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TOWN PLANNING
THE UNIVERSAL ART SERIES
Edited by FREDERICK MARRIOTT
HON. A.C.C.A. (LON.) R.B.C., A.R.E.
MODERN MOVEMENTS IN PAINTING
BY CHARLES MARRIOTT
DESIGN AND TRADITION sy amor FENN
SCULPTURE OF ‘TO-DAY sy XINETON
PARKES
Vol. I. Great Britain, America and Japan
Vol. II. The Continent of Europe
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION) (ey se,
SULLIVAN
MODERN ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE
BY CHARLES MARRIOTT
LANDSCAPE PAINTING. sy c. Lewis HIND
Vol. I. From Giotto to Turner
Vol. II. From Turner to the Present Day
THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF OIL
PAINTING By HAROLD SPEED
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Ancient Rome as in the Sixteenth Century
Frontispiece
THE ART OF
TOWN PLANNING
BY
HENRY VAUGHAN
LANCHESTER
AB eho eet Se a a
LONDON
CHAPMAN AND HALL LTD.
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Printed /in (Great Brieint bem
The Whitefriars Press, Ltd.,
“London and Tonbridge
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
HE author desires to express his indebtedness
to those from whom he has taken the liberty of
making quotations in the course of this book,
and also to the following for providing the prints and
photographs from which the illustrations are taken : ©
The Town Planning Institute, for the loan of
prints from their collection.
Aerofilms, Ltd., for aeroplane photographs of
English towns.
Hamilton Maxwell, for aeroplane photographs
of American towns.
Compagnie Aérienne Frangaise, for aeroplane
photographs of Versailles and Carcassonne.
The Editors of the Town Planning Review, for
blocks originally employed in that publication.
The Birmingham Corporation, for Illustrations
39 and 4o.
The Birmingham Civic Society, for the plan of
Northfield.
The arrangement of the illustrations follows as far as
practicable the treatment of the subjects to which they
refer in the letterpress.
CONTENTS
Part I: History
CHAPTER
I.
Eis
The Ancient Civilisations
Grzeco-Roman ‘Town Planning
. Medizeval Cities
. Developments in Britain
. The Renaissance
. Aristocratic Planning
. The Industrial Age and After
Romanticism
Part II: THE PRESENT Day
IX.
Civic Hygiene
. Preliminary Studies
. Communications
. Allocation of Areas
. Planning for Commerce and Industry
. Housing
. Education and Recreation
. Civic and Social Centres
Vil
PAGE
105
126
144
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX.
Parks and Open Spaces
The Furnishing of the City
Scale and Proportion
. Tradition
. Town Planning in the Dominions
. Modern Practice |
. Social Demands
. Technical Methods
. The Esthetic Outlook
Vill
PAGE
158
170
178
185
196
206
216
223
231
237
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NO.
ore iyiirtel ON
12.
b,
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ANCIENT ROME AS IN THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY Frontispiece
. PLAN OF KaHUN, AN EGYPTIAN 'TOWN FOR
WORKERS
. THE ROMAN Harspour, OsTIA. FROM A
SIXTEENTH CENTURY PRINT
. PROFESSOR G. MARCELLIANI’S MODEL OF
THE CAPITOL AND FORUM AT ROME
. Rome. From aA NINETEENTH CENTURY
DRAWING
. FLORENCE. MEDIZVAL AND LATER EXTEN-
SIONS AROUND THE ROMAN CITY
TURIN. '[HE ROMAN PLAN EXTENDED UP TO
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY FORTIFI-
CATIONS
CARCASSONNE. A MEDIZEVAL WALLED CITY
WURZBURG IN THE MIDDLE AGES
. THE CASTLE AND ‘TOWN OF DUDLEY _
. A MEDIAEVAL MARKET PLAcE. NUREMBERG
. DUREN, NEAR COLOGNE. FROM A PRINT
BY HOLLAR
RAVENSBURG, A ‘TOWN EXTENDED DURING
THE MIDDLE AGES ON RECTANGULAR
LINES
PaDUA. SHOWING THE ORIGINAL AND
ENLARGED CITY
X1
FACING
PAGE
12
13
16
17 |
20
21
26
27
30
31
34
ap
40
NO.
I4.
Ts:
16.
17.
18.
IQ.
20.
26.
yk
28.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MILAN. SHOWING SUCCESSIVE ENLARGE-
MENTS OF CITY
SALISBURY. RECTILINEAR PLANNING IN THE
MIDDLE AGES
OXFORD EARLY IN THE #£NINETEENTH
CENTURY
IDEAL CiTy PLAN BY PERRET DE CHAMBERY
THE LAY-OUT OF A FRENCH PARK WHICH
INFLUENCED C1ITY PLANNING
VERSAILLES. CHARACTERISTIC FRENCH RE-
NAISSANCE PLAN
THE CaPITOL, WASHINGTON. 'THE CENTRAL
AVENUE STILL OBSTRUCTED
PLAN OF WASHINGTON, AS IMPROVED
. THE IMPROVEMENT SCHEME FOR WASHING-
TON. FROM A MODEL
. KARLSRUHE
. MANNHEIM, AS PLANNED AND FORTIFIED
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
. SiR CHRISTOPHER WREN’S PLAN FOR RE-
BUILDING LONDON
BATH AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINE-
TEENTH CENTURY
BATH. (GEOMETRICAL PLANNING FOR BUILD-
INGS APPROPRIATE TO THIS ‘T'YPE
CHELTENHAM. (GEOMETRICAL PLANNING
LACKING ITS PROPER EMPHASIS OWING
TO DETACHED CHARACTER OF BUILDINGS
Xi
FACING
PAGE
AI
46
47
50
51
54
55
58
59
62
63
64
65
66
67
NO.
29.
30.
rine
9a
33-
34.
35.
36.
37:
38.
39.
40.
AI.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
EDINBURGH, SHOWING THE New ‘Town,
1766-1830
Ad
THe ‘* ARISTOCRATIC’’ PERIOD IN NEW-
CASTLE-ON-~ ['YNE
*‘ UTILITARIAN ”? DEVELOPMENT, BELFAST
** UTILITARIAN ”? DEVELOPMENT, PRESTON
RIGIDLY MECHANICAL PLANNING, MIDDLES-
BROUGH
SouTH LONDON
BORDEAUX. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PLAN-
NING WITH SUBSEQUENT COMMERCIAL
ACCRETIONS
A GEORGIAN CRESCENT, HASTINGS
ELY. CATHEDRAL ENCIRCLED BY THE TOWN
ST. Mary REDCLIFFE, BRISTOL
BrIsTOL Roap, BIRMINGHAM
BIRMINGHAM. COLEBANK Roap.
THE INDUSTRIAL QUARTER OF READING
SOUTHAMPTON. AN AEROPLANE Map
Lucknow. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
LIVERPOOL. A COMMERCIAL CENTRE TAKING
THE PLACE OF AN OBSOLETE DOCK
City oF Dustin. New Town PLAN BY
ABERCROMBIE, KELLY AND KELLY
Tue L.C.C. EsTaTE AT BECONTREE. MODERN
HousING
Xili
FACING
PAGE
70
71
74
75
78
79
84
85
Q2
93
104
105
118
11g
128
129
134
135
NO.
47:
48.
49.
50.
st
52.
53:
54.
55:
56.
57:
ca:
59.
60.
61.
62.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
OxFORD. BUILDINGS DOMINATING THE PLAN
AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WELL STUDIED
CAMBRIDGE COLLEGES
SouTH KENSINGTON. SHOWING AXIAL
PLANNING, BUT FAILURE IN REGARD TO
VISTAS
WatTER EFFECT. ‘THE EXHIBITION AT SAN
FRANCISCO, IQI5
A HemicycLe. ‘THE EXHIBITION AT SAN
FRANCISCO, IQI5
Water EFFECT. ‘THE EXHIBITION AT SAN
FRANCISCO, IQI5
WESTMINSTER. AN OLD CENTRE LARGELY
RE-MODELLED
CARDIFF CIVIC CENTRE, WITH CITY HALL,
Law Courts, Musrtum, UNIVERSITY
AND OTHER PUBLIC BUILDINGS
VIENNA. BEFORE THE REMOVAL OF THE
FORTIFICATIONS
VIENNA. ‘THE RINGSTRASSE LAID OUT ON THE
SITE OF THE INNER FORTIFICATIONS
LEAMINGTON, WITH ITS RIVER PARKWAY
THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL, WASHINGTON
PARKS AND PARKWAY SYSTEM, BosTOoNn, U.S.A.
FORMAL ENTRANCE TO A PARK
FROM THE EXHIBITION AT SAN FRANCISCO,
Igt5
172
AMIENS. ‘TRANSITION FROM THE MEDIZEVAL |
TO THE RENAISSANCE
X1V
173
“I
ms
77:
ahee
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
. NORTHFIELD, NEAR BIRMINGHAM. PRESERV-
ING THE AMENITY OF THE OLD VILLAGE
. Moscow. RADIAL AND RING ROADS WELL
DEFINED
. ABINGDON. A TYPICAL COUNTRY TOWN
HANOVER. A ‘T'ypicAL MEDIZEVAL STREET
. [THE ACCEPTED PLAN FOR CANBERRA, THE
CAPITAL OF FEDERATED AUSTRALIA
. SCHEME FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE
CENTRAL AREA, Mapras ‘TOWN
. PLAN OF THE NEW DELHI
THE Fort AT DELHI
INDIAN PLAN FOR A CITY, WITH ‘Two MaINn
‘TEMPLES AND 'T'ANKS
. BATAVIA, AS PLANNED BY THE DUTCH
. A TEMPLE AND TANK, CHIDAMBARAM, SOUTH
INDIA
. A Mosque AND TANK, ‘TIRUVANAMALAI,
SouTH INDIA
. RECONSTRUCTION OF TOKYO
. AROUND CENTRAL PARK, NEW YorkK. DE-
VELOPMENT WITHOUT REGULATION
SKYSCRAPERS AND BRIDGES, NEw YORK
THE SHELTON HOTEL, NEw YorK
XV
INTRODUCTION
HE claim has been made that town planning is
simply one aspect of the art of architecture, but,
though these arts have much in common, the
cognate relationship between architecture and sculpture
does not preclude us from attempting to draw a line of
demarcation between them, and such a line can also be
drawn between architecture and town planning. With
the tendency towards a more extended technique that
we find in all the arts, it has become desirable to sub-
divide them as much as possible in order to do justice
to the characteristics of every branch.
The claim of architecture as the dominant art in
town planning can hardly be resisted, being, as it is,
based on the axiom that the design of buildings in
relation to each other is just as much an architectural
question as the treatment of the buildings themselves,
but, apart from this, there are other considerations that
enter into the town planner’s programme, not hitherto
regarded as within the architect’s province, such as
horticulture and arboriculture, and the still more
important one of achieving a harmonious relationship
between nature and the works of man. Then again, to
turn to the practical and economic side, many problems
arise for solution on the ground of fitness that cannot
be regarded as architectural in character.
