The Inspector at Large: Investigating the Spaces of London

Abstract

In his ‘Inspector’ columns, John Hill attempts to rise above the combative print culture of the 1750s, aiming to avoid personal attacks and attain a degree of ‘Impartiality’. As part of the process, he tries to reinvent himself, reimagine the relationship between London and the fashionable ‘Town’, and create a new, more refined reading public. That he did not quite succeed says much about how his vision of a regulated space of sociability was compromised by a competitive, commodified society, and where even his open and ‘democratic’ column was undercut by the pages of news and advertisements that followed, which provided a very different representation of London.

In my last entry I found Cincinnati similar to a chessboard. True! But today I should prefer to compare it to a giant newspaper page.

—Moritz Busch