In the twelfth century, London became the first city in Britain to be granted a Royal charter, entitling it to have its own mayor and some degree of self-government. An early product of this development was the formulation of byelaws regulating the construction of buildings in the city. Originally these were concerned with matters of safety and fire precautions, but as London grew they came to set standards of good building practice and town planning and to regulate many of the administrative problems of urban settlement.
The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed 80 percent of the city. Immediately afterwards Charles II issued a proclamation that the rebuilding would be in brick or stone and that streets would be wide enough to prevent fire crossing from one side to the other. Sir Christopher Wren amongst others was commissioned to draft regulations that became the London Building Act 1667, to be enforced by the first district surveyors. This extended the scope beyond fire safety to include structural load-bearing walls, foundations, timber in party walls, joist centres, beam bearings, roof coverings and rainwater gutters and down-pipes.
From time to time new requirements were introduced and amendments added to the London Building Act and similar development of local acts grew throughout Britain.
The Public Health Act 1875 was the first major piece of countrywide legislation dealing with many aspects of building.
The first regulations in their modern form were The Building Regulations 1965 and came into operation in February 1966. These regulations were applied generally throughout England and Wales, with the exception of the Inner London Boroughs (the area of the former London County Council) where the London Building Acts continued to prevail. These modern Building Regulations took the place of the building byelaws that had been made by individual local authorities.
Various amendments and revisions to these Building Regulations were issued increasing the scope and areas covered by Building Regulations. This continued until the Building Act 1984 finally consolidated Building Regulations under one piece of legislation. This resulted in the introduction of the Building Regulations 1985 that came into operation in November 1985.
These regulations were a departure from the usual form in that the requirement of the regulations was stated and this was accompanied by a set of supportive approved documents. If the guidance in the relevant approved document is followed, that would be evidence tending to show that you have complied with the Regulations. This is the form of Building Regulations that is used today. The Regulations were finally applied to inner London from July 1987 and this completed the nationwide uniform implementation of the Building Control system.
The present regulations operational throughout England and Wales are The Building Regulations 2010.