1.
Ebenezer Howard
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The publication resulted in the founding of the garden city movement, and the building of the First Garden City, Letchworth Garden City, commenced in 1903. Howard aimed to reduce the alienation of humans and society from nature, Howard is believed by many to be one of the great guides to the town planning movement, with many of his garden city principles being used in modern town planning. Howard was born in Fore Street, City of London, the son of Ebenezer Howard, a baker and he was sent to schools in Suffolk and Hertfordshire. Howard left school at 15 and began working as a stenographer in London, Howard subsequently had several clerical jobs, including one with Dr Parker of the City Temple. In 1871, at the age of 21, influenced partly by a farming uncle and he went to Nebraska, and after his farming efforts failed, discovered he did not wish to be a farmer. He then relocated to Chicago and worked as a reporter for the courts, in the US he became acquainted with, and admired, poets Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Howard began to ponder ways to improve the quality of life, by 1876 he was back in England, where he found a job with Hansard company, which produces the official verbatim record of Parliament, and he spent the rest of his life in this occupation. Howards time in parliament exposed him to ideas about social reform, in August 1879 he married Eliza Ann Bills. Howard has been described as a humble and practical inventor who used his time to create outlines of new cities. It was the milieu of the 1800s which led Howard to consider the social problems of the time. Howard mingled with free thinkers, anarchists and socialists, whose revolutionary, following the death of his wife Eliza Ann Bills in 1907 he married Edith Annie Hayward, who ended her days as Edith, Lady Howard, and with whom he is buried in Letchworth Cemetery. Howard read widely, including Edward Bellamys 1888 utopian novel, Looking Backward, and Henry Georges economic treatise, Progress and Poverty, and thought much about social issues. He disliked the way cities were being developed and thought people should live in places that should combine the best aspects of both cities and the countryside. The only publication he wrote in his life was titled To-Morrow, A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, Garden Cities of To-morrow was based on ideas of social and urban reform. This book offered a vision of free of slums and enjoying the benefits of both town and country. He illustrated the idea with his famous Three Magnets diagram, which addressed the question Where will the people go, the choices being Town, Country or Town-Country. Garden Cities of Tomorrow proposed that society be reorganised with networks of cities that would break the strong hold of capitalism. It proposed the creation of new towns of limited size, planned in advance
2.
Arts and Crafts movement
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It stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms, and often used medieval, romantic, or folk styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform and was essentially anti-industrial and it had a strong influence on the arts in Europe until it was displaced by Modernism in the 1930s, and its influence continued among craft makers, designers, and town planners long afterwards. It was inspired by the ideas of architect Augustus Pugin, writer John Ruskin, the movement developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles, and spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and North America. It was largely a reaction against the perceived impoverished state of the arts at the time. The Arts and Crafts style emerged from the attempt to reform design, but it was as much a movement of social reform as design reform and its leading practitioners did not separate the two. The art historian Nikolaus Pevsner has said that exhibits in the Great Exhibition showed ignorance of basic need in creating patterns. Owen Jones, for example, declared that Ornament, fiona MacCarthy says that unlike later zealots like Gandhi, William Morris had no practical objections to the use of machinery per se so long as the machines produced the quality he needed. Morriss followers also had differing views or changed their minds over time. C. R. Ashbee, for example, a figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement. At the time of his Guild of Handicraft, initiated in 1888, he said, We do not reject the machine, but we would desire to see it mastered. Morris insisted that the artist should be a working by hand and advocated a society of free craftspeople. Because craftsmen took pleasure in their work, he wrote, the Middle Ages was a period of greatness in the art of the common people. The treasures in our museums now are only the common used in households of that age. Medieval art was the model for much Arts and Crafts design and medieval life, before capitalism, the founders of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society did not insist that the designer should also be the maker. Peter Floud, writing in the 1950s, said that The founders of the Society, never executed their own designs, but invariably turned them over to commercial firms. The Arts and Crafts Movement was associated with socialist ideas in the persons of Morris, T. J. Cobden Sanderson, Walter Crane, Ashbee, in the early 1880s Morris was spending more of his time on socialist propaganda than on designing and making. Ashbee established a community of craftsmen, the Guild of Handicraft, in east London and those adherents who were not socialists, for example, Alfred Hoare Powell, advocated a more humane and personal relationship between employer and employee. Lewis Foreman Day, a successful and influential Arts and Crafts designer, was not a socialist either
3.
