Age-Sex Distribution 1891PercentageAge GroupMalesFemales

0-45-910-1415-1920-2425-2930-3435-3940-4445-4950-5455-5960-6465-6970-7475-7980-8485-8990+

Name: Zak Stevens

Student Reference Number: 10422131

\\Filespace3\shared\SciTech\FacOffice\STUDENT RECEPTION\LOGO\Science and Environment Logo.png

Module Code: GGH 100 Module Name: Practising Geography: The Human Environment

Coursework Title: Reconstructing the human geography of an urban area: the Barbican, Plymouth, c.1895-2014

Deadline Date: 15th December 2014

Member of staff responsible for coursework: Dr Mark Holton

Programme: BSc Geography

Please note that University Academic Regulations are available under Rules and Regulations on the University website www.plymouth.ac.uk/studenthandbook.

Individual assignment: I confirm that I have read and understood the Plymouth University regulations relating to Assessment Offences and that I am aware of the possible penalties for any breach of these regulations. I confirm that this is my own independent work.

Signed: Zak Stevens

Use of translation software: failure to declare that translation software or a similar writing aid has been used will be treated as an assessment offence.

I *have not used translation software.

Overall mark _____% Assessors Initials ______ Date_________

Reconstructing the human geography of an urban area; the Barbican, Plymouth, c.1895-2014AbstractThe Barbican is a key example of an urban area that has gone through a major transition period. This report focused on the period of c1891-2014 and aimed to explore whether the Barbican had changed in terms of industrial and social geography. With the use of key sources including the 1891 and 2011 Censuses and the 1895 trade directory; data was presented in the form of graphs, Digi Maps and population pyramids to outline trends and key points relating to how the Barbican changed from an urban landscape of production to an urban landscape of consumption.

Introduction and ContextFound at the heart of historic Plymouth, just a stone's throw from thriving cafs, restaurants and bars, and a short stroll from Plymouth Hoe and the city centre lies Plymouth Barbican (Sutton Harbour Holdings PLC 2014). Plymouth Barbican is one of Plymouth's most historic urban areas and is also an example of an area that has changed significantly through eras dating back to the age of the Tudors of the 16th and 17th century (Robinson C, 2008). This report focuses on the period of c.1895-2014(present) in order to explore the marked changes in the industrial and social geography of the Barbican. This involved investigating data of, the employment and distribution of inhabitants and how this affected the local economy, the age-sex distribution of the Barbicans' inhabitants, and the number of people per households within the Barbican; as well as the overall character and appearance of the area; using data from the 1895, and 2011, Censuses and Trade directories. More importantly, this data was then analysed to make comparisons between 1895-2014 to show how the Barbican has changed from an urban landscape of production, to an urban landscape of consumption; as well as addressing three key questions:Have there been major changes in patterns of employment and the distribution of workers across various types of job between 1891 and 2011?

Have there been changes in the age-sex ratio of the populations between 1891 and 2011?

Has the ratio of occupied to empty dwellings changed?

Figure 9-Location of Plymouth and the Barbican on a map of the UKMethodology

Figure 8-The Map of the Barbican

Collecting data involved undertaking a street survey of the Barbarian; this area of the Barbican was used because of the 100 year secrecy rule of the 2011 Census being applied, meaning only small parts of statistical data could be obtained for this particular part of the Barbican. This method of data collection was advantageous as the data collected could then be used to create a Land-Use Survey Map. On the other hand, this method of data collection can be biased and produce varying results due to researchers having different opinions of classification (not necessarily wrong but can produce varied and anomalous results). For 1895, use of the trade directory provided the business present in most buildings of the Barbican, enabling each business to be coded in the same coding system used for the 2014 data. Data was presented in the form of Digi Maps, bar charts and population pyramids because they each provide efficient and critical analysis of data which led to the discovery of key trends and links between different sets of data. This together, provided a more in-depth study, and better understanding, of the changes in the social geography, land-use change, and spatial distribution of the Barbican.

Results and DiscussionThe Overall Hypotheses claims that there have been marked changes in the industrial and social geography of the Barbican are during the course of the past century. See figures of images and data results at the Table of Contents on page 5.

Section A-Land use business change: Trade directory and street survey.Figures 1, 2, and 3 show that from 1895-2014, there were significant changes in the land-use and spatial distribution of the Barbican due to the Barbican changing from a landscape of production in 1891, to a landscape of consumption by 2014. During 1895, Fig 1 and 3 show that 30% of the Barbicans workforce were employed in the industrial sector; this was due to the Barbican being a major fishing and shipping port, at the peak of the industrial revolution the Barbican was the 6th biggest port in the UK (Gill C). This was enhanced by Britain having its empire and controlling almost 1/3 of the world at the height of imperialism with its strongest force to maintain the empire being The Royal Navy (Robinson C). That meant that there was a huge demand for shipping materials such as rope, timber and fishing, and the Barbicans population and workforce were the key suppliers for the ships entering and leaving the Barbican. The Royal Navy was also a key factor for the Barbican being a major fishing port as there was a large demand for food for the large population of sailors and workers who didnt originate from the Barbican; resulting in 24% of people being employed in the Services sector (Robinson C). However, Fig 1 and 2 shows that by 2014 there was a significant decline in the industrial sector of 28%, along with the service provider sector which declined by 17%; this was due to significant events occurring through the period between 1895-2014 which involved the collapse of the British Empire, the First and Second World Wars, and the Great Depression (Gills C). These significant events led to Britain almost going bankrupt, particularly during the Great Depression, and would have caused many people to have been unemployed. This meant that during the period after these significant events, Britain had changed from being a global superpower, controlling over 1/3 of the world at its peak with all of the countries income coming from the merchant shipments of the empire and the exports produced from an industrial economy, to a country that has lost a significant amount of influence with a tertiary economy, relying mostly on services and imports, with exports having significantly declined (Gills C). This meant that there was no longer the demand for fishing, rope and other industrial components that caused the Barbican deindustrialise and was therefore, no longer an urban landscape of production.

By 2014, Fig 1 and 2 shows that despite the decline in the industrial and service provider sector, the retail sector and the public houses/restaurants and cafes sector had significantly increased. This shows that like many derelict shipyards in the past (such as Salford Quays in Manchester and the Liverpool Dockyard), the Barbican underwent significant urban regeneration; including the redevelopment of Sutton Harbour, Mayflower Steps and the construction of the National Aquarium. These developments were all focused on the tourism industry which was becoming a major factor in the UK economy due to historical sites, such as the Barbican, where history and culture is preserved; this caused a major change in the pattern of employments of employment for the Barbicans workforce as people used the multiplier effect to open business and provide tourist attractions for visitors of the Barbican (shown by Fig.2). A rapidly-expanding tourism industry shows how the Barbican has become an urban landscape of consumption as the landscape is being consumed by the visiting tourists which has been catalysed by increasing construction of luxury hotels and apartments and also redevelopment of the original buildings from the industrial period of production to preserve the cultural heritage of the Barbican. Overall however, comparing the 1891 and 2014 can be contradictory as the 1891 data on land-use relies completely on the trade directory. The trade directory has a key problem which is that it wasnt fully completed, meaning industries could have been stronger or weaker than actually portrayed, and some data of the trade directory was shown on maps which were not preserved to the present day. Also the Trade Directories could be biased due to the fact that it relied on the willingness of householders to cooperate (Eyre brothers 1880). However, presenting the data as a bar chart and Digi Maps solved this potential problem as when the maps and charts were analysed, certain trends or anomalous results could be identified which wouldnt have made a significant difference to the overall data if corrected and changed e.g. one building may have been coded as unoccupied but was actually an industrial building in which case it can be easily recoded.

B-Socio-Economic Change: Population CensusThe Barbicans change from an urban landscape of production to an urban landscape of consumption brought upon many socio-economic changes, particularly relating to the social geography of the Barbican. Fig 5 shows that in 1891 44% of households occupied more than 5 people, a suggestion for this could have been rural-urban migration as people from rural Devon and Cornwall migrated to Plymouth and the Barbican with the prospect of work and a better quality of life. However, during the period of 1891, it was not uncommon for households that occupied more than 5 people to have more than one family accommodating it (Robinson C). This brought upon a common occurrence of overcrowding as homes were designed for accommodating the industrial workforce as well as sailors returning from fishing and naval voyages (Mills and Schruer). This way of life dramatically changed through to the 21st century as the Barbican became a major tourist attraction; some buildings, and even streets, which were present in 1891 didnt exist by 2014 (a key problem when the street survey was conducted); this is because mass urban regeneration took place where the cramped industrial buildings were converted into luxury homes and apartments to attract new residents to the area, otherwise known as slum clearance (Mills and Schruer). However, a key point is that not all of the industrial houses were redeveloped which, as shown by Fig 1, has caused a 20% increase in the amount of unoccupied building; a suggested explanation for this could be that some of the historical buildings are listed and can therefore not be redeveloped or demolished; this is not uncommon as there are listed buildings in other areas of Plymouth, such as the Civic Centre, and in different cities across the UK; such as Bath.

The age-sex distribution of the Barbicans population was a key factor in the change in the social geography of the Barbican from 1891-2014; data was obtained for category with use of the 1891 Census and the aggregated statistical data from the 2011 Census. An advantage of using Censuses as a source of data is that they are precise and detailed due to being large and complex; also proving further data in great detail for small domains, especially for local areas (Kish, 2011 p101). However, overtime Censuses can lose their detail and precision due to epidemics such as industrial output and changing birth rates can bring figures such as average children per household under scrutiny(Mills and Schurer 1996)(Lawton 1978). Despite this, the data provided led to the creation of population pyramids for 1891 and 2011(Fig 6 and 7) which showed that during the Barbicans industrial peak, there was a large proportion of the population under 50 years old; this explained the number of people who came to the Barbican in search of work. In 2011, the population pyramid shows that there was an even variation, apart from 20-24 year olds, as the tourism industry took hold leading to the settling of families and retirees moving in the redeveloped Barbican.

ConclusionTo conclude this report, the author believes that the results support the overall hypotheses that there have been marked changes in the industrial and social geography of the Barbican area during the course of the past century. This is because there were major changes in the patterns of employment and the distribution of workers across various types of job between 1891 and 2011, as shown by Fig 1, 2 and 3 where the Barbican, in 1891, used to be the 6th biggest port in the UK, and an area of mass industrial employment; before being transitioned into an area of tourism after mass deindustrialisation caused many people to switch to other sectors and start businesses. There were changes in the age-sex ratio of the population in 1891-2011, shown in figures 6 and 7, as during 1891 industrialisation, most of the population were aged