The Somatic Crowd: The Bodily and Sensory Experience of Reform Crowds in Britain, c.1816–48*

Abstract This article considers the roles that the body and the senses played in shaping the dynamics of 19th‐century reform crowds in Britain. Acoustics, terrain, timing, weather and corporeal issues of hunger, thirst and calls of nature influenced the timing and location of events and, along with the physical aspects of accessibility, visibility and acoustics, affected attendees’ turnout and stamina to endure extended and distant meetings. The article reveals how probing the somatic – namely, bodily – nature of crowds opens a new perspective on the lived experience of popular politics and the mass platform. The reform movement, in particular, prompted raucous events loaded with an often party‐like atmosphere of pomp, symbolism and chaos, which would have triggered a range of physical and sensory feelings in attendees. What the positive aspects of pageantry, ritual and participatory theatrics brought to meetings, the bodily facets of the crowd often countered. Yet while anticipation of discomfort may have deterred some from joining and limited significant female attendance, it did not stifle the wider reputation of the mass platform, which was enhanced by a cacophony of conversation in newspapers and via word‐of‐mouth. The crowd, in its somatic incarnations, was the embodiment of collective power.