ABSTRACT
The chapter presents the two general attentions that can be drawn from this study. One relates to the study of social geography, the other to the study of social class. Discussions of the social pyramid in pre-industrial English towns have tended to confine themselves to extremes. Historians of social class, in their turn, have perhaps not devoted sufficient attention to social geography. Far too little is known at present about the varied groupings of the London bourgeoisie the traders, manufacturers, shopkeepers, financiers, professional men, to mention but a few. The detailed social geography of London depended not only on morphological factors and varying leasehold agreements, but also on London's social structure, the nature of the demand and supply of labour and commodities, as well as the housing market. The London middle classes need to be carefully differentiated and examined at the regional level, not only for traces of radicalism, but also for their attitudes towards authority and property.
