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Why are the streets of London so narrow? Anonymous
London is one of my favorite cities, iv been there a few times and will be moving there soon for uni.
Something I never quite understood tho is why are the streets so narrow in a city with 10 million people?
One explanation iv heard already is that London was already a large city before cars were a common thing, but I dont think thats the only reason.
The city has been destroyed at least twice: during the london fire and during ww2, so why wasnt it rebuilt with propper large avenues? I mean, if you look at european cities that were bombed during ww2 (especially german cities) they were all rebuilt that way, so why didnt that happen to london? iv tried to think of several reasons, but i dont think they work:
i really hope someone from britain can explain that to me.
>> Anonymous
Every major city in europe has narrow streets, compared to US or Australian. We don't have so much space so we built tight. In the US, space is not a problem. Hell, Texas is at least twice as big as whole europe ffs.
>> Anonymous
>>63528
Iv been living in europe for 6 years now and iv been to a whole lot of countries here. what you are saying is only true for the city centres in europe, places with historical interests etc.
Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, Rome, all of them have wide streets outside those areas.
i dont think the "lack of space" argument is valid for london, because it is a very horizontal cities, with most buildings not exceding 5 or 6 floors
>> Anonymous
>>63528
D:
>> Anonymous
>>63530
I think he was referring to the city center. Of course we have wide lanes, highways and shit, but not in the city center like in NYC or LA.
>> Anonymous
You said the answer yourself. Wide streets were not needed when London was built. And the WW2 bombings didn't destroy THE WHOLE city.
>> Anonymous
Alien conspiracy
>> Anonymous
Boston is like London in terms of street width. Fuck yeah seventeenth-century cow paths! (The largest park in the city is the Boston Common, short for Boston Common Grazing Area).
>> Anonymous
London didn't have Haussmann ^^

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Haussmann
>> Anonymous
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Funfact: After the Great Fire (1666) Wren and all the other head architects wanted to rebuild London on a street plan similar to Paris or many other european cities with wide boulevards and roads radiating out from the city center..(picture related)
But of course, keeping with the fucking English character of always looking to the past (even then) the population said "Nar, we liked it da way it woz". So they built upon the existing fucking street plan that had randomly been woven together over hundreds of years, thus missing an ideal chance for a modern city plan.
I guess it's what you call character..I haven't been to bed in 28 hours.
>> Anonymous
>>63660
"Nar, we liked it da way it woz"

Yea, 'cos it worked.
>> Anonymous
you like london if you have huge amounts of money.
>> Anonymous
because these roads have been here since the Romans built them.
>> Anonymous
Hate to be 'that guy' but after the romans left london was abandoned until the saxons arrived and even then they settled outside the city walls. When they finally did move into the city proper they mostly used their own road system.
>> Anonymous
I'm related to tht Wren guy.
>> Anonymous
>>63660
and i assume the same happened when the city got bombed in ww2?