ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 follows the earliest developers in the seventeenth century, through the grandeur that was the Victorian period, through to the Klondike that was post-war re-building. The development process is full of insights into how the office economy has evolved. The twentieth century has also been characterised by office property booms and crashes, and Chapter 6 describes the 1950s and 1970s booms in detail, together with the lessons learned. We examine the emergence of the developer entrepreneur and the institutions, and the paradox whereby the real customer of the development process is the industry itself rather than those who lease and occupy its buildings.
