ABSTRACT
In the ten years from the start of work on the Polygon, the traditional organization of the building process collapsed as piece-rates and the measure and value system could no longer be upheld and craftsmen lost their independence. Throughout the decade of the 1790s disparities in production became more and more pronounced with the emergence of an unregulated housing market, sharp price fluctuations and the use of different wage forms. These disparities were manifest in Somers Town with the building of courts, the gradual disappearance of artisan accommodation and a shift in the overall control of development from those with landowning interests to new administrative bodies such as the Paving Commission.
