ABSTRACT
This cultural void in England has not gone unnoticed and it is often argued that it was filled by the formation of a culture in the public sphere, by the creation of a culture that was the expression of social and economic power in society at large. Habermas defines the "public sphere" as "a forum in which private people come together to form a public, readied themselves to compel public authority to legitimate itself before public opinion" (Habermas 1989: 25). He sees this phenomenon as having a specific site (the term "forum" is significant here), one which is urban rather than courtly, and which is embodied in a number of institutions, most notably the clubs, salons, coffee-house coteries and tavern societies that flourished in such abundance first in the English metropolis and later in the British provinces (Habermas 1989: 30-6).
