In the name of progress, London, Paris and Venice were proposing such radical changes that visitors might have a hard time recognizing the old places:
London. To make way for a new road junction, London's urban planners recently decreed the destruction of The Elephant and Castle, a fabled 200-year-old pub, which lent something of the raffish, robust flavor of 18th century England to the whole London district of Southwark.
Last week the London County Council approved a radical plan for the reconstruction of Piccadilly Circus, the proud "hub of the universe." The hub...