Some readers may also miss an account of the urbanization process as such during the
nineteenth century, or a section on the capital city as a phenomenon.5 Both these themes
have some relevance to the main issues addressed in the book, but they are too complex
to handle briefly in any meaningful way. Local transport—first horse-drawn omnibuses,
then horse-trams followed by steam and at the turn of the century electric trams—made
life in the big cities more comfortable, at any rate for those who could afford to use the
new facilities. But of these, the electric trams were the first to alter the conditions for
planning in any more radical way. For this reason I have not included local transport
developments in this book. I have also largely disregarded the suburban growth which
appeared towards the end of the period studied, which also meant ignoring the impact of
the railways on urban development patterns beyond the inner cities.
It has thus been my ambition to concentrate on the planning of what in the nineteenth
century were the capital cities proper—areas which today largely represent the central or
inner city districts—and to refer to related subjects and problems only when the context
so motivates. One further point: it was first towards the end of the period considered here
that active intervention in working-class housing came to be regarded as one of
planning’s central tasks; for much of the century planning and housing questions were
divorced from one another. In the present survey the latter thus occupy a minor role.