ABSTRACT
The phenomenal growth of modern urbanism has resulted in the concentration of population in a relatively few agglomerations. These were normally flourishing historic centres, that were able to grow further by reason of their momentum and the favourable conditions of their location. In a few instances, entirely new agglomerations emerged through the exploitation of local raw materials. Mushroom industrial towns of the latter character on the Continent, however, invariably had their nuclei in a historic town, as did Essen, Duisburg, and Dortmund, in the Ruhr. There are, however, entirely new urban areas between these nuclei in the coal-mining districts on the northern border of the Ruhr and in Silesia. British 19th-century growth, as is well known, often centred on small market-crafts towns, of no historic significance, such as Manchester and Birmingham, and numerous new mining settlements appeared on the coalfields. This entirely new growth is more rare on the Continent, and it is far more usual for the new growth to be concentrated around the large historic cities.
