Scottish Urban Culture

 
 

The gap between rural and urban living was a stark one in 19th Century Scotland, and the cultural divide between the two followed a similar pattern. The demand for labor and promises of economic advancement and social mobility in urban centers drew working populations away from rural life.(Smout 56) The decline of rural preeminence can be seen in the demographic shift of Orkney, Argyll and Berwickshire. A marked age difference began to develop in those who stayed on to work the land, and those who left for the cities. Older couples tended to stay in rural counties, while younger generations began leaving to look for work in urban centers. The Royal Commission on Labour of 1893 documented this change, and gave voice to those who were moved by it.(Parliamentary Papers) This decline in rural population meant that fewer people of higher ages were doing more work, helped along by new technologies.(Smout 61)


This changing dynamic of rural living was reflected in the changes seen in the cities at this time. The long-term trend in urban centers was towards a popular-culture focused on recreation.(Lees and Lees 208)  Andrew Lees and Lynn Hollen Lees identify several different types of urban culture. The ‘High Culture’ of literature, philosophy and art contrasted with a ‘Popular Culture’ enjoyed by the working class. These two traditions existed distinctly, but also as inexorably intertwined phenomena. The ‘high culture’ of the upper and middle class interacted with and attempted, on many occasions, to reform the seemingly defunct culture of the lower classes. Reform culture emphasised self-improvement, education, and temperance for the working class through various philanthropic organizations, events, and writings. The culture of the working class sought entertainments outside of middle class values, such as drinking, cabaret theatre, and music halls. However these cultures did interact, and this had a marked effects on their developments.


The philanthropic pursuits of the middle class opened up the domestic sphere of women, and gave them an opportunity to interact with the public sphere. Operating moralistic domiciles and organizing charitable organizations were some of the ways that women began to step out into public life. Similarly, these organizations affected the way that the working class comported themselves. The most notable of these phenomena in Scotland is the temperance movement. According to T. C. Smout, in the 1830’s the population of Scotland drank a staggering amount of alcohol- roughly 1 pint of whiskey per week for every person over the age of 15. The temperance movement in Scotland, begun with the work of John Dunlop and William Collins,  worked to curb this tendency towards drunkenness. Dunlop and Collins founded the first, but not the most effective temperance groups in Scotland. By 1842 the temperance movement had grown explosively in Scotland, with 50,000 supporters greeting Temperance speaker Father Theobald Mathew in Glasgow. (Smout 142) The temperance movement is only one example of middle class changes affecting working class culture. Urban culture in Scotland was a varied and ever changing phenomenon. Over the course of the 19th century it interacted with the varieties of culture with the cities and with rural culture from the countryside, marking many changes and much variability.


- Jonathan Doolittle