In message
,
lonelytraveller writes

On 4 Feb, 15:23, Paul Terry wrote:

The medieval part of Cripplegate Within was lost in the Great Fire of
London

I've seen photographs of it, so unless they had photography in
medieval times, I think you're wrong there.

They had diarists and map-makers then, and Wencelas Hollar's famous map
of 1667 shows only a handful of buildings remaining in the area.

Ironically, it wasn't fire that destroyed Cripplegate, it was the very
late decision to order the Lord Mayor to pull down all properties in
Cripplegate Within to create a fire-break. This was successful, and thus
it was that the parish of Cripplegate Without (including its church of
St Giles) was saved. The other ten parishes of Cripplegate Within were
totally laid waste.

You may perhaps have seen photos of medieval buildings in the parish of
Cripplegate Without, where the Great Fire was halted, although I never
have. The continual redevelopment of London (as well as fires and wars)
has meant that very few medieval buildings survive in the city.

Most pre-war photos of the area show poor tenement housing and dour
19th-century warehouses. One of the reasons why the Metropolitan line
got an act to cut through the area for its 1865 extension to Moorgate
was because it offered slum clearance of the locality (albeit in a way
we'd not find acceptable today).

and much of the rest went in the great Cripplegate fire of 1897
(St Giles survived, but was badly damaged). It had already been
identified by the City as an area of extreme slum conditions by 1851,
and was very run down before the Luftwaffe cleared it.

So? That doesn't mean they can't build a facsimile of it in its better
days. There's no legal obligation for then to "build it like it was
when it became a really **** place".

Buildings usually become slums because they were poorly and cheaply
built in the first place.

They can at least try. There are, after all, photographs of how it
was.

I'd love to see some to convince me.

--
Paul Terry