Suburbs

On the outskirts of every major city are large business and residential areas known as the suburbs, sometimes called industrial or residential suburbs. The term came from the Latin suburbium, with the first use in English by John Wycliffe referring to subarbis in 1380. A few scholars, such as Christopher Tunnard, saw it as a modern phenomenon, certainly in its present manifestation. However, others have argued for it having happened in ancient cities.

Since the building of the first cities, there have been suburbs created for various reasons. As the population in a particular area grew, there were many activities such as slaughterhouses and light industry (and later heavy industry) that many people did not want in the increasingly crowded city centers, and conversely the land ...