Professor Peter N. Borsay

BA, PhD (Lancaster)

Contact

Profile

Professor Peter Borsay BA, PhD (Lancaster) is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is a historian of early modern and modern Britain, particularly social, urban and cultural history.

Research

Professor Peter Borsay is currently researching the following areas:

Various aspects of British urban history 1600-2000, including spas (in particular Bath), topography, architecture, and ritual (he is currently engaged with colleagues at Aberystwyth and the University of Leicester in scoping a research project on urban pageants in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century).
Resorts and Ports. He is engaged, with Louise Miskell (Swansea) and Owen Roberts (Aberystwyth), in a project to explore the history of the resorts of Wales and the Bristol Channel. The focus so far has been upon the three resorts of Aberystwyth, Swansea and Tenby 1750-1914, and he has been particularly involved in research into Tenby. A bid to the Board of Celtic Studies for funding to appoint a research assistant was successful, and the project got underway in late 2006. As part of the project a bibliographical database has been produced (http://www.aber.ac.uk/history/research/resorts.html); he has also delivered a range of conference papers and talks, and a number of publications have been produced or are in preparation. Among the latter is a volume of essays, to be published by Channel View, which he is co-editing with John Walton on Resorts and Ports: European Seaside Towns since 1700.
The Discovery of England. He has a continuing involvement with architectural and landscape history, which has led to an interest in mental mapping, tourism and the development of 'imagined' places and regions in the British Isles. Such places include not only towns, but also rural and coastal locations which service the psyche of a society undergoing rapid urbanization. He is preparing for Continuum a monograph on The Discovery of England which will develop these themes in depth, focusing in particular on the years between the mid nineteenth century and the Second World War, and an area including the West Midlands and the border counties with Wales and parts of the South West.
Heritage. He was one of a limited number of historians invited to attend the multi-disciplinary ‘Preserving Our Past’ workshop (Birmingham March 2006), funded by AHRC, EPSRC, ESRC, NERC and English Heritage, which resulted in his participation in two research clusters 2006-7 on ‘Valuing the Historic Environment’ and ‘Integrative Methodologies for Studying and Managing the Historic Environment’. His study of the Discovery of England will contribute to our understanding of the early history of the heritage movement.
Urban ‘Green’ Space. Building on work undertaken earlier in his career he continues to research and publish on various aspects of ‘green space’ in 18th and 19th century British towns, including promenades, pleasure gardens, parks and walks located on the urban edge.
Leisure. Following on from the publication of his History of Leisure (2006) he continues to explore aspects of the subject. In autumn 2010 he, along with Dr Jan Hein Furnée of Amsterdam University, co-organized an exploratory workshop (funded by the European Science Foundation) on ‘The Origins Of Modern Mass Culture: European Leisure In A Comparative Perspective 1660-1870’ (http://www.hum.uva.nl/Origins-of-Modern-Mass-Culture/object.cfm/F9C88AED-A7F4-4CCC-97EE3B638765599D),from which it is intended to produce a volume of essays.

Biography

In addition to his role as Director of Research Professor Borsay teaches widely. At Part One he delivers an option module on ‘Stuart England’ and contributes to an introductory skills module. At Part Two he delivers an option module on ‘From Black Death to Great Fire: the British Town 1348-1700’ and a Skills, methods and sources module on ‘Investigating Georgian and Victorian landscapes’; he also contributes to a survey module on’ Early Modernity’, the core Part Two undergraduate modules on ‘Historians and the Writing of History’, and to supervising dissertations. At MA level he contributes to a number of modules in the early modern and 18th century fields, and supervises dissertations.

Additional Interests

Research papers, etc given:

1978

'The Taming of the Landscape: Street and Square in the Early Modern Town c.1660-1770', Pre-Modern Towns Group, annual meeting, IHR, London, Dec. 1978.

1979

'Rebuilding an Urban Environment: the Case of Warwick after the Fire of 1694', Professor Fisher's early modern economic and social history seminar, IHR, London, Jan. 1979.
'Holding a Mirror up to Society: Culture, Status and the Shaping of the English Urban Landscape, 1660-1800, 'Problèmes d'Histoire Urbaine' Group, annual meeting, IHR, London, Nov. 1979.

1981

'Ritual, Popular Culture and the English Town 1660-1800', Social History Society annual conference, Chester, Dec. 1981.

