ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a tentative thesis, it helps to disturb certain entrenched assumptions about post- Restoration urban society, as well as promote further investigation into the history of the town during this period (1688-1820). It sketches in four areas of urban life where these influences were felt: leisure facilities, the economy, public amenities and architecture. The chapter suggests the transformation of England into an industrial urban society was occurring in the nature of provincial urban culture, which with some justice could be called an urban renaissance. It concentrates on the way in which two elements, leisure and luxury, influenced the development of provincial urban culture between the late seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries. It offers of why this renaissance took place, of what towns were most likely to benefit from it, and of what social function it fulfilled. The chapter concludes by speculating on a number of ideas raised by this thesis.
