In the Lincoln caricature there's a ruined city behind him and the words "Greek fire" written above it. I'm guessing the Brits knew something about those urban fires that we don't.
The foreground one maybe, but the dormer for the one on the right looks a bit small for a person to get out of. I'm assuming that by fire escape you mean egress from the building. I don't see a way down from the window beneath the dormer but that's just me.
The one on the left looks like it's...
I'm not discounting the fire escape theory, but I can't help but notice a similarity with the San Francisco photos of the same time period having ladders everywhere. In that case a lot of them were placed between roofs for some reason.
Found some cool stuff. This one is called "Tragic Poets". Looks like a halo.
They also had a Temple of Isis of all things. The crane symbol is also found in a lot of houses. I thought this was supposed to be an Egyptian goddess.
This Isis "temple" might have been a power station. The...
If they are portals maybe the people who built them and the rest of the nice architecture just used them to bugout. Who knows why or even if they're restricted to travel on this planet only.
A couple of disjointed observations:
1. In picture 22 he put the equivalent of a copyright notice in the drawing.
2. In picture 27 top right corner there's an eagle killing a serpent (2 images mirrored) which is the coat of arms of Mexico of all places. The history behind it is kinda...
In most of these photos the windows look like they were boarded-up. I thought they were just drawn shades but they are the same on the side of the building that isn't in the sunlight.
The pictures give me the vibe of an empty city being gradually taken over by newcomers.
Edit: Found a building...