1982

'Ritual and the English Town c.1660-1800', British Sociology Association, Sociology of Religion Study Group conference, Bristol, Mar. 1982.
'All the Town's a Stage': Ritual in the English Town, c.1660-1800', Mr K. Thomas' early modern history seminar, St John's College, Oxford, Apr. 1982.

1983

'The Urban Theatre: Popular Culture, Ritual and Ceremony 1660-1800', American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, annual conference, New York, Apr. 1983.
'Ritual and Ceremony in the English Town 1660-1800', Univ. of Wales History Staff Colloquium, Lampeter, May 1983.

1984

'Racing and Recreation in Eighteenth-Century England', Economic and Social History of Pre-Industrial England Seminar, IHR, Feb. 1984.
'The Rise of the Turf: Horse Racing 1680-1770', Colloquium on British History 1660-1760, Univ. of Sussex, Apr. 1984.
'The Rise of the Promenade: the Social and Cultural Use of Space in the English Provincial Town c.1660-1800', Colloquium of the Urban History Group, IHR, London, Sept. 1984.

1985

'Town and Turf', Georgian Group Symposium, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Sept. 1985.

1986

'The Grand Metamorfosis': Theatre and Music in the English Provincial Town 1660-1760', Pre-Modern Towns Group, annual meeting, IHR, London, Dec. 1986.

1987

'The English Provincial Town c.1660-1760', Centre for East Anglian Studies, Univ. of East Anglia, seminar series, Oct. 1987.

1988

'The Arts and the English Provincial Town 1660-1770', Research Seminar in Early Modern History, Univ. of Birmingham, Mar. 1988.

1989

'The Image of Georgian Bath', History of Bath Research Group, Bath, Mar. 1989.

1990

'The Origins of Horse Racing: Newmarket and the Georgian Turf', Art Gallery of Ontario Group, Clare College, Cambridge, Apr. 1990.
'The Image of Georgian Bath', History Department Research Seminar, Univ. of Wales Lampeter, Nov. 1990.

1991

'Eighteenth-Century Bath Perceived', Eighth International Congress on the Enlightenment, Univ. of Bristol, July 1991.

1992

'The Image of Georgian Bath', The Centre for Urban History, Univ. of Leicester, Main Seminar Programme, Feb. 1992.
'Where Gaming and Grace/Each Other Embrace/Dissipation and Piety Meet': Conflicting Images of Georgian Bath', Univ. of Wales Staff Colloquium, Gregynog, May 1992.
'Conflicting Images: the Case of Georgian Bath', New Directions in Urban History, ESRC Sponsored Workshop, Centre for Social History at the Univ. of Essex, Sept. 1992.
'Images of Eighteenth-Century Bath', Victoria and Albert Museum/ Royal College of Art, M.A. Course in History of Design, Research Seminar, Oct. 1992.
'Image and Counter-Image in Georgian Bath', History Department Research Seminar, Univ. of Wales Lampeter, Oct. 1992.

1993

'Images of Georgian Bath from the 18th to the 20th Century', Department of Fine Art, Univ. of Leeds, Feb. 1993.

1994

'The London Connection: Cultural Diffusion and the Eighteenth-Century Provincial Town', Early Modern Research Seminar, Univ. of Manchester, Feb. 1994; and the Economic and Social History of Pre-Industrial England Seminar, IHR, London, Mar. 1994.
'The Early Modern Town', Historical Association Annual Conference, Univ. of Wales Swansea, Apr. 1994.
'Reconstructing an Urban Environment: The Great Fire of Warwick 1694', Building the Midlands: A Midland History Conference, Univ. of Warwick, Nov. 1994.
'The Economics of Myth', History Department Research Seminar, Univ. of Wales Lampeter, Dec. 1994.

1996

'Music, Urban Renaissance and Space in Eighteenth-Century England', International Colloquium on 'Concert et Public', held at the Max Planck Institute, Göttingen, 27-9 June 1996

1997

'Provincial Centres and the Metropolis', Joseph Wright and His World Symposium, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Sept. 1997.

1998

'London 1660-1800: A Distinctive Culture?', First Anglo-Irish Towns Colloquium, Dublin, Apr. 1998.
'A County Society in Transition: Warwick and the Great Fire of 1694', Second Anglo-Irish Colloquium, Leicester, Sept. 1998.

