I’ve spent the past couple of days in Liverpool, a city almost as fine as my home city of Manchester. Whenever you walk around one of the great northern Victorian cities, either of those, or Glasgow or Belfast, or Leeds, it’s impossible not to reflect on either (a) what confidence the civic elites of the 19th century must have felt to build the huge and impressive buildings still giving the cities their character. My goodness they could build, and built to last; and (b) how different Britain must have been when the economic dynamics was not in London. It’s one of the most centralised economies in the world, which is bad for the north, and bad for the south too.

Anyway, one of the other attendees recommended Tristram Hunt’s [amazon_link id=”075381983X” target=”_blank” ]Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City – will have to order it![/amazon_link]

[amazon_image id=”075381983X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City[/amazon_image]