Inner Empire : Architecture and Imperialism in the British Isles, 1550-1950

This book presents for the first time a coherent analysis of the British Isles as an imperial setting understood through its buildings, spaces, and infrastructure. It considers ‘internal’ colonisation and its infrastructures of order and suppression, alongside wider relationships between architecture, imperialism, and cultural identity. -- .

Inner Empire explores the impact of imperial cultures on the landscapes and urban environments of the British Isles from the sixteenth century through to the twentieth century. It asserts that Britain’s four-hundred year entanglement with global empire left its mark upon the British Isles as much as it did the wider world. Buildings stood as one of the most conspicuous manifestations of the myriad relationships that Britain maintained with the theory and practice of colonialism in its modern history. Divided into two main sections, the volume’s content considers ‘internal’ colonisation and its infrastructures of control, order, and suppression, alongside wider relationships between architecture, the imperial economy, and cultural identity. Taken together, the essays in this volume present for the first time a coherent analysis of the British Isles as an imperial setting understood through its buildings, spaces, and infrastructure. -- .