1999

'Bath: An Enlightenment City?', Cities of Culture Conference, Humanities Research Centre, Univ. of Warwick, Mar. 1999, one of two keynote addresses.
'Eighteenth-Century Bath: An Enlightenment City?', Research Seminar on the Long Eighteenth Century, Univ. of Wales, Swansea, Apr. 1999; and Research Seminar, School of History and Welsh History, University of Wales, Bangor, Nov. 1999.
Commentator on the session 'French Research in Early Modern English Urban History', Anglo-French Conference on French Perceptions of British History, IHR, London Sept. 1999.

2000

Chaired session on 'The Landscape', and acted as a summarizer, at conference on 'Residentzstädten and Landowner Towns in Germany and Britain in the Early Modern Period', German Historical Institute, London, Jan. 2000.
'New Myths for Old: The Georgian Remaking of Bath's History', Cambridge University Early Modern Economic and Social History Seminar, Feb. 2000.
Commentator at workshop on Rethinking Urban Music, Royal Holloway, University of London, Sept. 2000.
'The Town in the Eighteenth-Century British Isles', Connell Memorial Lecture, Economic and Social History Society of Ireland annual conference, Galway, Nov. 2000.
'Urbanization and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century England', conference on 'Aufklarüng und Urbanisierung', Kamenz, Germany, Nov. 2000.

2001

'From Bath to Poundbury: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Polite Urban Space 1700-2000', plenary paper, Conference on Space, Culture and Power, Univ. of Aberdeen, March 2001.
'Concert Topography and Provincial Towns in Eighteenth-Century England', ESF funded conference on 'Concert, Lieux et Espaces Musicaux en Europe, 1700-1920: Approche Architecturale, Culturelle et Sociale', Brussels, Nov. 2001.

2002

'Urban Network as a Concept in English Urban History', Städtelandschaft, réseau urbain, urban network Städte Im regionalen Kontext in Spätmittehalter und Früher Neuzeit, Institut für vergleichende Städtegeschichte au der Univesität Munster, March 2002.
'Politeness and the Shaping of Urban Space In Britain 1700-2000', keynote speaker, Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology, annual conference, Univ. of Southampton, April 2002.
'The Rise, Fall and Rise of Polite Urban Space in Britain 1700-2000', German Association for the Studying of British Politics and History, annual conference, Muelheim/Ruhr, May 2002.
'The Landed Elite and Smaller Towns in Britain 1660-1800', 6th International Conference on Urban History, Edinburgh, Sept. 2002.

2003

'Polite Urban Space in England 1700-2000', British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 32nd annual conference, Oxford, Jan. 2003.
'The Landed Elite and the Development of Provincial Towns in Britain 1600-1800', conference on the Eighteenth-Century Aristocratic Town House, Oxford University Continuing Education Department, Jan. 2003.
'Power, Culture and the Enlightened Metropolis: the British Isles 1660-1800', Franco-British History Seminar, Sorbonne, Paris, April 2003.
'Children, Adolescents and Fashionable Society in Eighteenth- Century England', conference on Fashioning Childhood, Bamberg University, June 2003.

2004-5

'Poles of Power: the Political Landscape of the Late Stuart and early Georgian Town', colloquium on townscape and authority', University of St Andrews, May 2004.
'Myth, Memory and Place: Monmouth and Bath 1750-1900', delivered at: conference on Identity and the Built Environment in South-West England', Regional History Centre, University of the West of England (July 2004); research seminar series, Department of History, University of Dundee (Sept. 2004); conference organized by the Journal of Social History, George Mason University (Oct 2004); research seminar series, Department of History, John Hopkins University (Oct. 2004); seminar series, the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth (Nov. 2004); the Urban History Group annual conference, University of Leicester (April 2005); British Studies degree course, Helsinki University (Sept. 2005).

2005

'The Rush to the Sea: The Rise of the Georgian Seaside Town', Georgian Group conference on the Georgian and Regency Seaside, London, Jan. 2005.
'Innovation and the Creative Milieu in Urban Britain 1660-1800', workshop on Britain and a creative milieu in the 17th and 18th-centuries, History Department, Helsinki University, Sept. 2005.

