How London Was Rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666

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Күн бұрын

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The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed central London. Several intrepid designers saw the rebuilding process as an opportunity to fix the old city's problems. None of these plans were ever adopted. Why?
Resources on this topic:
discovery.ucl.... long after-life of Christopher Wren's short-lived London plan of 1666_AAM.pdf
The Making of Urban America, John Reps. (www.amazon.com...)
www.cambridge....
Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
Trans rights.

Пікірлер: 122

@CityBeautiful 9 ай бұрын

This is my last video of the year. I've been posting videos on KZbin continuously for a full SEVEN years! Thanks to all of your support and I'll see you in the New Year!

@elizabethdavis1696 9 ай бұрын

When is the next question and answer livestream?

@TheLikerofPie 9 ай бұрын

Thank you for another year of amazing videos! Looking forward to all your videos in the year ahead. Take care and make sure you have enough time to relax!

@TheSharkasmCrew 9 ай бұрын

Congrats on the seven years man! Your channel rocks.

@ermwattesigmadude 9 ай бұрын

Respect my g

@pongop 9 ай бұрын

I love your channel and videos! Thank you!

@AlecMuller 9 ай бұрын

It's also worth considering the fire was only 1 year after a resurgence of Bubonic Plague, and 15 years after the end of a 9 year long Civil War. Being a Londoner in that era was *rough*.

@jbjaguar2717 7 ай бұрын

On the bright side, that resurgence of the plague was the last (significant) one in English history. The fire and subsequent rebuilding may have even played a role in ending it.

@PLuMUK54 9 ай бұрын

The main reason that the city was rebuilt with the same street pattern is that before the ground had fully cooled, people were back marking out their land. Within days, there were temporary structures all over the burned areas. Once people had moved back, it would have been almost impossible to make them move again. Also, parts of the areas covered by the plans were undamaged, and people whose property had survived the fire were hardly likely to accept its destruction in the rebuilding.

@kaneworsnop1007 9 ай бұрын

I've always seen the main stated reason being the worry that if London wasn't rebuilt quickly the businesses would set up elsewhere and never return and London would cease to be the economic capital. Your points make a lot of sense as well.

@barryrobbins7694 9 ай бұрын

Sometimes streets weren’t so permanent when highways were constructed through existing neighborhoods.

@barryrobbins7694 9 ай бұрын

It is weird when a monarchy is more concerned about their subjects than a supposed democracy is concerned about their citizens.

@stephenlee5929 9 ай бұрын

@@barryrobbins7694 Having your father murdered for not being concerned with his subjects may have influenced his actions?

@barryrobbins7694 9 ай бұрын

@@stephenlee5929 Numerous United States Presidents have been assassinated too.

@PSNDonutDude 9 ай бұрын

Mass Highway construction of the late 20th century will likely and hopefully be the last time this kind of major change to street and property lines in our history. Perhaps that's optimistic, but I'd like to think we've learn now that these changes don't bring the economic prosperity they're often designed to do.

@barryrobbins7694 9 ай бұрын

@@PSNDonutDude I hope so. Maybe we have reached peak car too.

@danielabalaseii1371 9 ай бұрын

You should do a video about Lisbon’s Earthquake of 1755. It almost completely wiped the city out, earthquake followed by fires and tsunami! Marques de Pombal was assigned to rebuild the city, following a grid pattern with height limits taller separations between buildings and larger streets to prevent the spread of fire, and a beautiful architectural guidelines!

@marlonmoncrieffe0728 9 ай бұрын

Ooh, good one!

@weird-guy 9 ай бұрын

I was going to say the same 😂

@aaronsmith9209 9 ай бұрын

I am glad we kept the medieval street pattern in London instead of a New Rome type city, it makes for a more interesting city today, I feel you can't get lost here as anytime you cross a major road a landmark usally a church or townhall or even a distinct pub/ business or train station guides the way. Also many of the main roads in and out of the city were the old trade routes from neighbouring market towns that later became apart of Greater London. The road layout with all its imperfections is human and I wouldn't change it for anything. Also it is wrong to refer to it as Central London as the London of the 17th century was significantly smaller than the city of today, inner suburbs like Islington and Southwark let alone anywhere further out were separate towns or villages until much later. The London we know didn't become the size it is today until the 1930s, 40s and even the 50s with some infill and densification in places since then. London like most old cities grew dynamically over many centuries and despite the green belt will probably get bigger still.

