Why London Really Demolished Wych Street

A narrow, crooked street survived the Great Fire of London in 1666, keeping its timber-framed Elizabethan houses for another two centuries. Then the London County Council demolished every building on it. The official reason was slum clearance. The real reasons involved a scandalous book trade, moral panic, imperial ambition, and six thousand people nobody bothered to rehouse properly. Wych Street was erased from the map. Today, the Aldwych stands where it used to be.

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