Suburban built form and street network development in London, 1880–2013: An application of quantitative historical methods

ABSTRACT This article describes the methods and findings of a study examining the architectural and spatial development of two of London's suburbs over the past century. Historical analysis of urban growth is constrained by a lack of geographic data that can be used to produce chronologies of analyzable geographic data. This study, utilizing historical geographic data reconstruction techniques, shows that the single most significant development in architectural form in the study areas is that of the garage, signifying expanded personal mobility potentials coupled to car-oriented road infrastructure developments during the study period. It suggests that an urban history must account for the role of personal mobility technologies in such studies. Furthermore, the implementation of methods for creating usable longitudinal geographic datasets allows for increased insight into the nuances of the urban developmental processes.