But, it may be argued, this does not establish the
claim of town planning to a place among the arts, as it
may still be considered under the heads of the separate
ones which it employs. The logic of this contention
need not be discussed, there being many other com-
XVII b
INTRODUCTION
posite arts, such as drama and the opera, which it has
always been customary to review in their integrity, and
thus no apology is needed for the inclusion of town
planning in this category.
Did the matter end here nothing more would need
to be said, but we have still to deal with the “ prac-
tical? man who will affirm that what we are pleased to
term an art is really no more than the convenient
arrangement of site and buildings to meet the demands
of the time, and that though we may embellish this or
that feature the basic principles are purely economic
and hygienic. Such a position, though often taken up,
perhaps from a spirit of reaction against the affectations
and casual fashions that pass themselves off as artistic
developments, would, if pushed to its logical conclu-
sion, involve the affirmation that art of all kinds is a
fiction. If art has a part in anything, it has one in
everything, and while the tendency of the age has been
to exclude it from many of its legitimate fields, it is still
possible to uphold its position in a case where both
tradition and custom recognise its influence.
It is curious to notice the tendency at the present
time to regard the arts, not as embracing an attitude
towards life, but as only to be taken note of at recognised
times and seasons, if at all. We fill our house with
interesting pictures, or our garden with carefully
selected flowers, or maybe go, with mind attuned to
appreciation and criticism, to pageant or play, but
meanwhile pay no attention to the aspect of our streets
and buildings, which demand our notice with greater
urgency in that they are not there to be accepted or
refused, but are an essential influence, for good or bad,
XViil
INTRODUCTION
on our every-day life. Until we realise that art is not a
thing to be taken in specified doses at specified times
the ideal of the city as a thing of beauty in all its aspects
will receive but scant recognition.
The first part of this book deals at some length with
the history of the growth of towns, and the validity of
this form of approach to the subject may be called in
question. From those who have not felt an interest in
this aspect for its own sake, a demand may come for a
justification of what, perhaps, will appear to them a
disproportionate expansion in this respect. It might
be urged that as our concern is with our city in the
present, why then should we travel back through the
ages and discuss the efforts of those whose ideas and
practice were utterly different from our own? Now,
apart from the fact that there are similarities as well as
differences, a general retrospective view is the very best
basis from which to secure an insight into the problems
of our own day. As with all arts, we must obtain some
impression of technique, and this impression is most
easily acquired historically. Thus only can we see how
the conditions of life influence man and his work, and
how he, in turn, modified these conditions.
Moreover, apart from being the best, this is also the
most interesting and dramatic approach. The imagina-
tive effort in reconstructing and repeopling the past
well repays the effort it demands, and gives a power of
visualisation which is of inestimable value ; nay, indeed,
is indispensable to those who would make a mental
picture of the future. It is the past, in relation to the
present, that helps us with a clue as to how the present
may develop in time to come.
X1X
INTRODUCTION
As will be obvious, it is impossible within the limits
of this book to give more than a slight sketch of civic
activities and the material forms they took. All that
can be offered is a mere outline, which the reader must
fill in with life and colour according to his interpreta-
tion of history and all that it means politically, socially,
architecturally, and sartorially. It is not enough to
reinstate the ruined and fragmentary buildings. ‘The
demand is for a mental reconstruction of the entire life
of the times, and while there is any amount of guidance
towards this end in our picture galleries, museums and
books, it requires a definite mental effort to secure the
needful visualisations. If this effort be made it will
more than repay itself in opening up a new outlook
towards what has probably been regarded as a mass of
inchoate knowledge unrelated to a definite programme.
The study of town planning gives us such a programme,
and, besides providing a key to what has taken place in
the past, itself gains a greater interest through the
recognition of the historic basis on which it rests.
PART eT
HISTORY
CHAPTER I
The Ancient Civilisations
ROM the remote time when the first steps
towards a social order were taken men found it
convenient to devise some system for the
arrangement of their dwelling places, and thus we see
that this art, though it has so recently found a name, is
prehistoric, and as we can regard this term as connoting
different ages in different parts of the world, we are
able at the present time to study the most primitive
efforts in this direction along with those that are
typical of the highest degree of advancement yet
reached by ourselves and others, and are thus offered
the opportunity of comparing many phases of develop-
ment. These show us, not a continuous improvement
in a uniform direction, but, like all other aspects of
civilisation, movements towards objectives that are
always changing, whereby through long ages an advance
may be achieved, but which include shorter periods of
retrogression. The typical example of the steady flow
of the tide comprehending the onward and backward
sweep of the waves, though an old illustration, is too apt
a one to be passed over, and it will be seen that again
and again we can register a highly developed communal
organisation only to pass on to a breakdown in this, out
of which the succeeding one gradually takes shape,
sometimes on similar, but more often on dissimilar,
lines to that preceding it.
It is for us to trace these developments from their
earliest forms to the highly sophisticated demands of
3
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
our own time, this course being, if anything, more
essential to a clear comprehension of town planning than
of those arts less definitely based on social demands.
In some parts of the world the home is even now
the circular hut undivided internally, which may be
regarded as very nearly the most primitive form of
house, and which it will be realised makes but slight
demands on lay-out, all that is appropriate in such a
case being a reasonable space between one hut and
another. Notwithstanding this the group is a true
village, and when, moreover, it is enclosed with a
palisade, or other mode of defence, illustrates a type
the variations of which demand at least a passing
notice.
As there are now but few primitive tribes not under
the control of the dominant races, we shall have to go
far afield to find the fortified village, which was the
rule in former times. Possibly the earliest defences
were those against the predatory beasts, man’s original
competitors for the products of the earth, but long
before the days of which we have knowledge man fought
with man for the scanty subsistence that was to be
gained at such a stage, and the defences had to provide
against attack by rival groups. ‘The most general
expedient was the selection of a hill-top having a con-
formation that enabled a ditch and rampart to be
formed with the minimum of labour, as we must not
forget that the primitive tools available involved much
greater exertion in such work than would now be the
case. Elsewhere the protection of water was sought
for, and one type of lake village was developed by the
improvement or construction of a small island in some
4
THE ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS
lake or lagoon by forming an encircling fence of timber
and wattle and consolidating the earth within this, so
as to provide a site for the group of huts. Where such
water was tidal it was a convenient agent for the removal
of refuse, a matter always a trouble with communities
in those remote times, as may be witnessed by the
kitchen-middens and other deposits that have disclosed
the locations of prehistoric settlements, and have inci-
dentally afforded valuable indications as to crafts and
habits.
The huts on low sites were built above the surface,
but in high and well-drained ground they were exca-
vated, the surface soil being formed into a low rampart
which carried the eaves of the circular roof that
radiated from a central post. The remains of such
structures can be traced in the “ hut circles’ on our
uplands, while good examples of the first-named type
were found in the lake villages at Glastonbury. At the
present day structures not very dissimilar may be found
in the Western Highlands, among the Esquimaux, and
among some of the peoples in tropical countries.
The limitations of our subject preclude the discussion
of points of detail in these buildings, but it should be
mentioned that the hill defences were elaborated by
making the entrances indirect and by duplicating, and
even triplicating, the encircling ditches and ramparts.
It has been suggested that the cattle were herded in the
outer ring, but it is more probable that they were
coralled in the centre, a practice maintained by the
Kaffirs to this day.
Thus we reach the conclusion that the factor exhibit-
ing itself earliest in communal planning is that of
5
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
defence, probably first against wild animals, then
against rival tribes, and that only subsequently does
the organised arrangement of dwellings appear, and,
Jater still, the provision of buildings for other purposes.
To follow up these phases and note how more
defined planning arose, the first point of interest that
strikes us is the fact that rectangular building derives
from the need for more than a single chamber, for we
find two-roomed huts of an oblong shape with circular
ends; practically two huts have coalesced and are
covered with a single roof oval in plan. This is the
first stage towards the rectangle that soon comes after
it, and instantly provokes the need to follow some
order in grouping. This order is at first only partial,
being dominated by already established routes, and
takes the form of a number of groups, each on lines
approximately parallel but at various angles to each
other, the primitive equivalent of much that we shall
find later on, wherever the routes have preceded the
buildings.
The next stage will be found to be a definitely
rectangular plan, which is the elementary scheme in all
ages for the plotting of a town; dwellings having
become rectangular, the streets follow suit, and the first
and most obvious pattern is a series of straight streets
separating uniform square blocks. Subsequently both
streets and “blocks were differentiated in size and
importance, in order to provide for buildings of varied
character, and also because it was seen that streets might
be placed farther apart in one direction than in the
other, thus leaving the islands oblong instead of square.
These oblongs have remained throughout the ages as
6
THE ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS
the typical utilitarian plan for areas composed of
dwellings, the type and proportions of these not affect-
ing the requirements as to access, and the on'y variation
being that where conditions demand an approach to the
back of the house site the rectangular island is bisected
longitudinally by a subsidiary road. The monotony of
such a plan when employed by the ancient civilisations
was usually relieved by the siting of palaces, temples,
and other public buildings, and by the embellishment
of the more important centres and lines of route.
For towns of moderate size on fairly level sites the
practical advantages are in favour of a rectangular plan,
and by a certain amount of skilful modification it can
be made to meet the zesthetic demands as well, subject to
the proviso that marked natural features should dictate
appropriate departures from geometric design. Where
this has not been appreciated we may at once conclude
that the art of town planning is at a rudimentary stage,
whether we find our examples in ancient Greece or
across the Atlantic.
The adoption of a rectangular plan in defiance of the
character of the site may be regarded as more in anta-
gonism to both practical and esthetic requirements
than any other error in the inception of a town plan,
and its result is usually more disadvantageous in regard
to both these aspects than where the plan has been
allowed to develop itself out of conditions that were
once dominant, though time may have rendered the
results invalid. Only in the circumstances and with
the qualifications referred to above can the rectangular
treatment of the town plan as a whole be held to be
adequate.
7
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
With this brief synopsis of the question of the primi-
tive plan we may pass on to consider the subject from
an historic basis which will bring to our notice many
illustrations of cause and effect, and will demonstrate
how intimately the material structure has at all times
related itself to the religious, social, and economic
demands of its time, and how variations in these have
compelled adaptations on the efficiency of which has
often depended the success or failure of the civic
organisation.
While we may dismiss the primitive types of village
comprising circular huts and the hut-circle dwellings as
affording merely a starting point for our studies, and
also the lake and cave dwelling groups as involving
little that can be regarded as considered planning, we
must bear in mind that these were often contempora-
neous with organised plans elsewhere, of which we can
find sufficient traces to recognise that they embody an
ordered scheme, though not enough to indicate the lines
on which the plans were laid out.
There is less definite guidance for our studies in
regard to the great nations of Western Asia and the
neighbouring lands than in the case of many peoples
at a much less advanced stage of civilisation. While
explorers have been able to uncover the great palaces
of Assyria, Babylon and Crete, and while the temples
of Egypt still stand integrally visible, we are left
with only the vaguest hints as to the disposition of
populous cities owing to the fact that the less substan-
tial structures occupied by the mass of the people have
either disappeared or have left too little to attract the
attention of archeologists. Even in Egypt, where
8
THE ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS
investigations have been more comprehensive, very
little has been brought to light in respect of the arrange-
ment of towns earlier than the Grzeco-Roman occupa-
tion. Only the block of houses uncovered at Kahun
gives us some indication of the probable type of lay out,
and these are dwellings of minor importance, con-
structed, it is supposed, for those concerned with the
erecting of the pyramid of Illahun.
