England's Suburbs 1820-2020

Introduction

Since the early 19th century the unparalleled expansion of England’s towns and cities has enabled an inexorable shift towards living in suburbs and the adoption of a suburban lifestyle. Today most of the population live in outer urban areas or in hybrid semi-rural places or suburbanised villages. And an ‘out-of-town’ location has become not only where people reside but where they work, shop and spend their leisure.

Taken en masse suburban development constitutes a significant proportion of the historic environment. The character of suburbia can vary greatly and contains many distinctive localities, buildings of architectural interest, complex and layered landscapes and purposely created or preserved open spaces. The historical interest and importance of the nation’s suburbs has been recognised through designation; as conservation areas or through the listing and registering of individual sites and landscapes. But such protected places constitute only a very small percentage of the entire suburban estate.

Part of the enduring popularity of suburbs since the early 19th century derives from their adaptability.

However, by the 2000s pressures on the urban margins had become a cause of concern to many including the heritage sector.

The causes were manifold but included demographic change and variability of demand for housing, which was high in some parts of the country but low in others. Where the need was great, low-density suburbs had become increasingly subject to intensification. But elsewhere towns and cities were struggling with long-term economic decline, leading in some instances to housing clearance. And suburbs everywhere were experiencing low-level piecemeal change to their character and appearance because of housing repairs, home improvements and the personalisation of properties.

The evolution of the project

In 2007 English Heritage (now Historic England) responded to these concerns by issuing a policy statement ‘Suburbs and the Historic Environment’ and a guidance document ‘The Heritage of Historic Suburbs’.

At the same time a research review was commissioned that led to the initiation of an internal research project in 2010. This initially took a case-study approach looking at selected suburbs across a regional spread of cities and towns. Following a pilot study on Darlington, County Durham, the project was revised. Its objective then become a national overview of the gamut of two centuries of suburban development, covering everything from late Georgian residential park suburbs to Victorian bye-law terrace grids, early 20th century garden suburbs, post-war neighbourhoods and latter-day urban extensions.

The aim was to look across the mixed landscapes of suburbia, embracing places whose constituent elements might be individually unexceptional but which collectively shaped suburban character. By taking a national perspective it was hoped the project would provide the context against which the interest and significance of individual suburbs could be assessed. One of the project’s intentions was for an enhanced understanding of the characteristic buildings, planning norms and landscapes of suburban development. Another goal was to produce a rich synthesis of existing knowledge and new perspectives to support the work of colleagues and the sector.

Defining the scope of the project

As Peter Guillery has observed 'suburbs are maddeningly mutable things, geographically, architecturally and temporally. Contingency is in their nature and multiple identities and boundaries are not only possible, but inevitable' (Guillery 2005).

With such a vast and amorphous subject, a careful consideration of definitions and scope was essential. The project team of myself and Matthew Whitfield adopted a broad definition of suburbs: any area that was part of the outward expansion of a town or city including older historic settlements that had been subsumed but also entirely new districts and places that lay beyond the built-up area and were in some sort of relationship of dependence on the urban centre.

The date parameters of the study were kept deliberately loose but starting in the early 19th century when the country’s towns and cities began to significantly expand beyond their historic limits and new models of suburban planning such as the residential park were taking hold. And continuing up to contemporary developments such as those underway at Bicester, Oxfordshire and Poundbury, Dorchester.

Fieldwork, research and publication

The project commenced with a fieldwork programme planned around broad suburban categories to ensure that a full range of examples were examined. These types related to social class or to development models, such as those initiated by the freehold land societies, or to categories of developer, for example municipal or private.

The fieldwork was followed by a period of extensive reading and selective research by the project team before we commenced on the key output of the project, a monograph.

Alongside this, smaller pieces of work were initiated on specific aspects of suburbia undertaken either by colleagues or through external commissions. These informed the monograph and resulted in three standalone reports: one on the impact of retained or inherited landscapes on suburban development by Locus Consulting; one on shopping parades in London by Dr Rebecca Preston and Lesley Hoskins; and one on domestic gardens by Dr Preston.

An Introduction to Heritage Asset on Shopping Parades was produced in 2016 by Kathryn Morrison drawing upon the project research and her previous work on shops and shopping.

In March 2025 the suburbs project reached its conclusion with the publication by Liverpool University Press of England’s Suburbs 1820-2020.

The monograph, written by the project team, has a thematic structure. It opens by charting the rise of the 'suburban impulse' and the influential models and key trends of suburban development. Subsequent chapters look at the range of individuals, organisations, societies and movements involved in the development process; how urban growth and suburban development has been controlled and planned; suburban layouts, planning approaches and stylistic treatments; a range of key building types; and the green spaces, designed landscapes and characteristic land uses of suburbia.

The book concludes with a chapter on change in the suburbs since the late 20th century, including their perception and appreciation, and discusses some recent suburban developments.

The book is amply illustrated, drawn from many sources but foregrounding the holdings of the Historic England Archive, for example the Aerofilms collection and the photographic archive of the building firm Laing. It also greatly benefits from the output of Historic England’s photographers and graphics officers, past and present, to enrich and illuminate the text.

Conclusion

Further information

Guillery, P 2005 ‘South Acton: Housing Histories. An Historic Environment Characterisation Study’ English Heritage Report and Papers B/001/2005

Smith, J 2012 ‘Freeholders’ Estate, Eastbourne, Darlington, Durham. An Historic Area Assessment’ Historic England Heritage Research Report Series 44/2012

Smith, J 2024 ‘The phenomenon of permanent housing exhibitions’, in Skelton T, Sutton, D, 2024 HomeWorld 81 Milton Keynes It’s What’s Happening to Houses. Milton Keynes Forum

Whitfield, M 2016 ‘The Suburbs Project,’ in Neate, H & Craggs, R Modern Futures. Axminster: Uniformbooks