Austen Hamilton

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College: College of Humanities
Discipline: History
Department: History

I am a part-time postgraduate researcher at the University of Exeter, researching the speculative house builders of eighteenth century London as entrepreneurs. This subject combines two of my interests: urban development, particularly that of London, and the nature of entrepreneurship. The first has its origins in my personal background, the latter developed during my business career.

I gained an honours degree in history from Reading University in 1974. This included a specialization in urban history and a dissertation on ‘The Comparative Development of Reading and Oxford, 1760-1840’. I returned to academia after a career in business, initially taking non-accredited history courses with Exeter University.

Subsequently I completed a Master of Arts degree in local and regional history at the Open University in 2013 with distinction. My dissertation on ‘A Speculative House Builder in late Georgian London: Charles Mayor 1773-1837’ was based on extensive research into the various papers in the National Archives and the London Metropolitan Archives relating to his career. I am now looking at a number of London developers throughout the long eighteenth century using similar material.