Dion Georgiou, one of the conveners for the Sport and Leisure History seminar discusses the relationship of leisure and the suburban. The focus of this podcast is on a series of carnivals held between 1905 and 1914 in the London suburb of Ilford. The carnivals were held for fundraising purposes due to the need for money to establish a new hospital for the community in Ilford. Dion analyses the carnival through primary source material of local newspapers – in this instance the Ilford Reporter and Iflord Guardian – to gain an insight into concepts of spectacle, ritual, and festival. The carnival reflects both the old and new and Dion seems particularly interested in the idea of the carnival as invented tradition through repetition.
