Urbanisation in the UK

Urban Change and Regeneration in the UK

In this course, Dr Heather Barrett (University of Worcester) explores urban change and regeneration in the UK. In the first module, we consider patterns of urbanisation, counterurbanisation and reurbanisation in the UK from the 19th century to the present. The second module looks at changes to the physical form, structure and organisation of UK cities, and how these are related to historical processes of urbanisation and industrialisation. In the third module, we think about the problems associated with rapid urbanisation, and how UK cities sought to address these through urban planning in the 19th and 20th centuries. The fourth module then turns to the new issues brought about by deindustrialisation from the 1970s, including unemployment and urban dereliction, and how these were addressed by new policy approaches based on private-led regeneration. We conclude with a final module on climate change and environmental sustainability as major concerns for UK cities in the 21st century.

Urbanisation in the UK

In this module, we think about patterns of urbanisation in the UK from the 19th century to the present. We focus on: (i) the definition of urbanisation as primarily a process of migration into cities from rural areas, and the global trend towards urbanisation in the 21st century; (ii) the UK as an early example of mass urbanisation, with a majority living in cities by the mid-19th century, and the stabilisation of the UK’s rural-urban split in the 20th century; (iii) the historical growth of London and other important UK urban centres, particularly the industrial cities of the Midlands and the North; (iv) the processes of counterurbanisation from around the 1950s and reurbanisation in the 21st century.