Deep Mapping Urban Memory: A Methodological Contribution to the Study of Demolished Heritage in Yoruba Cities

Demolished architectural heritage presents a fundamental methodological challenge to urban heritage scholarship, as the primary evidence of physical fabric has been erased, leaving traces accessible only through the combination of archival, oral historical, sensory, and spatial methods that no existing single methodology fully integrates. This dissertation develops an original deep mapping methodology for the study of demolished architectural heritage in Yoruba cities, making both methodological and substantive contributions to urban heritage scholarship. The methodological contribution constructs deep mapping as a multi-source, multi-temporal spatial biography method that integrates historical cartography, sequential aerial photography, colonial administration architectural records, oral memory interviews, architectural fragment analysis, and contemporary spatial practice ethnography into a coherent analytical framework for recovering the social significance of demolished urban fabric. The methodology is developed and demonstrated through its application to three major cases of heritage demolition in Yoruba cities: the colonial clearance of central Ibadan's pre-colonial compound quarters during the 1950s slum clearance programme, the 1980s demolition of significant colonial commercial buildings in Lagos Island during highway construction, and the ongoing clearance of traditional compound settlements in Ile-Ife's heritage core for hotel development. Each case generates an original urban biography that recovers demolished spatial forms, the social practices they sustained, and the consequences of their erasure for urban identity. The dissertation contributes the deep mapping methodology as a replicable framework for demolished heritage scholarship and three substantive urban historical analyses. Keywords: deep mapping, demolished heritage, Yoruba cities, urban memory, architectural history.