London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
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The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham is a London borough in West London, and forms part of Inner London. Traversed by the east-west main roads of the A4 Great West Road, the local council is Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council. The borough is unique in London in having three professional clubs, Chelsea, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers. The borough was formed in 1965 by merging the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith and it was known as the London Borough of Hammersmith until its name was changed on 1 January 1979 by the borough council. The two had joined together previously in the parish of Fulham until 1834 as the hamlet of Hammersmith had no church until much later. They were joined together again under the Fulham District from 1855 to 1886, there followed numerous international fairs and exhibitions for a century until the construction of Earls Court II in the borough in the 1980s. This was dismantled by developers in 2015, after the 2012 Olympics, 60% of the boroughs population is White British, 20% white non-British, 5% black Caribbean, 8% black African with various other ethnicities making up the remaining 11 percent. The borough has the second-highest proportion of adults of any borough in England and Wales. Around 50% of households are owner–occupiers, and 22% of households were listed as other – that is and these are generally two or more unrelated adults living together, such as students or cohabiting couples. The unemployment rate is well below average at under 5%, although of these, the borough also has the 4th highest house prices in the country. See external links below for more information from the borough. Virgin Group operates its headquarters at The School House,50 Brook Green, sony Mobile Communications has its headquarters in the borough. Iberia operates the Iberia House in the borough, all Nippon Airways operates the London Office on the fourth floor of Hythe House. South African Airways has its United Kingdom office in the South African Airways House, CE Europe, a subsidiary of Capcom, has its head office in the George House in Hammersmith in the borough. As of May 2011 it will be relocating to the Metro Building in Hammersmith, iran Airs London offices are also located in the borough. The airline moved there by Wednesday 4 January 2012, coca-Cola, Disney and LOréal also all have UK headquarters in Hammersmith, as well as a number of other major businesses. For a 15-year period Air France had its UK and Ireland office in Hammersmith, in 2006 the UK and Ireland office was moved to Hatton Cross, London Borough of Hounslow. Also, TAP Portugal runs an office in the Borough
4.
A40 road in London
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The A40 is a major trunk road connecting London to Fishguard, Wales. In the 1960s Westway was constructed, easing access to. The A40 links the City of London and the West End to the M40 motorway, the route is called The London to Fishguard Trunk Road in legal documents and acts. The A40 officially starts where St. Martins Le Grand meets Cheapside, here it shares a terminus with the A1, the main north London radial. First forming Newgate Street and then through Holborn to Holborn Viaduct and this viaduct carries the A40 over the A201 and on to Holborn Circus where the A40 crosses the terminus of the A4. The A40 here is named High Holborn, one of the four Inns of Court, Grays Inn, is on the north side of the road. Another, Lincolns Inn, is on the south side, the road is now in the Borough of Camden. Leaving Holborn, the A40 crosses into the City of Westminster, the British Museum is close at this point. After crossing the end of Tottenham Court Road at St Giles Circus. Oxford Street is Europes busiest shopping street, many chain stores have their flagship store on the street, including John Lewis, Debenhams, Marks and Spencers, House of Fraser and Selfridges. There are several stations along the road, the Central line runs under Oxford Street and is London Undergrounds second busiest line with 180 million passengers a year. The busiest stations are Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus, and Bond Street, the road forms the northern boundary of Soho, the main theatres and cinemas are located to the south near Leicester Square. The area contains a number of clubs, bars and music venues. Centre Point was one of Londons first skyscrapers, the A40 continues as Oxford Street to Marble Arch at the north-east corner of Hyde Park. Nearby is Speakers Corner, where people are allowed considerable freedom of speech. Nearby is the site of Tyburn gallows, where executions took place from 1388 to 1793. At Marble Arch is a road junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane, Bayswater Road. The A40 has taken three courses from here over the last thirty years, the last change was in 2000, when Westway lost its motorway status and became the A40
5.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
6.
East Acton tube station
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East Acton is a London Underground station in East Acton in west London. The station is on the Central line, between White City and North Acton stations, and in Travelcard Zone 2 and it is close to Wormwood Scrubs prison and Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital. The station opened in 1920 on the Ealing Broadway extension of the Central London Railway, since the CLR was exclusively a passenger service, two extra dedicated tracks for the GWRs freight trains were opened in 1938, but were closed in 1964. The trackbed of these rails is now overgrown, with vegetation visible immediately to the north of the station, the station has recently been refurbished, with the staircases improved and the East Acton Underground roundels replaced with larger, newer versions. London Buses route 7,70,72,228,272 and 283 serve the station
7.
