‘Pavements Grey of the Imprisoning City’: The Articulation of a Pro-Rural and Anti-Urban Ideology in the Youth Hostels Association in the 1930s

Abstract

The Youth Hostels Association was a self-professed non-political organisation that promoted the provision of cheap accommodation for walkers and cyclists. Despite this non-political stance, the literature of the YHA in the 1930s reveals a consistent pro-rural and anti-urban ideology. This article examines the articulation of this ideology and locates it both within a longer tradition of such sentiments in England and also within the social and cultural concerns of the decade.