The Rebuilding of London Act 1667
The Rebuilding of London Act 1667 mandated that all new houses be built of brick or stone following the Great Fire of London.
Following the devastating Great Fire of London in 1666, the city had to be rebuilt from the ashes. To prevent such a disaster from happening again, Parliament passed the Rebuilding of London Act 1667.
This landmark piece of legislation was one of the first comprehensive building regulations in history. It stipulated that all new houses must be built with exteriors of brick or stone, expressly forbidding the use of timber frames which had allowed the fire to spread so rapidly.
Standardization of Housing
The Act also categorized houses into four specific types based on the size of the street they faced, dictating the maximum number of storeys and the thickness of the walls. This regulation gave birth to the standardized, fire-resistant Georgian terraced house that would dominate British urban architecture for centuries.