@perperson199 9 ай бұрын

Well said. I completely agree

@IxiaClover 9 ай бұрын

yes, i know keeping history for the sake of history itself isnt always popular but its an interesting natural, sociological layout of the kind you dont get much of in modern day... i find that beautiful

@uhpenyen4291 9 ай бұрын

My interest in city design/planning & urban planning (which led into other interests) came about when I actually started asking myself questions about cities. I was new to traveling, I haven't done much but been to a few places where money could afford. It wasn't until I was visiting Omaha Beach in Normandy, France (exploring all the beach landings during WWII of Operation Overlord). The question that started this rabbit hole was history in of itself. How did the neighboring towns next to these beaches rebuild after wwii? What stayed, what was different? What was the process?... Outside of that was similar ideas but more towards natural disasters rebuilds. After doing some research, I have decided to go for a degree in urban design (the whole set up really). I am still going for it. And during those courses, I have been sucked into history. So, this video is perfect! Thank you for posting.

@randorandom 9 ай бұрын

Here's an idea for a video - how about something on twin-city or tri-city/state metropolitan areas and how they form? Eg, Minneapolis-St Paul, the cities of Buda and Pest combining to create modern day Budapest, or maybe my personal favorite - the Keihanshin region of Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto!

@Bioniking 9 ай бұрын

It’s so fascinating to see how cities chose to develop their street networks, whether they came to fruition or not. It’s interesting to see the potential plans for San Francisco’s disposal grids, or the plan to dam much of the bay. Disasters can be a great time to rethink and plan for resilience.

@rorisxng 9 ай бұрын

I’d like to see a video about Johannesburg as the largest man-made forest in the world. I didn’t believe it as a child because I thought of JHB as just the CBD but now when I drive along the highway through Joburg and Pretoria; you can hardly see the houses in the suburbs amongst all the trees. You really notice the difference the vegetation makes when you are in newly developed areas with little to no trees.

@rogink 9 ай бұрын

As a native born Cockerney [OK, I was born within the sound of the airport :) ] I love the quirky nature of London's streets - you wander around, and if it's somewhere new, you are never sure if you are heading in the right direction. You can come across some alleyway or hidden square by accident. It's not grand - it's chaotic. I've visited Paris a few times. And it's unfailingly beautiful and grandiose. Looking up the Champs Elysee towards La Defense is spectacular. But after a few hours you get to feel numb from this - it's so predictable and, well, boring. The urbanist in me wants Wren to get his way with that Romanesque street pattern. But the realist in me says London wouldn't be the most fascinating city in the world if he'd won the day.

@shasan2393 9 ай бұрын

“But after a few hours you get to feel numb from this - it's so predictable and, well, boring” I personally dont understand this sentiment. I feel like preferring haphazard street layouts might just be because a person becomes accustomed to it. I live in NYC with grid layouts and i love it. Its easy to navigate and i dont feel bored at all, in fact the opposite. I can easily choose multiple different ways getting to the same location (for example taking a turn 1 street earlier or later) while not having to actually memorize streets. Downtown Manhattan (south of Wall Street) pre-dates the grid pattern and is a pain to navigate. I dont think of its haphazard layout as quirky or improving my experience as compared to walking in the rest of the city

@rogink 9 ай бұрын

@@shasan2393 Fair point. I live 90 minutes outside London and for me it's a place to visit a few times a year. So to me it's a tourist destination. I can't say how I'd feel if I lived there - and I wouldn't want to!

@John...44... 9 ай бұрын

Sometimes no planning makes a better town than one with lots of planning....

@Alex-cw3rz 9 ай бұрын

As an urban planner it pains me to say, but almost all times mostly unplanned cities with some planned parts like parks and an important street or two, are often the best urban spaces. Due to them naturally forming to the needs of the population

@MegaJellyNelly 9 ай бұрын

@Alex-cw3rz i think parks, community gardens, transit, homeless unfrastructure. Things that mostly affect more marginalized groups, these are things only planners can address bc capitalism/free developing doesn't care for these groups

@Alex-cw3rz 9 ай бұрын

@@MegaJellyNelly well other things too such as civic centres and more comprehensive ideas such as we see in Paris etc.

@MegaJellyNelly 9 ай бұрын

@@Alex-cw3rz yess!! Public health too, I'd say, measures like planning setbacks to prevent shadows covering parks or streets! Or planting trees for shade on shared spaces that are too sunny.

@geofflepper3207 7 ай бұрын

Jane Jacobs would likely agree with that. She didn't think much of modern planned cities in which chaos and confusion were banished in favour of sterility and residential areas were separated from industrial areas and from commercial areas and one needs a car to get from one area to the other and almost nobody walks anywhere.

@jdb47games 9 ай бұрын

0:05 Pudding Lane, not Pudding Street.

@mats7492 9 ай бұрын

Charles was incensed that Knight suggested the King "draw a benefit to himself from so public a calamity of his people" - and had Knight briefly thrown in jail.

@Suho1004 9 ай бұрын

As someone who lived in London briefly many years ago, I'm glad they didn't modernize the city after the fire. I like the feel of the old, medieval layout. I know that's a pretty subjective and illogical reason, but there you go.

@adriandapat1206 9 ай бұрын

I like to see how Lisbon was rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake.

@Alex-cw3rz 9 ай бұрын

My home town of Bolton had a plan for a huge plans when they needed an expansion of the civic centre, by the mayor Lord Leverhulme and by landscape architect Thomas Mawson. The plans are online and it is genuinely spectacular what was proposed, unfortunately it was never done as the plans sort of forget the point was to expand the council offices, whereas they wanted to design one of the most impressive town in the country. We still got Le Mans Crescent which is used in a lot of tv and films and an extension to the town hall so it's not all bad.

@JGMGamer07 9 ай бұрын

Fire: Destroys a big area of London Deaths: Only 6???

@rogink 9 ай бұрын

I'd thought no one died in the Great Fire, but even 6 seems ridiculously low for 100,000 living in a square mile, when you consider how many people die in open space fires today.

@Saucisse_Praxis 9 ай бұрын

666

@TheKewlPerson 9 ай бұрын

I'd be curious to see another example with Tokyo during the Edo fire of 1657, or the 1923 Kanto Earthquake, or the WWII firebombings.

@etpoculasacra 8 ай бұрын

THE fundamental reason why London was not rebuilt on a grid was because of English property law (as a part of England's rights-based common law more generally). Unlike the absolutist kings of France, the kings of England (later Great Britain) could not simply sweep away citizens' private properties. As a consequence (and as hinted at toward the end of this video), the public themselves determined how London would be rebuilt, rather than grand architects or the nobility -- they went back to the plots where their houses and businesses had been, staked out their boundaries, and began to rebuild in situ. As the architectural historian John Summerson put it, London is not only the birthplace of modern democracy and modern commerce, but is physically defined by these twin aspects of its past: the primacy of commerce and the rights of the individual over those of the authorities.

@dieselfan7406 8 ай бұрын

It's Pudding Lane! Very interesting, thanks.

@JustClaude13 9 ай бұрын

The Greeks built three roads from one side to the other when they laid out Neopolis. Moving from one side of the city to the other was quick and efficient. more than 2,000 years later, these streets still define Napoli. Especially Spaccanapoli, the "Naples Splitter." It's a tourist site all by itself. Go up on the hill to see it from above.

@hamishashcroft3233 9 ай бұрын

Edinburgh’s new town is a great example of a place designed like those plans, except a bit later.

@Cayles764 9 ай бұрын

Charles ii was based as Hell for sending the toll bridge city planner to the Tower of London 😂

@ingridfong-daley5899 9 ай бұрын

I'm from New Orleans and yes, quality in infrastructure design absolutely underpins the success of a city. (Our good buddy Houston can back me up on this one.) Money don't get to the bank without good roads. Preferably dry ones.

@mcvange 9 ай бұрын

I was surprised to see an aerial view of my hometown Turin!

