City Research Online

Abstract

A review of what has been published so far on Hooke’s work as Surveyor to the City of London in the aftermath (1666-1674) of the Great Fire shows that what he did has not been subjected to detailed investigation and that the mainly incidental references in the literature to his work as Surveyor are generally brief, sometimes misleading, and occasionally wrong.

Some light has been brought to this lacuna in the life of one of the greatest figures in scientific and civic life of seventeenth-century London mainly through research into the archives of the Corporation of London Records Office. They were found to contain thousands of contemporary references to Hooke’s surveying and many hundreds of his manuscripts. This rich source has been used to assess the importance of his surveying by first finding answers to the questions: what did he do? how did he do it? how long did it take? and how much was he paid?

Further work on archives at the Royal Society and the Mercers’ Company allowed his surveying to be placed in the context of his other salaried employments at the time as Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society, Cutlerian Lecturer and Professor of Geometry at Gresham College.

This research has reinforced the accepted view that Hooke’s energy was exceptional. Detailed records of innumerable daily acts by him in the ruins of London have been discovered, summarised and discussed. They show that he was highly efficient and zealously scrupulous in his dealings with the City and its citizens. These characteristics are not commonly attributed to Hooke. It is argued that by his innumerable daily acts and involvement with drafting and implementing the rebuilding legislation, he did more than any other individual to re-make the city and that his other employments suffered little from the time he spent as City Surveyor.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > School of Science & Technology Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses School of Science & Technology > Engineering

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