Urban Reflections in a Trans-Atlantic Mirror
ANY colonial society has a tendency to adapt to its new surroundings those procedures and amenities that had proved satisfactory in the homeland. That being so, it is not at all surprising that Philadelphia, founded in 1681, should have patterned the regulations adopted for its own governance on some of the rules and some of the proposals put forward for the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666. Philadelphia became in many ways a trans-Atlantic mirror of post-Fire London reflecting that English city in its architecture and in its design for urban living. London's great fire began shortly after midnight on September 1 at the house and place of business of Thomas Farynor, the king's baker who lived in Pudding Lane. Pudding Lane was a chasm of a street that ran down steeply from Little Eastcheap to Lower Thames Street at London Bridge. The walls of this particular chasm were formed by the half-timbered houses with their projecting jetties, roofs, and gables that almost met over the middle of the street. Streets so encumbered with buildings were full of hazards, not the least of which was fire. And so it proved to be on the night in question, when a strong northeast wind turned Pudding