The world’s most beautiful cities - 2023

San Francisco

A 2023 survey by Travel + Leisure invited readers to vote on the world’s most beautiful cities. Recognising the answer is different for everyone, here is the by-no-means exhaustive list of the world’s (25) most beautiful cities.

Sydney Australia sparkles with its yacht-filled harbour, golden beach­es, spectacular headland views, lush parks and gardens, and abundance of sunshine. Take a ferry tour to see the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the water. Explore the city's wealth of picturesque coastal walks and great beach­es; Manly has wide, clean sand and perfect surf. 

Barcelona Spain Covered food markets, tapas bars, iconic Modernist ar­chitecture and golden-sand Mediterranean beaches are big appeal fact­ors for Catalonia’s colourful capital. But the culture of afternoon siestas, late dinners and people-watching on busy plaz­as, stop near Santa Cater­ina Market and capture the beautif­ully relaxed life style.

Barcelona

Adventure capital of the world, Queenstown New Zeal­and is the ult­imate playground for outdoor activities. The city has hiking, skiing, sky-diving, rafting, winery-hopping and cruising Milford Sound. Queenst­own is built around a finger of Lake Wakatipu, a glacial lake whose reflect­ion of the Remarkables Mountain Range makes the scene stunning.

Istanbul Turkey is an intoxicating jumble of domed and intricately mos­aiced mosques, Ottoman-era palaces, maze-like markets and hilly cobble­stoned streets where bar parties spill out the door. The food scene stretches beyond the ubiquitous kebab; the mezze and grilled seafood are fantastic, as is the city’s coffeehouse culture at night.

In beautiful Paris France, go from a cosy sidewalk cafe tightly packed with chic Parisians to proud boulevards lined with creamy stone Haussmann-era mansions. The pat­is­series may be as delight­ful as Paris’ splendid art and ar­chitec­ture. Museé d’Orsay has C19th paintings & sculpture in a glorious Beaux-Arts train station on the Seine.

San Francisco CA US, set on a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, offers beautiful hilltop views of skyscrapers, bridges, mountains and ocean. Golden Gate Bridge, Painted Ladies and cable cars are emblems of the city. See North Beach, Chinatown’s dim sum par­lours and Presidio Tunnel Tops, a 14-acre park above highway tunnels.

Sun-soaked Palermo Sicily is a dream for archit­ect­ure buffs. It­aly’s biggest opera house is here! Tea­t­ro Mass­imo’s copper dome is c250’ over the piazza bel­ow. The striking gold-stone cathedral is one of the many old Arab-Norman structures. From the roof­top, see the city’s terra-cotta skyline in the early evening, settle on the bohemian Piazza Caracciolo.    

Cape Town

Perched between flat-topped Table Mountain and the Atlantic, Cape Town South Africa has endless natural beauty. Share in 1]ad­ren­aline-fueled action (dive with sharks, hike or take the cable car up Table Mountain), 2]leisurely (swimming, cock­tails on Camps Bay Beach, biking on Sea Point Promenade) and 3]cultural (museums, cel­lars, music festivals).

Visit Seoul South Korea’s vibrant food and nightlife scene, and urban green spaces. The past and present live together with party distr­icts, ancient palaces, ultra-modern subways, Buddhist temples, sky scr­apers and street markets. This fast neon metropolis has beaut­ifully landsc­aped parks along Han River, mountain hiking trails and free outdoor gyms.

Cartagena Colombia has a great mix of Caribbean beaches and islands in South America, with 5 centuries of history and UNESCO-listed walled Old City. It is splendidly preserved and photo­genic. Bougainvilleas burst from the balconies. Go people-watching in the squares and samp­l­ing grilled arepas from street vendors. At night find live salsa music.

Lovely low-rise Kyoto Japan is different from sprawling, daunting Tokyo. The city has a major UNESCO World Heritage front; 17 sites, including temples, shrines and Golden Pavilion. Plum, cherry and willow trees spill over Kyoto’s riverbanks, and lanterns-lit tiny alleys lined with wooden teahouses. Visit tranquil Silver Pav­ilion then Moss Temple.

Brazil’s second city, Rio de Janeiro Brazil, is home to celeb­rated Ip­anema and Copacab­ana beaches and the largest Art Deco statue: Christ the Redeemer via a steep railway ride. See parks, rain forests waterfalls, caves, great vistas and Jardim Botânico. Art­sy Santa Teresa is for cafe life, bou­tiques, and samba street parties.

Rio

Tbilisi Geor­g­­ia’s cap­it­al is fairy-tale mat­erial. The Old Town is a joy to explore, with carv­ed wooden bal­conies over-looking sleepy court­yards and cobbled streets lined with wine bars and tr­aditional Georgian cafes. Brave the funicular to the C4th Narikala Fort­ress for views of Tbil­isi and the encircling Caucasus Mountains.

Rome Italy is an open-air museum showing 3 millennia of sumptuous art & architecture. Visit the city’s tangle of mean­­­d­ering alleys, hidden piaz­z­as and imperial streets. Note the all-mighty Roman Forum or St Pe­t­er’s Basilica, then stop for a creamy gel­ato or reviving bowl of car­b­onara. When the heat breaks, watch the parade of dapper Romans strolling

Hoi An Vietnam is a riverside jewel. Its preserved old town is an un­touched UNESCO World Heritage Site. Spared the ruin of the Vietnam War, Hội An harbours hundreds of historic timber-frame hous­es, sacred temp­les, pagodas and C18th Jap­an­ese bridge. Go on a bike ride, cooking clas­ses, river­boat rides, local cafes or a trip to a bespoke tailor.

The Middle Ages, Victorian era and modern world coexist in London UK: medieval Westminster Abbey and Tow­er of Lon­don, near Victorian Trafalgar Square, with busy C21st London bustling around. Delight in the Gothic, Baroque and El­izab­ethan buildings; museums and art gall­eries; street markets; and green spaces: Hyde, St James’ and Regent’s parks.

Cosmopolitan Buenos Aires Argentina marries Euro­p­ean and Latin flavour. See green and yel­low par­rots at Bosques de Palermo, find the balcony from wh­ich Eva Perón addres­sed fans at Casa Rosada and refuel with cake in a bar not­able. The city has Paris-worthy man­s­ions, food hangouts, street markets and shopping arcades. It's the birthplace of tango.

Good TV shows benefitted from Dubrovnik Croatia’s cin­em­atic looks eg Game of Thrones. And UNESCO named Dubrovnik a World Heritage Site. This Pearl of the Adriatic, in the charming and traffic-free Old Town, has mint-condition medieval architecture, incl­ud­ing the Gothic-Renaissance Rector’s Palace and the town’s thick stone medieval fortifications.

Taipei Taiwan is the Beautiful Island. From a very tall sky­scrap­er, Taipei 101, the observatory offers gorgeous city views and lush green mount­ains. Then visit tranquil temples, flower markets, shopping streets and food-stall alleys. Hike Elephant Mountain-Nangang District Trail, admire green forests, hot springs and Taipei views at the National Park.