2006

'The Topography of Power: Elites and the Political Landscape of the English town 1660-1760, workshop on Urban Elites and the Shaping of the Urban Cultural Environment, Centre for Urban Culture, University of Nottingham, June 2006.
'Warwickshire Towns in the Age of Dugdale', conference on Dugdale and His Warwickshire, Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sept. 2006.
'L'essor des villes balnéaires en Angleterre à l'époque géorgienne', conference on Les villes balnéaires de l'Europe du Nord-Ouest du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours, Colloque De Boulogne-sur-Mer, Oct. 2006.
'In Search of England: Reconfiguring a National Landscape, 1860-1939', History Department Research Seminar, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Nov. 2006.
Chaired morning session at conference on A Fraught Relationship? Citizens and Soldiers in the Early Modern Period, University of Leeds, Dec. 2006.

2007

' The Circus at Bath: A Case-Study', Preserving Our Past: Consensus or Collision, Oxford University, Jan. 2007.
'Invention, Innovation and the Creative Milieu in Urban Britain: The Long Eighteenth Century and the Modern Cultural Economy', Conference on Culture, Economy and Cities, Saarbr?cken, Feb. 2007 (paper delivered in absence).
'Binge Drinking and Moral Panics: Historical Parallels?', workshop on Addressing Binge Drinking: Challenges and Opportunities, London School of Hygenie and Tropical Medicine, Feb. 2007 (paper delivered in absence).
'Binge Drinking and Moral Panics: Hogarth and Historical Parallels', Conference on the Lower Sorts in the Eighteenth Century, Gregynog, April 2007.
'The Rise of the Seaside Town in Georgian Britain', Research Seminar, Institut de Recherches sur les Civilisations de l'Occident Moderne, Sorbonne Paris IV, May 2007.
'Waddling to the Waters': The Rise of the Seaside Town in Georgian Britain', Conference on Urban Living: Society, Culture and Politics in the English Town, 1700-1850, University of Northampton, July 2007.
'Current Research into Welsh Seaside Towns', Seaside Heritage – Celebrating the Past, Shaping the Future, English Heritage Conference, Hastings, October 2007.

2008

'Pleasure Gardens and Urban Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century', keynote paper, at Vauxhall Revisited conference, Tate Britain, London, July 2008.
'The Seaside Watering-places of Wales', IXth International Conference on Urban History, European Association of Urban Historians, Lyons , August 2008.
'Spas, Seaside Resorts and Cultural Dynamics in the Long Eighteenth Century', HERA Workshop, Leicester, December, 2008.

2009

'Walks and Promenades in London and Provincial Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century', Colloque on 'La Promenade au Tournant des XVIIIe et XIXe Siècles Belgique-Europe', Université Libre de Bruxelles, February 2009.
'City Status in Georgian England: the Case of Bath', Anglo-American Conference of Historians, London, July 2009.

2010

'Urban Improvement in the Eighteenth Century', AHRC funded Workshop on Enlightenment Small Towns in Scotland , c.1745-1820', University of Dundee, January 2010.
Concluding Thoughts and Summary, at Symposium on 'More than a Spa Resort: Urban Experience in Post-reformation Bath', Bath Spa University, April 2010.
'Urban history and cultural history: a fruitful coalition', invited paper to conference on Urban History Past and Future, Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester, 3 July 2010.
'Walking on the Urban Edge: Peripheral Space and Recreation in English and Welsh Towns c. 1700-1900', European Association of Urban Historians, Ghent, September 2010; and research Seminar, History Department, Bangor University, November 2010.
'Negotiating Modernity and the Past: Historiography, Society and
Culture in the English Town c.1700-1900', Congreso Internacional, 'La ciudad y la construccion de la modernidad. Identidades urbanas y mitologias ciudadanas (ss. XVI-XIX), Instituto Historiografia, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, October 2010.

2011

'Promenading, recreational walking and green space in the English town during the long 18th century', Public Lecture, Centre for 18th-Century Studies, Queen's University Belfast, March 2011.

Conference Organisation

Assisted in the organization of the Georgian Group Annual Symposium (1985) on 'Life in the Georgian Town', Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Assisted in the organization of the 'Urban Development and the Countryside' section of the Eighth International Congress on the Enlightenment, Bristol, July 1991.
Organized and chaired a session on 'European Spa Towns', for the European Association of Urban Historians, Fourth International Conference on Urban History, Venice 1998.

