1946-09-16 — Page 2

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TRIESTE

A scheme which may lead to social reorganisation and improved

living standards

THE COUNTY OF LONDON PLAN

By PROFESSOR W. G. 'HOLFORD

OF LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY

for Greater London which was published at the end of 1944. The two Plana hang together, their standarda being similar and complementary. Moreover

In

ty Plan for moderate or "assisted" decentralization from the crowded inner areas, ส carried a stage further in the Plan for Greater London. commenting on the proposals in the first Plan, one cannot fail to be conscious of their appli- cation to the second Plan

period would be no more than # continuation of pro-war trends, and would of course be for smaller in scale than the evacuations caused by the war the visible symptoms of Lon- and the bombing. Nevertheless don's disabilities. Behind them some figure had to be arrived all lay the disease itself, the nt, if only to indicate in general uncontrolled growth of the torms whether or not saturation metropolis, a kind of elephan-point had been reached and the

life of the whole country. tornative but to adopt a stan- If London were allowed to dard of density appropriate to grow further, it would weakon the different parts of the Coun- the economic and social struc- ty, calculate the likely surplus ture of the United Kingdom; if or deficiency and express the its population were to be main-result in terms of what is now tained, thoro would ha ittle known as overapiir hope of improving the living conditions of its inhabitants, since piecemeal reconstruction of small sections at a time would produce no better results than it had deno between the

The plan for the great built- up area of London-known au the county of London—was called for by Lord Relth in April 1941, at a time when people in Britain were looking for into the future. They were taking this long view because the outlook was bleak and un- certalu, the whole nation was still preparing itself for an Mr. and Mrs. Edward Whit- enormous effort of defence and the polley outlined in the Coun- tiasis which threatened the authors of the Plan had no al-

then offence, and there was no time for red tape. In a more literal sense eyes were search ing the night sky and the far horizon for signs of German planes. In this atmosphere,

for and particularly those whose work still lay in the great congested urban mass of London, it was not difficult to marized, under

These proposis may be sum

the following find a response to the desire to

hends: The approach to the plan ahead for the then still problem has been all along "to huzy period of reconstruction endeavour to retain the old

What was remarkable-now

structure, where discernible, one looks back on it was the and make it workable under fact that the London County modern conditions". The main Council called in one architect, defects, which the Plan

with another, out to remedy are partnered him their own, gave them such a traffic congestion: depressed or sistance as was possible in daya blighted housing; inadequate

of restricted manpower, and

and badly distributed after two years boldly publish spaces; and an inefficient and ed to the world the results of squalid mixture of houses, fac- that collaboration. It is true

tories and failroads over cer that the first architect wastain large tracts of land; all Patrick Abercrombie, professor these contributing to bad con- of Town Planning

ditions of living and working at the centre and a consequent continuous sprawl of buiding acrosa the along the roads, and into the surrounding coun- tryside.

in

London,

in

the

And

surveys"

деся listed as:

open

There are three good reasons why it is very much to be hoped that the compromise pro posal by France for internationali- sation of Trieste will finally be confirmed, rather than acceptaner of the Soviet draft for the statute of the proposed free territory. Firstly, it is the fairest solution for Trieste's inhabitants and for the large population Central Europe who have need of this port. Secondly, it is the only sola tion that can save the peace, it least to some extent, of all the in- terested parties, including the great powers. Thirdly, it presents the United Nations with a splen- University of did opportunity

what father of "regional to show they can do and, if they do it well, throughout England and Wales. to illustrate in miniature the ad. It is also true that in J. H. Forshaw, the Council's archi- vantages of a world system of tect, he found a sympathetic

The remedies suggested are: partner and a man who know the creation or preservation of how to organise the resources

local communities within the of one of the largest architec urban mass; the improvement tural and housing offices in the of traffic circulation by creating country. Nevertheless it show a new system of ring and radial ed not only wisdom but courage rands, dividing rather on the part of the Council, that passing through they should commission, not munities, and so designed and econdlats, nor classified that cach road comes lawyers, nor even surveyors, but two mea as near as possible to being a accustomed to design in three dimensions; and that they should have given them their confidence during the prepara- tion of the Plan and honoured

recommendations its

after

government.

thesu

than com-

Those who, for interested mo- tives, want to sabotage this ex- cellent French proposal have been Tel, Nom, raising the familiar but unin- 20278, 27811 structed cry "A second Danzig,"

and at Paris

on Saturday the Polish delegate declared "Let us not repeat. the faults of Danzig." None knows yet exactly what for

single and not a multi-purpose the proposed international zone at

mechanium; the limitation of Trieste would take, but whatever

residential population per acre the form may be, there are two

in three density zones, which clear and significant differences

allow high figures for flats in between the French proposal for

small patches but keep the over- Trieste and the government of wards.

all average for the neighbour The sequence of events was hood fairly low; the establish- Danzig as an international part. First of all. Danzig was part of an follows.

