The English Urban Renaissance

In the century after the Restoration of 1660 English provincial towns experienced a cultural renaissance. This book offers a guide to the most striking features of that revival: the transformation of the urban landscape under the influence of classical architecture and the emergent forces of planning and a remarkable expansion in the provision of fashionable public leisure. Drawing on a variety of disciplines including architecture music historical geography English literature urban studies and history the book concentrates on the interaction between urban culture and society as a whole. It sheds new light not only on the development of the early modern town but also on the relatively neglected history of England between the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution.