There are plenty of features that help you to date buildings – the styles, materials and uses as well as the occasional thoughtful inclusion of a date stone. How is the cityscape influenced by the availability of materials and finance, market demand, technological change, fashion, landownership and planning? Why is the cityscape so varied? What do we think of the effect of these different eras of building cheek by jowl?
Once you’ve learned some of the ‘tricks’ of reading places, you can then apply this kind of analysis to any city that you visit. But it always helps to have a knowledgeable guide who has studied urban evolution and is very familiar with the story of a particular city.