The planning of the great buildings of various dates
from 3,000 B.C. onwards, which have been uncovered in
Western Asia, show that rectangular forms predominate,
and traces of city walls confirm the conjecture that the
general planning was on these lines, or at all events
rectilinear, while in Egypt the strong feeling for axiality
in the temple plans renders it hardly probable that this
did not extend to the cities, of which these temples must
have been the most striking features.
If at the date of the highly developed cities in Egypt
and Assyria we glance westward towards Southern
Europe and the Mediterranean coasts, we find ourselves
at a much more rudimentary stage. Without embarking
on complicated ethnological studies as to the inter-
actions of the prehistoric peoples inhabiting this part of
the world, it will suffice for us to accept that their
organisation, originally patriarchal in type, gradually
took shape on lines feudal in character, and though
details are still obscure, the results from the town-
planning point of view are so near to those of early
medizval times that if we were to cut out the whole
Greco-Roman contribution to civilisation, we could
almost conceive a continuity linking the sixth century
B.C. with the sixth century a.D., and forget that the
9
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
twelve centuries had elapsed between them. As a
broad generalisation, these two eras might be termed
the first and second feudal periods in European history,
and their cities are characterised by marked similarity
in type.
The site is chosen for purposes of defence, and not
by reason of economic suitability ; it is on high ground
with steep escarpments, at the top of which the walls
are built. If it be an isolated hill; so much the better,
but if on a spur, the defences are strengthened at the
isthmus. Special defensive works are also added at the
gates, and either the highest or the strongest position is
devoted to the arx or fortress. The towns of what we
may term the first feudal period, built by the Pelasgi,
the Etruscans, and other competing races, not being
sited for economic reasons, were usually abandoned
during the domination of Rome; but where this was
not the case they proved exactly suited to the demands
of the second feudal era, as is illustrated by such
examples as Perugia, Viterbo, Orvieto, Fiesole, Volterra,
Cortona, and other medizval cities, all on Etruscan
sites.
This may be accounted for by the fact that there was
no great change in the modes of fighting between these
times ; the weapons had remained much the same, and,
therefore, similar forms of defence were appropriate.
The only great distinction that we meet with is due to
the change in religious belief, the first period being
Pagan, and the second Christian; thus, while a
dominating observance in the first case was the pro-
vision of a worthy tomb, in the second this activity
was diverted to the place of worship. The Pagan
Io
THE ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS
tombs might not be within the town, and, consequently,
outside the walls we find a veritable city of the dead,
built to simulate that of the living, except that it was
excavated or artificially covered. ‘This necropolis was
sometimes as extensive as the city of the living, and,
being less exposed to destruction, tells us more of the
life of the time than the ruins of the actual town. We
find tombs made in the likeness of the house, with
benches representing couches, and even tables and
chairs, while paintings of banquets and hunting scenes
adorn the walls. From these we can reconstruct the
vanished city, and can realise that it was at least as well
organised as those which re-established themselves
twelve or fourteen centuries later; in some ways,
indeed, better, for while the Greek was cultivating his
unsurpassed sense of artistic expression the Etruscan
was devoting himself to technical improvements in the
crafts and in the material amenities of city life. He
ignored the artistic refinements, and was content to
look towards other peoples for guidance in artistic
expression, but Greece recognised his skill in craftsman-
ship, while his systematic provision of water supply
and drainage was adopted by the Romans, and has been
frequently placed to their credit.
Such services imply a fairly definite scheme of
planning, but what this was has not so far been estab-
lished. ‘The knowledge we possess seems to indicate
a preference for rectilinear streets, but not a uniformly
rectangular plan ; indeed, this latter would hardly have
been possible when we sce the highly irregular outline
of many of the sites selected, which were defined by
the natural formation of the hill.
I!
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
Besides these hill cities, there have been discovered
others on comparatively low-lying ground protected by
a moat, and, it is conjectured, inhabited by a people
who were originally lake dwellers. For these the term
‘“‘terramare ” has been employed, and Haverfield illus-
trates one of rhomboid outline with definite parallel
streets. ‘They take, however, a less important place in
our story, and, to return to the hill towns, we may
regard it as probable that houses rarely exceeded a
single storey in height, and that the “ topless towers
of Ilium ” referred to fortifications rather than to the
dwellings. This does not destroy the parallelism with
later times, for the houses of the Carlovingian period
were neither lofty nor extensive, and it was only later
that the towns became closely packed with the many-
storied houses characteristic of medizval life as we now
visualise it. We shall consider this in due course, but
must now return to the time when the tribal fort-towns
of southern Europe were replaced by those of the rising —
democracies, first of Greece, and then of Rome. It is
not here that the reasons for their fall can be discussed,
as we are concerned only with what took their place and
the influences that resulted in the change of type.
Naturally, it was not desired to abandon the old posi-
tion, except where it was clearly unsuited to the changed
demands, and*in many cases it remained as the nucleus
of the expanding city. Rome itself is considered to
have its origin in three tribal villages on neighbouring
hills, and in several Greek cities the original site became
an acropolis around which the later developments
grouped themselves, while if we go further afield we
shall find similar protected hill tops in Central Asia,
12
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THE ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS
the East Indies, and, indeed, almost everywhere, if the
conformation of the site lends itself to this type of
defence.
The chief alternative was isolation by water, and,
apart from the before-mentioned lake villages, formed
either as islands or with houses standing on piles in the
water, we may see cities that grew to considerable
importance started in this way, to mention only such
outstanding examples as Venice and Mexico. Probably
the invention of the artificial moat, which is itself
prehistoric, derives from this form of natural protec-
tion, either complete or, where imperfect, demanding
auxiliary works.
13
CHAPTER II
Greco-Roman Town Planning
telligible, a compromise must be arrived at between
the chronological and geographical aspects, and so
we now return to Greece. Here we find it probable
that Athens was the first city to be able to descend from
its rock, which then became a spot religiously reserved
as sacred to Athena, the tutelary goddess of the city,
while the latter spread itself around the base of this
acropolis.
At this date the growth in general seems to have
been irregular, apart from a studied placing of the
theatre, agora, temples, and monuments. However,
in the fifth century B.c. rectangular planning was
adopted, and we find numerous examples of this at
Pirzeus, Priene, Selinus, and other towns in Sicily and —
Ionia ; in fact, wherever the site was not too uneven to
admit of it. Axial planning is only represented by an
increased width and importance given to a few principal
streets, and even the temples and agora usually found
their places within one or more of the island blocks, as
at Selinus. Most of these cities were fortified, and
outside the fortifications we know that suburbs of
inferior and often squalid dwellings spread out irregu-
larly. The ports were designed to accommodate suit-
ably the galleys of that day, but we can pass these by,
as we shall find more fully developed harbours in
Roman times.
The supreme artistry of the Greeks is shown, not
14
|: order to make the story of town planning in-
GR/ECO-ROMAN TOWN PLANNING
only in the refinements and proportions of their build-
ings, but also in the skill with which these were grouped
and located; but while their brief period of ascen-
dency is marked by an unsurpassed capacity in these
respects, it does not seem to have sufficed for the
achievement of a completed system of comprehensive
town planning. At the same time, the Greek contribu-
tion to the Roman civilisation cannot be disregarded,
and the more logical course is to consider the fuller
growth of this art under Imperial Rome as Greco-
Roman, in which the imaginative factors can be
credited to the Greek and the practical and regulative
contributions to Rome.
When the military and naval domination of Republi-
_can Rome justified the abandonment of the hill sites in
favour of those of greater suitability from an economic
standpoint, the Greek colonial towns were already
established, and served as a starting point in regard to
arrangement and equipment. Rectangular plotting was
general, but the theatre and the stadium had introduced
a circular element, which subsequently attained great
importance as a decorative feature, and as one of
material value in facilitating the formal treatment of an
irregular site. ‘The Greco-Roman period is of first
importance to the studies of the town planner, as in it
emerge all the main problems of his art, which, together
with the means taken to solve them, can be accurately
gauged from the remains and from documentary
evidence. It is true that this cannot be regarded as the
first time in the world’s history when such conditions
may have obtained, but the older civilisations afford
us little evidence of demands so distinct in character as
15
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
to invalidate our accepting the typical Greek and
Roman towns as representative of city design in a fully
developed form. ~
As indicated, the Greeks had not carried their
schemes far beyond the elementary rectangular plan,
and even then there was a great deal of accidental and
irregular building. At first the Roman towns were
doubtless inferior to those of Greece and her colonies,
and probably also to those of the Phcenicians scattered
around the Mediterranean, but with increasing political
power, the demand for finer cities necessarily arose, and
great activity in this work marked the rise of Rome.
Naturally the more important undertakings, such as
the temple and the forum, received first consideration,
but the other claims soon made themselves felt and
were met by public or private munificence to an
increasing extent.
That the question of town planning was considered
of great importance by the Romans is illustrated by
the large proportion of his first book which Vitruvius
devotes to this subject, while he returns to various
aspects of it several times in the subsequent ones.
It is an interesting commentary on the changing
ideals of his day that, though he begins by claiming that
the city should be placed on high ground for the sake
of health, he proceeds to admit that it may sometimes
be placed in a marshy situation near the sea coast, if
provided with adequate drains and sewers, an obvious
concession to the growing commercial needs of the
Empire. With the rules he laid down for military
works we are less concerned, but a quotation from his
chapter on the placing of temples may be admitted as
16
Facing page 16
l and Forum at Rome
1to
*s Model of the Capi
jani
3. Professor G. Marcell
Li asod Surv J
SsutMeiq] Ainjudd) YJUSEJOUINT B WOOL “*awoy “v7
‘ |
GR/AECO-ROMAN 'TOWN PLANNING
- indicating the recognition that the site, no less than the
building, should have a symbolic significance.
“The lanes and streets of the city being set out, the
choice of sites for the convenience and use of the state
remains to be decided on; for sacred edifices, for the
forum, and for other public buildings. If the place
adjoin the sea, the forum should be placed close to the
harbour: if inland, it should be in the centre of the
town. The temples of the gods, protectors of the city,
also those of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, should be on
‘some eminence which commands a view of the greater
part of the city. The temple of Mercury should be
either in the forum, or, as also the temple of Isis and
Serapis, in the great public square. Those of Apollo
and Father Bacchus near the theatre. If there be
neither amphitheatre nor gymnasium, the temple of
Hercules should be near the circus. The temple of
Mars should be out of the city, in the neighbouring
country. ‘That of Venus near to the gate. According
to the regulations of the Hetrurian Haruspices, the
temples of Venus, Vulcan, and Mars should be so
placed that those of the first be not in the way of con-
taminating the matrons and youth with the influence
of lust.; that those of Vulcan be away from the city,
which would consequently be freed from the danger of
fire, the divinity presiding over that element being
drawn away by the rites and sacrifices performing in his
temple. The temple of Mars should be also out of the
city, that no armed frays may disturb the peace of the
citizens.”’
