ABSTRACT
Decline and decay are the themes which have impressed most historians who have examined the history of leisure in the early Industrial Revolution. Growth for the leisured is admitted, but few doubt that there was a radical curtailment of leisure opportunities and leisure time for the mass of the people. The attack on the leisure of the people during the Industrial Revolution was aimed not only at the popular culture, but also at the other two indeed most virulently at the radical secular culture. The secular radical culture had its origins in that movement towards rationality in the later eighteenth century which was more provincial than metropolitan. The real impact of the Anglican reform movement can be seen more at local than at national level. In the late 1830s Barclay and Jackson were present at exhibitions of prize-fighting at the National Baths, Westminster Road, along with 2,000 to 3,000 spectators.
