When the Chichester Literary and Philosophical Society was founded in 1831, the prospectus proudly declared: ‘A City, so distinguished for its public spirit, and usually so forward in the march of improvement, should no longer be outdone in this respect, by so many other places inferior to it in size, wealth and consequence’. (Prospectus of the Chichester Literary and Philosophical Society 1831, reproduced in Steer 1962: 3.) As well as acknowledging a desire to improve the intellectual, moral and social well-being of the people of Chichester, and to promote learning and innovation, which were universally believed to have economic spin-offs, this statement betrays a spirit of urban pride (and indeed competition); the Society was to be an ornament to the town, as well as to improve its citizens. Chichester was not alone. Between the mid eighteenth century and the mid nineteenth the towns and cities of Britain underwent extensive rebuilding and re-organisation in order to improve the health, morality, cultural and civic life and the aesthetic experience of its wealthier inhabitants and visitors. For the poor, urban improvements sometimes had less life-enhancing consequences, however. This chapter looks at the attempts of reformers to improve their towns and cities through the enhancement of existing amenities, the planning and institution of new ones and the development of new towns.

It is not usual in social and cultural history to consider the development in towns from the late Georgian to early Victorian period as a single chunk of urban development.