Urban Thrills? People’s experiences of British city and town centres, 1930s-1970s

Due to social distancing measures, this session will take place via video conference. The video conference will run from 6 pm – 7:30 pm. Details will be sent on the day to people who have registered via Eventbrite. 

About the July Forum

Dr Denise McHugh (Open University) and Dr Lucy Faire (Leicester Vaughan College)

The middle of the twentieth century was a time when town and city centres were re-planned and redeveloped. The history of urban centres during this period has been written from the perspectives of planners rather than focusing on the lived experience of ordinary people. Our research turns this traditional approach upside down and instead asks:

• How did ordinary people experience the changes to their town or city centre?
• What impact did the changes have on them and how did they adapt to these changes?

We believe that it is important to understand how people used these urban spaces and what they felt about them in the context of today’s concerns about our failing high streets and unloved town and city centres.

To do this research we use a range of sources including more unusual ones such social media sites and forums which provide a real insight into what people remember most vividly about their town or city centre and how they felt about them. We focus our work around the ‘everyday’ so we aren’t looking at unusual events such festivals or parades. We’re interested in how people encountered change within a normalised experience like the weekly shop or the journey to work.

In this session we look particularly at the innovations experienced in the city or town centre. City centres were important spaces to experience play and novelty. People responded to new developments like shopping centres and unfamiliar technologies such as escalators and vending machines in different ways according to their age, gender, race, ethnicity, class and life stage.

New developments and changes could impact on people’s sense of belonging or feeling comfortable in the city so we would like the Vaughan Forum to help us to explore and understand these experiences and feelings about town and city centres.

About Vaughan Open Research Forum

Vaughan Open Research Forum is series of talks, workshops and interactive sessions which are open to anyone who is curious and wants to find out more.

Themes for sessions relate to our core teaching topics, arts, humanities, social sciences and counselling, and also discuss adult education and co-operative issues. The Vaughan Open Research Forums take place on the second Thursday of the month.

Due to social distancing measures, this session will take place via video conference. The video conference will run from 6 pm – 7:30 pm. Details will be sent on the day to people who have registered via Eventbrite.