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?