SCHOOL OF A DVANCED S TUDY

INSTITUTE OF H ISTORICAL RESEARCH

U NIVERSITY

- -OF LO NDON CMH

The Newsletter of the Centre for Metropolitan History

NUMBER 4 AUGUST 1994

This is the fourth of our annual newsletters, giving you anupdate on our Annual Report which comes out each January.

We all feel sett led now in our new offices on thethird floor of Se nate Hou se, and thou gh we still haveno direct access to the Institute of Historical Researchat least we are und er the same roof, whi ch saves us timeand inconvenience. Those familiar with the building willbe glad to hear that we arc on the sa me floor as thecafeteria, and only one floor down from the Uni versityLibrary ! Our telep hone number rem ains the same, at071 636 0272.

From I Augus t the Institute, and thus the Centre,became part of the Univers ity of London's School ofAd vanc ed Study (SA S), which uni tes the postgraduateresearch institutes un der one umbre lla . During thesummer our computers, and those of the Inst itute , havebeen connected to the new SAS network, enabling muchfaste r access to Internet and the outside world. The newe- mail addre sses for a ll staff who use it are :

e-mai l add ressHeather C reaton crcaton@sas .ac. ukDerek K eene d-kecne @sas.ac.uk01 wen My hill o-myhill@sas.ac.ukMargaret Murphy/

Jim Galloway ftc @sas.ac.ukRobert Ili ffe r-ili ffe@sas.ac .ukM ichael Berlin m-berl in@sas.ac.ukLien Lu u Ib-luu @sas.ac.uk

If you have a JANET link you wi ll soon be ab le tofind up to date information about the Centre throug hthe IHR-Info bul let in board , includi ng fo rthcomingco nfe rences, mee tings and seminars.

NEWS OF PROJECTSFeeding the CityThi s project ended in Jul y. The fina l year was largelytaken up with analysis of data relati ng to the period afterthe Black Death, and various papers are in prep arat ionwhich will link these findin gs with those for the ea rlyfourt eenth cen tury. As well as continuing their study ofthe capit al ' s grain supply, the CMH team is currentlyengaged in attempting to quant ify Londo n's enormousdemand for wood fuel of various kinds and ex ploringhow th is dem and was mct by the ci ty's hinterland .Detailed analysis of fourteenth-ce ntury London 's impacton the regional livestock sector is be ing undertaken by

Bruce Campbell in Belfast. Jim Galloway and MargaretMurphy will soon start work on their new project,Market Networks, see New Ventures.

Skilled WorkforceThe team has entered into the final stage of the projectin a high state of excitement (not to say anxiety!) as itsdeadline looms in Dec ember. While continuing toparticipate in a va riety of activities related to theproject's wide r research network, the AchievementProject , the main concern of the team has been withwinding do wn the research side of the exercise and theserious business of writing up the results. Negotiationswith possi ble publi shers for the book have begun. Avery successful study day about innovation and skill inthe go ldsmiths' trad e was held in conjunction with theVictor ia and Alb ert Mu seum and the Royal College ofArt, and members of the team have given papers at awide varie ty of co nfe re nces a nd meetings. Aninnovative feature of the proj ect has been the series of"artefac t se mina rs" held in collaboration with theMuseum of London and the Science Mu seum, whichbrou ght to gether curators , historians a nd othersinterested in the subject. The CMH will continue topromote the use of material e vidence in historicalstudies, by mean s of seminars and a proposed multi­medi a database at the CMH. It will be used to help inthe teaching of metrop olitan history throughout theUniversi ty of Lond on .

David Ormrod , fro m the Univers ity of Kent, wasclose ly associated with the project throughout the year,during which he was a visiting fe llow at the IHR.

Bibliography of London History to 1939Heather Creaton 's bibliograph y was published in Aprilby Library Association Publi shing, and is available fromBookpoint Ltd , 39 Milton Park , Abingdon, OX14 4TDat £80 (incl. p&p ). We celebrated the appearance of thebook after eight long years of preparation with a moste njoya b le part y in the Jerusalem Chamber atWestminster Abbey, where Heather 's former assistant ,Tony Trowl es, is now librarian. The bibliography coversmaterial on London history to 1939 published up to thee nd of 1990. Heather is gathe ring material for asupple me nt and has already collected nearly 1700refe rences to titles appearing since 1990.

