The first history of London to show how immigrants have built, shaped and made a great success of the capital city London is now a global financial and multicultural hub in which over three hundred languages are spoken. But the history of London has always been a history of immigration. Panikos Panayi explores the rich and vibrant story of London- from its founding two millennia ago by Roman invaders, to Jewish and German immigrants in the Victorian period, to the Windrush generation invited from Caribbean countries in the twentieth century. Panayi shows how migration has been fundamental to London's economic, social, political and cultural development. Migrant City sheds light on the various ways in which newcomers have shaped London life, acting as cheap labour, contributing to the success of its financial sector, its curry houses, and its football clubs. London's economy has long been driven by migrants, from earlier continental financiers and more recent European Union citizens. Without immigration, fueled by globalization, Panayi argues, London would not have become the world city it is today.

This book is the first scholarly study to explore economic relations between brewers and publicans in the brewing industry over a century. Based on overlooked historical evidence, this volume examines over 400 interviews with candidates for public houses, unpublished evidence of royal commissions heard in secrecy, representations of publicans in fiction and film and systematic reading of 15 licensed victuallers’ newspapers. The Mystique of Running the Public House in England situates licensed victualling among upper-working- and lower-middle-class occupations in England and abroad. This book explores why aspiring but untrained individuals sought public house tenancies, notwithstanding high levels of turnovers and numerous bankruptcies among licensed victuallers. Encapsulated in any newcomer’s appraisal was the captivating vision of El Dorado, a nirvana which promised unimaginable wealth, high social status, respectability and social mobility as rewards for those limited in income but not in ambition. Despite the allure of El Dorado, the likelihood of publicans realizing their aspirations was quite as remote as that of fish and chip proprietors, Blackpool landladies and French café proprietors. This volume will be of great value to students and scholars alike interested in British History, Economic History and Social and Cultural History.

When we imagine life behind the high walls of the fortress-like prisons that were built and modified as the modern prison system was created in the mid-nineteenth century, we conjure up scenes where strict regulation prevailed to control people in body and in mind. An image that poses something of a paradox is that of mothers and their babies living in this carceral environment. This book looks behind the cell doors of these institutions to illuminate the experiences of this group of prisoners. The management of their health alongside the management of penal discipline posed complex conundrums to the prison system. Although rarely fully considered at policy level, this balancing act was negotiated by those who lived and worked in prisons on a daily basis.