Organized and chaired a main session on 'European Resorts and Ports 1700-2000' for the European Association of Urban Historians, Ninth International Conference on Urban History, Lyons, 2008.
Organized and chaired a main session on 'Promenades, Pleasure Gardens and Parks in European Towns c.1650-1900', for the European Association of Urban Historians, Ghent, 2010.
Co-organizer of a European Science Foundation exploratory workshop on 'The Origins of Modern Mass Culture; European Leisure in a Comparative Perspective 1660-1870', Gregynog Hall, Wales, UK, 16-19 September 2010.
As a committee member he is regularly involved in the organization of the annual Pre-Modern Towns Group conference.

Funded research

c.£300 from the British Academy to deliver a paper at the annual conference of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, New York, Apr. 1983.
£697 from the British Academy’s Research Fund Committee, May 1988, for research on ‘The Image of Georgian Bath’, Jan.-Mar. 1989.
c. £23,000 for a joint application to the Board of Celtic Studies for a research assistant to support a project on 'Resorts and Ports: Swansea, Tenby and Aberytwyth, 1750-1914', 2006-7.
14,000 Euros, with Dr Jan Hein Furneé (University of Amsterdam), for an Exploratory Workshop on 'The Origins of Modern Mass Culture; European Leisure in a Comparative Perspective 1660-1870', held at Gregynog Hall, 16-19 September 2010.

Editorial board membership etc

Pre-Modern Towns Group, Committee Member since 1984.
Urban History Yearbook (now Urban History, Cambridge University Press), Member of the Editorial Board 1987-2005, Associate Editor responsible for pre-modern book reviews 1990-2005, International Advisory Board 2006-
Urban History of Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2000), Member of Advisory Committee formed in 1990.
Journal of Tourism History (Channel View Publications), Member of Advisory Board, 2008-
AHRC: Member of Peer Review College 2009-2012
European Science Foundation: Pool of Reviewers 2010-11

Staff Publications

2010

'Londres entre 1660 et 1800: une culture spécifique?', in J. Carré (ed), Londre 1700-1900: Naissance d'une capitale culturelle (Paris: PUPS, 2010), pp. 85-110.

2009

'Geoffrey Holmes and the Urban World of Augustan England', in C. Jones (ed), British Politics in the Age of Holmes, special issue of Parliamentary History, vol. 28, Part 1 (2009), pp. 126-36.
'Warwickshire Towns in the Age of Dugdale', in C. Dyer and C. Richardson (eds), William Dugdale, Historian, 1605-1686: His Life, His Writings and His County (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2009), pp. 187-208.
The Growth of Georgian Spas', BBC History (Summer 2009), pp. 16-20.
'The Georgian House: the Making of a Heritage Icon', in L. Gibson and J. Pendlebury (eds), Valuing Historic Environments (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 157-77.
'Introductory remarks', for session M07 European resorts and Ports 1700-2000; and 'The Seaside Watering-Places of Wales', in Communications presents à la IXe Conférence Internationale d'Histoire Urbaine, CD-ROM (Lyon: Chiam, 2009), pp. 3-4, 5-12.

2008

'Introduction' to D. Lloyd, The Origins of Ludlow (Woonton Almeley: Logaston, 2008), p. xi.
'Invention, Innovation and the “Cultural Milieu” in Urban Britain: the Long Eighteenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Cultural Economy', in M. Hesler and C. Zimmermann (eds), Creative Urban Milieus: Historical Perspectives on Culture, Economy and the City (Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag, 2008), pp. 77-98.
'Le Développement des Villes Balnéaires dans L'Angleterre Gérgienne', in Y. Perret-Gentil, A. Lottin and J.-P. Poussou (eds), Les Villes Balnéaires d'Euruope Occidentale du XVIIIe Siècle à Nos Jours (Paris: PUPS, 2008), pp. 13-34.
'Concert Topography and Provincial Towns in Eighteenth-Century England', in H.E. Bödeker, P. Veit and M. Werner (eds), Espaces et lieus de concert en Europe 1700-1920: Architecture, musique, société (Berlin: BWV, 2008), pp. 35-50.
'Welsh Seaside Resorts: Historiography, Sources and Themes', Welsh History Review, vol. 24, No. 2 (2008), pp. 92-119.

2007

'Why are Houses Interesting?', Urban History, vol. 34, Part 2 (2007), pp. 338-46.
'Binge Drinking and Moral Panics: Historical Parallels?', History and Policy (September 2007), www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-62.html. This led to 2 interviews on Radio Wales and reports in The Observer (8/9/07), Guardian Unlimited (8/9/07), Western Mail (10/9/07), Liverpool Daily Post (10/9/07), Cambrian News (13/9/07), Eastern Daily Press.

