About the Centre for Urban History

The Centre for Urban History (CUH) was established in 1985 and has become a major, international centre for interdisciplinary research and graduate teaching.

Current staff interests include environmental urban history, urban topography from 1700, colonial urban history, urban governance, oral history, the production of urban history from the 18th century, the law and urban property, the history of urban planning, housing and the built environment since 1750, 19th-century provincial towns and their imperial connections, domestic life and leisure, and industrial towns. CUH staff have published 15 books and over 70 articles and chapters in the last five years.

Since its foundation, CUH has raised over £2 million in research grants; one important project has been the East Midlands Oral History Archive, which has realised an archive of more than 2,000 interviews.

The CUH community

The development of a real community spirit is fostered in CUH, where graduates are encouraged to provide mutual support, to socialise together and to augment their professional expertise by organising their own workshops and seminar series, by taking part in conferences, by teaching and public speaking, by dealing with the press, and by understanding author's copyright and publishing before thesis completion.

Each year CUH welcomes a number of international scholars, normally at post-doctoral and staff levels, usually for a semester. For details see the Visitor Programme.

CUH has excellent study facilities for research students and international visitors: office space, a specialist library and local history collection, weekly seminar programme, workshops and conferences.

Archive Collections and Catalogues

CUH holds the catalogued papers of HJ Dyos, often considered the inspirational force to urban history in Britain. Other personal papers, including those of such pioneer figures in Local History as WG Hoskins and HP Finberg are also held in the Archives Room. These collections provide useful insights into the intellectual origins and networks of early Leicester pioneers in these fields. You can consult the Dyos catalogue on-line.

The Centre has its own growing specialist library to complement the University Library's excellent collection of urban, archaeological and local history books and journals.

CUH also holds slide and post card collections in the Archives. These are useful resources that the Centre seeks to develop further, once cataloguing has been completed.

Additional activities

The Centre for Urban History provides a hub for British and international activities in terms of on-line resources, publications and conferences for urban historians.

The Centre edits the academic journal, Urban History (published by CUP), and produces an on-line conference diary and monthly newsletter. In addition, it coordinates meetings of the British Urban History Group, and promotes the Pre-Modern Towns Group and European Urban History Association conferences.