"[1] The Act was passed in February 1667 in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London and drawn up by Sir Matthew Hale.

[3][4] Within a few days of the fire, several proposals for restructuring the city had been put forward by various leading citizens, including Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, and John Evelyn.

[5] Most of the suggested plans involved restructuring the medieval city's roads into a grid pattern, and were rejected on the grounds that re-parceling all the land would have been too difficult, time-intensive, and costly.

[5] Keeping Londoners in the city and salvaging its economy were top priorities, and thus the act focused on putting straightforward, common-sense building regulations into place as soon as possible.

[1] Among other things, the act added or modified regulations to:[1] The overall effect was meant to be “harmonious and orderly, [but] without excessive standardization.”[6] Between 1667 and 1670, the coal tax only raised £23,000 of the expected £100,000; the duty was later increased to 3 shillings in the Rebuilding of London Act 1670 in order to raise enough money to fund the rebuilding the city's churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral.