ABSTRACT
Fragments of what are now obsolete physical environments have been lovingly preserved, and even restored as relics of times gone by. Their preservation may be costly, both directly and for their blocking new development. The often fiercely contested defence of such remnants reflects an affluence which, on the one hand, threatens them with large-scale change and, on the other, confers a desire and ability to retain them. Such remarks were made by the American writer Kevin Lynch in relation to the preservation of buildings and sets of buildings. His purpose was to highlight two things, namely the dynamics of the physical environment and, secondly, how that physical world shapes our image of the passage of time. 1
