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Anorak News | Suburban Sprawl

Suburban Sprawl

by | 20th, April 2004

‘BOB Woodward’s claims will be debated in the corridors of power and nattered over in the dining rooms of the suburban masses.

The Swinging Suburbs

Over Tesco’s own-brand wine and Jamie Oliver recipes, Abigail and Lawrence will turn to Hyacinth and Richard and fret over what the war in Iraq will mean for the price of their property and for Richard’s asthma.

It’s the type of conversation so beloved by BBC sitcom writers, and now students at Kingston University, who can investigate such exchanges in a new seat of learning.

The Guardian say that the new Centre For Suburban Studies will, in the words of joint head Vesna Goldsworth, ‘redefine the suburb’.

‘In this country, the city and countryside have their interpreters and defenders, but suburbia is not really represented,’ she says.

She goes on to tell the Independent that suburban life is too often patronised and pitied. ‘I see Britain’s relationship with suburbia as the love that dare not speak its name.’

And the relationship is already shifting, with the Times’ Robin Young telling us that ‘the suburbs are not some purgatory forced upon us by modern growth’ and were popular with the Romans.

That was until an Asian family moved in down the street, forcing the Romans to lower their house price for a quick sale and opt for a new life in Italy…’



Posted: 20th, April 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink