Post on 27-Jul-2020
The Abercrombie Plan on its 70th Birthday
Professor Sir Peter Hall RTPI London Centenary Workshop Abercrombie + 70: Revisiting the 1944 Greater London Plan NLA, The Building Centre, London 5th February 2014
Abercrombie’s Career • Born: 1879 • Apprenticed Architect • University of
Liverpool: 1910-1935 • University College
London: 1935-1946 • Consultancy: 1914-
1957 • County of London
Plan: 1943 • Greater London Plan:
1944-45
1930s: The Challenge of Sprawl • 1919-1939: London:
pop x 1.3, area x 3 • Semi-detached London:
the role of the tube • “Chattering classes”
condemned it • Abercrombie the
iconoclast? • “…will many of what
you rightly call Blasphemous Bungalows, blaspheme for long? And is not much of England virgin country, intacta?”
The Plans
• Abercrombie: an architect-planner
• One-shot solutions • Cartoon-like clarity • Survey before Plan: • The Housing Capacity
Survey • The Urban Structure Survey • Brilliantly brought together
The Challenge of Blitz and Blight
• Slum ring: east, south of centre (East End/ South East London)
• Family homes: high density
• Some subdivided • Worst war damage
here (docks, railways) • So: justified large-
scale rebuild
Housing Capacity • Density studies:
actual East End neighbourhood
• All involved overspill • Chose 136/acre
(336/ha.) • “Least bad” – large,
medium families in houses
• Meant 618,000 overspill (+415,000 in Outer London): total, 1,033,000
An Organic Urban Structure • The “Basket of Eggs” • (Wesley Dougill?) • Recognised village
structure • Identified “bounding
spaces” – especially park strips
• Aim: to strengthen the organic structure
County of London Plan 1943: The Precinctual Principle
• Alker Tripp: Town Planning and Road Traffic (1942)
• East End example • Wrong: mixture of traffic,
pedestrians • Right: segregate types of
traffic, traffic/pedestrians • Pro-motorway: Non-PC
today!
Highways: Community Boundaries • Highways as parkways
(Barry Parker’s principle) • Separate, identify, and
strengthen communities • Through traffic taken out of
neighbourhoods • Only local traffic allowed to
penetrate • Rediscovered by Colin
Buchanan (1963)
Greater London Plan 1944/5 • Green Belt: Limit
London’s Growth • Orbital motorway: at
London’s periphery • 1 million overspill: from
blighted, blitzed areas in “Inner Ring”
• To: 8 new towns, plus “Expanded Towns”
• “Towns against a background of open country” (Unwin)
Greater London Plan: Highways as Structure • 5 Ringways:
• “A”: edge of Central Area – completed
• “B”: “Motorway Box” – abandoned
• “C”: North and South Circular – partly completed in north
• “D”: London Orbital: completed (displaced!)
• “E”: Green Belt Parkway: abandoned
The Eight New Towns • “Towns against a
background of open country” (Raymond Unwin)
• Neighbourhood unit principle – here as in London
• Radburn layouts – traffic segregated
• Uncompromisingly new – but blend in old
Ongar air view
1945-2014: A Different World
• Plans constrained by wartime background: “command economy”
• Rationing, central control • Now: 4x as rich • Growth of owner-occupiership • Growth of mass car ownership • A mass consumption, market-led
world • Rise of NIMBYism
1945-2014: A Different London? • People, jobs moved
out – a success? • But: mainly
spontaneous, market-led
• And: “went too far” – but did it?
• A continuously-growing Mega-City Region
1945-2014: From London Region to SE Mega-City Region
• Progressive decentralisation
• Jobs as well as people • Separate towns and
cities – a polycentric Mega-City-Region
• Highly self-contained • But highly networked • Thus, functionally
polycentric
1998: “Sociable Cities”
• At edge of Greater South East
• 50-80 miles (80-130 km.) from London
• On high-speed rail lines – fast travel to London for those who needed
• Clusters of Garden Cities – Howard’s Social City
2003 Sustainable Communities: A Worthy Successor?
• Bold Strategic Vision • Shift Growth N and E • Along strong transport
corridors • Especially: Thames
Gateway • MKSM: sub-region • But: realistic? • And: infrastructure? • And – abandoned?
London: 1.5 million more people
What would Abercrombie say? • Cost: he wouldn’t
have cared! • London: wouldn’t
have understood! • Why reverse good
principles? • Highways? Precincts?
Neighbourhoods? Densities?
• Rethinking the new towns?