Urban elites sought places designed for mutual visual display.

Evidence

In the 1600s, London’s Hyde Park, for example, became the setting for aristocratic get-togethers. In an area known as the Ring-a dusty circle of land in the middle of the park-the assembled “beautiful people” took rides in their coaches, some of the coaches going in one direction, some in the other, so that all had the opportunity to see and be seen (Larwood, 1881:47-48). — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 271

Categorization

• XREF: The engineered two-way coach circuit of the Ring is a physical infrastructure built purely for the mutual-visibility economy Simmel and Lofland analyze — a precursor to the flâneur’s urban observation.