Elsewhere Vitruvius gives us instructions as to the
construction of harbours, and study of the remains of
i7 c
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
those which date from his time and the subsequent
three centuries (40 B.C. to A.D. 260) show a highly deve-
loped system appropriate to the naval and commercial
operations of that time. Where practicable, advantage
was taken of natural inlets, which were deepened and
provided with wharves and supplementary defences,
but where natural harbours were lacking the construc-
tions were carried out to sea with jetties and break-
waters. Major M. Du Plat-Taylor, in his writings on
the ancient methods of harbour construction, has cited
numerous examples indicating that it was usual to
construct these jetties on masonry piers connected by
arches above the water level, a mode that seems to have
sufficed to break the seas of the Mediterranean, though
in a few exposed places two such viaducts were formed,
the piers of the inner being opposite to the voids of the
outer, the waves being thus more effectually baffled.
These jetties often ran out to sea for some distance, so
that the entrance was of considerable depth.
In some cases more than one entrance was provided,
and in others we find a wide one covered by a break-
water in front of it. The commercial harbour was
provided with wharves, while the land side of the naval
port was planned as a series of docks, each accommo-
dating one gallery, with walls between and roofed over
to protect the:ships from the sun, thus preventing
deterioration during the time that they might be out of
action. Arsenals were constructed adjoining these
naval ports, and the commercial ones were provided
with extensive warehouses. The principal port for the
city of Rome, at Ostia, shows at least two succes-
sive periods of construction, owing to the increasing
18
GRAECO-ROMAN TOWN PLANNING
demands of the metropolis, and around it a compact
but well-planned town was laid out.
The city of Rome itself cannot be regarded as
typical, and yet the conditions to be found here were,
if less accentuated, not entirely absent in other large
cities at the same date. It is worth while to try and
visualise Rome as a whole, when it will make a very
different impression from what we might imagine it
if our picture were based on the remains now extant.
Even at the time when some of the finest buildings
were undertaken there was still a great deal of squalor
and congestion in Rome, which suffered from the same
disadvantages as many other old capitals in having
grown up during the tentative efforts to establish
dominion, and before becoming the centre towards
which the wealth and culture of an extensive empire
were drawn. ‘The following extract from the work of
J. H. Middleton will give an impression of the city at
the beginning of the Imperial era :—
“In the reign of Augustus a ‘ Metropolitan Building
Act’ was drawn up, which did something to improve
the stability of Roman houses. Some of the provisions
of this Act are mentioned by Vitruvius. Houses in
streets, if several stories in height, were to be built on
stone piers, or with walls of burnt brick and concrete,
instead of the older method of building walls of unburnt
bricks, or of woodwork filled in with ‘ wattle and dab.’
In some respects the Roman houses of the Republican
period, and under the early Empire, must have re-
sembled those of medizval times, especially in the
frequent use of upper stories, formed of wood framing,
which projected forwards into the street beyond the
1g c2
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
line of the wall below. Examples of these projecting
upper stories have been found at Pompeii.
‘In order, therefore, to put an end to the custom of
building thick, weak walls of unfired brick, a law was
introduced limiting the external thickness of street
walls to 2 feet, a thickness which was not sufficient to
support upper stories. if unbaked bricks were used.
The practical result of this enactment, which seems a
strange one, was thus indirectly to force on the people
the use of stronger materials. Houses shored up with
wood and ready to fall are mentioned by Juvenal, and
a great part of Rome for a long period consisted of very
flimsy and even dangerous structures.
‘It was, however, not till the reign of Nero that a
complete reform was effected in the construction of
Roman houses. Nero hada new and elaborate Building
Act drawn up, requiring fireproof materials, such as
peperino, to be used for external walls of houses ; and
it appears very probable that he wilfully caused the
great fire which destroyed a large part of Rome, in
order that he might with effect bring his new Act into
operation, and also be able to replan the streets on
wider and straighter lines.”
By such drastic clearances the central area was freed
for the imposing structures of which we still see the
ruins, the state of which 1s less due to natural causes
than to the fact that in the Middle Ages the buildings
and monuments became every one’s stone quarry, and
their marble decorations were broken up and converted
into lime. ‘That the slums were abolished is not to be
imagined, when we remember the character of the
population the city held, for, although the centre was
20
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GRECO-ROMAN TOWN PLANNING
cleared, the subsequent Aurelian wall (A.D. 270) enclosed
large areas that were filled with the houses of the poor.
Even the earlier wall of Servius, which embraced less
than one-third of this ground, included many districts
where no traces of substantial buildings have been
found ; in spite of this, many great public buildings
were placed outside the wall on the Campus Martius,
which lies to the north-west of the Capitol. The chief
remodelling of Rome seems to have taken place around
the Palatine Hill, on which were constructed the
palaces of the emperors, more particularly to the
north of it, where the series of forums culminated in
that of Trajan, with the Basilica Ulpia, which filled the
whole of the valley between the Capitol and the
Quirinal. In various parts of the city the great Thermz
occupied large areas, and numerous other public build-
ings have been located, but these cannot, from their
position, have formed part of a plan such as the Romans
would have devised if they had not been restricted by
old-established roads and by occupied areas dating
from earlier times.
It is in this respect that we find Rome not typical of
Roman planning, which is displayed much more clearly
in smaller towns founded at a later date. Even the
little watering place of Pompeii shows the Roman
preference for a systematic lay-out, and at Praeneste
(Palestrina), dating from the time of Sulla, a most
skilful treatment of a steep hillside is accredited to that
governor.
While the Roman genius for organisation enabled
them to cope with the problem of rendering a large
town habitable and reasonably healthy, much of the
aI.
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
magnificence of their cities was due to private initiative.
Even before the time of the emperors, leading men
provided many important public buildings, and what
the emperors did for Rome local magnates endeavoured
to emulate in provincial centres. 'The letters of Pliny
and various inscriptions make this clear. Pliny himself,
following the example of his father in munificence, gave
nearly {£9,000 for the foundation of a public library in
Como, his native town, and an annual endowment of
more than £800 to maintain it, also offering to con-
tribute one-third of the expense of a high school there.
The late Samuel Dill, to whose studies in Roman social
life we are indebted for these facts, pursues the subject
as follows :—
“The letter which records the offer shows Pliny at
his best, wise and thoughtful as well as generous. He
wishes to keep boys under the protection of home
influence, to make them lovers of their mother city ;
and he limits his benefaction in order to stimulate the
interest of the parents in the cause of education, and in
the appointment of the teachers.
“Yet Pliny is only a shining example of a numerous
class of more obscure benefactors. The gifts were
sometimes made merely to win popularity, or to repay
civic honours which had,been conferred by the popu-
lace. They were too often devoted to gladiatorial
shows, and other exhibitions which only debased the
spectators. Yet the greatest part of them was expended
on objects of public utility—baths, theatres, markets,
or new roads and aqueducts, or on those public banquets
which knitted all ranks together. ‘There was in those
days an immense ‘ civic ardour,’ an almost passionate
22
GR/ECO-ROMAN 'TOWN PLANNING
rivalry, to make the mother city a more pleasant and a
more splendid home.
“ With regard to municipal expenditure, the budget
was free from many public charges which burden our
modern towns. The higher offices were unpaid, and,
in fact, demanded large generosity from their holders.
The lower functions were discharged, to a great extent,
by communal slaves. The care or construction of
streets, markets, and public buildings, although theo-
retically devolving on the community through their
zediles, was, as a matter of fact, to an enormous extent
undertaken by private persons.
“The cities did much for themselves out of the
public revenues. But there are many signs that private
ambition or munificence did even more. ‘The stone
records of Pompeii confirm these indications in a
remarkable way. Pompeii, in spite of the prominence
given to it by its tragic fate, was only a third-rate town,
with a population probably of not more than 20,000.
Its remains, indeed, leave the impression that a con-
siderable class were in easy circumstances ; but it may
be doubted whether Pompeii could boast of any great
capitalists among its citizens.
‘* Nevertheless, a large number of public buildings of
Pompeii were the gift of private citizens. The Holconi
were a great family of the place in the reign of Augustus.
M. Holconius Rufus had been ordinary duumvir five
times, and twice quinquennial duumvir ; he was priest
of Augustus, and finally was elected patron of the town.
Such dignities in those days imposed a corresponding
burden, and an inscription tells that, on the rebuilding
of the great theatre, probably about 3 B.c., Holconius
23
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
Rufus and Holconius Celer defrayed the expense of the
crypt, the tribunals, and the whole space for the spec-
tators. The literature of the age contains many
records of profuse private liberality of the same kind.
It has been calculated that Pliny must have altogether
given to his early home and fatherland, as he calls it, a
sum of more than £80,000; and the gifts were of a
thoroughly practical kind—a library, a school endow-
ment, a foundation for the nurture of poor children,
and a temple of Ceres, with spacious colonnades to
shelter the traders who came for the great fair.
“* But the prince of public benefactors in the Antonine
age was the great sophist Herodes Atticus, the tutor of
M. Aurelius, who died in the same year as his pupil,
A.D.180. He acted up to his theory of the uses of wealth .
on a scale of unexampled munificence. The liberality
of Herodes Atticus, however astonishing it may seem,
was only exceptional in its scale. ‘The same spirit pre-
vailed among the leading citizens or the great patrom
of hundreds of communities, many of them only known
to us from a brief inscription or two. The objects of
this liberality are as various as the needs of the com-
munity—temples, theatres, bridges, markets, a portico
or a colonnade, the relaying of a road or pavement from
the forum to the port, the repair of an aqueduct, above
all the erection of new baths or their restoration. An
old officer of the Fourth Legion provided free bathing
at Suessa Senonum for every one, even down to the
slave girls. At Bononia a sum of £4,350 was bequeathed
for the same liberal purpose.
‘The Antonine age was passionately fond of splen-
dour and brilliant display, proud of civic dignity, and
24
GR/ECO-ROMAN TOWN PLANNING
keenly alive to the ease and comfort and brightness
which common effort or individual generosity might
add to the enjoyment of life. It was also an intensely
sociable age. Men looked for their happiness to their
city rather than to the family or the state. If their city
could not play a great part as an independent common-
wealth, it might, by the self-sacrifice of its sons, assert
its oe among its rivals.”
Such was the spirit that inspired the municipal
activities of the Romans—might we not be the better
for a greater measure of it in our own day?
The planning of towns established in the Roman
colonies has a semi-military character, as it is based on
the plan of the camp, one that could be quickly laid
out on rectangular lines in accordance with a recognised
formula. ‘Timgad, in Algeria, which has been un-
covered from its sand drifts, gives a clearer impression
of this type of city than any other, but elsewhere we
still see the general lines, as at Turin, Florence, and
Lucca, in Italy; Autun, in France; and Chester,
Chichester and Caerwent, in England. Of course
many of these received embellishments in the way of
public buildings and arcaded streets, which raised them
above the standard of the purely military settlement ;
and while some achieved an ordered dignity of effect,
we must look to Asia Minor for the more imaginative
flights in this direction, where the cult of luxury long
established in those parts was responsible for the
elaborate refinements in the lay-out and decoration of
- such cities as Palmyra, Gerasa, and many another
where the colonnaded street, the arch, and the vista
were regarded as essential factors in city design. Again
25
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
at Alexandria, the home of the later Greek culture, all
the practical amenities that Rome understood so
thoroughly were accompanied by a luxurious splendour
in design, grouping and arrangement which, surviving
the degradation of most of the more northern cities,
extorted reluctant admiration from the Arabs into
whose hands it ultimately fell.
26
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8. Wurzburg in the Middle Ages
Facing page 27
CHAPTER III
Medieval Cities
ITH the gradual break-up of the Roman
organisation the established routine of city
government lapsed, and the city structure
underwent a corresponding degradation, varying to
some extent according to the degree of social and
economic deterioration. 'Thus in the districts where
this did not wholly fail we find that the street plan was
preserved, as at Turin and Florence. Elsewhere, owing
to subsequent complete abandonment, the original plan
remains clearly defined—at Palmyra and Timgad for
example—-but in most cases the site continued to be
occupied, the original lines being gradually obliterated
and now only capable of being traced here and there,
either owing to their casual preservation or by excava-
tion down to a level below the rubbish accumulated
during the centuries when control was lacking.
In post-Roman times Europe was faced with the task
of remaking itself and reconstructing its national
groups. ‘This was a slow process, and we have, there-
fore, the advantage of being able to follow from small
beginnings the enlargement of villages into towns, and
the gradual growth of civic organisation, which passed
through many stages before approaching the degree of
order maintained under the Roman dominion.
We see the expansion of the Teutonic peoples, who,
according to Tacitus, had never evolved a civic life, and
had, indeed, a distaste for it. We see them, wherever
they went, organising the country on an agricultural and
27
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
pastoral basis, with no intention of encouraging the
growth of towns, and that only step by step did
these either establish or re-establish themselves by
reason of commercial advantages, or, as is perhaps more
usual, by the demand for a fortified position to control
the district under the feudal lord. We must leave it
to the historian to demonstrate why national organisa-
tion took the form known as the feudal system. He
will show us that it was the most obvious and direct
road towards evolving order out of comparative chaos,
and though its defects are manifest, no other method
would appear likely to have operated as expeditiously.
According to the views already expressed, it was not a
novelty, but rather a return to what was customary
at an earlier stage of the world’s history, for were not
Minos and Agamemnon, ‘Tarquin and Porsena, proto-
types of our medizeval chiefs ?
However, what concerns us is not these and their
warfare, but what they were impelled to build, and how
these buildings influenced the city structure in the
Middle Ages. First we find the need of a strong place
or castle, and this gathered beneath it the growing
town. The last vestiges of Roman civilisation having
gone, we bid good-bye for many centuries to the con-
scious exercise of the art of town planning, and from
this aspect the title of the “‘ Dark Ages” is not
undeserved, though in many ways they were by no
means dark, and the cities gradually grew into those
forms of beauty and charm that depend on imaginative
conception taking advantage of accidents and employ-
ing these in accentuating expression. 'To refuse the
town planner a share in the harmonious ensemble that
28
MEDI/EVAL CITIES
characterises the mediazval town may appear an un-
necessary abnegation, but it is only by an undue
extension of our definition of this art that skill in the
design of buildings in relation to environment could be
transferred from the realm of architecture to that of
civic design, especially where the contribution of the
latter is a purely negative one, in that it has permitted
some accidental development of which the builder has
had the skill to take advantage.
Though the planning of towns at this time was
technically unsophisticated, the conditions required
that defensible positions should be chosen and should
be fortified, and it is to this, in large measure, that the
dramatic quality of these cities is due, especially in cases
where they are perched on a hill-top with towering
buildings accentuating the upward sweep of the slopes
around them. ‘These effects are not due to civic,
but to military exigencies, and when town planning
once more comes into sight its influence does not
operate towards the enhancement of this type of effect,
but rather in the opposite direction.
Even though we may decline to accept the normal
medizval city as town planned, it yet has much to tell
us which, if ignored, would leave a blank fatal to the
comprehension of our subject as a whole. ‘The interest
of the informal and unexpected in these towns has even
evoked a school of city designers basing their technique
on effects of this character, to which we shall have
occasion to refer later on ; but apart from this there 1s
much to be learnt from the gradual growth of a town,
more indeed than from one deliberately laid out on
any but the most considered lines, while the results of
49
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
change in conditions, sometimes capable of adjustment,
but more often not, are hardly less instructive.
It is here that we can most profitably take up the
question of the influences determining location, as,
though these have operated through all time, the
remoter periods are not more illustrative, while our
knowledge is less. ‘These influences are various, but
fall under two main heads, economic and military.
Even at this stage they cannot be entirely separated, as
a position may be strategically good from both points
of view. As a rule the economic aspect takes prefer-
ence, because the question may be put that, if a place
has no economic value, what is the object of defending
it? "There are, however, exceptions, for it was soon
seen to be necessary to consider the needs of a district
as a whole, and therefore we get the military post.
Take a case in the north of England. Newcastle was
an economic position capable of defence, and Durham
a defensive post of great natural strength having
comparatively little economic importance.
We find that it was the invariable practice to enclose
the town with walls, as a defence both against casual
raids and against more sustained attacks, even small
villages in unruly places being planned so that they
could be shut up at night, with the inclusion of a suffi-
cient area to accommodate the cattle owned by the
villagers. In such cases the houses enclosed a large
green and themselves formed the line of defence, leaving
only a few openings between them, which could be barri-
caded. ‘The larger cities had substantial walls, with
fortified gates and bastions, not very unlike those built
by the Assyrians and their contemporaries, and in
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MEDIAEVAL CITIES
detail still more closely resembling those constructed
by the Romans in the third century A.D. These earlier
walls were not often so massive as to make extensions
impracticable when the city outgrew them, but there
would always be some effort involved, and where the
walls were of a superior type we find a continued struggle
to accommodate the growing population within them.
Houses were made higher, gardens built over, and thus
we get the closely packed and congested town, pic-
turesque it is true, but insanitary, and an easy victim
for that terrible scourge of the Middle Ages, the Black
Death, which swept over Europe time and again, some-
times destroying one-third of the town population.
Even in our day we find it, under the appellation of
bubonic plague, decimating Indian towns where the
houses are ill-constructed and overcrowded. We have
only to look at typical cities which either still retain
their walls, or where the line of these remains defined,
to realise the influence they had in creating congestion,
not only in regard to these places themselves, but also
in establishing a standard of over-building that affected
many others long after the purely physical restrictions
had gone. It is but too easy to fall into such ways, and
the gregarious habits of the city dweller have made
overbuilding at all times the quick and easy way of
meeting his demands. Imperial Rome and medizval
Edinburgh share with many a less notable place an
unenviable reputation in respect to the insalubrity of
their poorer quarters. ‘These defects were not unre-
cognised, but the remedies were, even if economically
possible, too drastic to secure general support.
That where it was possible to make a start on a new
31
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
site a better organisation was adopted, we see in the case
of the activities of St. Louis of France and Edward I.
of England as city builders. During the thirteenth
century the need arose to lay out a number of new
towns, and the operations in this respect ran on lines
curiously parallel to those of the Roman colonisations.
In a measure the purpose was similar, namely, the
establishment of semi-military posts, and, similarly,
the military solution of equal rectangular plots was the
accepted ideal. It has been assumed that this was a
revival of the Roman tradition, but it is more than
doubtful if such an assumption can be justified, this
being so primitive and obvious a solution where an
appropriate site can be selected, and a scheme easily and
quickly realisable is to be provided. Indeed, we shall
rarely find, since men began to inhabit rectangular
houses, that the first stage in town planning takes any
other form, and it is hardly needful, when discussing
the medizval plans, to refer these to the influence of
the Roman ones or suggest that the American gridiron
system is borrowed from either.
The “ Bastides ”’ of St. Louis afforded the models on
which Edward I. based his plans for Montpazier and
Sauveterre, together with numerous other towns which
he founded in his newly acquired Duchy of Gascony,
and these, in their formal plans, show that the ideals of
the time did not exhibit any preference for the pictur-
esque irregularity that we associate with medieval cities,
the latter being merely the outcome of lack of organisa-
tion and not of conscious effort.
Fortunately there is another aspect from which we
may look at the normal medieval town. Though
34
MEDIEVAL CITIES
insanitary and unplanned, it was the home of such
varied and vigorous activities that we must not pass on
without some realisation of them. Never since those
times has civic life been so integrally rounded off as an
expression of joyous social co-operation. Not only
_ religious observances, but every public ceremony was
made the vehicle of gay and jocund artistry. ‘To take
one brief reference as a key-note, we find Matthew Paris
describing the pageant of King Henry the Third’s
marriage in the following terms :
“There were assembled at the king’s nuptial festi-
vities such a host of nobles of both sexes, such number
of religious men, such crowds of the populace, and such
a variety of actors, that London, with its capacious
bosom, could scarcely contain them. ‘The whole city
was ornamented with flags and banners, chaplets and
hangings, candles and lamps, and with wonderful
devices and extraordinary representations, and all the
roads were cleaned from mud and dirt, sticks and
everything offensive. The citizens, too, went out to
meet the king and queen, dressed out in their orna-
ments, and vied with each other in trying the speed of
their horses. On the same day, when they left the city
for Westminster, to perform the duties of butler to the
king (which office belonged to them by right of old, at
the coronation), they proceeded thither dressed in silk
garments, with mantles worked in gold, and with costly
changes of raiment, mounted on valuable horses, glit-
tering with new bits and saddles, and riding in troops
arranged in order.”
Now this is no exceptional or isolated instance, for
in every country and in every city of standing innu-
33 D
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
merable illustrations might be cited of annual festivals,
saints’ days and dedications, celebrated with no less —
degree of splendour and colour, while the buildings
were designed in the same spirit, so that they afforded a
fitting framework for these vivid pictures. A few pale
remnants have come down to us from those days, a few
rather perfunctory ceremonies are accepted reluctantly
as a concession to tradition, a few noble churches have
not been entirely bereft of their coloured windows and
rich decorations, a few inn signs remain of all the
blazonry that decorated the street fronts of shop and
house. Puritanism may be regarded as a cause or as an
effect, but in either case we have for long ceased to
delight in embodying this gaiety of spirit in our daily
life, and seem only able to allow it an occasional entry,
a little uncertain as to whether this form of enjoyment
is not too childish for sensible people.
