Hubbub: Filth, Noise, and Stench in England, 1600-1770

By Emily Cockayne

Book Overview

A not-for-the-squeamish journey back through the centuries to urban England, where the streets are crowded, noisy, filthy, and reeking of smoke and decay

Modern city-dwellers suffer their share of unpleasant experiences--traffic jams, noisy neighbors, pollution, food scares--but urban nuisances of the past existed on a different scale entirely, this book explains in vivid detail. Focusing on offenses to the eyes, ears, noses, taste buds, and skin of inhabitants of England's pre-Industrial Revolution cities, Hubbub transports us to a world in which residents were scarred by smallpox, refuse rotted in the streets, pigs and dogs roamed free, and food hygiene consisted of little more than spit and polish. Through the stories of a large cast of characters from varied walks of life, the book compares what daily life was like in different cities across England from 1600 to 1770.

Using a vast array of sources, from novels to records of urban administration to diaries, Emily Cockayne populates her book with anecdotes from the quirky lives of the famous and the obscure--all of whom confronted urban nuisances and physical ailments. Each chapter addresses an unpleasant aspect of city life (noise, violence, moldy food, smelly streets, poor air quality), and the volume is enhanced with a rich array of illustrations. Awakening both our senses and our imaginations, Cockayne creates a nuanced portrait of early modern English city life, unparalleled in breadth and unforgettable in detail.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300137567
• ISBN13: 9780300137569
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Hubbub: Lots of Facts, Easy to Read

There are plenty of good descriptions of "Hubbub" in other reviews. I'm simply noting that the book is well written and engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.

Plenty to complain about in 17th & 18th century urban living

British historian Cockayne's fact-filled, copiously illustrated history digs into the less savory corners of 17th and 18th century urban life. "This book is about how people were made to feel uncomfortable by other people - their noises, appearance, behavior, proximity and odours," Cockayne begins. She introduces us to some of the people who were kind enough to leave behind a written litany of their complaints and impressions, gives a brief overview of urban inconveniences of the time and then plunges happily into the squalor with chapters concentrating on various aspects of unpleasantness. These chapters have pithy titles: Ugly, Itchy, Mouldy, Noisy, Grotty, Busy, Dirty, Gloomy, and, finally "Such things as these...disturb human life." Poverty and overcrowding, together with a general lack of sanitation naturally provide much of what we pampered souls would find intolerable, but Cockayne, while delving deeply into these subjects, covers much more, from the cost and care of clothing across the social spectrum to the timeless social satire and condemnation of people who made themselves offensive by trying to act younger than they were. Women come in for special approbation for everything from aging and bad housekeeping to talking - A ducking chair for "scolds" was a standard piece of public equipment in most towns. She explores food spoilage and the devices sellers used to disguise its putrid state, the free discharge of waste from businesses like tanners and butchers, the prevalence of dangerous chemicals, roaming animals and air so thick that burning buildings were detected by the crackling noise of the fire rather than the sight of smoke. All of this is as fascinating as it is disgusting and Cockayne has chosen numerous prints, including lots of Hogarth engravings, to illustrate the complaints of the times. While welcome, these would have been better served in a larger format as their details are difficult to make out without Cockayne's explanations. Indeed, this is a problem with the book as a whole. Cockayne has crammed so much material into the available space that parts read more like a list than a narrative. The quotes, facts, and descriptions are fascinating, but difficult to absorb. Copiously footnoted (with notes in the back, thankfully), this is a book that is best enjoyed in small doses.

A wonder-filled and unique take on a turbulent era

Cockayne has served up a marvelous tour of the underside of early modern England, filled with the wild, the weird and the harrowing facts of everyday life on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. I was especially impressed with her survey of the maimed and crippled among even the privileged and the intelligentsia, a side of English history never shown on "Masterpiece Theatre."