An ancient city set on a dramatic landscape of extinct volcanoes and an­chored by a grand, Acropolis-like castle? Yes, Edinburgh Scotland! Af­ter Edinburgh’s hills, rest in one of the many parks and squares or pop into a pub for steak-and-ale pie and a smooth Scottish stout. Note the bigg­est arts festival in the world descends upon the city every Aug.

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico is the uncontested queen of Mexico’s cen­t­ral highlands. This city is a beautiful maze of cobbled alleys, cool court­yards and buildings built in Spanish colonial, Baroque, neoclass­ical and neo-Gothic styles. The latter is best seen in the grand Parr­oquia de San Miguel Arcángel, a gorgeous pink C17th church.

Singapore’s skyline has futuristic high rises, undulat­ing cloud forest domes and a 540’ Ferris wheel. Its enclaves like Chinatown, Arab Quarter and Little India reveal the city’s multi­cul­tural past. Colourful food streets and hawker centres are packed with stalls. Stroll along Marina Bay’s illumin­ated wat­erfront, the Botanic Gardens and Gardens by the Bay

Manhattan Island New York has huge buildings eg the 104-storey World Trade Centre and Empire State Building. Other architectural treas­ures eg Greek Revival mansions in the Bronx, are found in all 5 bor­oughs. See Monets at the Met, Warhol’s soups at MoMA, or The Dinner Party at Brooklyn Museum. See Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park.  

Palermo

Of course tastes differ. My partner voted for ocean-front cities: Sydney, Cape Town, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Bergen and Vancouver. I voted for cit­ies with gal­leries, churches and old architecture: Paris, London, Prague, Vienna and Amsterdam

historic Gastown in beautiful Vancouver

Vancouver actually started in Gastown, the core of the city na­med for Gassy Jack Deighton. He was a Yorkshire seaman, steam­boat cap­tain and bar­keep who arrived in 1867 to open the area’s first saloon. The town soon prosp­ered as the site of Hastings Mill sawmill and seaport, and quick­ly became a general centre of trade and commerce on Burrard Inlet. It was a tough resort for off-work loggers and fisher­men, plus the men on the sailing ships that came to Gas­town, on the north side of the inlet to load logs and timber.

Gassy Jack Deighton wandered through the wild Coast Salish indigenous lands in 1867 and set up his saloon. Where the whisky barr­els went, the loggers and mill-workers followed Gassy Jack, because of his gen­er­ous drinks. As Vancouver grew out of this rough old neighbourhood, Gastown transform­ed into the city’s commercial and ship­ping hub, its brick ware­­houses and stone struc­t­ures still standing. Now a thriving, diver­se urban community, these historic spaces are home to some of the coun­t­ry’s most creative companies. The neighbour­hood off­ers a recognised mix of hip and heritage, with award-winning restaurants distinctive boutiques, clubs and renowned art galleries.

Outdoor cafes

Today Gastown is an attractive mixture of old and new, casual and pion­eering, welcoming visitors and pro­viding an energetic backdrop for ent­erprising Vancouverites. Today the district re­tains its historic charm, still based around Gassy Jack Deighton’s orig­inal 1867 pub. Vict­or­ian arch­it­­ec­ture retains a fl­our­ishing fashion scene, well curated décor bout­iq­ues and special­ist galleries. It’s a gat­her­ing spot for up-market locals and energet­ic tourists. For outsid­ers, a bird’s eye view from the Vancouver Lookout gives visitors a 360˚ view. A visit to Gas­town should include a stroll along Water St, exam­ining a magical coll­ect­ion of old build­ings, cobble stones, steam clock and vintage lamp posts. Continue to the end of Water St to visit a statue of the Gassy man who started it all. Architecture and history fans, of which I am both, can take organised walking tours of the area to explore further.

statue of Gassy Jack Deighton

Gastown is home to many fine restaurants, including European cuisine with farm fresh flair and Asian-inspired treasures. Another possib­ility is stopping by a wine bar for a cheese and hors-d'œuvre platter. This neighbourhood also has a classy cocktail reputation.

Indigenous art

First Nations art might be a surprise to tourists. See the symbolic designs telling stories, marking events and decorating build­ings throughout the city. Note the sculptures, story poles and other artworks eg Bill Reid’s beautiful killer whale sculpture at the entrance of the Vancouver Aqua­rium. These art works display and explain a un­ique culture that was part of aboriginal life, including the art created for practical purp­oses, eg in ceremonies. Find excellent examples of First Nations art at the UBC Museum of Anthropology.

The Canadian Pacific Railway terminated on piles on the shore parallel to Water St in 1886. From this the area became a hive of warehouses. Carrall St was particularly swampy owing to it being low ground between False Creek and Burrard Inlet. Bridges overcame the problem, and the low ground and beach was slowly filled in. In 1886 the town was incorporated in Vancouver City.

steam clock and vintage lamp posts

The McLennan and McFeely Building is a large 5-storey brick-and-stone commercial building in Gastown which includes the former Canadian Pac­ific Railway right-of-way! The building is a good example of a ware­house built in Vancouver's commerc­ial centre in the early C20th, its heritage value lying in the hist­oric relationship between Gastown and Vancouver’s early economy. Con­sid­er how Gastown became the trans-shipment point between the railway terminus and Pacific shipping rout­es, predicting Vancouver’s expansion as western Canada’s predominant comm­ercial centre. The building’s con­struction in 1906 was for McLen­nan & McFeely, a company special­ising in the import and dist­ribution of hardware and building supplies.

historic Water Street

The foreshore became an important staging area with the N & W Vancouv­er Ferries, and Union Steamships docks. Warehouses quickly open­ed, Fleck Brothers distributors had buildings and department stores opened eg Spencer’s, Hudson’s Bay Company, Army and Navy stores, Woodward’s and Fairbanks Morse. Gastown peaked as the centre of the city’s wholesale produce distribution in the 1930s Great Depression (but not after).

In the 1960s, citizens became concerned with preserving Gastown’s dis­tinctive and historic architecture, which like the nearby Chinatown and Strathcona, was scheduled to be demolished (to build a major freeway into the downtown area). A campaign to save Gastown was led by business people and property owners, as well as the counterculture and assoc­iat­ed political protest­ors, gained traction. Dutch immig­rant Henk Vander­horst opened the Exposition Gallery in Water St which started, flour­ished and encouraged a flow of other newly established businesses.

Henk’s role in the revitalisation of Gastown was rewarded in 1976 by being awarded The First Pioneer Citizen of Gastown, given by the mayor. Vanderhorst’s efforts pressured the provincial and federal governments to declare Gas­town a National Hist­or­ic Site in 2009.

Gastown displays some of the city’s best Victorian Italianate, Ed­ward­ian commercial and Romanesque architecture, running along the north of the downtown Vancouver pen­in­sula. Gastown is a vital part of Vanc­ouv­er’s position as one of the most cosmop­ol­itan cities in the world.

Map of Vancouver

Note Gastown, on Burrard Inlet

please protect Preston Market, fresh food & multi-cultural hub in Melbourne

Front entrance to Preston Market

Colonial occupation of the Port Phillip District from 1835 resulted in the survey and subdivision of the land, with the land being taken up largely for grazing, and then tanneries was establish­ed in Preston. In 1888 a huge tannery was built on the block surrounded by High St, Cramer St, the railway line & Murray St, the site now occupied by Preston Market. Demolition of the tannery in 1964 left a large vac­ant site, ripe for redevelopment. 10 years earlier, a report prepared as a part of the 1954 Melbourne and Metropolitan Plan­ning Scheme id­en­t­ified Preston as one of the 5 District Business Centres that could be the focus of commerce & employment. Concept plans for the Preston District Centre proposed new development across the tannery site, crossed by a series of shopping walks.

Northlands opened in 1966, a regional shopping centre representing the modern, cl­osed retailing concept, fully enclosed and ped­estrian­­is­ed. It responded to social & ec­onomic conditions after WW2 i.e rapid expansion of the suburbs, drama­tic increase in private car ownership, increased prosperity and an emphasis on new lifestyles.

Leon Jolson, developer and original owner decided in the late 1960s to build a traditional European market. He wanted his market to be a place of noise and act­ivity and when the housewife arrived back home, he wanted her to feel exhilarated’. Note that at that time, only four of the C19th retail markets re­mained: Queen Victoria Market, South Mel­bourne Market, Prah­ran Market and Dandenong Market. [I lived near Prahran Market, and happily shopped there regularly].

Preston Market comm­en­c­ed in 1969, on a key site in the centre of Pres­ton, and close to the civ­ic and commercial precinct that developed at High and Cramer Sts. This market referred back to trad­it­ional open air markets, now reflecting key themes in the social & economic history of this lo­c­ality: ex­pansion of suburban Melb­ourne, post-WW2 migration and the development of dist­inctive retail­ing modes.

The concept employed by the designer team was for a market build­ing that would be adaptable over time. The large open shed-like build­ings were pre-fabricated, with a strong range of ind­ust­rial materials. A key element was the use of a new technology and the design offered good access to natural light and open air between the buildings. The layout was created around two axes that functioned as pedestrian streets and defined the overall market plan

By Aug 1970 the market had 250 stalls: greengrocers, butchers, delis, coffee and food stalls, and 130 others.

Delis

Greengrocers

Coffee shops

A few years later, canopies were added to walkways. The Preston Fresh Food Market was opened in 2016 in Cramer St Bingo Hall and refurb­ish­ment began within the market complex itself. The market was now the second largest in Melbourne, especially once Sunday trade commenced.

This market has grown into a famous centre of cultural and culinary wealth, changing as the neighbourhood changed over the 50 years and continue to ev­olve. But its place at the heart of the community rem­ains strong. Melbourne’s multi­cultural hub of the north, the market was to celebrate its 50th anniversary in Aug 2020 (deferred by COVID), by sharing history, trad­ers’ stories, old photos and recipes. This was the beating heart of Preston.

Now the world is changing. In Aug 2017, the Minister for Planning asked the Victorian Planning Authority to review the current planning controls across the whole market site.

A decision about the market's future will be fast-tracked to help stimulate Victoria's struggling economy but Darebin Council fears mov­ing too quickly could undermine the review process. The site in Melb­ourne's north has been earmarked for redevelopment, with plans to add multi-storey blocks of flats, raising the probability that the market could be demolished and rebuilt elsewhere. Thus the heritage value and all the things that make the market so special could be lost. A petition has been opened to preserve the market. 

In response, historians have shown that since being established in 1970 as a traditional European heart in Melbourne, Preston Market has changed with the city’s ever-growing diverse makeup and has evol­v­ed into a vibrant multi­cultural precinct. Its evolution from a European-centric market to a multicultural one reflected the shifts in Melb­our­ne’s migrant communities. Hailed as Melbourne's second-largest market, it welcomed c80,000 visitors every week before the Covid pandemic: Indians, Sri Lankans, African communities, Chinese, Greeks, Ital­ians who sell foods that res­on­ate with their own cultures and others. Pres­ton Market has thus created the opport­unity to open a busin­ess interact­ing with customers from all over the world.

For traders, the intimate connection to communities they serve is what sets them apart in a competitive commercial environment. It is a place where the customer can connect and form relation­sh­ips. Each family-owned business has its own particular strengths, but the unique sell­ing point lies in good prices, fresher food and personal attention from the owner. Yes, the big super­mark­ets and the shopping centres are making big profits, but that is not all that locals want.

Prahran Market

Open green areas in London's East End? - Carlton Square

Carlton Square

My paternal gran lived in London’s East End, and alth­ough the two adults, 10 children and one uncle lived together in a two bed­room flat in Whitechapel, she said she had a great life. How­ev­er I believed that she didn’t see a tree, back garden, park or veget­able garden before arriving in Australia. 

Now 62andthenext10pathways has shown that parts of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets had been very spacious and green. Beginning in the late C17th, small clusters of houses and terr­aces appeared along Mile End Rd when there was already a Sp­anish Port­uguese comm­un­ity. A new suburban neighbourhood was developing in the early C18th, inhabited by a wealthy class of merch­ants and sea capt­ains in larger houses. Only with the development of open land did the wealthier families begin to move away.

But it wasn’t until the Pemberton Barnes Trust, which owned the op­en fields, begun letting them in 1853 that new clusters of lar­ge scale suburban developments appeared along the Mile End Rd. 

Long before the Carlton Square Conservation Area was formally des­ignated in Sept 1987, we need to examine how the conservation ar­ea was protect­ed. It had an ir­reg­ular boundary, extending from Mass­ingham St and Bancroft Rd to the north, to Mile End Rd to the south. It in­cluded the terraces of Tollet St along its western bound­ary, and the Grant­ley St terraces to the east.

With the wealthier inhabitants leaving Mile End, and a large Jewish community of migrants moving into this area, it prom­pt­ed cultural changes. A col­lection of synagogues and cultural institutions were built, including founding the Hospital for Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Mile End Rd by 1799. Mile End Rd was no longer considered a very desirable place of resid­ence; it was becoming a commercial hub, forming the basis for the mix of ten­ure. When the hamlet of Mile End Old Town was assumed by the Borough of Step­ney by 1899, the area had its own workhouse and vestry hall (later library) on Ban­croft Rd.

The mid C19th saw large scale building to provide cheap, sanitary hous­ing for the working classes. The houses were dev­eloped by William Pemberton Barnes Trust on open land known as Globe Fields. The Trust began let­ting the houses from 1853 and later sold 200 properties to the Peabody Trust, now the major landown­ers. There were some areas of later Victor­ian houses built after the first phase, especially south of Alderney Rd, Bancroft Rd and Grantley St.

In the 1960s, the clearing of housing formed a public open space. The conservation area was char­act­erised by its cohesive group of mid-late Victorian housing, which remain lar­gely intact. 

Mile End Hospital

The Victorian terrace houses were generally 2-storeys and raised on a semi-basement. To the front of earlier properties, parapets extend­ing the length of the terrace concealed uniform London roofs. Later properties had overhanging eaves but the original man­sard roofs had disappeared. Originally these houses had been front­ed by ornate-cast iron rail­ings, protecting small front gardens. But by 1993 they had entirely disappeared (perhaps in WW2). 

The only houses which have been lost were in the two streets north of Mass­ing­ham St, the terr­aces at Bancroft Rd’s north­ern end and the houses on Globe Rd. 

Some of the civic buildings along Bancroft Rd have changed use, but the public buildings of historical & architectural sig­nificance were preserved. The Conservation Area included 3 Grade II listed facil­it­ies, 1] the Library, 2] mid C19th Mile End Hospital and 3] two disused burial grounds.

The first of the listed build­ings was Mile End Hos­pital, built in Jacobean style with 3-storeys in red brick, white stone dres­s­ings and geom­etric designs. Its centre had balust­raded bay windows over 2-storeys, surmounted by Flemish gables.

The second, further south along Bancroft Rd, was the Tower Hamlets Library. The library was built in two parts, with the north­ern end built in 1865 and the southern part a bit earlier. The library was reconstructed of white stone with heavy eaves cornice. Presented with banding between the 2-st­oreys, the ground floor had cen­­tral, round ar­ched windows and a door flanked by Tuscan pilasters.

The third was the Jewish Burial Ground opened in 1657, estab­lish­ed by Spanish & Portuguese Jews. The oldest Jewish burial grounds in Britain, note the C18th per­i­m­eter brick wall, with rendered plinth and brick cap­ping. South of Carlton Square Gardens, the Jewish Cemeteries formed a group of open spaces. Burials took place there until 1758. 

Jewish Burial Ground

used 1657-1758

3-bedroom flats

Argyle St

Carlton Square and the adjoining Carlton Square Gardens were the open spaces that were surrounded by rows of terraces. Argyle Rd, Tol­l­et St, Holton St, Portelet Rd and Grantley St generally con­sisted of mid C19th, 2-storey terraces. High­er 3-stor­ey properties with basements existed along Bancroft Rd and Alderney Rd. Their importance was reflected in their later protection against devel­opment above ground, by the 1931 London Squares Preservation Act. 

Views in the area were framed along existing resid­ent­ial streets, where the character of the C19th terrace housing created quality views. Other views existed towards the open garden spaces. This was such an area of special arch­itectural and historic interest that Carlton Square Conservation Area complied perfectly with the Plan­ning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

Arnold Circus, Bethnal Green

Finally let me mention Arnold Circus, the famous bandstand at the centre of what was once the worst slum in London. Construction began in 1890 on new flats in Bethnal Green, which would eventually be recognised as the city’s first public housing project. The new development opened in 1896; its 19 blocks of five-storey tenements surrounded the beautiful Arnold Circus gardens and bandstand, constructed from materials from the demolished flats.

Note Mile End and Bethnal Green

Dr Leal made slummy Old Havana into a beautiful city

Eusebio Leal Spengler (1942-2020) was 16 when the dictator Fulgencio Batista, having made millions from bribes from mafia-run casinos, fled into exile on New Year’s Day 1959. A devout Catholic, Leal rushed to ring the church bells to usher in the new era, as heaps of Habaneros took to the streets in jubilation.

Presidential palace
made into Palace of the Revolution

After the 1959 revolution brought Fidel Castro to power, public ed­ucation in Cuba became free. Leal grew up in poverty, spending his young years in lib­rar­ies reading history and architecture. He was made an apprentice in the Office of Historian. 

At the City Hist­or­ian’s office, Leal’s role was more hands-on construction worker than chronicler of Havana’s past. Inspired by a childhood spent absorbing the colours and crowds of Old Havana, he dreamt of reversing the city’s 1960s stagnation and rekindling the magic of earl­ier eras, Baroque, Neoclassical or Art Deco.

 In 1975, earned a bach­el­or’s degree in history. Later he got a Ph.D in historical sciences from Havana University.

While Che Guevara and Castro still lurk on countless Havana bill boards, Leal was more subtle. In Cuba he commanded widespread resp­ect but outside Cuba, few have heard of him. Yet over 50 years, this academic trans­formed Old Havana from a crum­bling slum into the finest restoration project in the Americas.

His work started unpromisingly. Leal spent years on his first rest­oration project, converting the C18th governor’s pal­ace in Havana’s Plaza de Armas into the city’s main museum. In 1961 Cuba had been hit by Pres. Kenn­ed­y’s trade embargo; Castro’s post-revolutionary government was more inter­es­t­ed in its survival than revisiting Havana’s imprecise past. And see the Presidential Palace on Havana’s Plaza 13 de Marzo; in 1974, it became the Museum of the Revolution.

Leal focused his preservation efforts in the 1980s, when the old cen­tre of the capital was a ruin. Residents lived without indoor plumbing or reliable electricity, garbage piled up on the streets, and 250-year-old buildings sometimes collapsed before their eyes. By renov­at­ing Havana’s colonial core, Leal safe­guarded the best of the city’s archit­ecture, helped resuscitate the Cuban economy and enhan­ced the capital’s flag­g­ing infrastructure with many soc­ial projects. And Leal found an early ally. His museum work attracted the eye of Celia Sánchez, an historical archivist close to the new regime and an entry into the higher echelons of the Cuban gov­er­n­ment. With Sán­chez’s help, Old Havana became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. Still isolated by Kennedy’s embargo, the city’s col­onial relics looked awful but at least they were prot­ected from demolition.

Times were getting harder. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba’s economy fell over, as Cubans struggled to find enough food for their families. Ironically, the upheaval offered Leal the bigg­est opp­ortunity of his career. Note that Fidel Castro was a trained lawyer. Out of the economic crisis Castro, whom Leal had befriended, gave him unique authority to collect taxes and pro­fits from tourism in the old centre. The government was forced to turn to tourism to res­cue its stuttering economy. As hotel develop­ment was prescribed for Cuba’s northern beaches, Leal con­vinced Castro that Havana’s unique but frayed historical her­it­age, could lure visitors. 

To avoid turning the colon­ial centre into a hist­or­ical theme park, Leal redesigned the city as an authentic living space that provided social bene­fits for the quarter’s 65,000 inhab­itants. For every tourist ho­t­el and museum, there was to be a local comm­it­t­ee, care home and school. And behind the Fototeca de Cuba Gallery on Plaza Vieja, a Spanish court yard with 8 new flats were inhabited by the original families.

In 1994 Leal set up Habaguanex, a state-run company, and ploughed money in­to his projects. Armed with US$1 million from the govern­ment and the prom­ise of nurturing further investment from abroad, Haba­g­uanex converted semi-ruined colonial buil­d­ings into hotels and mus­eums, remain­ing totally faith­ful to their original designs. As the tourists arrived, the money Hab­aguan­ex banked was invested back into the city, for hist­or­ic­al preservation and urban regener­at­ion.

As Habaguanex became a self-financing entity, Leal created a mast­er­plan, splitting Old Havana into coded zones and prioritis­ing buildings by their condition, age and historical importance. The first to be renovated under the plan was Ambos Mundos Hotel, a fav­ourite of Ernest Hemingway. Ot­her hotels followed, along with mus­eums, antique shops, redesigned rest­aur­ants and muscular forts. One arcade and office building from 1917 und­erwent a city-led rest­oration and reopened in 2017 as the Hotel Manzana Kempinski.

Casa de Juan Mata on the Plaza Vieja.
It became became Fototeca de Cuba Gallery in 1986

Arcade and office building 1917, 

now Hotel Manzana Kempinski

Residential street, renewed

By 2011 Cuba was attracting 3 mill vis­itors a year and Hab­aguanex’s init­ial start-up fund of $1 mill had grown to $119 mill in annual revenue. Paradoxically Old Havana became a capitalist succ­ess story: the restored buildings drew foreign tourists whose money then paid for more restorat­ion. But the process was slow and Old Havana’s renewal came at a cost i.e some residents had to be relocated when the overcrowded buildings were modernised. 

As head of the Office of Historian, Leal had employed 3,000 workers and was hailed as a hero for conservationists every­where. Now there is hardly a street or square in Old Havana that doesn’t show Leal’s mark. He received Orders of Merit from 6 countries and in 2012, Hav­ana was named one of the 25 World Heritage sites with great conser­vation practices. Joshua David of the World Monuments Fund in New York visited Havana for Leal’s 2017 workshop on architectural rest­oration. Yet Leal remained an un­pret­­ent­ious figure who loved walking Havana’s streets. 

By the mid-2000s, c300 buildings, a third of those in Old Havana, had been renovated. Leal, who died in July 2020 aged 77, was called The Cuban who Saved Havana, a tire­less am­bassador for his city. Working within the Comm­unist system, he pion­eered a net­work that saved the district’s arch­itectural heritage at the same time as maintaining its community life. 

Levittown USA - dream homes for families? or communist hell?

In 1929, Abraham Levitt founded a real-estate development company called Levitt & Sons who built mostly upscale housing on Long Is­land NY. Pre-WW2 first son William Levitt (1907–94) became company president, and the house designs were done by second son Alfred.

From 1946 there were two urgent pushes to the housing market: America's post-war prosp­erity and the baby boom of 1946-51. Mass product­ion strategies William had learn­ed building military housing could work for domestic housing, so they purch­ased a 7 square mile tract of Long Island’s fields New York. Levittown’s very existence was dependent on an important act of American community development: the 1948 Housing Bill, which freed up bill­ions of doll­ars in credit and gave many families the chance to get a 5%-down, 30-year mortgages in the first place.

Starting as America’s proto-­typical post-war planned community, the Levittown project began mass-producing single-family homes, fore­sh­ad­owing a wave of migration from cities. For middle-class WW2 ex-servicemen on G.I loans, Levittown was an affordable dream, a chance to escape the city’s crowded blocks.

Advertisement for beautiful Levittowner houses

Note the support for ex-servicemen

Building one house every 16 minutes at its peak, the company used mass manufactur­ing systems. Non-unionised and unskilled workers moved from house to house, each performing one of the highly specialised steps in the total assembly process, using standardised materials. It was certain­ly efficient; they completed Levittown’s 17,311 detached family houses by 1951. 

The Levitts’ American dream had an aesthetic uniformity, each house being based on one core architectural plan. The development event­ually con­tained carefully laid out symmetrical roads, public swim­ming pools, baseball fields, parks, shopping clusters in the cen­tre, churches and schools. And a Veterans Memorial Park.

By mid 1952, families were moving in at 500 per month. The first homes sold for $7,990 with a 5% down payment (0% for ex-servicemen). Most of Levittown’s male residents happily commuted to good jobs in Manhattan. But crit­ics had grave reservations: Harper’s called the lit­tle Levitt house “American suburbia reduced to its logical absurd­ity”, and a “uniform environment from which escape is impossible”. Did the critics not understand that ex-servicemen needed peace and security for their families, above all else? 

Each house was differently shaped or differently oriented on the block

The critics were wrong. Houses in these developments were less alike than the blocks of flats and the old pre-war bungalows which lined the city streets. In any case, though Levitt built cheapish, fully funct­ioning houses and built them well, he left almost every­thing else to the new home owners. They were encouraged to custom­ise their homes, whether of the standard utilitarian Cape Cod de­sign or another. Excited families focused on their own int­erior décor­ation, windows, rooflines, land­scaping and paint colours to show their ind­ividuality and creat­iv­ity. What families most wanted was a sun­ny, grassy back yard for their children, free from city poll­ut­ion.

Levit­town life had its comm­unal aspects and shared regulat­ions eg no homeowner could fen­ce off a private yard from the shared green and the lawns had to be mow­ed every week. And they had a strong sense of shared resp­on­sibility. They would babysit, drive neigh­bours around, help out with mortgage payments if needed.

British and Australian historians always had trouble understanding the intense American loathing of Levittown. The “general lust for con­formity”, and a “blind, desperate clinging to safety and sec­ur­ity at any price” was the equivalent of calling the Levitt project as socialist and dangerous. Based on the horrors the ex-servicemen had seen in WW2, safety and security sounded like ideals, not a socialist threat. To my baby-boomer ears, bedroom communities of housing developments in the ind­ust­rial­ised North sounded enticing.

Why did Levittown become known for its “complacent racism"? The Federal Hous­ing Administration, established in the 1930s, had refused to insure mortgages in black neighbourhoods; they incentivised the construct­ion of suburban communities with the promise of fin­an­cial help, provided that they exclude black buyers. William Levitt cooper­at­ed, partially ensuring that Lev­ittown was quickly successful. It was a question of economics, not racism, he said. Now note the following Levittown clause: The ten­ant agrees not to permit the premises to be occupied by any person oth­er than members of the Caucasian race. But the employment and maintenance of other than Caucasian domestic servants shall be permitted.

As William Levitt personally rejected racism, there could have been only two explanations to Levittown’s racist entry laws. Firstly Levit­town was following the powerful soc­ial customs of the era, since it would certainly fail to at­t­ract residents if he rejected those cus­toms. Secondly the growing power of Sen Joseph McCarthy and his col­leagues was controlling peoples’ views, by terror, from late 1940s on.

War memorial

and open park land

As a result Levittown’s population was 100% white. It seemed that Brown v Board of Education (1954) and the nation­wide racial integration that followed hardly touched Levittown.

In 1957 the Wechsler family members were committed humanist activists who found a perfect black family to buy their Levittown house; Bill and Daisy Myers were a young, educated couple with children and a GI loan. The Myers purchased the 3 bedroom house for $12,150. They moved in secretly, but very soon a mailman knocked on their door and asked to see the owner. “It happened. Niggers have moved into Levittown”, the mailman screamed.

Nearby a house was rented out to serve as Confederate Club House for the racist resid­ents of Levittown, who saw the arrival of non-whites as an end to their idyll. This Lev­ittown Bet­terment Comm­it­tee flew the Confederate flag and “prot­ect­ed” an all-white Levit­town! It wasn’t long before the Wechslers’ ex-home was defaced by the KKK and crosses were burned on lawns.

The Myers had support from Quakers, the American Jewish Congress and William Penn Centre. White couples baby­sat the Myers’ children and helped clean up the wreckage. Finally the State Att­orney General got involved, issuing a formal complaint against the racists in Confederate House.

Calling Levittown “communist” was not as laughable as I thought. Though the American government tried to address the severe housing short­age by launching public housing programs, they were vic­iously vil­ified by right-wingers as a form of social­ism. Sen McCarthy him­self called housing projects “breeding grounds for commun­ists”. Furthermore critics compared the architectural uniformity of Levittown as reminiscent of the conformity of Communist China.

Shopping Plaza, the open-air complex at the centre of Levittown New Jersey 

Built 1958-60

To many, suburban Levittown became a symbol of American modernity; to others, Levittown was a symbol of conformity and exclusion. At least the children who grew up in Levittown New York (1947-51) and its descendants (Penn­sylvania 1952, New Jersey 1958 and Puerto Rico 1963) were shaped by very secure and innovat­ive environments.

Czech city of Zlin and Tom Stoppard's literature

Zlin was a small town in the Moravia region of Czech­oslov­akia with a population of only 3,000 at the end of the C19th. Bata Shoes’ first factory was opened in Zlin in 1894 by Tomas Bata, (1876–1932) a Czech foot­wear empire that eventually generated id­entical company towns all ov­er the globe. Once Bata's shoe business bl­os­­somed, the com­pany sp­on­sored impressive arch­it­ect­ure and modern town planning. Tomás drew on emerg­ing ideas of the Garden City from the UK and on the work of Swiss arch­itect Le Corbusier to create model housing areas in Zlín for his workers. The town planning was actually done by Frantisek Gahura a student from Le Corbusier's atelier in Paris, and profoundly effected by Russian Constructivism.  Gahura worked for the Bata Shoes organisation in the 1920s and 1930s, designing simple, boxy red brick houses that were laid out, surrounded by greenery in this garden town.

Bata workers' houses in Zlin

designed and laid out by Gahura by the early 1930s

Eventually the Bata Company employed 16,560 work­ers, ran 1,645 shops and 25 factories in 39 countries around the world. Broth­er Jan Baťa (1898–1965), following the plans laid down by Tomáš before his death, expanded the company more than six times its or­iginal size across Czechoslovakia and beyond. Jan Bata comm­is­s­ioned a noted piece of Constructivist de­sign for the company head­quarters and the highest building in Czech­oslovakia at the time. 

Zlin produced some great stars. Students at the Bata School for Young Men included, for example, 1948-52 Olympic ath­lete Emil Zát­opek. His incredible talents was recently named by Runner’s World as the Great­est Runner of All Time. And someone else. Were it not for the heroic nature of the Bata business, we might never have en­joyed Tom Stoppard's important literary legacy. Whose legacy??

Map of Czech Republic

surrounded by Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Austria.

Note the location of Prague, Brno, Zlin and my husband's home town next to Liberec

Tomas Straus­sler (1937-) was born in Zlín, dom­inated by the shoe manufacturing industry. His parents were Martha Becková and Eugen Strauss­ler, educated members of Zlin’s long-established Jewish community.

Tomas' father Dr Eugen Straus­sler was a company doctor working with Bata, paid by the boss because moral employers always looked after the health of all their employees. Just before the German occup­at­ion of Czechos­lov­akia, Jan Baťa helped his Jewish emp­l­oyees (mostly doctors) to branches of his firm outside Eur­ope.

In Mar 1939, when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, the Straus­slers fled to safety in Singapore where Bata had a factory. They spent 3 years in Singapore, before the Japanese occup­at­ion of Singapore in Feb 1942, for­cing Martha to flee with the two boys to Brit­ish Ind­ia. Dr Eugen Straussler remained in Singapore as a British army vol­­un­t­eer, knowing that doctors would be needed in its defence. Eugen was to follow, but his ship was app­arently sunk by Japanese bombers. Alternatively he may have died in cap­tiv­ity as a Japanese prisoner of war.

The family moved around India then settled in Darjeel­ing so that Martha could be the manager in the local Bata shoe shop. They were­n't Raj bec­ause they were Czech refuge­es, but Tomas loved every as­p­ect of their life there. The boys attended the Ch­ristian boarding-school Mount Hermon School, the place where Tomáš became Tom and his brother Petr became Peter.

After the war ended, Tom’s mother Martha married the British army major Kenneth Stop­pard, who gave the boys his English surname. And in 1946, he shipped the family to the UK. They drove up to Notting­ham and were warmly welcomed by the step­father's family. Tom was 8 and sudd­enly an English schoolboy.. who didn’t speak Czech any long­er. After being educated at schools in Notting­ham and York­shire, Tom Stoppard became an English journalist, drama critic and later a playwright.

Visiting Czechoslovakia in 1977, Tom Stoppard became friends with play­wright and future president Václav Havel and other dissident writers. And visited Soviet dissidents including the Sak­har­ovs in Moscow. He said he had taken every possible side in political deb­ates. But in eastern Europe in the 70s and 80s, he started taking sides. Look­ing back, he understood that his foc­us had been very narrow. From then on, he became interested in the shadow thrown by Soviet communism.

His tv play, Professional Foul (1977), combined moral philosophy and football in communist Prague. Dogg's Hamlet and Cahoot's Macbeth (1979) were inspired by the banned Czech playwright Pavel Kohout, while the TV play Squaring the Circle (1984) poked fun at General Jaruzelski's martial law in Poland.

He has written often and well for TV, radio, film and stage, find­ing prominence with plays such as Arcadia, Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, The Real Thing, Trav­esties, The Invention of Love, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He co-wrote the screenplays for Brazil, The Russia House and Shake­speare in Love. His work cov­ers the themes of human rights, cen­sorship and politic­al freedom.

Tom Stoppard

Much later in life, Stoppard recorded assessments of his own life and works which were then published in the book Tom Stoppard in Con­versation (1994). These conversations work shed light on both his intent and his creative process. And it revealed that all four of his grandparents had died Auschwitz in WW2, along with three of his mother's sisters.

After his parents' deaths, Tom returned with his elder brother to Zlin in 1998, for the first time in almost 60 years. The Czech premiere of his 2006 play Rock 'N' Roll was one of the big literary and social events of the year, attended by Stoppard, and also by many prominent former Czech dissidents. The level of interest was high because of the very Czech subject matter of the play.

In 2008, Tom Stoppard placed #11 in The Daily Telegraph's "100 Most Powerful People in British Culture".

Book for Stoppard's new play Leopoldstadt, Wyndham's Theatre London. In the early C20th, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna. But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann’s extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard’s epic yet intimate and heart-breaking drama.

Who inspired Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City Movement?

The  Garden City Movement was a brilliant British approach to urban planning, founded in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928).  But what were the inspirations that promoted Ebenezer Howard's views on modern town planning?

The deep gorge of the River Clyde near Lanark in Southern Scot­land had spectacular linn-water­falls. Two men, Glas­g­ow financier David Dale (1739–1806) and Eng­lish cot­ton spinning industrialist Richard Arkwright, loved the land and took cont­rol of New Lanark in 1786. By the 1790s the men had 4 mills in full operation, powered by Scotland’s River Clyde.

New Lanark on the River Clyde

Of the total 1790s work­force, two thirds were children, many from Edinburgh and Glasgow orph­an­ages. The children’s working day started at 6 am and fin­ish­ed at 7 pm. Yet by 1793 standards, David Dale was an en­lightened employer. Food and acc­ommodation were good, children attended school for two hours each day after work, and workers fared better than other Scots did.

Dale expanded his workforce by recruiting Highlanders re­moved from their land during the Clearances. To house them, he built housing rows at both ends of the village. Again he was considered an enlightened employer; the education and welfare of his workers were important to him.

Welshman Robert Owen 1771–1858 visited New Lanark for the first time in 1798. He had met Dale's daughter Caroline in Gl­asgow and within a year, Robert Owen was negotiating to purch­ase New Lanark. He mar­ried Caroline in 1799, and took over New Lanark in Jan 1800.

Owen immediately started to tighten discipline, dismissing drunk workers. Output and productivity of textile production increased. When Dale sold New Lanark Mills to his new son-in-law Robert Owen in 1799, few believed that this would become the most import­ant experiment in human happiness yet instituted.

Owen's school

Based on Dale’s alt­ruism, Owen created a revolutionary model for ind­us­trial communities. Owen kept the workers on full pay during a 1806 trade dis­pute with the USA that temporarily stopped the flow of cot­ton. In 1809 the children were moved from dormitories in Mill 4 to the purpose-built Nursery Buildings. A village store was opened by Owen in 1813. And he developed grand plans to build on Dale’s educational plans.

Owen specified radical social reform in A New View of Society: Es­says on the Formation of the Human Cha­r­acter 1813, a protest against the condition of the British poor. The idea that “harsh conditions in factories were damaging to workers” led to conflict with Owen’s partners. In 1813 he took control of New Lanark and found new Quaker partners (eg John Walker), keen to help implement his ideas. 

The reformer built an Institution for the Formation of Character (now the Vis­itor Centre) in 1816, and then built a School for Chil­d­ren next door. The Village Store grew, with its profits being re­cycled to pay for education. Owen also established a Sick Fund for Workers. Leisure and recreation were important - concerts, dances and pleasant landscaped areas were very popular.

Owen's publicity attracted European politicians and thinkers, and his factories were visited by European policy-makers. Owen was invited to give testimony to the British Parliament select committee on factory working conditions and the Poor Law, but was disappointed with the response. He felt that the Factory Act of 1819 was woefully inadequate.

Had Owen always planned a social revolution at New Lanark? Or was he a capitalist who happened to realise the impor­t­ance of his workers’ wellbeing to the profit­ab­il­ity of his company? Was Robert Owen management enlightened or pat­er­n­­alistic? It doesn’t matter; he was implementing revolut­ion­ary ideas, 80 years ahead of his time.

Housing rows

In 1824 Owen sold his inter­ests in New Lanark largely to Charles and Henry Walker, sons of John Walk­er. Owen himself sailed for Am­er­ica, where he purchased a Utopian community called New Harmony, Indiana. Sadly it failed and he returned home in 1829.

In 1881 New Lanark was sold to Henry Birkmyre of the Gourock rope-making co. Burkmyre sought to maintain the underlying social patt­erns, merely divers­ifying the activity at New Lan­ark - products now included deck chair cov­ers, military canvas, circus big tops, ropes and fishing nets.

Working families were brought from Ireland and the Isle of Man to add their skills to the locals.  Soon it was normal for homes to contain two rooms (instead of one), kit­chen sinks and cold water taps. Even the old communal outside toil­ets were replaced with inside toilets. And from 1898, one electric bulb was been supplied free to each home. Ebenezer Howard read of every development with enthusiasm.

New Lanark Mills

So....the village was founded in 1785, the cotton mills being powered by water-wheels. It was Robert Owen who was the Utopian idealist founder of New Lanark, the man who implemented a model utopian community. Planning and architecture had to be integ­rated, with a humane concern by emp­loyers for the well-being of the workers. The village was established to show that the evils of poverty, social dis­advantage and ignorance could be over­come through universal ed­uc­ation, factory reform, discipline, good housing and health care. On behalf of Ebenezer Howard and his colleagues, I salute Robert Owen and David Dale.

**

A Housing Association was formed in 1963 to refurbish homes in Caithness Row and Nursery Buildings, stopping only when a rope co­m­pany closed the mills and lost the final 350 jobs in 1968. In 1970 the site was sold to a company who extracted aluminium from scrap metal: but few jobs were created and the village fell apart.

In 1974 the New Lanark Conservation Trust started restorations, based on full historic records. By then Ow­en's School was derelict and partly roofless. Great changes were made to Mill 1, which was fully rebuilt and converted into the New Lanark Mill Hotel. It offers good ac­c­ommod­ation, rest­aur­ant, bars, con­ference centre, wedding & banqueting fac­il­ities. Wee Row was converted into a 60 bed Youth Hostel. And the other housing was converted into 45 Housing Ass­oc­iation tenancies and 20 owner-occupied houses. New Lanark was recognised with World Heritage Status in 2001; 500,000 visitors arrive each year!

Vienna is the World's Most Liveable City. Sorry Melbourne and Osaka

The Economist Intelligence Unit is a British business providing forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis, including country, industry and management analyses world-wide. Plus it has published an annual Global Liveability Ranking which began in 2004. The Unit ranks cities for their urb­an quality of life, based on assess­ments across five categories — stability, infrastructure, healthcare and culture, education and environment.

With Melbourne winning the world title for the past seven years, it may come as a surprise to Australians that in 2018 Vienna for the first time topped the EIU’s Global Liveability Index. The 2018 results were as follows: 1. Vienna Austria; 2. Melbourne Australia; 3. Osaka Japan; 4. Calgary Canada; 5. Sydney Australia; 6. Vancouver Canada; 7. Toronto Canada and Tokyo Japan; 9. Copen­hagen Denmark and 10. Adelaide Australia.

Vienna

The differences between the top 30 cities in this index were small. Vienna and Melbourne have been very very close in the annual survey of 140 urban centres for years, and are still separated by less than a point. Vienna scored 99.1% and Melbourne scored 98.4%. Osaka, which did not make last year's top 10, is now just 0.7% behind Melbourne. Even Singapore and Hongkong, which only came equal 35th, had good scores of 91.3%.

Both Vienna and Melbourne saw an improve­ment in their score this year. Both cities scored maximum points in the health-care, educ­ation and infrastructure categories. But while Melbourne extended its lead in the culture and environment component, that was out­weighed by Vienna’s improved stability ranking. [There was both a downgraded threat of militant attacks in western Europe and an improvement in Vienna’s crime rate]. Osaka's improvements in scores for public transportation, as well as a consistent decline in crime rates, contributed to that city’s imp­roved ratings in the infra­structure and stability categories respectively.

Osaka, Calgary and Sydney completed the top five positions. The EIU believed the survey usually favoured medium-sized cities in wealthy countries, often with relatively low population densities. Much larger and more crowded cities tended to have higher crime rates and more strained infrastructure. London, for instance, ranked 48th.

Melbourne

I expected Australian, Canadian, Japanese and European cities to dominate any measure of liveability. Australia and Can­ada achieved great results, exactly as expect­ed. Melbourne (98.4%), Sydney (97.4%) and Adelaide were joined by Calgary (97.5%), Vancouver (97.3%) and Toronto (97.2%) in the Top Ten. But apart from Vien­na, only one other European city achieved a great rating. This was Copen­hagen in Denmark, in 9th place at 96.8%. Helsinki and Ham­burg, who held Top Ten places last year, dropped out this year.