Childish or not, such was the temperament of the
medizeval city, which, with all its defects, nevertheless
presented a picture unequalled in brilliance before or
since. Lacking perhaps the stately dignity of Egypt,
Assyria, or Rome, for vivacity and colour it remains
unequalled. Do we deceive ourselves, or not, in fancying
that there is arising a genuine desire to reconstitute our
lives on the rational lines that include artistic expression,
not as a matter to be left to a few experts, but as one to
be regarded as vital to everybody at every moment and
in all aspects of life? If this be the case, the town
planner will turn to the Middle Ages, not as an
archeologist nor with the least idea of reconstructing
them as they were, but in an endeavour to recapture
the spirit that dominated the communities in evoking
oF
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Facing page 34
ddle Ages on Rectangular Lines
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IZ
Facing page 35
MEDIZEVAL CITIES
an active co-operation towards the making out of all civic
activities something fine and expressive, both by means
of appropriate ceremonies and balanced artistry. ‘There
is plenty of material to work on, and without doubt we
all seek for cheerfulness, but the road to it must be a
natural one, and not marked out by the affectations
which would be inevitable were any imitations of
another age to be imposed on us. Medieval life con-
tained so much that was built up on conditions belong-
ing to its time that there is not the least excuse for
attempting the semblance of a revival, though it is
essential to realise what its excellencies were if we
intend to make an effort to remedy the defects of our
present social organisation. Its direct influence on the
art of town planning is almost negligible, but indirectly
as a criterion of civic activity, and from that, as a guide
to what our cities should provide for, it is of such
importance as to justify a brief glance at the develop-
ment of the city structure in those days.
Though the castle of the overlord usually determined
the location of the town, it rarely took a central position,
the town spreading away from the main gate and
keeping to that side only. Probably in most cases the
position chosen for the fortified mound was such as
precluded development on one or more sides, it being
for military reasons better that the castle should be as
free as possible from the cover that a crowded city
would, if captured, afford to an attacking force. Thus
the castle, though often a dominating feature, only
affects two or three main routes, and apart from these
we may treat the plan of the town as a separate entity.
Having disposed of the castle, we find the leading
35
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
feature of the town to be the parish church, towards
which the roads tend to converge in all cases where
there has been no organised plan. ‘These converging
roads having thus ordained that the centre of the city
shall be somewhere near the church, the market locates
itself either at or not very far from this point, often
right in front of the church itself. For a time all trades
and crafts would gather round this point, but if the
growing importance of the place made this incon-
venient, the different trades would tend to group
themselves in quarters near at hand; guildhalls and
minor churches would arise; the town would have,
in addition to its main centre, a number of subsidiary
ones, and it would then be found more convenient to
shift the markets for produce in bulk to less central
positions. ‘This gives the main features that the plan of
the larger medizval city exhibits, and, as most of the
citizens were traders or artisans, we need not look for
anything in the way of a residential quarter.
There are some exceptions to be noted. In the ports
of the Hansa league the typical grouping was supple-
mented by an important maritime organisation, with
its quays and warehouses ; in the towns given burgher
rights by direct grant of the ruler, the castle would be
absent, and the town hall would probably take up an
important position in the central group. The cathedral
city again might, or might not, have a castle, and
while on the Continent the cathedral is usually to be
found right in the centre of the town, with us it often
merely adjoins it, as in the case of Salisbury, Win-
chester and Wells, on the lines of those other religious
communities which, being exempt from attack, chose
36
MEDIAEVAL CITIES
sites outside the town walls, where land was available
on a more liberal scale than in such positions as could
have been secured within them. These communities,
the depositaries of scholarship and philosophy, were
naturally the leaders in the arts and sciences, and their
buildings show the best standard of ordered planning
and design during this period, while, as the earlier
colleges were modelled on them, the university towns
exhibit medizval planning at its best, without con-
gestion and with well-proportioned and well-grouped
buildings set in pleasant garths and gardens.
No great change in civic ideals took shape until the
coming of the Renaissance, and such developments as
preceded this accentuated rather than modified the
typical character of the city. The elaboration of
fortifications penned it up still more firmly within its
walls, and where the overflow was driven into suburbs
outside, these were so detached and inferior in con-
venience as to offer no serious competition to the city
itself in the way of discouraging over-building. So long
as the trade with the East passed across the Continent
the growth of the business centres was unchecked.
Only with the discovery of the sea route round the
Cape did this begin to slacken, and it is perhaps not a
mere coincidence that this set-back is the prelude to a
period of disorganisation which left central Europe,
some hundred years later, with wrecked cities and a
devastated countryside. ‘Thus we reach a tragic close
to medizvalism in those parts, while nearer home it
drew to an end, not without tragedies on a minor scale,
but only those that are bound to accompany a rejection
of standards long recognised as the only valid ones.
a)
CHAPTER IV
Developments in Britain
F any excuse is needed for devoting a chapter to
the growth of towns in Great Britain it is to be
found in the fact that our island has, by reason of
its being an island, followed a distinctive line of develop-
ment, and, while occasionally we have conformed to,
or imitated, the manners of contemporary nations
across the seas, we have more often been impelled to
diverge from them owing to the force of circumstances
or to temperamental differences.
England has been called by its detractors the suburb
of Europe, and now that the garden suburb permits us
to regard such a term with equanimity and to postulate
merits as well as defects, we may accept it as justified
from more than one aspect. As far back as we can
carry our imagination, certainly long before the age of
any remains now existing, it seems to have been the
rule for Britain to be the ultimate goal of migrant
peoples from the Continent. Probably other lands
towards the edges of Europe shared this, but these
being, so to speak, within the town ditch, movement
took place gradually, while the crossing of the sea
involved a definite expedition by those aiming at a new
settlement. Thus the Romans found south Britain
inhabited by Gaulish tribes, while central and northern
England were occupied by men of different race from
those in Wales and Scotland, who, there is good reason
to believe, were themselves originally immigrants
driven back by the newer comers. There were un-
38
DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN
doubtedly strongly marked differences in life and
customs within the area which fell under Roman
domination. |
It is likely that the Belgie and Atrebates in the
south were constructing rectangular houses, while the
tribes in the west and north were living in circular huts.
At all events we find the latter, at least as late as 300
B.C., located as far south as Glastonbury, where the lake
villages have yielded indications of a fair standard of
civilisation, while the numerous hill forts of earlier
date could only have been constructed by the co-
operation of large numbers, in view of the vast amount
of work involved and the primitive implements avail-
able. .As the Glastonbury villages were composed of
circular huts and the hill forts contain no remains of
buildings other than hut circles, we may assume that
little more than defensive planning existed prior to the
advent of the Romans.
These naturally began with the construction of
camps on the recognised Roman model, and when
control was established the three fortress cities at
York, Chester and Caerleon, were, in A.D. 75, made
the permanent bases of the Ninth, T’wentieth and
Second Legions, and the more important camps were
given stronger fortifications which ultimately included
masonry walls with bastions, and sometimes a covered
way under the ramparts. When the country became
secure and settled, non-military towns, such as London,
Lincoln and Leicester, rose up, together with numerous
** villas scattered about the country, and suburban
extensions outside the legionary establishments. These,
while displaying Roman influence in their plan, were
oo
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
by no means so regularly laid out as the military stations,
and their walls were not usually rectangular, but in-
cluded an area of irregular shape corresponding to the
conformation of the ground or the needs of the place.
London’s earlier enclosure to the east of Walbrook was
nearer the standard type than its later wall, still clearly
defined, which includes an area by no means regular
in shape about a mile in length, while only half a mile
in width. The walls of Silchester have all been traced,
and in this case also, although the town streets are
rectangularly planned, the walls are laid out as an
irregular polygon.
Before the disintegration of the Roman Empire
involved the withdrawal of the last remaining legions
from Britain, there had already been conflicts with the
sea folk of north Germany, as is proved by the forts
constructed along the east coast during the fourth cen-
tury, and soon afterwards these immigrants over-
whelmed the Romanised Britons, the towns being
destroyed by reason of the fact that there was no place
for them in the agricultural and pastoral organisation
of the newcomers. ‘Thus we find that only in a few
instances do our medizeval towns retain traces of the
Roman plan, even where the positions are identical.
The initial destruction covered the site with débris,
and the subsequent ground level is considerably above
the original one ; yet we sometimes find the two main
cross-roads still surviving, quartering the city, as at
Chester or Chichester. What happened at Chester is so
unusual in the annals of towns that it demands passing
mention. The principal roads seem to have been
maintained at their original level, despite the destruc-
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DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN
tion of the Roman buildings that filled the spaces
between. Rebuilding took place on the top of the
consolidated remains of these, and the first houses
stood at the top of banks on either side of the road.
Subsequently little booths lined the lower frontages,
and eventually the lower and upper structures were
combined, hence we get the Chester “ Rows.” In
other places roads and all were buried under the débris
and refuse, so that we find the Roman pavements deep
below the surface of to-day, in London at a depth of
as much as 18 feet. The Great Fire may have helped
here, but in other towns the depth is considerable and
must be regarded as a reflection on the civic manage-
ment, or lack of it, in medizval times.
We now reach a point at which there is a clean slate
in regard to town development. With the exception,
perhaps, of London and a few other places having out-
standing natural advantages, the disappearance of the
town was complete, and the needs of the Anglo-Saxon
groups were met by the village. Many of the villages
then founded have altered very little from the sixth
century to the present day, but as others have formed
the nucleus of our country towns, small and large, it is
necessary that we should have an idea of how their
sites were chosen and of their constituent parts.
Water was naturally desired, and the presence of a
good spring frequently determined the selection ; else-
where streams are to be found near at hand, but on
uplands rain-water had to suffice. Where there was
navigable water, a frontage to this was always desirable,
and many parishes have long strips running down to
river or estuary, a system curiously parallel with that
AI
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
even now in vogue in eastern Canada, where farms have
been divided into long strips, each with a small river
frontage. Again, on the escarpments of the downs and
other ranges, boundaries were so delimited as to give
each place upland for pasture, woodland on the hillside,
and arable land on the plain.
While there were many variants, the more character-
istic type of village group comprised the manor house
—-the home of the thane—with, when he became a
Christian, the little church near by, and close at hand
the cottages of the churls. Around these were the
home pastures and, further out, the open arable land
which was allocated for cultivation year by year. A
water mill might, of course, have to be at some distance,
but the ideal was that the village should be a self-
supporting unit, independent of commerce, which only
began to re-establish itself later. Lacking this and the
idea of employing fortification, we find no incentive to
urban development and see nothing worthy of being
called a city during this phase.
The Roman system of national roads was not entirely
abandoned, but, as may be imagined, many fell into
disuse, as the villages demanded no more than a few
radial routes which were but poorly linked up with any
general road scheme.
We see at Avalon [the isle dominating the Somerset
marshland | the site tradition gives to the last stand that
British civilisation made against the invaders, and,
again, it is in isolated Athelney, in these same marshes,
that Alfred musters his forces to overcome the Danes.
By this we may picture how little then remained of the
Roman organisation of strong places and good com-
42
DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN
munication between them. Though it is conjectured
that Alfred may have done something in town building,
it is the castle and church-building Norman who starts
us on our road again. While his eye for a site was
primarily that of the fighting man, reviving commerce
evoked development, first on river banks, and later at
some inland centres. The lack of roads demanded that
the trafic should penetrate as far up the river as the
draught of the vessels permitted, and this often coin-
cided with a point at which it became fordable. Thus
many towns now no longer regarded as ports originated
as such, with the added advantage that they were at
the lowest point where the river could be crossed. As
the size of the ships increased the trade moved down
the river, and newer towns arose on sites formerly
avoided as being too vulnerable to raids from the sea.
