'Popular Politics and Social Structure in Clerkenwell, 1860-1890' =Andrew Whitehead=
Once upon a time, I embarked on a PhD about mid- and late-Victorian Clerkenwell - an area noted for its radicalism. I was examining the extent to which the local occupational structure explained this radical tradition - whether radicals were indigenous or migrants - and what continuities there were between the advanced Liberal radicalism of the 1860s and the socialist movement of the 1880s, both of which were prominent in Clerkenwell (now the south-west of the London Borough of Islington).
I was registered for a PhD at the University of Warwick - where I eventually was awarded a doctorate many years later for research in a very different area - and the research was conducted in the late 1970s, and then carried on while working for a few years in the 1980s.
Some of this work was reflected in an article I wrote for Socialist History - here's the link - but for those with a keen interest, there's more in the draft chapters. These have been deposited at the Marx Memorial Library on Clerkenwell Green and and at Islington Local History Library. I am also posting a scan of the draft chapters - the links are below: