#patrick abercrombie

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John Henry Forshaw (1895-1973) and Patrick Abercrombie (1879-1957), Social and Functional Map of London, 1943.

commissioned by London City Council 

[dystopiacflie]

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The County of London Plan from 1943 by (Sir) Patrick Abercrombie.

http://www.mediaarchitecture.at/architekturtheorie/patrick_abercrombie/2011_patrick_abercrombie_links_en.shtml

[bartletthistoryproject]

Courtesy of UCL Records

As George Osborne announces plans for a new Garden City in Ebbsfleet, here's another UCL Records gem from The Garden Cities & Town Planning Association in 1941. 

F.J Osborn was Secretary to the GCTPA, and was an early champion of the New Towns movement. This letter, addressed to Professor Patrick Abercrombie from the Department of Planning at UCL, regards the creation of a school of planning in Welwyn Garden City. 

What could Abercrombie have said about Eric Gill to prompt such vitriol from Osborn? Also interesting to note is the fact that Raymond Unwin is still listed as Vice-President at the top of the page despite having died 6 months earlier. Time to print some new letterheads, perhaps. 

[bartletthistoryproject]

More war-time correspondence

(courtesy of UCL Records)

Here is another interesting war-time artefact. This letter from F.H Carr, an academic at UCL, to E. Tanner, Secretary to UCL makes reference to Sir Patrick Abercrombie, then Head of the Department of Town Planning. 

'Dear Mr. Tanner,

Thank you for your letter dated 31st July which I received yesterday.

I should have very much liked to have accepted the offer of the University College Committee, but unfortunately I am not likely to return from India within the next year.

I do not know whether the College or Sir Patrick Abercrombie could obtain my early release.

If this is not possible, perhaps an opportunity would arise for a similar appointment next year.

Yours very truly,

F. H Carr'

[famousarchitects]

Abercrombie, Sir (Leslie) Patrick (1879-1957). Influential British architect and town-planner. He worked at the University of Liverpool (1907-9) under (Sir) C. H. #Reilly and S. D. #Adshead, edited the Town Planning ReviewI, and produced a series of reports on the growth and condition of several European cities. After Adshead was appointed to the Chair of Town Planning at University College London, Abercrombie became Professor of Civic design Liverpool in 1915, a post he held until 1935, when he succeeded Adshead in London. During those twenty years Abercrombie produced a multitude of studies and reports on many areas in England and Wales, and , druing his Presidency of the twon Planning Instititute, published The Preservation of Rural England (1926) which led to the formation of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE). He championed the idea of a Green Belt around London, and contributed to the Royal Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population, the report of which (Barlow Report) appeared in 1940. Abercrombie, in association with John Henry Forshaw (1895-1973), was appointed to prepare a plan for post-war rebuilding in the Country of London, and was given the task of planning the whole area around the Country. The results were the Country of London Plan (1943) and the Greater London Plan (1944) which provided the basic skeleton of post-war development policies, including the #New Towns programme, from 1946. Abercrombie became an internationally acclaimed figure in town and regional planning: many of his former students rose to positions of authority.