The map of England illustrates many examples of this
tendency, which has operated from Norman times
down to the present day.
To return to the castle located as a stronghold from
which to control the surrounding district, and the town
that gathered at its gate, which, if of sufficient import-
ance, had usually its own enclosing wall, we see that
these towns grew up around the lines of approach that
conditions dictated, and that only subsequently a more
regular lay-out became general, when Edward I., whose
bastides in France have been mentioned already, laid
out Flint, Conway, Carnarvon, and other Welsh
bastides for the English colonies that he founded there,
on a plan that was rectangular, except where the line of
wall dictated a variation. The new King’s town upon
Hull, to take the place of Ravanser, endangered by the
43
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
encroachments of the sea, was on similar lines, and is
interesting as the first place where bricks were generally
used in the buildings, the idea, if not some of the actual
bricks, being imported from Flanders. The old town
of Winchelsea being in the same danger, Edward
decided to lay out a new one on a site about 100 feet
above the surrounding marshes, and here the lines of
the very regular plan remain to this day, owing to the
fact that it has steadily declined in importance from
shortly after its establishment.
These activities of King Edward I. appear to have
gone a good deal beyond the general practice of the time
in organised regularity, though there are several
examples of it even earlier than his day. When in 1220
it was decided to remove from the arid and windswept
height of Old Sarum to the plain below, and to build
Salisbury there, the plan adopted was approximately
rectangular, and it may well have been the delight of
water in plenty after the lack of it on the hill-top that
induced the designers to divert water from the Avon
so that a runlet passed through nearly every street.
Elsewhere we find from time to time examples of
rectangular, or at least rectilinear, planning, but as a
general rule our medieval towns, as those elsewhere,
show the type of plan that develops from the fulfilment
of simple needs without deliberate ordering of align-
ment and site; generally there was a central area for
meeting and business, which became the market-place,
and the roads directed themselves towards this, or, if
the town had still smaller beginnings, roads leading
towards the church, and the market-place, if any,
locating itself as near this point as possible. As
44
DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN
illustrating this, it is interesting to note that a statute
of 1285 forbids fairs and markets being held in
churchyards. ‘These open centres are now often in
large measure disguised, owing to the fact of their
having been built over by those who originally estab-
lished booths or stalls and gradually managed to
acquire a vested interest in the sites of these, though,
fortunately, there are many cases in which the market-
place remains on the original lines, either because the
character of the market has remained unchanged or
because there has been ample ground for such additional
building as was needed.
This latter condition has been fulfilled the more
frequently owing to the relatively early abandonment
of the walled city in this country. During the settled
times of the Tudor dynasty many of our towns spread
beyond their walls, which were rarely of a very for-
midable character; then the walls themselves were
abandoned, and in many cases gradually removed, so
that at the time of the Civil War of the seventeenth
century only a few towns were so defended. From this
time onward our island has been free from such alarms
as might have evoked the activities of a British Vauban,
and practically the only defensive works carried out
have been of the nature of coastal fortifications, includ-
ing a limited amount of protective lines at salient points,
such as our arsenals. This circumstance has freed us
from one of the chief influences towards congested
building, and has resulted in our towns being more
extended and having a lower standard of height than
is usual in most Continental cities of equal size. That
this difference struck the observant foreigner may be
45
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
realised from the remarks of the Count de Grammont
on Tunbridge Wells in the year 1664.
“The visitors lodge in little dwellings, clean and
convenient, separated from one another and scattered
everywhere within half a league of the Wells. In the
morning they assemble at the spot where the springs are
situated. There is a fine avenue of shady trees, beneath
which the visitors walk while they drink the waters. At
one side of this avenue stretches a long row of shops,
furnished with all sorts of elegant trifles, lace, stockings,
and gloves, where you may amuse yourself as at the
Fair. On the other side of the avenue the market is
held ; and as every one goes there to choose and buy
his own provisions, you see nothing exposed for sale
which could occasion disgust.”
Though Tunbridge Wells was undoubtedly more of
a “* Garden City ” than places given over to commerce,
we have only to compare the typical English town
houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with
those of other countries to appreciate the difference, as
only in a few of the busiest centres did they have four
or five floors ; elsewhere two, or at most three, was the
general standard, while gardens were quite usual within
the town area. The disadvantages of the overgrown
city seem to have had some measure of recognition, as
is evidenced by Elizabeth’s statute, placing a limit on
the expansion of London, an endeavour which at that
date naturally proved abortive in view of the imprac-
ticability of providing any alternative course, just as
the prohibition of the use of “ sea coal ”’ became a dead
letter for the same reason.
Until the industrial development brought about the
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DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN
intensive housing described elsewhere, the house was
always regarded as the building unit, with something
in the way of a garden attached, and the absence of this
adjunct was exceptional rather than general.
To realise the character of our towns some two hun-
dred years ago we must seek one that has not partici-
pated in the subsequent commercial expansion, an
example not easy to find, so generally has this form of
activity spread over the country. At the same time
many of the little market towns in the eastern and
southern counties will give a fair idea of the early days
of the great industrial centres, and with these as a
guide we can verify our impressions of the growth of
the larger towns from the few surviving buildings to be
seen here and there among the later ones that tower above
them, and from such fragments of the original centre and
street planning as have not been altogether obliterated.
This brings us down to the time when the “ utili-
tarian’’ plans submerged the character of the city
organism in ill-devised masses of dwellings, hurriedly
pushed up and without visualisation of the changes neces-
sary when a town has had to provide for ten or twenty
times its former population. ‘The individual houses
were probably no worse structurally, and no better,
than their immediate prototypes, but what could be
tolerated in scattered groups of a dozen or so became
deplorable when massed together by the hundred. The
only exceptions to this form of growth were in the
quarters reserved for the wealthy, and as both these
developments will come under review later on, our
summary of the conditions specifically British may be
brought to a close at this point.
47
CHAPTER V
The Renaissance
O much has been written on the Renaissance, and
the general aspects of this phase of history are
so well documented, that it would be absurd to
recapitulate them here, and all that need be done is to
pass directly to its effect on the planning of our towns.
As might be expected, this was not one of the earlier
developments of the movement. Sculpture and archi-
tecture showed the influence of the revived study of
classic times before the more general aspect of the towns
received attention. Probably the earliest definite scheme
on record was that for the remodelling of the Vatican
quarters in Rome prepared for Pope Nicholas V. (1447-
55), which was not carried out.
Naturally, central areas in proximity to important
buildings were the first to receive attention, and when
the Piazza della Signoria at Florence was enlarged,
Cosimo I. consulted Michael Angelo with regard to its
development.. His proposal was to carry loggie all
round the square, following the design of Orcagna’s
existing loggia, which stands to the right of the Palazzo
Vecchio. ‘This again was not executed, and the nine-
teenth century reconstruction of central Florence took
quite different lines.
As more became known of the ancient planning of
the Greco-Roman civilisation, the technique of the
Renaissance planners expanded, but though indebted to
classic times for the geometrical forms it employed, it
diverted these to dissimilar uses, taking a wider area on
48
THE RENAISSANCE
which to impose the patterns made up of street, square
and circus. We have seen that the Graeco-Roman work
in city planning was at first mainly rectangular, subse-
quently combining with this circular features and occa-
sional radials, that axial lines were strongly marked, and
that the vista with a terminal feature became a popular
form of expression. At the same time the more studied
effects in the combination of straight lines with curves
were almost always reserved for enclosed areas, such as
the forum or the bath. It remained for the Renaissance
designers to develop the circle as a feature in the general
plan of the city and to lay down radial lines as part of an
extended scheme.
As might be expected, Rome took the lead in this
development, and the work of Carlo Fontana there
initiated the movement towards planning on lines more
sophisticated from the geometrical standpoint, his
principal achievement being the alignment of the two
radial streets meeting the Corso (the old Roman road)
in the Piazza del Popolo. ‘Then we see Bernini’s
masterly forecourt to St. Peter’s and other fine roads
planned to reconstitute the city as a whole, and to
display its more striking buildings to the best advantage.
Other Italian towns followed suit, and in the Renais-
sance gardens of Italy the same general lines of treat-
ment were adopted.
The philosophic aspect of the city plan moved
several designers to prepare diagrams for the ideal city,
and naturally one of the earliest of these comes from the
hand of an Italian, the architect Scamozzi; but more
logical in treatment were the plan for Palma Nuova and
the design by Perret de Chambéry, in that, instead of
49 :
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
a rectangular plan being employed, the internal
arrangements are adapted to the polygonal outline
that the fortifications dictate. Leonardo da Vinci
also, among his varied activities, gave thought to the
problems of the city, and in one of his sketches shows
a double system of water and road routes, probably
suggested by Venice ; while another gives us roads on
two levels, such as might be employed with advantage
in some of our overworked modern towns.
France, in close touch with Italy at the time, was the
first to follow up on these geometrical lines of develop-
ment, and subsequently carried much farther the
system of a series of “ rond points ”’ connected by a
triangulated pattern of routes. It is suggested by
Professor Abercrombie that this type of plan was
influenced by the practice of forming large hunting
parks with rectilinear avenues and focal points as
meeting places. Apart from the fact that many of these
parks were quite close to the city, as adjuncts to the
royal palaces, the dignified formality of their imposing
avenues could not fail to suggest the idea of developing
city extensions on similar lines; more probably the
similarity may have arisen to some extent from the
same ideas working in parallel lines, for we see that the
first development of this kind, in Rome, was of earlier
date than the French hunting parks.
Reviewing the contribution of the Renaissance on
broad lines, it may be regarded as that of the geometrical
design of a road scheme which was an advance on the
previous rectangular plans. Hitherto the radial prin- |
ciple in planning had only made itself evident by
accident, as it were, where route lines had preceded
50
17. Ideal City Plan by Perret de Chambery
Facing page 50°
Facing page 51
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18, The Lay-out of a French Park which influenced City Planning
THE RENAISSANCE
lay-out. The ancient cities had accepted these but had
not embodied them in a deliberate plan, and although in
medizval towns they appear in plenty, this is only
where conscious planning is absent. Now we find the
philosophy of the art embracing the principle that
radial routes must form a feature in the lay-out of all
large cities, that these radials must be co-ordinated on
geometric lines, and reconciled at their points of
junction by means of a “ place ” planned to harmonise
the various angles at which they come together, usually
a circular one as the easiest solution, but sometimes
made more interesting by the adoption of other
shapes.
The acceptance of this kind of planning gives an
entirely different aspect to the city. With the ancients
the more important spaces were almost always closed in
by porticoes conveying the impression of a hall with
the sky as roof, and while the street had often a
dignified terminal feature, the main effort was usually
directed to producing a series of effects by the lay-out
of spaces more or less independent of each other. In
medizeval towns something of the same impression was
achieved by the accident that the streets were narrow
and tortuous, and the open centres so closely built up
that they appeared almost entirely encircled. Some of
the earlier work of Renaissance times displayed the
influence of these traditions, to mention squares such
as the Place Royale and Covent Garden, and the
hemicycle at Nancy ; but there is a continued tendency
to diverge from this in favour of co-ordinating all
streets and “ places ”’ into an open pattern, avoiding the
appearance of enclosure and abandoning to a large
51
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
extent the effects secured by continuous or encircling
facades. .
