Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Some tanning wear and marking due to age. Year 1940. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> The appeal of this book is manifold. It begins with an account of the Great Fire of 1666 how it started and what measures were taken to stop it. Before devastated London could be restored many difficulties had to be overcome: England had foes in Holland and France there was a danger that London’s homeless citizens would be scattered many legal problems in-volved in the rebuilding of a city with wider streets had to be tackled. The solution of these questions; the financing and the provision of labour and materials for the enormous task of recreating London; the use of coal dues to provide funds and the peculations of the Coal Controller; the losses caused by Dutch privateers; the abortive scheme for a Thames Quay are all thoroughly discussed by Mr. Reddaway. He disposes finally of the legend that Wren planned a perfect city which the parsimony of his superiors thwarted. After de-scribing the progress of the rebuilding he sums up the results of ten years’ work on a new London shows what improvements were effected and indi-cates how the Fire swept away many tenaciously-held rights and customs to clear the way for a modern city organized in a modern fashion with better paving drainage markets etc. For the lover of London this book must have a special attraction. To historians and sociologists with more general interests it is of special value as an account of a wholesale regi mentation of labour materials. (SP)