suburbia Articles

The suburbs have long attracted criticism. In the 1852 novel Basil by Wilkie Collins it is said that anyone taking a trip to suburbia would most likely have taken leave of their senses because ‘its newness and desolateness of appearance revolted me.’ It is likely he...

I’ve been living in a suburb in America for the past 12 months, and there’s much to be said for it. Compared to anywhere I lived in the UK (London but also outside) there is an empowering sense of space allied with a reassuring comfortableness. By car it is very quick...

In his 1934 work, English Journey, the writer JB Priestley spoke of three Englands. The first, the so-called ‘real, enduring England’ was the traditional bucolic vision – ‘the country of the cathedrals and ministers and manor houses and inns’. Then came the England of...