The fire gap and the greater durability of nineteenth century cities

Abstract

This paper discusses the economic and townscape effects of large‐scale urban fires and the marked reduction of the problem in developed world cities during the nineteenth century. At that time a ‘fire gap’, or divergence between the increasing urban population and the falling absolute number of fires, demonstrably emerged. The paper outlines two processes — construction and rebuilding in less flammable materials, and increases in house lot size — which made for a more durable urban environment. This fortunate result, which in general owed little to the effects of urban planning and replanning, was largely a product of rising incomes. Examples are drawn from cities in Britain, North America, and Australia, and are contrasted with cities in the pre‐modern Third World.

Notes

Lionel Frost and Eric Jones teach economic history at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, where they are members of the Comparative Economic History Group. Frost is the author of The New Urban Frontier and Australian Cities in Comparative View (both forthcoming). Jones is the author of The European Miracle (Cambridge U.P., 2nd edn, 1987), and Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History (Clarendon Press, 1988). Both authors have research interests in very long‐term economic change and urbanization and are now collaborating on an economic history of the Pacific rim.