The Norwich Directory; or, Gentlemen and Tradesmen's Assistant. Containing an alphabetical list of the principal inhabitants, their address, occupation

Bookseller Notes

The very scarce first printed directory for the city of Norwich, one of the earliest examples of this kind of publication (Manchester 1772 is generally considered the first). Aiming to make sense of the provincial urban centre, this guide lists the principal inhabitants of the town, alongside a a vast array of business and services including stationers, taverns, pawnbrokers, clothiers, hog butchers, earthen ware dealers, glovers, booksellers, woolcombers, throwsterers as well as separate listings of bankers, surgeons, attorneys, boarding schools, lodging houses, and fairs. In addition are topographical facts, post and coach schedules, dates of assizes, and a host of sundry vital information. It might be accused of going beyond its obvious remit with its various 'Hints for Improvement' of the city; a note states that by applying to the publishers one might have numbers painted on houses and businesses. Street numbers, now taken so much for granted, are thereby thrown into the realm of innovation. Other examples of proposed improvement include eradication of the narrow city gates, the prevention of further burial of bodies in urban churchyards, and the institution of an upmarket hotel for people of rank and distinction. All this tells us that the compiler sees the possibility of a real urban renaissance. He fancies 'the present publication has not only the merit of being highly useful to the mercantile and curious of this day, but may hereafter be remembered as having tended to the ease and ornament of posterity'.As Penny Corfield has outlined, 'many early Directory compilers were also advocates and celebrants, as well as chroniclers, of urban society. And, if in general their productions were straightforward and lacking in irony, they certainly displayed a fresh and almost pioneering enthusiasm for their subjects - in contrast with the more standardised and impersonal Directories that followed later, in the nineteenth century.' ESTC locates copies only at BL, Cambridge, Bodleian, Norwich Central Library, and Yale. Library Hub adds Chetham's Library in Manchester. WorldCat adds UCLA.See: Penelope J. Corfield, '"Giving Directions to the Town": The Early Town Directories' Urban History Yearbook (1984) 22-34.