Lord Meath, city improvement and social imperialism

Abstract

Lord Meath (1841–1929), a major philanthropic and social reformer of his time, believed that city growth was leading to national degeneration; social and city reforms and imperialism were essential and interdependent. Without wide, ameliorative reforms the nation could not respond effectively to the challenges of empire and world struggle. State‐organized emigration and colonization were essential to check British city expansion and simultaneously strengthen the empire. Within cities effective health, physical and military education was needed, and the provision of numerous open spaces for recreation and exercise in over‐crowded working‐class areas were required. Meath founded the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, a major Victorian environmental organisation, and originated the idea of a green girdle or belt round London as a sanitary, health device but also an imperial embellishment. He merits inclusion among the pioneers of British planning and, by linking national and imperial destinies, illustrates unexplored motives behind urban improvement.