2006

A History of Leisure: The British Experience since 1500 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), xix + 306 pp.
'Children, Adolescents, and Fashionable Urban Society in Eighteenth-Century England', in A. Müller-Muth (ed.), Fashioning Childhood in the Eighteenth Century: Age and Identity (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 53-62.
'New Approaches to Social History. Myth, Memory and Place: Monmouth and Bath 1750-1900', Journal of Social History, vol. 39, no. 3 (2006), pp. 867-89.
'From Bath to Poundbury: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Polite Urban Space 1700-2000, in R. Leech and A. Green (eds.), Cities in the World 1500-2000 (Leeds: Maney, 2006), pp. 97-115.
'The Festive Calendar', BBC History, vol. 7, No. 8 (August 2006), pp. 30-1.

2005

'Bingeing Britain', BBC History, vol. 6, No. 7 (July 2005), pp. 44-8.
[edited] with L. Miskell and O. Roberts, 'Understanding Urban Wales', special issue of Urban History, 32, Part 1 (2005).
with L. Miskell and O. Roberts, 'Introduction: Wales, a New Agenda for Urban History', in Urban History, 32, Part 1 (2000) pp. 5-16.
'Pouvoir et culture au sein de la métropole des Lumières: les îles britanniques 1660-1800', translated by F.-J. Ruggiu, Histoire Urbaine, No. 12 (2005), pp. 117-44.

2004

'Spas and Resorts', in J. Dewald (ed.), Europe 1450-1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World (New York: Charles Scribner and sons, 2004).
"Urban Network" as a Concept in English Urban History', in H. Th. Gräf and K. Keller (eds.), Städtelandschaft, Réseau Urbain, Urban Network: Städte im Regionalen Kontext in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 2004), pp. 1-15.
'Concert Topography and Provincial Towns in Eighteenth-Century England', in S. Wollenberg and S. McVeigh (eds), Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 19-33.

2003

'The Rise, Fall and Rise of Polite Urban Space in England 1700-2000', in A. Fahrmeir and E. Rembold (eds.), Representations of British Cities: The Transformation of Urban Space 1700-2000, Arbeitskreis Deutsche England-Forschung Band 50 (Berlin, Wien: Philo, 2003), pp. 30-48.
'Politeness and Elegance: The Cultural Re-Fashioning of Eighteenth-Century York', in M. Hallett and J. Rendall (eds.), Eighteenth-Century York: Culture, Space and Society, Borthwick Text and Calendar 30 (York: Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, 2003), pp. 1-12.
'Metropolis and Enlightenment: The British Isles 1660-1800', Journal for the Study of British Culture, vol. 10, No. 2 (2003), pp. 149-70.
'The Landed Elite and Provincial Towns in Britain 1660-1800', Georgian Group Journal, 13 (2003), pp. 281-94.
'Georgian Spas', Living History (June 2003), pp. 14-19.

2002

'The Culture of Improvement', in P. Langford (ed.), The Short Oxford History of the British Isles: The Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 183-201.
'Urban Life and Culture', in H.T. Dickinson (ed.), A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), pp. 196-208.
'Music, Urban Renaissance and Space in Eighteenth-Century England', in H.E. Bodeker, P. Veit, and M. Werner (eds.), Le concert et son public: Mutations de la vie musicale en Europe de 1780 à 1914 (Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme Paris, 2002), pp. 253-69.
'Sounding the Town', Urban History, 29 (2002), pp. 92-102.
(edited) with L. Proudfoot, Provincial Towns in Early Modern England and Ireland: Change, Convergence, and Divergence, Proceedings of the British Academy 108 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. xvii + 278 pp.
'A County Town in Transition: The Great Fire of Warwick, 1694', in Borsay and Proudfoot, Provincial Towns, pp. 151-70.
with L. Proudfoot, 'The English and Irish Urban Experience, 1500-1800', in Borsay and Proudfoot, Provincial Towns, pp. 1-27.

2001

'London 1660-1800: A Distinctive Culture?', in P. Clark and R. Gillespie (eds.), Two Capitals: Dublin and London 1500-1840, Proceedings of the British Academy 107 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 167-84.

