Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I: The Aristocratic West End 1800-1850
1: Drury Lane, 1800
2: Arcadia
3: The Beau Monde
4: The Histrionic Art
5: Curiosity
Part II: The Bourgeois West End, 1850-1914
6: The Making of the West End, 1850-1914
7: Capital of Pleasure
8: Capital of Culture
Part III: Showbiz
9: The Age of Boucicault, 1843-1880
10: Theatreland, 1880-1914
11: The Populist Palatial
12: Gaiety Nights
Part IV: Hospitality
13: Eating Out
14: Grand Hotel
15: Shopocracy
Part V: Heart of Empire
16: The Other West End

About the Author

Rohan McWilliam is Professor of Modern British History at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and a former President of the British Association for Victorian Studies. A co-director of the Labour History Research Unit at Anglia Ruskin, he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Victorian Culture and the London Journal. He is also on the Retrieving data. Wait a few seconds and try to cut
or copy again. Nineteenth-Century Studies and New Directions in Social and Cultural History. He has published widely on topics ranging from Victorian melodrama to the Labour Party in the 1980s, from the Victorian
novelist G.W.M. Reynolds to the director Jonathan Miller. His edited collection on the Victorian publisher Edward Lloyd was the subject of a Times Leader column in 2019.

Reviews

In this first comprehensive scholarly account, McWilliam combines the roles of historical reporter, cultural analyst and ardent fan. Concerned with understanding the West End and its pleasures in terms of experience, he deconstructs the specific appeal to the senses, identifying 'an explosion in visuality' as the strongest stimulant.
*Peter Bailey, The Journal of the Social History Society*

McWilliam's book should, therefore, serve as a good place of departure for both undergraduates and researchers interested in not only the West End, but how entertainment districts function as a whole.
*Benjamin Giordano, University of Southampton, Urban History*

London's West End is a landmark work - both a magisterial history of one of the most significant urban spaces in modern cultural history and a groundbreaking contribution to the study of nineteenth century theatre, performance, and culture.
*Matthew Buckley, Rutgers University, Modern Drama*

evocative and engaging
*Peter Bailey, Cultural and Social History*

Readers of this impressive homage to Londons West End can look forward to pleasures nearly equalling those enjoyed by a visit to the district itself. With infectious enthusiasm and panache, Rohan McWilliam successfully evokes the sights, sounds, tastes and feel of the metropolitan heart of Britains culture and leisure capital.
*Nancy W. Ellenberger, English Historical Review*

This is a lovely book, which I thoroughly enjoyed, particularly, as I hope I've suggested, the well-chosen examples illustrating the 'culture industries', which were created by forces which shaped the West End (p. 8). Written in an easy style, carefully organised and easy to navigate, generous in its descriptions, with just enough detail to pique the reader's interest, and, importantly, bibliographic details to enable a follow-up, it will be a book I will return to more than once.
*Ann Featherstone, British Association for Victorian Studies Newsletter*

McWilliam is the first to take on such a history of the West End... A second volume is planned for the West End in the twentieth century's tumultuous years of war and reconstruction. If McWilliam succeeds as well as he does here then the two volumes will be a triumph... McWilliam explores this rich terrain with passion and panache. He has a sharp eye for telling details and has scoured the secondary literature as well as local and national archives to glean them.
*Jerry White, Times Literary Supplement*

Elegantly written, inventively researched, it is the most comprehensive account to date of the West End in its heyday, a dazzling world of interconnected attractions.
*Judith R. Walkowitz, The London Journal*

[McWilliam] covers a great deal of ground at a lively pace and his extensive bibliography points down many byways to be pursued for further information.
*Rosemary Hill, London Review of Books*

[London's West End] filled out my knowledge, adding colour and precision to it and, like the best theatre, it has made me see things differently. I can pay it no greater compliment than to say that when I reached the last page I felt like clapping.
*Sandra Giorgetti, British Theatre Guide*

Londons West End will be of particular interest to theatregoers, shoppers, diners and tourists, who go to the West End and want to know more about its history. McWilliam writes with a light touch and his research is full of interesting detail.
*Robert Tanitch, Mature Times*

This scholarly tome... is thorough in its investigation of the area's social and cultural history, but the author achieves this with a light touch that makes it both very readable and fascinating.
*Clive Jennings, Soho Clarion*

This is a lovely book, which I thoroughly enjoyed... Written in an easy style, carefully organised and easy to navigate, generous in its descriptions, with just enough detail to pique the reader's interest, and, importantly, bibliographic details to enable a follow-up, it will be a book I will return to more than once.
*Ann Featherstone, British Association For Victorian Studies Newsletter*

Impressive history
*Ann Basu, Fitzrovia News*

McWilliam does an admirable job of never allowing the reader to forget these backstage realities while narrating the rise of the West End's public pleasures.
*Christopher Ferguson, Victorian Studies Vol 65.1*