London Politics, 1760-1914
Also by Matthew Cragoe CULTURE, POLITICS AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN WALES, 1832--1886 AN ANGLICAN ARISTOCRACY: The Moral Economy of the Crowd in Carmarthenshire, 1832-95 ANTICLERICALISM (co-edited with Nigel Aston) Also by Antony Taylor LORDS OF MISRULE: Hostility to Aristocracy in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century Britain DOWN WITH THE CROWN: British Anti-Monarchism and Debates about Royalty since 1790
London Politics, 1760-1914 Edited by Matthew Cragoe Professor of Modern British History University o(hertfordshire and Antony Taylor Senior Lecturer in History Sheffield Hallam University
* Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion Matthew Cragoe and Antony Taylor 2005 All remaining chapters Respective authors 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-9000-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-54243-7 DOI 10.1057/9780230522794 ISBN 978-0-230-52279-4 (ebook) This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data London Politics, 1760-1914/ edited by Matthew Cragoe and Antony Taylor. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. London (England) - Politics and government. 2. London (England) - History- 18th century. 3. London (England) - History- 1800-1950. I. Cragoe, Matthew. II. Taylor, Antony. DA683.L85 2005 320.9421 '09'034-dc22 2005049203 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 OS Transferred to digital printing 2006
In memory of Cissie Mendik 1916-2004
Contents List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements List of Contributors ix X xi xii Introduction 1 Matthew Cragoe and Antony Taylor 1 Metropolitan 'Radicalism' and Electoral Independence, 1760-1820 18 Matthew McCormack 2 'Policing the Peelers': Parliament, the Public, and the Metropolitan Police, 1829-33 38 David A. Campion 3 Metropolitan Whiggery, 1832-55 57 Ben Weinstein 4 Post-Chartism: Metropolitan Perspectives on the Chartist Movement in Decline 1848-80 75 Antony Taylor 5 Secularism in the City: Geographies of Dissidence and the Importance of Radical Culture in the Metropolis 97 David Nash 6 Transcending the Metropolis: London and Provincial Popular Radicalism, c.1860-75 121 Detlev Mares 7 From 'First Constituency of the Empire' to 'Citadel of Reaction': Westminster, 1800-90 144 Marc Baer 8 Late Victorian and Edwardian 'Slum Conservatism': How Different were the Politics of the London Poor? 166 Marc Brodie vii
viii Contents 9 'In Darkest Lambeth': Henry Morton Stanley and the Imperial Politics of London Unionism Alex Windschcffcl 10 London-over-the-border: Politics in Suburban Walthamstow, 1870-1914 Timothy Cooper Conclusion Matthew Cragoe and Antony Taylor Index 191 211 233 243
List of Illustrations Table 8.1 Turnout at Westminster elections between the First and Third Reform Acts 155 Figures 1 Rioters in the Strand during the West End Riots of 1886 2 'The Mob' in the 1880s 3 'A Struggle for Liberty': Anarchists arrested in a scuffle at the Club Autonomie in 1894 4 Metropolitan Police raid on the Club Autonomie Anarchist Society in 1894 5 Wat Tyler killing the King's poll tax inspector in 1381 (1860s) 6 'The Reformer' speaking in Regent's Park in the 1900s 7 The aftermath of looting during the West End Riots of 1886 8 Ducking of an unpopular speaker 9 Popular disputation at a public meeting in Holborn Town Hall during the General election of 1880 10 James Gillray's depiction of the candidates at the Westminster by-election of December 1806 11 The Hustings at Covent Garden during the Westminster election of 1865 ix
List of Abbreviations ACLL HLA HOTA IWMA LRL LTRA LWWMCA MC MSA NCA NRB NSS NUWC UDC WCA Anti-Com Law League Health of London Association Health of Towns Association International Working Men's Association Labour Representation League Land Tenure Reform Association London and Westminster Working Men's Constitutional Association Morning Chronicle Metropolitan Sanitary Association National Charter Association National Republican Brotherhood National Secular Society National Union of the Working Classes Urban District Council Westminster Conservative Association X
Acknowledgements This volume of essays had its origin in a conference organised at the Institute of Historical Research, London, in association with the Centre for Metropolitan History. The editors wish to begin by recording their appreciation of the efforts made by the Director, Dr Matthew Davies, and Olwen Myhill to ensure that the event was such a success. Next, we wish to register a sincere vote of thanks to all the contributors whose essays appear in this volume. Not only did each and every one turn their essays into chapters with impressive speed, despite heavy teaching loads and many other commitments, but the level of enduring enthusiasm and support has made the project a real pleasure to be involved with from start to finish. Colleagues at our respective institutions have contributed in various ways. At Sheffield Hallam University, thanks are due to Peter Cain, Frances Dann, Steve Earnshaw and Mary Peace for their contributions to the jointly-taught course, 'London: Literary and Historical Perspectives 1728-1914', and to the stimulating students who have taken it; many of the perspectives which inform this book originated there. Many thanks to Fergus Wilde of Chetham's Library, too, for help with the illustrations. At the University of Hertfordshire, Professor Tim Hitchcock has generously shared his boundless knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, London history, at every turn. Finally, and closest to home, we wish to thank our respective partners, Carol and Marsha, for their love and support throughout the project. Matthew Cragoe Antony Taylor xi
List of Contributors Marc Baer is Professor of History at Hope College, Michigan. He is the author of Theatre and Disorder in Late Georgian London (Oxford, 1992), and is completing a book which will be titled Workshop of Democracy: The Rise and Fall of Radical Westminster, 1780-1890. Marc Brodie is Lecturer in History at Monash University. His monograph, The Politics of the Poor: the East End of London, 1885-1914, was published by Oxford University Press in 2004. David Campion is Assistant Professor of History at Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon. He is currently working on a book about policing and public order in colonial North India. Timothy Cooper completed his thesis on politics in Victorian and Edwardian suburbia at Cambridge University in 2005. He is currently working on the impact of suburbanisation and consumerism on the development of twentieth-century 'waste culture' at the Centre for Environmental History at St Andrew's University. Matthew Cragoe is Professor of Modern British History at the University of Hertfordshire. He has published widely on the history of nineteenthcentury politics, including, most recently, Culture, Politics and National Identity in Wales, 1832-1886 (Oxford, 2004). Detlev Mares lectures at the Institute of History at the Darmstadt University of Technology. He has written widely on the history of nineteenth-century British radicalism, and is the author of Auf der Suche nach dem 'wahren' Liberalismus. Demokratische Bewegung und Liberale Politik im Viktorianischen England (Berlin, 2002). Matthew McCormack is Lecturer in History at University College Northampton. His publications include an article in the British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies and his book, The Independent Man: Citizenship and Gender Politics in Georgian England (Manchester University Press, 2005). David Nash is Reader in History at Oxford Brookes University. He has published widely on aspects of radicalism, the secular movement, the history of blasphemy and on the history of republicanism in xii
List of Contributors xiii England. He is currently completing 'Blasphemy in the West' for Oxford University Press. Antony Taylor is Senior Lecturer in History at Sheffield Hallam University. He has written and published widely on the history of mid Victorian radicalism. His latest book, Lords of Misrule: Hostility to Aristocracy in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Britain was published in 2004 by Palgrave. Ben Weinstein is completing a PhD on the political culture of early Victorian London at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He hopes shortly to begin a research project on the life and work of Joshua Toulmin Smith. Alex Windscheffellectures in Modern British History at Royal Holloway College, University of London. This chapter builds upon his forthcoming book, Villa Toryism: The Making of London Conservatism, 1868-1900, which will be published in 2006.