Across its history, London was built up and governed as numerous separate parts, frequently of great architectural beauty and cohesion unto themselves. This was especially true of the Great Estates, speculative housing tracts with common focal gardens which were models of urban civility and designed with aesthetic excellence by entitled Great Landlords. Although the organization of its street plan was somewhat chaotic, the city was an extended lovely maze distinctly recognizable in its spirit of place and architectural culture. Damage from WWII generally occurred beyond the lovely parts of the historic center. But post-war development sometimes fractured the beautiful milieu with large modern towers intruding upon verdant squares, crescents, squares, and circles.