Streets of Splendor : Shopping Culture and Spaces in a European Capital City (Brussels, 1830-1914)

This book addresses the unresolved question of how urban retailing and consumption changed during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It replaces the usual focus on just one (type of) shopping institution with that of the urban shopping-scape in its entirety. Based on an in-depth empirical analysis of Brussels and secondary sources on other (comparable) cities, the author demonstrates that the unbridled commercialisation of cities in the nineteenth century cannot be understood without taking into account the entirety of the shopping landscape.

This book addresses the unresolved question of how urban retailing and consumption changed during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It replaces the usual focus on just one (type of) shopping institution with that of the urban shopping landscape in its entirety. Based on secondary sources for comparable cities and an in-depth empirical analysis of primary sources for Brussels, the author demonstrates that the unbridled commercialisation of cities in the nineteenth century cannot be understood without taking into account the entirety of the shopping landscape. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis, she shows how and why the culture and spaces of shopping evolved.