This Occasional Paper is one of two that GCRO has commissioned specifically to deepen our understanding of the past of the GCR. Both focus on aspects of the region’s spatial past, and ought to be read together. This paper by Brian Mubiwa and Harold Annegarn explores the historical spatial evolution of the GCR. It examines key spatial changes that have shaped the region over a century and provides a remarkable picture, based on satellite imagery, of regional spatial growth in the last two decades. The companion paper by Alan Mabin asks the different but related question of how the idea of a city-region found expression in various statutory planning frameworks over the course of the last century, and how embryonic city-region concepts influenced spatial decisions and developments.