Abor- ment of a standard of open

of per thousand the Polish Corridor, which divid-crombie and Mr. Forshaw pre-apace

the All ed two parts of Germany and, Bented their Plan to the Lon- population, applicable to

don County Council, who, al areas, (proposed in the Plan indeed, two parts of Prussia. The though they had commissioned as 4 acres per 1,000 as a mini- proposed international zone at

it and, In fact, published P.

num, and now adopted by the did not officially adopt it. They 1.C.C. as an aim, towards which asked first of all for comments the first step is to be the raia- on it, from Government departing of the most deficient dis ments, from the public, and in tricts to 2 acres per 1,000); particular from their constitu- the defining

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Professor

It is important to recognise that the County of London Plan was the first widely publicised statement of the latention of a great metropolitan authority, deliberately to decentralize a two ware.

fraction But if the popula- considerable

of its tion were to be substantially population. reduced, how would this work

The Biological Aspect out in practice in a free coun-

Many thinking people try, where would families ba

Britain were extremely disap- ro-settled, and who would com- pensate the L.C.C. for the un- pointed that this proportion was remunerative expenditure need- ed to turn building land into for the open space, and increase social provision all round benefit of fewer people?

This underlying political de cision could be approached by the plannera in several ways. They could stick literally to their clients' instructions and prepare an improvement Plan, disregarding the square mile of

not greater. The chief criticisms were that the standards wore not high enough-particularly open space the density and standards, and that the fan- damental biological problem had been altogether ignored,

These criticismas are really one and the same they repre- sent the physical and biological aspects of the same social iden. It is the idea which stimulated

the City of London on the one Ebeneza Howard, and which is hand, and the six hundred square miles of Greater London on the other. They could make the same kind of proposals, but point out their effects on related

held by those who built the Garden Citles of Welwyn and Letchworth. It permeates the policy of regionalism and of the balanced distribution of indus-

try. It is part of the Barlow and the Scott Reports, those

two documents on the planning of industry and of the country- side which preceded the County of London Plan. Most signi- ficant of all, it is implicit in the promise which the. present Government has made, to in- troduce legislation on compen-

areas and on the remainder of could at- the country. They tempt a scheme of transference to new or existing towns out side London; or they could go to the other extreme and make provision for an augmented population almost entirely ac

in high-density commodated apartments in the central areas. They could regard their task satton and betterment for the as primarily a quantitative re-improved use of land through- housing estimate; or they could out the country. For this will make

in it an essay

social eventually enable the pattern of science and political economy, development to be settled pri pointing out that the days f mucily on the basis of national the great city were numbered requirement and the public and that ways must be found interest, and only to a lesser of dispersing at least half of extent on the strongly con- its pre-war population. Which tralizing effect of urban land ever course were adopted there values. was bound to be subsequent criticism of the difference be tween theory and practice.

of central pre-actual terms the Country

In

of

Towards The Good Life

де

tractions, would separate not members of the same race' and na- tion but inutually antipathetic Italians and Jugoslavs. On this ground alone, the proposal might well justify itself. The second great difference is that, whereas Danzig was administered by commissioner appointed by the League of Nations, which had no power to enforce its authority, the international Zone at Trieste would be administered by the United Nations, an integral part of whose organization is a Security Council which, it is hoped, will eventually have the force at its disposal to impose its decisions.cial assistance would be needed architectural control in an at- the number already removed improved. Mumford maintains

ent authorities, the 27 Metro-cincts, for government in West London Flan proposed a reduc- politan Boroughs and the City minster and for the University tion (over the 50 or 60 years

to which of Westminster within their and other cultural institutions

it rofcrs) of the boundaries. These comments, in Bloomsbury; the rationalisa-' took some time to arrive and tion

of the riverfronts in population actually. Hving in

the County before the war: more still to consider; so that particular the South Bank of "The number we estimate it it was not until the summer of the Thames; the congregation would be necessary to remove 1945 that the Town Planning of industry into a large num- from the congested parts of Committee and the Finnner ber of defined industrial areas; London to secure the conditions Committee of the L.C.C. made railway improvements, includ-postulated in our Plan is be their report to the Council. In ing Increased electrification,

tween five and aix hundred effect they endorsed the prin- linking of torminals and sink thousand people." ciples of the Plan with minor ing of certain treks under-

