This two-volume book explores how the great buildings of England bear witness to a thousand years of the nation’s history. In every age, investment in iconic buildings reaches a climax when the prevailing mode of production is operating most effectively, surplus wealth is most plentiful, and...

<italic>A model of the building cycle is presented, expressed in terms of endogenous fluctuations in development activity, vacancy and rents around an equilibrium growth path. The dynamic behaviour of the model is determined by lags in three adjustment processes: the occupier response to changes in...</italic>

The paper describes the pronounced 'long swings' or 'urban development cycles' of 20-30 years duration which have created successive waves of urbanisation in the British economy since the Industrial Revolution, and which can be related to successive long waves of technological development within...