The Building of London.

Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 10

The Building of London.

Laws to regulate building operations in large cities are far from being as modern a development as is frequently thought. As early as < the twelfth century, according to an interesting lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of British Architects, some such regulations existed in London. In liso party walls 3ft thick and 16ft high wero recommended as a means of fire prevention and "especially for appeasing contentions which sometimes ariso among neighbours."' The height of buildings, it appears, was a matter on which the architects of that time felt strongly, and old documents hint at the unpleasant results experienced by any who transgressed in this respect. for instance, there was Sir John Champnois, alderman and mayor, who built the first tower of brick seen on a private man's house, and for this innovation was "punished with blindness before his death," while Richard Wethall. a merchant tailor, for putting up a timber tower, becamo "although then a young man, so tormented with gouts in the joints" that ho was unable to take any pleasure in the heights of his tower. What would have happened to tho man who presumed to experiment along the lines of the modern sky-scraper, ono hardly likes to conjecture. Tentative legislation in the dire/tion of fire-preveniion was passed in the thirteenth contury when all the alehouses were ordered to be built of stone,and cookshops and other trade premises to be whitewashed and plastered outside. Fire-escapes were a later invention, but tho aldermen of each ward wore "to have a proper hook or cord," and during the summer months fire-extinguishing appliances in the form of stone or wooden tubs of water placed before each house were

• >!i<zatory. Towards the end of tho sixteenth century the rapid' extension of London alarmed the authorities to such an extent' that an Act was introduced forbidding* the erection of any new building within three miles of the city. The effect, however, was considerably spoiled by limiting the'operation of the Act to seven years, and by allowing an exemption for houses assessed at anything above £o per annum. Under the Commonwealth Parliament another Act was passed with the object of preventing <c the multiplicity of buildings in and about the suburbs of London and within ten miles thereof," but judging from results, the measure was not very effective. Street-numbering was introduced early in the eighteenth century, and street-lighting in 1767, but street-naming was not properly controlled till 1885. The fact that in. 1868 there existed in London no fewer than 40 High: streets, 60* George and 65 Charles streets, shows the necessity for regulation. • ■