What does "historical fabric" mean?

Question

eg: historical fabric of a city?

Answer 1

While the word 'fabric' can indeed refer to a woven material (such as cloth), it also has two other meanings: 1. the structure or framework of a building and 2. the essential structure of something abstract (such as a society).

Therefore, the "historical fabric of a city" is an almost poetic way of describing the historical make-up of a city. If you think of fabric in its literal sense, many fibres make up each thread, and many threads make up each stitch, and many stitches make up the whole sheet of cloth.

We can liken this to the historical background and the historical framework of a city: many individual elements were all 'woven' together, (just as cloth is woven together), to form a rich history. Cloth is a great big interwoven network of many tiny threads, that are all bound together to form the entire, unified sheet. A city's history is similarly a great big interwoven network of many tiny stories, that are all bound together to form the entire, unified "historical fabric" of the city.

The word 'fabric' originates from the Latin word 'fabrica', meaning something skilfully produced. This also helps us understand the meaning of "historical fabric of a city" - as it takes time and skill to build a city's rich history.

So, to ultimately answer your question as simply as possible, it just means a city's history! (But with the added connotations of richness and depth).

Hope this helps!

P.S. When I say 'richness', I don't mean wealth, I mean it in this sense: "full of interesting diversity or complexity".