Great Western Railway
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The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England, the Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835, Goods wagons were painted red but this was later changed to mid-grey. Great Western trains included long-distance express services such as the Flying Dutchman, the Cornish Riviera Express and it also operated many suburban and rural services, some operated by steam railmotors or autotrains. The company pioneered the use of larger, more economic goods wagons than were usual in Britain and it operated a network of road motor routes, was a part of the Railway Air Services, and owned ships, docks and hotels. The Great Western Railway originated from the desire of Bristol merchants to maintain their city as the port of the country. The company was founded at a meeting in Bristol in 1833 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then aged twenty-nine, was appointed engineer and this was by far Brunels largest contract to date. Firstly, he chose to use a gauge of 7 ft to allow for the possibility of large wheels outside the bodies of the rolling stock which could give smoother running at high speeds. Secondly, he selected a route, north of the Marlborough Downs and this meant the line was not direct from to London to Bristol. From Reading heading west, the line would curve in a northerly sweep back to Bath, the first 22.5 miles of line, from Paddington station in London to Maidenhead Bridge station, opened on 4 June 1838. When Maidenhead Railway Bridge was ready the line was extended to Twyford on 1 July 1839, the cutting was the scene of a railway disaster two years later when a goods train ran into a landslip, ten passengers who were travelling in open trucks were killed. This accident prompted Parliament to pass the 1844 Railway Regulation Act requiring railway companies to provide carriages for passengers. The next section, from Reading to Steventon crossed the Thames twice, a 7. 25-mile extension took the line to Faringdon Road on 20 July 1840. Meanwhile, work had started at the Bristol end of the line, on 17 December 1840, the line from London reached a temporary terminus at Wootton Bassett Road west of Swindon and 80.25 miles from Paddington. The section from Wootton Bassett Road to Chippenham was opened on 31 May 1841, as was Swindon Junction station where the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway to Cirencester connected. That was an independent line worked by the GWR, as was the Bristol and Exeter Railway, in 1851, the GWR purchased the Kennet and Avon Canal, which was a competing carrier between London, Reading, Bath and Bristol. The GWR was closely involved with the C&GWUR and the B&ER, the South Wales Railway had opened between Chepstow and Swansea in 1850 and became connected to the GWR by Brunels Chepstow Bridge in 1852. It was completed to Neyland in 1856, where a port was established
8.
Hammersmith
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Hammersmith is a district in west London, located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is bordered by Shepherds Bush to the north, Kensington to the east, Chiswick to the west and it is linked by Hammersmith Bridge to Barnes in the southwest. The area is one of west Londons key commercial and employment centres and it is a major transport hub for west London, with two London Underground stations and a bus station at Hammersmith Broadway. In the early 1660s, Hammersmiths first parish church, which later became St Pauls, was built by Sir Nicholas Crispe who ran the brickworks in Hammersmith and it contained a monument to Crispe as well as a bronze bust of King Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur. In 1696 Sir Samuel Morland was buried there, the church was completely rebuilt in 1883, but the monument and bust were transferred to the new church. The Hammersmith Suspension Bridge, designed by William Tierney Clark, was built across the Thames in 1827, in 1984–1985 the bridge received structural support, and between 1997 and 2000 the bridge underwent major strengthening work. In 1745, two Scots, James Lee and Lewis Kennedy, established the Vineyard Nursery, over six acres devoted to landscaping plants, during the next hundred and fifty years the nursery introduced many new plants to England, including fuchsia and the standard rose tree. Major industrial sites included the Osram lamp factory at Brook Green, during both World Wars, Waring & Gillows furniture factory, in Cambridge Grove, became the site of aircraft manufacture. Hammersmith is located at the confluence of a key arterial route out of central London with several local feeder roads and a bridge over the Thames. The focal point of the district is the centre located at this confluence, which houses a shopping centre, bus station, an Underground station. Stretching about 750m westwards from this centre is King Street, Hammersmiths main shopping street. Named after John King, Bishop of London, it contains a shopping centre, many small shops, the Town Hall, the Lyric Theatre, a cinema. King Street is supplemented by other shops along Shepherds Bush Road to the north, Hammersmiths office activity takes place mainly to the eastern side of its centre, along Hammersmith Road and in the Ark, an office complex to the south of the flyover which traverses the area. There are two NHS hospitals in Hammersmith - Charing Cross Hospital to the south on Fulham Palace Road, Charing Cross Hospital is a large multi-disciplinary hospital with accident & emergency and teaching departments run by the Imperial College School of Medicine. The Ark office building, designed by British architect Ralph Erskine, Hammersmith Bridge Road Surgery was designed by Guy Greenfield. 22 St Peters Square the former Royal Chiswick Laundry and Island Records HQ converted to architects studios and it has a Hammersmith Society Conservation award plaque and has been included in tours in Architecture Week. Riverside Studios is a cinema, performance space, bar and cafe, riverside Studios was formerly BBC studios used for TV productions. The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is just off King Street, Hammersmith Apollo concert hall and theatre is just south of the gyratory
9.
Protected area
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Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the laws of each country or the regulations of the international organisations involved. There are over 161,000 protected areas in the world with more added daily, by contrast, only 1. 17% of the worlds oceans is included in the worlds ~6,800 Marine Protected Areas. Protected areas are essential for biodiversity conservation, often providing habitat, Protection helps maintain ecological processes that cannot survive in most intensely managed landscapes and seascapes. Generally, protected areas are understood to be those in human occupation or at least the exploitation of resources is limited. As a result, Protected Areas can encompass a range of governance types. Indeed, governance of protected areas has emerged a critical factor in their success, subsequently, the range of natural resources that any one protected area may guard is vast. Of all global terrestrial carbon stock,15. 2% is contained within protected areas, Protected areas in South America hold 27% of the worlds carbon stock, which is the highest percentage of any country in both absolute terms and as a proportion of the total stock. Rainforests,18. 8% of the worlds forest is covered by protected areas, of the 670 ecoregions with forest cover, 54% have 10% or more of their forest cover protected under IUCN Categories I – VI. Mountain protected area coverage has increased globally by 21% since 1990, the categories provide international standards for defining protected areas and encourage conservation planning according to their management aims. Protecting places and resources is by no means a modern concept, over 2000 years ago, royal decrees in India protected certain areas. In Europe, rich and powerful people protected hunting grounds for a thousand years, moreover, the idea of protection of special places is universal, for example, it occurs among the communities in the Pacific and in parts of Africa. However, the protected areas movement doesnt begin until late nineteenth-century in North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. While the idea of protected areas spread around the world in the twentieth century, thus, in North America, protected areas were about safeguarding dramatic and sublime scenery, in Africa, the concern was with game parks, in Europe, landscape protection was more common. The spectrum of benefits and values of protected areas is recognised not only ecologically, international programmes for the protection of representative ecosystems remain relatively progressive, with less advances in marine and freshwater biomes. There is increasing pressure to take account of human needs when setting up protected areas. Such negotiations are never easy but usually stronger and longer-lasting results for both conservation and people. In some countries, protected areas can be assigned without the infrastructure and networking needed to substitute consumable resources, one of the main concerns regarding protected areas on land and sea is their effectiveness at preventing the ongoing loss of biodiversity
10.
Chingford
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Chingford is a district of the London Borough of Waltham Forest in North East London, situated 10 miles northeast of Charing Cross. Historically a rural Essex parish, it gained urban district status in 1894, Chingford is close to the Essex border of Epping Forest District. It borders Sewardstone to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, to the west lie William Girling and King George V reservoirs, known together as the Chingford Reservoirs, and the River Lea. Across these, Chingford is linked with Ponders End through the A110 Lea Valley Road, to the north and east lies Epping Forest, the most part of which is in Essex but is maintained by the City of London Corporation. The River Ching runs through the area, and the town of Chingford is close to a number of fords of that river. However, old maps and descriptions give a name for the settlement long before the river has a name and this idea is compounded by links to royalty using the area for hunting in centuries gone by. However, the most generally accepted explanation by place name genealogists is that the name has its origin as Shingly Ford—that is. One notable local landmark is Queen Elizabeths Hunting Lodge, originally called the Great Standing, it was built for King Henry VIII in 1543, and was used as a grandstand to watch the hunting of deer, although it has been heavily altered over time. The building is located on Chingford Plain within Epping Forest and is open to the public, the lodge is preserved under the Epping Forest Preservation Act. Originally a barn built in the century, Butlers Retreat. The building is adjacent to the Queen Elizabeths Hunting Lodge and takes its name from the 1891 occupier John Butler, retreats originally served non-alcoholic refreshments as part of the Temperance movement. After closing in 2009 the building was refurbished by the City of London Corporation, All Saints Church in Chingford Mount dates back to the 12th century. Directly opposite the church is Chingford Mount Cemetery, best known today as the place of the Kray family. Friday Hill House, Simmons Lane, off Friday Hill, dating from 1839, was a house built and owned by Robert Boothby Heathcote. It was he who paid for the building of the church of St Peter and he is buried in the Boothby family vault in All Saints Churchyard, Old Church Road. The vault was purchased by Robert Boothby, who lived in the manor house. The present building has been used as an education centre. Pimp Hall Dovecote is situated in an area at the bottom of Friday Hill
11.