@frongus47 9 ай бұрын

the design of London is very beautiful because it naturally grew instead of being forced to grow

@tonydragonetti5139 8 ай бұрын

Okay, I am a CS1 console player. I know, shoot me now! But for me one of things I was hoping our of CS2 was to see the DLCs being included in the base game, and inclusion of quality of gameplay mods. I am screaming out for the TPME mod and the Move it mod, and the one for props in a straight line or circle (cant remember the name). I know console won't get anarchy mods etc. I understand thay but traffic mods should have come in the base game. I really feel that they missed out on the mod packs though put aside the console. The reason I follow, Biffa and City planner etc are to see the amazing creativity and watch in awe wishing I could do that on console. The PC community deserve a easy of access modability to the game. The beauty of CS2 is allow people to be creative I watched Biffa videos every day to watch what amazing things he did next. Now I watch one once every 2 to 4 weeks, as not only is it not relevant to console but it is massively obvious that Biffas creativity is horrifically stiffled. I really feel for the streamers/youtubes and those PC players. CS2 should have just added in the favourite quality of play mods into the base for both console and PC. To make a really easy to use low barrier to access base game. But they should also have provided a much great open access sandbox for modders to develop new and amazing assets. Improve accessibility of the base game, and broaden the canvas of creativity. Thats wat CS2 should be about.

@josedavidgarcesceballos7 9 ай бұрын

Have to say, I was expecting something about Nicholas Barbon and real estate speculation as part of the story. cheers and thanks.

@Gracinda80 9 ай бұрын

Not suficient to mention Paris. Check out Lisbon's reconstruction after 1755 earthquake.

@JesmondBeeBee 9 ай бұрын

"If the path worn by the cows on the way down to stream was good enough for my great-great-great-great-grandfather as the route for this street, it's good enough for me!"

@vladtheimpalerofd1rtypajee316 9 ай бұрын

Please make a video on how to fix city planning in India.

@elizabethdavis1696 9 ай бұрын

When is the next livestream where we can ask questions?

@uewepuep 9 ай бұрын

I couldn't get the nebula link to work, it just went up to $50 at checkout. Perhaps because I've used a link before?

@redwards5000 9 ай бұрын

It was Pudding Lane, not Pudding Street

@xander1052 9 ай бұрын

Pudding Lane. It's Pudding Lane.

@TrailRat2000 9 ай бұрын

I wonder, if we'd got Wren's plan for that part of London, what it would have done, if anything, for the "windy alleyways".

@GabeSyme 8 ай бұрын

It's funny, I was recently reading Vitruvius's ten books on architecture which is the only surviving book on Roman urban planning and was very influential on renaissance planning, and that book spends so much time talking about how to lay out roads to avoid wind tunnels. So I wonder if Wren's plan also took this into account or did he ignore that part in favour of pure symmetry.

@controlaudiomixing6372 9 ай бұрын

Pudding Lane, not Pudding Street

@gm2407 20 күн бұрын

The act of parliament which specified building materials to act as fire safety regulations had a huge impact on building in the whole country for the last few hundred years.

@roberttaylor9259 9 ай бұрын

I don't quite understand the guiding principals of the diagonal boulevards. So often it seems the angles chosen really have little rhyme or reason.

@Noodle562 8 ай бұрын

is that a Regional Transit bus sigh on your wall? Sacto?

@ianclews8556 9 ай бұрын

you have totaly over looked land ownership . you cant just take peoples land off people . just think how many court cases there would of been

@MassiveChetBakerFan 6 ай бұрын

I would love to have seen medieval Paris before Hausmann's wrecking balls came in and imposed all those boring wide boulevards. I’m ok with a few grand avenues here and there, but generally I much prefer narrow, windy, organic streets. One of the reasons central London is so fun is because you get new and surprising vistas all the time.

@Holland1994D 9 ай бұрын

1:36 Why all are those maps in Dutch?

@rogink 9 ай бұрын

Yes I wondered that. Copyright issue?

@thehenryp 9 ай бұрын

Pudding street. Pudding street. Really?

@bbrs925 8 ай бұрын

Pudding Lane not Pudding Street !

@sohopedeco 9 ай бұрын

You should make a video about the Marquis of Pombal's reconstruction of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake. Many of the ideas had bee n previously used in colonial Brazilian villages.

@chrisw443 9 ай бұрын

Man that bread was straight fire!

@ivanl.1881 9 ай бұрын

Have a great day, everyone. ❤

@mattic6 8 ай бұрын

Pudding Lane, fw. Ten seconds in and you ruin it.

@jbjaguar2717 7 ай бұрын

I don't think anything compares to the damage done to London by the awful developments of the 1960s and 70s (not always helped by some of the recent weird skyscrapers which are very hit and miss). Today the old city is a fairly grey, grim and boring place that is eerily empty after working hours. It feels more like a business district in a minor US city than the medieval heart of a metropolis. Westminster, not the City, is the heart and soul of London, and especially the former 'slum' areas such as Soho.

@alexklotz3980 9 ай бұрын

Fun fact, the Dutch did invade and took the British throne in 1688.

@daboundy 9 ай бұрын

great vid .. and you had me until "subscription" .. lost .. gone .. and "Jet lag" looks absolutely hideous ! I can't think of anything worse

@napoleonibonaparte7198 9 ай бұрын

God forbid an American submits a redesign plan for London...

@nitehawk86 9 ай бұрын

Don't remind me that Johnny Harris is on Nebula. I am thinking of cancelling my Nebula subscription just so that no money goes to him.

@goodwood-rc4nx 8 ай бұрын

after the fire the houses were rebuilt and the roads never changed as a rule and Government or German Bombs have not been able to change them

@maxwellhiggs 9 ай бұрын

Yeah, they missed a trick. Those boulevards could've made it grow to the largest empire the world has ever seen.

@DavisBenjaminA 9 ай бұрын

Wait… is that Robert Hooke? Inventor of the microscope?

@aidansullivan5703 9 ай бұрын

peep the “well there’s your problem” episode on the matter

@jakegarvin7634 9 ай бұрын

Way to go, *thomas* 😒

@MoustafaHabra18 9 ай бұрын

If streets are permannet, does that mean there's no hope for redesigning suburbia 😅???

@kaneworsnop1007 9 ай бұрын

In some ways you were wrong when stating the change in road layout wouldn't have been of benefit, although it wouldn't have been a benefit until the adoption of the car. I've watched a documentary on this before and they used traffic modelling software to test Wrens layout (which was almost adopted), the diagonal roads and other alterations made it pretty close to getting a perfect road layout score that the programme generates. If I remember right, it would have made London the best road layout of any city to date. Another interesting point from the modelling was the fact that the American grid system is the worst possible road layout design.

@definitelynotacrab7651 9 ай бұрын

I think it's a very good thing they didnt rebuild, those street deaigns look like they could easily be converted to automobile use and then youd end up with the disaster that unfolded in the US

@jareth0205 9 ай бұрын

7 seconds before getting something wrong. So much effort and you misnamed the road in the introduction! 😕

@rogink 9 ай бұрын

Yeah, Pudding Lane. Get over it.

@kathrynstemler6331 9 ай бұрын

Pudding Street????

@gregboi183 8 ай бұрын

For someone who consistently campaigns for small changes to city layouts and the dramatic consequences they can bring, you sure do downplay their significance here

@PeterShieldsukcatstripey 8 ай бұрын

You reckon it happened on purpose?

@Pope_Rural_I5184 2 ай бұрын

I think that was a joke

@A_itsar 8 ай бұрын

I wonder was the number 666 demonized because of the fire or not

@Lucas_S91 9 ай бұрын

I would love to see a similar video on how Rotterdam was rebuilt after it was bombed during WW II. It has lead to some very interesting choices that have defined how the city looks now.

@djvt574 9 ай бұрын

like a quarter of this video is just an ad

@11Gotama11 9 ай бұрын

I really hope that this Nebula thing works out for you. Because since you are on Nebula, the quality of your KZbin videos suffers. Also, they have way fewer views. Of course, every creator needs to know the way he wants to go, but it is really sad to see this channel decline so much in quality and popularity.