NEW VENTURESLondon and the Second World WarThe Bibl iographical and Information Services' nextmain proj ect is to co llec t referenc es for a bibliographyand guide to sources for the history of London, 1939­45. As always, we are working with the full co-operationof libraries and record offices across London and arefinding a wide range of materi al of relevance.

Market Networks and the Metropolis: the Tradein Agrarian Produce c.1400Margaret Murphy and Jim Galloway are continuingtheir work on medieval London and its region in a newproject , starting in October 1994. Thi s work is fundedby the Leverhulme Tru st and aim s to reconstruct theoperation of the market system of the London regionaround 1400. The principal output of this 30 monthproject will be a book on the trade in agrarian produ ceof the region.

Optical Glass and the Scientific InstrumentTrade in London before 1750Anita McC onnell is ex ten ding her recent study ofsc ientific instrument makers ' workshops in London,1780-1820 , to inv esti gat e th e bu siness and soc ialrelationships between glass-makers and lens-grindersand the scie ntific instrument makers for whom theyworked. Th e new study is funded by the RenaissanceTrust and will last for six months.

FORMER STAFF AND PROJECTSWork is still progressin g on some former projects atthe CMH, notabl y Epidemics and mort alit y in the pre­industri al ci ty; The Textile Marketing Distri ct 1780­1914; Financial Headquarters in the city, 1850-1914,the Oral history of the Stock Jobbers, and MetropolitanHistory in th e 1690 s, and publi cati on s are in thepipel ine.

Some papers from our conference on AristocraticTown Houses are to be published in the London Journal,XIX (2).

VISIT()RSOur former co lleague Bern ard Atta rd joined us as aVisiting Scho lar fo r two months ea rlie r this yea r tocontinue with his work on the Oral History of the StockJobbers. Bernard was on leave from his teaching post atthe University of New England, Armidale, N.S.W. Hisarticle on the project, 'The Jobbers of the London StockExchange' , was published in Oral History, vol.22 (1994).

Among the many other visito rs to the Centre recentlyhave been a group of medievalists from Paris and otheracademics from Hun gary, Germany, Japan , the UnitedStates and Canada.

CONFERENCESTh e visitors from Par is we re participating in a

specialist one-day conference on current research onLondon and Paris in the Middle Ages. Thi s will becomean annu al eve nt.

Margaret Murphy and Jim Galloway attended theInternational Con gres s on Medi eval Studies atKalamazoo , Mich igan , where Margaret gave a paperon Convent s in Anglo-Norman Ireland.

Two further co nferences are being pl anned , incollaboration with the Centre for English Studies andthe Museum of London. Details are enclosed.

SEMINARSThe theme for last sessi on's autumn and spring seminarswas "Interpreting metropolitan space", a topi c thatyielded some very inte resting papers and discussion s.A programm e for the coming autumn term, with thetheme "Metropolitan infrastru ctures", is enclosed.

PUBLICATIONSA list of our publi cations is also enclosed, with an orde rform for those ava ilable from the office. Full er detailsappear in our information leaflet.

BOOKS RECEIVEDHistorical Publications Ltd are publishing a series of usefulvisual histories of parts of London and have sent us copiesof Bloomsbury Past by Richard Tames, Twickenham Pastby Donald Simpson, Westmin ster and Pimlico Past byIsobel Watson, Greenwich and Blackheath Past by FelixBarker and Notting Hill and Holland Park Past by BarbaraDenny. All were published late in 1993, cos t £13.95 avolume and are available from Phillimore & Co. They areclearly and accurate ly written, well- indexed, and presenta wea lth of unfa miliar illustrated material on the ir areas.For those of us who work in Senate House and walk toit every day, the Bloomsbury volume has an especialfasci nation, reveal ing as it does the havoc wrou ght onan attractive and atmospheric part of London by wartimedamag e and, more systematically, by mun icipal andacademic vanda lism.

MAILING LISTFor the last few years we have charged an annualsubscription for our mailing list. We have now decidedto stop doing so because of the administrative difficultiesand expense , but we need to economise on postage asfar as possible. If you would like an Annual Report nextJanuary, we should be very gra tefu l if you would sendus a se lf-addresse d A5 envelope with a 36p stamp on it.The newsletter, inform ation leaflet and seminar list willcontinue to be despatched annually in September.

CMH ne.lVS Edited by Heather CreatonProduced by the Centre for Metropolitan History, Room 351, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU