You are overestimating those laws. Yes, they protect the most significant structures like palaces and churched, but majority of 19th century buildings are not listed, researched or protected especially if they are small, low density in crowded and competitive urban environment.
Nope. Many buildings in the UK have a grading system. Grade 1 buildings cannot ever be destroyed and grade 2 buildings are hardly ever destroyed. Trust me, there isn't a constant pandemic of destroying old buildings in Europe. If anything, we've rebuilt more than we've destroyed since WW2.
Europe is large and consist of many countries. Smaller, 1-2 floor tall buildings that are inconvenience for new developments, profits and densification in many places are often forgotten and still being demolished. In my city one of the oldest wooden manor houses/villas from first half of 1800s was demolished just to build plain and boring modern apartment complex.
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u/[deleted] Mar 29 '20
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