Hanwell
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Hanwell is a town in the London Borough of Ealing, west London, England. Hanwell is about 2.5 km west of Ealing Broadway and it is the westernmost location of the LONDON post town. The earliest surviving reference is AD959 when it is recorded as Hanewelle in pledge, the origin of the name is uncertain, various suggestions have been put forward. Near to the old Rectory and close to Hanwell spring is a stone of about a ton in weight. In Anglo-Saxon the word Han denoted a boundary stone and this juxtaposition of these two natural features could have given rise to the name Han-well which dates back to before the Domesday Book. The original borders of the parish stretched from the bend of the River Brent at Greenford and its geography, before the draining of the marshes, formed a natural boundary between the different tribes of the south east of England. This gives some support to the suggestion that Han came from the Saxon han for cockerel, if so, the name is derived from Han-créd-welle. Han-créd or cock-crow meant the border between night and day, and is neither one nor the other, so Hanwell would mean well upon the boundary. For more see, River Brent, Hydronymy, the only other Hanwell in Britain is a small parish in Oxfordshire on the boundary with Warwickshire. The Uxbridge Road was turnpiked between Uxbridge and Tyburn in 1714, the revenue from tolls enabled an all-weather metaled road surface of compacted gravel to be laid down. This constant movement of people along the road, brought about the establishment of coaching inns along the road as it crossed the River Brent and passed through the parish of Hanwell. In these inns, travellers could stable their horses, place their carts or goods in storage and secure board. The first inn on crossing the River Brent is The Viaduct which is on the north side, named after the Wharncliffe Viaduct, its original name was the Coach and Horses. At the back of the pub, some of the stable building can be seen. Early in the 20th century, The Viaduct received a new faïence façade which Nikolaus Pevsner succinctly described as a jolly tiled Edwardian pub, unfortunately, today the profusion of street furniture detracts somewhat from the original impact that these rich mid-browns and mid-cream glazed tiles gave the building. Next was the Duke of Wellington which lay approximately 400 m closer to London on the side of the road. However, this had been demolished by the 1920s and was not rebuilt, established in the 18th century, it has been subsequently rebuilt in the Tudorbethan style. The next pub occupies the site of what was probably the very first inn to be established on the Oxford Road as it ran through Hanwell and it lies on the south side of the road
12.
Grid plan
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The grid plan, grid street plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. In the context of the culture of ancient Rome, the grid method of land measurement was called centuriation. The grid plan dates from antiquity and originated in multiple cultures, by 2600 BC, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, were built with blocks divided by a grid of straight streets, running north-south and east-west. Each block was subdivided by small lanes, the cities and monasteries of Gandhara, dating from the 1st millennium BC to the 11th century AD, also had grid-based designs. Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan since 1959, was founded on the grid-plan of the nearby ruined city of Sirkap. A workers village at Giza, Egypt, housed a rotating labor force and was out in blocks of long galleries separated by streets in a formal grid. Many pyramid-cult cities used a common orientation, an axis from the royal palace. Hammurabi was a king of the Babylonian Empire who made Babylon one of the greatest cities in antiquity and he rebuilt Babylon, building and restoring temples, city walls and public buildings, and building canals for irrigation. The streets of Babylon were wide and straight, intersected approximately at right angles, the tradition of grid plans is continuous in China from the 15th century BC onward in the traditional urban planning of various ancient Chinese states. Guidelines put into form in the Kaogongji during the Spring and Autumn period stated. Three gates on each side of the lead into the nine main streets that crisscross the city. Teotihuacan, near modern-day Mexico City, is the largest ancient grid-plan site in the Americas, the citys grid covered eight square miles. Perhaps the most well-known grid system is spread through the colonies of the Roman Empire. The archetypal Roman Grid was introduced to Italy first by the Greeks, with such information transferred by way of trade, although the idea of the grid was present in Hellenic societal and city planning, it was not pervasive prior to the 5th century BC. However, it slowly gained primacy through the work of Hippodamus of Miletus, the concept of a grid as the ideal method of town planning had become widely accepted by the time of Alexander the Great. His conquests were a step in the propagation of the grid plan throughout colonies, some as far-flung as Taxila in Pakistan, that would later be mirrored by the expansion of the Roman Empire. The Greek grid had its streets aligned roughly in relation to the points and generally looked to take advantage of visual cues based on the hilly landscape typical of Greece. The Etruscan people, whose territories in Italy encompassed what would eventually become Rome and it was based on Greek Ionic ideas, and it was here that the main east-west and north-south axes of a town could first be seen in Italy