Green spaces with the city seem important. 50% of Vienna comprises green areas, parklands and gardens that can be reached on foot or by tram. Melbourne has huge public parks and wide, tree-lined boulevards. Vancouver has its harbour setting, with many beautiful parks and gardens. Copenhagen has delightful Botanical and Tivoli Gardens.

At the other end of the table, find Lagos (38.5%) in Nigeria and the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka (38%), then Damascus (30.7%) came last! The index only meas­ured 140 cities, so we can assume that the world’s most dang­erous capitals like Baghdad and Kabul were not included.

Osaka

I recognise that being a very liveable city does not necessarily make for a city that would be very attractive to tourists. While universal heal­th care and free tram rides for school children may make local citiz­ens happy, travellers may care much more about unique tourist sites, great pubs and exotic night life.

Isfahan & the Silk Route - architecture, trade and the Europe-China link

China’s old cities were thriving commercial centres, especially in silk production. In the later C13th, during the rule of Kublai Khan, China’s silk industry reached a great level of soph­is­tication. The guilds had established meticulous pay scales, working hours and a pricing system for silk.

Silk reached the markets, in Persia and further west, via the long “Silk Road”. The road stretched from the western gates of Hsian in China's Chanxi Province, and passed via the southern Gobi Desert until western Turkistan. It then passed via Kashghar to the major trading cities of Samar­kand, Bukhara and Merv. Once the Silk Road crossed the length of Persia/Iran, it divided into two branches; one went tow­ard Azar­baijan, and the other ran through Ham­adan, Baghdad or Mosul, Antioch or Capadoccia, Izmir and Istanbul.

Caravanserai of Shah Ab­bas, Isfahan
now the Abbasi Hot­el 

East-West economic exchanges required big warehouses in the trading cities, linked by camel caravans. Businessmen travelling along the road usually spoke Chinese, Persian, Turkish or Arabic, depending on which city they conducted their business. Realising the economic signif­icance of the Silk Road, most countries that were NOT on this road coveted the prosperity that the route could bring. Trade usually became specialised e.g for the route that started in Babylon and passed through Baghdad and Hamadân, the main products were lapis lazuli, horses and camels.

Iran Chamber Society showed how the Silk Road was of special import­ance. The road connected old centres of Persian civilis­at­ion, from Bam in the SE corner via Ishfahan and Teheran, to Tabriz in the NW corner. There were customs offices along Persia's border with other countries, registering all goods imp­ort­ed into, or exported from the country. Thus this nat­ion, located between China and Europe, played a key role in con­nect­ing cultures i.e in the movement of religions, archit­ecture and economies.

After crossing the Pakistani border into southern Persia, the first city was Bam (pop 90,000). Bam occupied a very important commercial place in the region, fam­ed for its textiles and clothes. Bam served as a major car­avanserai on the Silk Route, where trad­ers from China and the East brought exotic merchandise like silk, lacquer-ware, precious stones, ivory and spices. They in turn traded wools, leather, metal ware, perfumes and gold from the West.

Interior view of the Holy Savior/Vank Cathedral, Isfahan

Walk along the 12m high Bam ramparts and 38 towers surrounding the large number of houses and the seat of the governor. At the top of the citadel, there was a watch tower and pavilion that provided panoramic views from this oasis town over the endless de­sert. When the old city fell to Afghan forces in 1719, the economy never fully recovered and was largely abandoned. Later the city benefited from tourism, at least until in 2003 when most of Bam was devastat­ed by an earthquake.

Now Isfahan. Kim Sexton noted that Isfahan, a major city (pop 1.5m) in central Persia, was the splendid capital of the Seljuq and Safavid dynasties. Their legacies est­ab­lished Persia as the cultural heart of the eastern Islamic world in terms of language, art and architecture. World travellers called beautiful Isfahan: “Half the World”.

The Safavids (1501-1722) were the first rulers to lay a foundation for a national identity. They established Shiite Islam as the state religion and strengthened the state economy. Com­merce was so imp­ort­ant to the Safavid polity that its ruler, Shah Abbas I (r1588-1629) focused on the Silk Road in order that his empire would enjoy a trading monop­oly. Tolerant Is­fah­an was attract­ing merchants, miss­ion­aries and merc­en­aries.

Si-o-Seh Pol Bridge and tea rooms, Isfahan

Isfahan was ex­p­eriencing huge growth, including the building of mos­ques and palaces, all built around the centrally located, HUGE Naqsh-e-Jahan/Imam Square. Shah Abbas I built Sheikh Lot­follah Mosque and ded­ic­at­ed it to his father-in-law, a Sheikh. Lotfollah Mosque has no minaret or courtyard, since it was not a place for public wor­ship; it was for a King and his court.

Isfahan’s Bazaar was a long vaulted street, linking the old city with the new. Star-shaped openings allowed shafts of light to brighten the trade below. The bazaar sold carpets, kilims, spices, books, gold and jewellery, printed textiles and an Isfahan spec­ialty, miniat­ure paintings on camel bones. Once durable silk car­pets started being produced in Persia, China lost its monop­oly in Safavid Tabriz and Isfahan.

The central Imam Mosque, a fine building to the south of Imam Square, was completely covered in Isfahan's own pale blue tiles. Built in the reign of Shah Abbas, it had 48 ms high minarets. It was close to the carav­anserai and baths.

There were 100+ caravanserais in the bazaar of Isfahan after the Saf­avid era, so I will recommend two. The Caravanserai of Shah Ab­bas, now called the Abbasi Hot­el, can still be viewed from the court-yard. Guest rooms were or­ig­inally built around the courtyard and the stables were located behind them with their doors in the corners of the yard. The iwan was a rectangular and vaulted hall, décor­ated with calligraphy, glazed tilework and geometric designs. Spacious rooms on the ground floor facilitated the storage and transfer of goods from both East and West.

Isfahan’s Shah Madar Caravanserai was another outstanding Safavid build­ing. This important, royal-ish monument was related to the late mon­archy of Second Shah Abbas. It has since been expensively renovated.

Naqsh-e-Jahan/Imam Square, Isfahan

Chehel Sotun Museum & Palace was a super C17th pavilion and vast garden. The building had a veranda with 18 pillars and a large pool in front of it. Being mirr­ored in the still water of the pool, the pillars created a beautiful view. Safavid Ali Qapu Palace 1597 was used for the reception of the amb­ass­adors and envoys from other nat­ions. This 6-storeyed palace had impressive plaster-work and artwork.

Located in Isfahan’s Armenian quarter, Vank Cathedral 1606-55 was built for Shah Abbas I and the strong Christian community. As shown in the photo Vank had many stunning wall paintings,  gilded carvings and religious tab­l­eaux eg the Last Supper and Christ's Arrest, most of which had been brought by Armenian businessmen from Europe. They built a museum near this church, to hold manuscripts.

Note the 33 arches of the Si-o-Seh Pol Bridge (1599–1602), the most famous example of Safavid bridge design. Beneath used to be a tea house, normally only open for men.

Map of one silk road
from Beijing China in the east to Turkey in the west

Press on map to find Isfahan in Iran