ABSTRACT
The process by which streets came to dominate descriptions or representations of the city reflects changes in attitudes to the urban environment by the end of the early modern period, but also demonstrates an ongoing fascination to represent popular street culture. This change of focus and the variety of the sources mean that historians are required to grapple with several different representational systems, as well as the context in which these representations are produced. The authenticity provided by the descriptions and street addresses embedded in Harris’s list was one way to imagine the streets of London, but other kinds of documents also made similar claims to authority, such as documents created by municipal governments. The tropes of destitution and disorder linked to the street were as powerful and long-lasting as those linked to the idealised order of city streets, explored earlier.
