West End of London [ Cities / Institutions ]
… the leisure and retail needs of the elite. This allowed the Mayfair-based aristocracy who shaped the area to define itself. Yet West End locations for elite sociability co-existed with a vigorous popular culture, located in pubs, sites of … where one could receive visitors, was important but so was the development of manners, deportment and a form of self-fashioning based upon appreciation of art, literature and music. Like the opera, balls and dinner parties underpinned an elaborate marriage market that allowed the elite to renew itself. As Hannah Greig shows, sociability in the West End was particularly shaped by the elite group who called themselves …
Aristocracy | Consumption | Clubs | Elite | Gambling | Gender | Opera
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