‘Post-Fire London was a magnificent, beautiful compromise’

http://www.apollo-magazine.com/post-fire-london-magnificent-beautiful-compromise/

by pepys • 10 years ago

47 17 10 years ago

oxymoron• 10 years ago

Neal Stephenson paints an entertaining picture of the events surrounding the plague and the great fire in _Quicksilver_. It includes a fictionalized version of Robert Hooke with frequent references to his contribution to the rebuilt city, and chronicles the early days of the Royal Society in general. I truly recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction and the early days of science.

macarthy12• 10 years ago

+1 great series, long but great. I had read biographies of many of the characters/historical figures, mostly Royal society type, before reading quicksilver, and I can tell that Stephenson did also. The audible versions of the books are great too. 60ish hours each

M_Grey2• 10 years ago

I love listening to them while playing a good videogame... perfect combination of total mental immersions.

oska• 10 years ago

It's an interesting article but I dislike the lead-in:

Cities are fragile things. They can burn: Rome in 64 AD (possibly thanks to the Emperor Nero); Constantinople in 1203 (courtesy of the Fourth Crusade); Lisbon in 1755 (because of the earthquake); Moscow in 1812 (thanks to Napoleon); Hamburg in 1842; Chicago in 1871; San Francisco in 1906… But in terms of devastation, few urban conflagrations can compare with the Great Fire of London, whose 350th anniversary is being marked this year.

How about the fire-bombing of Tokyo and nearly all other major Japanese cities during WWII? The fire-bombing of Tokyo is considered the greatest urban conflagration in history with the US Strategic Bombing Survey conservatively estimating one million homes destroyed. Or the fire in Tokyo after the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923? Or, contemporaneous with the event described, the Great Fire of Meireki in 1657, which destroyed 60-70% of Tokyo and is estimated to have claimed 100,000 lives. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Meireki

prawn• 10 years ago

To be fair, the article says "few urban conflagrations can compare" and then you compared a few. Seems reasonable.

M_Grey2• 10 years ago

Except you could then add a few more, Dresden, Berlin, etc... and then a few more. And a few more.

The article is chock-full of sophistry, and the lead-in just sets up the mindset.

dredmorbius2• 10 years ago

The resilience of cities is much commented on. They do withstand fires, and earthquakes, and hurricanes, and floods, and plagues. They're considerably more resilient than businesses and corporations.

What will kill a city, though, and rapidly, is a loss of economic foundations. Detroit, Pittsburgh, Manchester, St. Louis, Flint, Youngstown, Scranton, Dayton, ....

But that's more a case of the fire going out.

randomsearch4• 10 years ago

I think the missed opportunity to design (rather than "redesign"; there was no original design) London is an absolute tragedy.

Whilst the "winding streets" and "character" of London's awful road layout may be romantic for visiting tourists, it has resulted in a city needlessly choked with traffic, that feels cramped and claustrophobic compared to Europe's great capitals. Some of London's most famous streets are heavily polluted by noisy dirty standing traffic, and give little room for pedestrian movement.

The district around St Pauls feels so anonymous and cramped, in a way that affects so much of London. London cries out for open squares, wider pavements and pedestrianised areas. You need only visit Trafalgar Square (which itself could use a redesign) to see how many people the few open spaces that exist in London attract.

It's not a beautiful compromise, it's a failure to manage, it's a failure of vision and ambition.

notauser• 10 years ago

Well everyone feels different ways about these things.

The winding streets slow traffic down, making it safer to cycle around when compared to the fast and wide roads of New York. They also block wind meaning we don't get driving rain along straight avenues.

The lack of large squares and piazzas reduces the distance you have to walk between places, which is very important in a damp environment. It takes ages to get anywhere on foot in Mexico City for example whereas you can walk all the way across central London in a couple of hours. I routinely walk to meetings around the city and it rarely takes more than 20 minutes.

Rather than try and spread the city out planners are working on removing the cars and lorries. New pollution taxes, electric and autonomous vehicles, and pedestrianization of key roads like Oxford Street, are all going to work really well in the London model of a dense core whereas they won't add nearly as much to a city which is more spread out.

randomsearch4• 10 years ago

The winding streets slow traffic down, making it safer to cycle around when compared to the fast and wide roads of New York.

I think the way to provide safe cycling is not to slow the traffic down, but to separate cyclists and cars.

I looked for stats. Death rates in NYC and London are similar, but I couldn't find much comparable data on the number of cyclists or usage.

They also block wind meaning we don't get driving rain along straight avenues.

That's a fair point, but presumably having well-designed streets still allows for this, e.g. by staggering roads?

I agree that electric vehicles will greatly reduce pollution, you'll still be walking through dense standing traffic in many areas.

richthegeek• 10 years ago

Please god no! I've travelled to 10 countries and 18 cities this year and you can keep your wide roads and open squares to yourself. They are always boring, soulless, and empty. Narrow (10ft/3m) pedestrian-only streets with shops on both sides are where the interesting stuff happens.

There are a few cities around the world experimenting with closed-box neighbourhoods: blocks of buildings with restricted through-traffic and low speed limits (or no cars allowed at all). These encourage pedestrian usage, people actually spending time on the street (outdoor cafes are ruined by car exhaust).

The way to solve the issue of traffic is to remove cars from the road, not to transform your cities into places aimed specifically at cars.

randomsearch4• 10 years ago

you can keep your wide roads and open squares to yourself.

Having a city that is not so poorly designed that it is crammed with traffic, and having pedestrianised areas are not mutually exclusive concepts.

The way to solve the issue of traffic is to remove cars from the road, not to transform your cities into places aimed specifically at cars.

If you don't have well-designed roads, it is difficult to provide good pedestrianised areas, because you simply don't have space. The grid system devotes far more space to cars and pedestrian walkways by design, which enables you to have squares and pedestrian areas if you so wish.

It's not about designing around the car, it's about having some idea of design, rather than assuming a laissez-faire approach is a good idea.

Ntrails• 10 years ago

Whilst the "winding streets" and "character" of London's awful road layout may be romantic for visiting tourists

Screw tourists. I love taking a slightly different winding road to the same place I normally walk to, and seeing some slightly off kilter building or weird little park or set of shops.

There are traffic/noise/pollution problems, but that's something you'll see walking along main roads rather than the interesting bits. More pedestrianisation would be good I'm sure - but if you want huge open space we've got lots of parks...

randomsearch4• 10 years ago

huge open space we've got lots of parks

Agreed, London has plenty of park space. I was referring more to the claustrophobic nature of the busy roads with narrow pavements, e.g. Oxford Street.

italicbold• 10 years ago

As someone who lives 300m from st pauls, I dont agree with this. The area around st pauls is wonderful for exploring and walking.

reledi• 10 years ago

FYI There's recent evidence that the fire didn't start on Pudding Lane: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12109005/great-fire-o...

dredmorbius2• 10 years ago

How did Paris address the property claims challenge to redesigning itself in the 1700s and 1800s?

‘Post-Fire London was a magnificent, beautiful compromise’

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