ABSTRACT
The pattern of urban growth in Britain was also distinctive. Whereas the largest half-dozen towns in the most urbanised countries of western Europe tended to be the same places in 1700, in 1800 and still in 1850, British urban growth was characterised much more by change than by continuity. Making sense of urban development in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries requires awareness of the extent of diversity, regionally, functionally and also between the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Much of the textile trade was revolutionised by machinery but its growth was asymmetrical. Phrases used to describe two different forms of work organisation. Britain rapidly established a clear lead in coal production. Coal mining was concentrated in six main regions. Many important towns contributed little or nothing to Britains commercial and industrial growth but were, in Peter Borsays words, attractive and fashionable places and helped to develop a new sense of urban culture.
