Note 166 — Chapter VIII · Catastrophe and Social Change
Reading edition
The earliest city-planning was mediaeval. Halifax was laid out by military engineers with narrow streets—the “ideal was a fortified enclosure designed to accommodate the maximum number of inhabitants with the minimum of space.” In 1813 a town-planning scheme was set on foot for the purpose of straightening streets, the removal of projections and banks of earth and stones which at that time existed in the center of streets. Considerable betterment resulted but unfortunately many fine trees were cut down.