But this estimate depends modifications, and said that ground; and lastly the imposi- considerably pa greater powers and more finan- tion

other factors of varying grades of such as the rate of movement, These two differences alone in from the Government before tempt to secure moro orderly and likely to remain out of validate the attempts to make a these principles could be put in and more pleasant surround-Lendon, and the slowing down comparison in this matter. It is, to practice. It happened that inga.

or acceleration of the pre-war therefore, very much to be hoped

fight to the suburbs. In fact that all men and governments who

the loss of half a million people sincerely desire a just and lasting

from the County over a long peace will approach the con- sideration of this problem with open minds. It is absurd to he de pressed by the obvious difficulties.or of Town and Country Plan- If the United Nations cannot pro vide an organization capable of governing Trieste, what hope is there that they will ever succeed in the far larger tasks which are so confidently being laid on their immature shoulders?

soon after these events had The Underlying Problem taken place there was a change These proposals were the im- of Government, and the Chair-mediate remedies suggested by man of the Town Planning Committee of the L.C.C. Mr. Lewis Silkin, became the Minis

ning..

Policy Carried a

Stage Further crombie had moved on to the

Meanwhile, Professor Aber. | consideration of the outer areas of London, the Green Belt, and the outlying country almost as Critics of the French plan have far as the south coast; and at another argument which deserves the invitation of the roore serious attention. They argue Minister of Town and Country that the proposed, zone is so small] Planning he prepared a plan as to be economically unworkable and strategically indefensible. It is

first

suggested that either Italy or doubt, a small international police | Yugoslavia,, through whose ter force would be needed to main-| ritories pass the lines of communi-tain local order. But the safety at cation which connect Trieste with the zone would not depend on Central Europe, would be able by forces stationed in the zone. It tariffs and perial freight charges would depend on the authority to paralyze the economic and com-and prestige of the United Na- mercial life of Trieste. There is]tions.". An' - act of aggremion no real substance in this argument, against the zone would be an act The charter to establish an inter of aggression against all the Unit, national zone at Trieste must be ed Nations and would be dealt ratified by all the neighbouring with accordingly. Far from being powen and should include clauses a half-hearted comprómbe agreed guaranteeing the free movement upon in order to produce accord of trade between Trieste and the betweets the's great power," the countries of Central--Europe. If French proposal in an ideal solu- either Italy or Yugoslavix were to tion of this vexatious problem. If violate such agreements, they must be admitted,, hawayar that would be hautomoned - before she | Its success dependa, zan du being Security | Council and "compelled handled (with) Couri

доро to explain their Good

Intern

CARNIVAL

SOUTH AMERICA

[MONT

By Dick. Turner

JEVA

There is no doubt about it this idea is growing and bas already taken shape. So soon there is leisure to think beyond the mere preservation of life, to the creation of the good life in other words to bring the long point of view down to the terms of an actual programme-thero will bo a move towards the ravaluation of all the standards set up, by this County of London Pinu. People will ask whether they could not be realised more quick- ly whether they could not be extended more widely, and even

that the conditions for Lon- don's survival do not lo pri

of the marily in the hands

London County Council but it may very well be that when, as is expected, national planning polley in Britain becomes more definite and more closely in- tegrated with the general machinery of government, the L.C.C. will become the largest local agency for the execution of this central policy.

It is therefore of some in- terest, to Inquire a little fur- ther into the proposals of tho Plan, and to determine how far its standards would be applic able in the event of a really significant reversal of the pro- sent trend of urbanization.

The outline road proposals, or something very like them. would, almost certainly be re- quired for the cffective distri bution of traffic to the City and to the industrial arcas, and for the by-passing of central areas on the national routes of which London, is so often the Junction. A loosening of the. texture would help enormously to give space for the proper detailing of both the "A" and "B" ring roads and of the main radials.

The open space proposals of 4. acres per thousand. 'of the population in the County itself with an additional three nerea on the outskirts could, with lower overall densities; - be realised entire, without, the necessity for schools and athle- the clubs to travel ton milas or more to find theire payin field52 The Plak, recordlam temporary nätsaro promise it sugrošla, and