmingham) 4.3: Spaces, Governance and Everyday Life in Twentieth Century Bombay (Ken Edwards 528) Selling Beef, Setting Boundaries: Meat, faith and governance in colonial Bombay’s marketplaces Mrunmayee Satam (BITS Law School, Mumbai) Bombay on the Eve of the Independence (1946-47): Popular solidarities and cumulating polarisation. Robert Rahman Raman (SRM University, Andhra Pradesh) Life in B.D.D Chawls: Capturing memories and history of spaces Babasaheb Kambale (Satish Pradhan Dnyanasadhana College) 10.30-10.45 Coffee (Ken Edwards foyer) 10.45-12.15 Session 5: Parallel Sessions 5.1: Creativity, Placemaking and Resistance (Ken Edwards 526) Gay Centres: Queer social activism and networks in urban geographies in 1970s and 1980s Britain Katherine Wallace (University of Birmingham) Images Assisting Wor[l]ds: Black history murals in south and west Philadelphia and the making of black urban historicity Gareth Millington (University of York) & Irteza Anwara Mohyuddin (University of Pennsylvania) Reading the Riots: Urban disorder and the right to the city in 1980s Britain Aaron Andrews (University of Leicester) 5.2: Municipal Citizenship, Property and Privacy (Ken Edwards 527) ‘As if this Act had not been passed…’ Access to Urban Common Rights in England and the Municipal Reform Process, c. 1800-1850 Henry French (University of Exeter) Common or Uncommon Land? Normalization of allotment citizenship in interwar Denmark Mikkel Thelle (Nationalmuseet, København) The Rat and the City: Negotiating urban citizenship and the boundaries of public and private Mikkel Høghøj (Danmarks Tekniske Museum) 5.3: (Re) Ordering the Urban (Ken Edwards 528) Deprivation and Assimilation: How the Urban Elite Hijacked the People’s Time and Spaces in Early-modern Norwich Vic Morgan (University of East Anglia) Between a Smock and a Card Place: Locating Industries in a Medieval Textile Town Joe Chick (University of Leicester) Revisiting the Qazi’s Court: locating ‘urban space’ in the port city of Khambayat Aditi Mann (Jawaharlal Nehru University) 12.15 -13.15 Session 6: Plenary - The Modern British City (Ken Edwards LT3) From the Victorian to the Modern City Simon Gunn (University of Leicester) Waiting, Queuing, Traffic and Delays in Northern Ireland in the Troubles Erika Hanna (University of Bristol) Women’s Activism in the Post-War British City Krista Cowman (University of Leicester) 13.15-14.00 Lunch (Percy Gee 2.20) 14.00 Conference ends
August 4, 2025 at 7:09 PM
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urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social
Just one month to go until #UHG2025!

Lots of fantastic papers, plenaries, and a drinks reception kindly sponsored by @urbanhistory.bsky.social

Book your place: www.tickettailor.com/events/urban...
Urban History Group Annual Conference Programme RECOVERY AND THE CITY THURSDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER (ROOM) 12 noon – 13.30 Registration (Percy Gee foyer) 12.30-13.30 Lunch (Percy Gee 2.20) 13.30-14.30 Session 1: Plenary (Ken Edwards LT3) Urban Citizenship as Urban Commons: Bourgeois Collectivism 1500-1832? Jonathan Barry (University of Exeter) 14.30-15.00 Tea (Ken Edwards foyer) 15.00-16.30 Session 2: Parallel Sessions 2.1: Water, Weather and the Modern City (Ken Edwards 526) Urban Consequences of a New Property Regime: the notion of "Public Water” in late nineteenth-century Budapest Veronika Eszik (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) Rainfall, Climate Resilience, and Markets in Limerick, 1899-1932 Erika Hanna (University of Bristol) Thames Flood Prevention in Late Nineteenth-Century London: Controlling urban Space by the Metropolitan Board of Works Rye (Ryuya) Hashiguchi (Chuo University) 2.2: Welfare and the Post-Colonial City in Britain (Ken Edwards 527) Intimate Enemies: Stuart Hall, cultural studies and urban Britain Nick Beech (University of Birmingham) Lonely Londoners: Race, subdivision and the psychosocial turn in postwar London Alistair Cartwright (University of Liverpool) "Race Relations" and Post-war Housing in Britain: Urban sociology and the modes of production debates Sonali Dhanpal (Columbia University) Beyond the NHS: Decolonisation, healthcare and activism in postwar Liverpool Sam Wetherell (University of York) 2.3: Creating Healthier Environments (Ken Edwards 528) Housing Inspectors in Nineteenth-Century France: the crossing-point between state bureaucracy and local expertise Will Clement (University of Manchester) Making Citizens in the Welfare City: The expansion of municipal health care in Copenhagen and Kristiania, 1870–1920 Magnus Linnarson & Mats Hallenberg (Stockholm University) Urban Commons as a Bridge between the Spatial and the Social: Pro-poor housing programmes in Addis Ababa and commoning practices Marianna Charitonidou (Athens School of Fine Arts) 17.00 – 18.30 Session 3: New Researchers’ Panels 3.1: First Year PhD Session (Ken Edwards 526) Forging Identities: Telford and the Ironbridge Gorge Tegwen Hammersley (Keele University) Exploring the History of New Earswick: reform, social mix, and identity in a planned community Sian Broadhurst (University of York) Fingers Crossed: The National Lottery and urban regeneration in turn of the millennium Britain Tom Goodwin (University of Warwick) 3.2: Mapping, Movement and the Demography (Ken Edwards 527) Intracity Transit in Sixteenth Century Paris Johan Smoller-Marcotullio (University College, London) Geocoding British Censuses for England and Wales Guillaume Proffit (CAMPOP, University of Cambridge) Unended Educational Segregation in the Rust Belt: Arthur v. Nyquist (1976) in Buffalo Shu Wan 3.3: Protest, People and Space (Ken Edwards 528) ‘Cities are for people, not for private and commercial motor vehicles’: Public and private space in Newcastle upon Tyne’s urban transport in the later twentieth century Adam Dixon (Northumbria University) A Lightning Rod for Protest: The ‘National Monument’ in Cork City, Ireland, 1898-2024 Tom Spalding (MTU, Cork) “Make the most of your leisure time”: Riots, cold War and the Children’s Playground Association, 1966-1974 Colin Lam (Chinese University of Hong Kong) 18.30 Drinks Reception (Percy Gee 2.20) (Presented by Urban History, CUP)
August 4, 2025 at 7:09 PM