2000

The Image of Georgian Bath 1700-2000: Towns, Heritage and History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). xv + 434 pp. 27 plates.
(edited) with G. Hirschfelder and R.-E. Mohrmann, New Directions in Urban History: Aspects of European Art, Health, Tourism and Leisure since the Enlightenment (Münster/New York/München/ Berlin: Waxmann, 2000), 217 pp.
'Bath: An Enlightenment City?', in Borsay, Hirschfelder, and Mohrmann (eds.), New Directions in Urban History, pp. 3-19.
'Health and Leisure Resorts c.1700-c.1840', in P. Clark (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain: Volume Two, 1540-1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 775-803.
'Early Modern Urban Landscapes, 1540-1800', in P. J. Waller (ed.), The English Urban Landscape (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 99-124.

1999

'Spa Towns', in I. McCalman (ed.), An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British Culture 1762-1832 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 714-15.

1998

'Fat Sources and Big Ideas: Society, Enlightenment and the Town', Journal of Urban History, 24, no. 5 (1998), pp. 643-54.

1997

'The Restoration Town', in L. Glassey (ed.), The Reigns of Charles II and James VII and II (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), pp. 171-90, 247-8, 278-88.

1994

'Image and Counter-Image in Georgian Bath', British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, XVII, No. 2 (1994), pp. 165-79.
'The London Connection: Cultural Diffusion and the Eighteenth-Century Provincial Town', London Journal, 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 21-35.
'Towns', 'Capital Cities', 'Patrician Families: Urban', entries in J. Black and R. Porter (eds.), A Dictionary of Eighteenth Century World History (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1994), pp. 117, 549-50, 737-8. Reprinted as The Penguin Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century World History (London, Penguin Books: 1996).

1992

'Eighteenth-Century Bath Perceived', in Transactions of the Eighth International Congress on the Enlightenment (Oxford, The Voltaire Foundation : 1992), vol. 1, pp. 134-37.

1991

'History or Heritage: Perceptions of the Urban Past. A Review Essay', Urban History Yearbook, 18 (1991), pp. 32-40.
'Gentry Papers: A Key Source for Urban Cultural History', Archives, XIX, No. 86 (1991), pp. 374-83.

1990

(edited), The Eighteenth-Century Town: A Reader in English Urban History 1688-1820 (London: Longman, 1990). viii + 383 pp.
'Debate. The Emergence of a Leisure Town: or an Urban Renaissance', Past and Present, 126 (1990), pp. 189-96.
'Review of Periodical Literature 1500-1800', Urban History Yearbook (1990), pp. 145-58.

1989

The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town, 1660-1770. Oxford Studies in Social History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). xxii + 416 pp. 27 plates. Paperback edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
'Review of Periodical Literature 1500-1800', Urban History Yearbook (1989), pp. 140-53.

1988

Review of Periodical Literature 1500-1800', Urban History Yearbook (1988) pp. 91-7

1987

'Urban Development in the Age of Defoe', in C. Jones (ed.), Britain in the First Age of Party 1680-1750 (London and Ronceverte, Hambledon Press: 1987), pp. 195-219.

1986

'The Rise of the Promenade: The Social and Cultural Use of Space in the English Provincial Town c.1660-1800', British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, LX, No.2 (1986), pp. 125-40, + 8 plates.

1985

'Town and Turf: The Development of Racing in England c.1680-1760', in Life in the Georgian Town (London, Georgian Group: 1986), papers given at the Georgian Group Symposium 1985, pp. 53-60.

1984

“All the Town's a Stage”: Urban Ritual and Ceremony 1660-1800', in P. Clark (ed.), The Transformation of English Provincial Towns 1600-1800 (London, Hutchinson: 1984), pp. 228-58. Paperback edition, 1985.

1982

'Culture, Status, and the English Urban Landscape', History, LXVII, No. 219 (1982), pp.1-12.

1977

'The English Urban Renaissance: The Development of Provincial Urban Culture c.1680-c.1760', Social History, No.5 (1977), pp. 581-603. Reprinted by the Open University (1980), for A322, English Urban History 1500-1780, and in Borsay (ed.), The Eighteenth-Century Town, pp. 159-87.

Reviews

Reviews for Albion, American Historical Review, BBC History, British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Continuity and Change, Economic History Review, English Historical Review, History, History and Archaeology Review, Journal of Historical Geography, Journal of Newspaper and Periodical History, Local Historian, Social History, Social History Society Newsletter/Bulletin, Staffordshire Studies, The Scriblerian, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society, Urban History, Urban History Newsletter, Urban History Yearbook, and Welsh History Review.