Enfilade

From Pickering & Chatto:

Susan Barton and Allan Brodie, eds., Travel and Tourism in Britain, 1700–1914, 4 volumes (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2014), approximately 1600 pages, ISBN: 978-1848934122, £350 / $625.

The British led the way in holidaymaking. During the eighteenth century travel was only available to the wealthiest people, but from the 1830s the railways brought a transport revolution, opening up the chance for travel to all classes. As tourism grew in popularity, a whole new industry developed. Many new large, lively towns grew up around spas and at the seaside to meet the needs of visitors. Guidebooks were produced, aimed at all sorts of holidaymakers and the first travel agencies emerged.

This four-volume primary resource collection brings together a diverse range of texts on the various forms of transport used by tourists, the destinations they visited, the role of entertainments and accommodation and how these affected the way that tourism evolved over two centuries. Case studies on specific towns—Bath, Cheltenham and Tunbridge Wells—illustrate the rise of spa tourism, then studies of Brighton, Margate, Blackpool and Scarborough are used to demonstrate the later dominance of the seaside resort. The collection will be of interest to social and economic historians as well as those researching print culture and the history of tourism.

• Contains over 200 rare primary resources
• Includes diaries, memoirs, guide books, journal articles, railways guides, handbills, trade directories, local newspaper articles and poems
• Editorial apparatus includes a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes and endnotes
• A consolidated index appears in the final volume

Volume 1: Travel and Destination
Volume 2: Spa Tourism
Volume 3: Seaside Holidays
Volume 4: Seaside Resorts

Susan Barton is an honorary fellow at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University. Allan Brodie is an architectural historian for English Heritage.