The Banality of Gilding: Innocuous Materiality and Transatlantic Consumption in the Gilded Age

This paper examines Gilded Age affluence by focusing on apparently inconsequential decorative goods and assessing how such goods were part of shared transatlantic patterns that reached beyond the Gilded Age and the confines of urban America. The paper focuses on figurines recovered from 19th-century sites in London and underscores how the American Gilded Age amplified many early 19th-century material patterns and ideological practices that were well-established in the United Kingdom and continued after the height of Gilded Age affluence. This study examines the symbolism of such aesthetically eclectic goods and focuses on the socially grounded imagination that was invested in them borrowing from dominant ideologies and idiosyncratic personal experiences alike

Pond ecology and conservation: research priorities and knowledge gaps

Ponds are among the most biodiverse and ecologically important freshwater habitats globally and may provide a significant opportunity to mitigate anthropogenic pressures and reverse the decline of aquatic biodiversity. Ponds also provide important contributions to society through the provision of ecosystem services. Despite the ecological and societal importance of ponds, freshwater research, policy, and conservation have historically focused on larger water bodies, with significant gaps remaining in our understanding and conservation of pond ecosystems. In May 2019, pond researchers and practitioners participated in a workshop to tackle several pond ecology, conservation, and management issues. Nine research themes and 30 research questions were identified during and following the workshop to address knowledge gaps around: (1) pond habitat definition; (2) global and long-term data availability; (3) anthropogenic stressors; (4) aquatic–terrestrial interactions; (5) succession and disturbance; (6) freshwater connectivity; (7) pond monitoring and technological advances; (8) socio-economic factors; and (9) conservation, management, and policy. Key areas for the future inclusion of ponds in environmental and conservation policy were also discussed. Addressing gaps in our fundamental understanding of pond ecosystems will facilitate more effective research-led conservation and management of pondscapes, their inclusion in environmental policy, support the sustainability of ecosystem services, and help address many of the global threats driving the decline in freshwater biodiversity

People and Things on the Move: Domestic Material Culture, Poverty and Mobility in Victorian London

© 2016, The Author(s). The development of what Mayne and Lawrence (Urban History 26: 325–48, 1999) termed “ethnographic” approaches to studying nineteenth-century households and urban communities has gathered momentum in recent years. As such research agendas have taken hold and been applied to new contexts, so critiques, methodological developments, and new intellectual and theoretical currents, have provided opportunities to enhance and develop approaches. This article contributes to this on-going process. Drawing upon household archaeological research on Limehouse, a poor neighborhood in Victorian London, and inspired by the theoretical insights provided by the “new mobilities paradigm,” it aims to place “mobility” as a central and enabling intellectual framework for understanding the relationships between people, place, and poverty. Poor communities in nineteenth-century cities were undeniably mobile and transient. Historians and archaeologists have often regarded this mobility as an obstacle to studying everyday life in such contexts. However, examining temporal routines and geographical movements across a variety of time frames and geographical scales, this article argues that mobility is actually key to understanding urban life and an important mechanism for interpreting the fragmented material and documentary traces left by poor households in the nineteenth-century metropolis.We are grateful to the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council who funded the research upon which this paper is based (Grant Reference AH/E002285/1): ‘Living in Victorian London: Towards a Material History of Everyday Domestic Life in the Nineteenth-Century Metropolis

Crosse and Blackwell 1830-1921: a British food manufacturer in London's West End

Excavation and building survey, related to the redevelopment of parts of Tottenham Court Road Underground Station by Crossrail Ltd, chart the history of food manufacturer Crosse and Blackwell in the Victorian and Edwardian periods until the 1922 move to Branston, Staffordshire. Operating from their 1838 premises in Soho Square, the company converted properties to the east for warehousing and factory space, enabling production of its food sauces, pickles, vinegar, jams and marmalades on a vast, industrial, scale. With a royal appointment and the innovative use of celebrity chefs, Crosse and Blackwell were able to dominate the domestic market and compete globally

Medieval and later urban development at High Street, Uxbridge: excavations at the Chimes Shopping Centre, London Borough of Hillingdon

Excavations in the High Street uncovered evidence of development on the south-eastern edge of the medieval town of Uxbridge, beginning with the planned 12th-century extension of a Saxon hamlet. Medieval property boundaries and a 12th-century pottery kiln associated with production of South Hertfordshire greyware were recorded just inside the borough ditch boundary. Famine and plague resulted in economic decline in the 14th century. Domestic pitting and industries such as tanning were associated with recovery from the 17th century onwards. By the early 19th century the entire street frontage was built up, as shown in the Uxbridge Panorama, a detailed drawing of the High Street