London Revisited: The Age of ‘Improvement’

When Fanny Burney’s Evelina arrives in London for the first time, despite being disappointed by the state of the paths in St James’s Park, she marvels at being able to obtain a full suite of linen in less than a day, measured and cut by teams of men who seem to know more about women’s underwear than she does. In the second half of the 18th century, London became the centre of a new pastime, ‘shopping’, aided by streetlights, pavements and an openness that amazed foreign visitors. This is the era of ‘improvement’, with new institutions from the Royal Academy to the British Museum encouraging public learning and new building legislation bringing regularity (or monotony) to the landscape.

For this episode Rosemary is joined again by Markman Ellis, professor of 18th-century studies at Queen Mary, to look at the features of London’s so-called Georgian golden age, and the ways in which this apparently harmonious world was disturbed by the shock of the American Revolutionary War.

Reading by Fiona Sheehan.

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Read more in the LRB:

John Mullan on Fanny Burney: ⁠https://lrb.me/lrep1101⁠

Andrew O’Hagan on Boswell and Johnson: ⁠https://lrb.me/lrep1102⁠

Mary Beard on John Soane: ⁠https://lrb.me/lrep1103⁠

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