The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

A Spatial Story of Exchange
the female body were used to represent middle-class values of virtue and
morality. In this developing value system, the women working in the bazaar
operated as signs of exchange, representing, through their dress and demeanor,
capitalist enterprises as pure: “A plain and modest style of dress, on
the part of the young females who serve at the stalls, is invariably insisted
on, a matron being hand to superintend the whole.” 38
Ideas of purity were also conjured up through architectural references.
Bazaars were safe environments, well-protected, usually under the
management of one proprietor. They were physically secure, with safety features
such as guards and lockable gates that promoted order and control. For
example, the premises of the Pantheon were described as “large, dry, commodious,
well lighted, warmed, ventilated, and properly watched.” 39 These
buildings were monofunctional, designed along strict and rational grids.
With no hidden spaces or secret activities, the bazaar kept everything on
display and in its place. In contrast to the surrounding unruly city, associated
with danger and threat, here emphasis was placed on order, both in the
layout of the space itself and in the strict rules governing behavior on the
premises:
every stall must have its wares displayed by a particular hour in the
morning, under penalty of a fine from the renter; the rent is paid
day by day, and if the renter be ill, she has to pay for the services of
a substitute, the substitute being such a one as is approved by the
principals of the establishment. 40
“BAZAAR BEAUTIES”
Although the buying and selling of commodities was considered a respectable
urban activity, shopping venues were also connected with male
sexual pursuit and female display. The oriental connotation of the term
bazaar suggests sensuality and eroticism, and the rambling texts represented
these markets as places of intrigue. 41 For George Cruikshank, bazaars
functioned solely as a place for arranging sexual exchanges and transactions;
two decades later, another writer described them as “fashionable lounging
places for the great and titled ones, and the places of assignation for supposed
casual encounters.” 42
The Rambler’s Magazine ran a series of monthly features titled
“Bazaar Beauties,” which undermined the moral aspirations of these venues
and exposed their real purpose—as places for men to look at women. “Lord
P-t-h-m . . . accosted the lovely and amiable Mistress Hughes, whose table
was surrounded by fashionables, laying out their money for the attractions
of her blue eyes and smiles, more than real principles of charity.” 43 Repre-