Cities

St James’s refers to an urban area located in what we know as the West End of London, more precisely in the district of Westminster.

In a world of pedestrians, streets and roads formed the most demotic of social spaces. The streets demanded new rules of behaviour, new ‘rules of the road’. By reference to the practice of everyday life, the evolution of literary representations of street life, and the development of new forms of regulation, this article explores the street as a uniquely complex site of social exchange and sociability.

The West End of London generated new forms of networking and sociability. This entry argues that the West End was shaped by both patrician society and a vigorous and often obscene popular culture that was evident in the pubs and brothels of Covent Garden.