Under Louis XIV. extensive remodellings were
undertaken in Paris, and Le Notre, in the gardens of
Versailles, adopted a larger scale than that hitherto
employed in this type of design, while the same ideals
governed the new developments within the city, where
a group of able designers were in emulation to make
it worthy of the Roz-Soleil.
This emulation reached a culminating point a little
later, in the competition for a scheme glorifying Louis
XV., which has been comprehensively illustrated by
Patte. Here it was left to the competitors to select any
part of Paris for reconstruction as a setting for the
memorial statue, and thus the result was a number of
striking suggestions, most of which, though too extrava-
gant for achievement, illustrate very vividly the attitude
of the age towards the embellishment of the city. ‘The
outcome of this competition was the formation of the
Place de la Concorde, which defined the design of this
part of Paris in the form that it retains to this day.
The same type of monumental planning was con-
tinued right on to the time of Napoleon I., and the
‘“artist’s plan’’ prepared during the revolutionary
period has features that still remain on the programme
of improvement. These activities slackened later, but
were revived when Napoleon III. desired to continue
the Imperial tradition and appointed Haussmann to
superintend the reconstruction of Paris. ‘The work under
his régime adhered closely to the eighteenth-century
model, which throughout the major part of the nine-
teenth century set the standard for lay-out on the
52
THE RENAISSANCE
Continent, and even elsewhere when the matter received
any consideration at all.
Doubtless this system owed much to the increasing
demands of wheeled traffic, which brought the roadway
into greater prominence as a factor in town life, but
this would not necessarily have dictated the formality
of treatment, which was a direct inheritance from
Roman times. It is the combination of the ideal of
spacious dignity with the demand for accessibility that
produced this characteristic type of plan. Before study-
ing it in detail, passing mention must be made of the
theory that it arose from military convenience and the
advantages it offered in the control of disorder. Though
it is established that a number of straight, wide roads
have been made with this object in view, and these now
take their place in, and are not distinguishable from,
the remainder of the plan in which they occur, this
consideration does not appear to have affected the
original type of design nor to have modified it to any
material extent. Despite the generally “closed ”
character of the Grzeco-Roman plans, there are nume-
rous instances of the inclusion of the vista where a long
approach leads to an important temple or other build-
ing, a type of effect probably derived from Egypt or
Asia. Now, the enhanced importance given to the
straight and wide street in the seventeenth century
inevitably brought the value of a terminal feature again
into prominence, and as the geometric plan afforded
numerous viewpoints for important buildings or
monuments placed at street intersections, the geome-
tric plan and the terminal feature became inseparable,
and the dominant influences on Renaissance city design.
Shs
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
These influences were responsible for the reconstruc-
tions of medieval centres with the object of freeing the
cathedral to take its place as a street terminal, which,
incidentally, often deprived it of surroundings har-
monising with its design and destroyed the effect
originally intended. This, however, was merely an
occasional error, the main virtue of Renaissance plan-
ning being unaffected by it, the virtue which lies in a
consistent harmony between the planning of the build-
ings themselves and their relation to each other. Axial
and symmetrical planning having established itself for
the buildings, it is only rational that this axiality and
symmetry should extend to the spaces in which they
stand, and thus we get in lieu of the medizval artist
making his designs so as to fill effectively the accidental
voids at his disposal, the considered treatment of general
plan and building groups as a single operation. This is
where the subsequent developments on similar lines
failed, and ultimately brought a measure of discredit on
this type of plan. The two components becoming
separated, street plans were made without any guarantee
that the sites would be occupied by appropriate struc-
tures. Under no circumstances is it wise to frame a
lay-out without definite views as to the buildings it 1s
to provide for, but in the case of planning of the geome-
trical type such a course is peculiarly conducive to
failure.
In France the strength of architectural tradition
saved the situation to some extent, but elsewhere in
Europe the effect of the formal plans suffered much
from an empirical eclecticism in the design of the
buildings, as may be seen in the Ringstrasse at Vienna,
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THE RENAISSANCE
while in the United States the even greater latitude as
to building masses and design prevalent during the
nineteenth century was destructive of any merit to which
the plan of Washington by L’Enfant could lay claim
to. ‘This scheme, in which the radials of the typical
Renaissance plan are superimposed on the traditional
American gridiron, could not have been a success
without further efforts to reconcile the two, but if the
terminal features and the main centres had been more
strongly emphasised a better result would have accrued.
Recent efforts in this direction have effected improve-
ments, but the radical defect of the numerous irregular
intersections can hardly be overcome.
A little later the reconstruction of Detroit after a
fire offered an opportunity for the introduction of a
geometrical plan which endeavoured to combine the
advantages of the diagonal element with a continuously
uniform street pattern, and the area then planned forms
the centre of the city, though subsequent expansion was
on the usual rectangular lines. ‘The scheme offered
architectural possibilities of which little advantage was
taken. Up till recently these represent the only two
instances in America evidencing the influence of Renais-
sance planning, but now the great movement for civic
improvement there bases itself on this tradition, and
the same reliance is placed on it as in the Latin coun-
tries of Europe, in distinction from those usually termed
Teutonic, in which, as we shall see in a later chapter,
a new technique has been substituted which aims at
putting town planning on a broader footing than that
recognised by the artists of the Renaissance.
55
CHAPTER VI
Aristocratic Planning
HILE the earlier phases of Renaissance
design preserved the democratic convention
of the city as a whole, and made no attempt
to differentiate between the superior and inferior
quarters of a city, we find in the eighteenth century a
definite specialisation of lay-out, where attention was
mainly directed to the provision of a dignified and
impressive scheme for the sole benefit of the more
opulent members of the community.
We find examples of this in the extensions of Paris
and other large French cities, in the west end of London,
in the new town at Edinburgh, in Bath, and, on a more
limited scale, in many other English towns. In Ger-
many the reconstructions, both political and economic,
after the Thirty Years’ War, involved considerable
activity in town planning, but the new towns, though
developed under Governments paternal in form, are
not solely aristocratic in conception, as they aim at pro-
viding for the community as a whole. At the same
time, they are dominated technically by the aristocratic
idea, the palace of the ruler being the central feature to
which the whole plan is related. Karlsruhe and Mann-
heim may be quoted as typical. ‘The planning in these
cases, though it is aristocratic in type, since it emanates
from a Government of that character, differs from those
other developments that concern themselves solely with
the accommodation of the well-to-do classes.
It will be best to consider the German examples
56
ARISTOCRATIC PLANNING
first, as more akin to the previous course of Renaissance
design. Karlsruhe represents in fact a definite concep-
tion for a complete town of the Renaissance type,
pivoted on the palace. It dates from 1715, and is
notable for its fan-shaped plan, the town occupying
rather less, and the park rather more, than half of a
complete wheel which has at its hub the palace tower.
In the park the radial lay-out stretches for a consider-
able distance, but as this extent would become mono-
tonous in a town it is cut through by a broad main
street beyond which, though the radials continue, the
circular roads are omitted and straight ones at varying
angles are substituted. The whole plan is an interesting
device, but is not one which would fulfil general
requirements. It may have owed something to the lay-
out of Versailles, but it is, in the main, an original
conception.
The plan of Mannheim was more conventional, on
the normal rectangular lines admissible for the limited
area the town covered. ‘The street proportions are
good, but it has no great distinction. Fortunately its
later expansion has been well guided, and the inclusion
of a radial system in this has made for convenience and
order. Special features in other capitals of the German
principalities illustrate this type of scheme, but a more
interesting example will claim our attention if we cross
the Rhine and pay a visit to Nancy, where the architect
Heré laid out for the Duke of Lorraine the section of
the city which comprises the Place Stanislas, the Place
de la Carriére and the Hemicycle. The main buildings
were for the accommodation of the Ducal Court, and
the whole conception is more in the direction of a
57
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
palace than of the civic group that it has now become.
At the same time it was welded into the town plan and
links up the old city very effectively with the new
extensions to the west.
It is in England, however, that what we have termed
“aristocratic”? planning takes a special significance,
because, while on the Continent the controlling
influences nearly always operated with an eye to the
town as a whole, the influence of the Renaissance in
England, as regards town planning, does not appear to
have reached the minds of those who had the control of
our cities. Doubtless the historian could find good
reason for the extraordinary difference between the
development of Continental towns and those of England
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There
are a number of political and social factors that come
to mind, the discussion of which does not come within
eur province. Whatever the causes were, the fact
remains obvious that during this period the ideal of a
replanned town never took form with us, while it was
general elsewhere.
The great chance for such a movement seems to have
vanished when Wren’s plan for rebuilding London,
devised by a man of the highest genius in accordance
with the best traditions of the Renaissance, was aban-
doned, and the city was reconstructed on its old lines.
Had this opportunity not been lost, there would doubt-
less have arisen a general recognition of the need for
good planning throughout the country, and subsequent
efforts would not have been so uniformly limited to
private enterprise as they were, with the one exception
of Edinburgh, a place always more susceptible to the
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ARISTOCRATIC PLANNING
influence of the Continent than the remainder of Great
Britain. We must, however, retrace our steps and take
up our story at the time when Inigo Jones introduced
to this country the manner of planning then in vogue
abroad. He had here no opportunity for comprehen-
sive schemes such as were in view in Rome, and even
in Paris the new developments had not got very far ;
thus his imaginings were still limited to the dignified
square, itself as much an architectural conception as
a building, and with this in his mind he laid out
Covent Garden and Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and in so
doing exercised an influence on the future of London
and other cities that he probably little realised. That
Wren would have carried the technique of city planning
much farther can be realised when we look at Green-
wich Hospital, not to speak of his plan for the city,
but his opportunity went by, and, while his ablest
successors were busy with the mansions of the nobility,
the square remained for half a century the only addi-
tion to our treatment of the town plan. Bristol, then
the second city of the kingdom, constructed the
spacious Queen Square near the harbour for its leading
merchants, and’in London we find a long series of
squares built on dignified lines to provide appropriate
residential quarters for the aristocracy and well-to-do
classes. ‘Though many of these have fallen from their
high estate, there are few which have become so
defaced that it is not possible to visualise what they
once were. We must, however, be aware of the fact
that the enclosed gardens belong to a later date,
and that the original plan provided an open place,
generally with a central monument and, perhaps, an
59
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
encircling promenade under a single or double line
of trees.
St. James’s, Queen, Red Lion and Soho Squares
belong to this period. Hanover, Cavendish and
Bloomsbury Squares are a little later. Grosvenor,
Portman, and the neighbouring ones follow on; and
the other squares in Bloomsbury continue the suc-
cession.
But, if we are to proceed in order of time, we must
at this point leave London and transport ourselves to
Bath, where we find that, following Queen’s Square,
designed by John Wood the elder, his son planned first
the Circus, with its three roads of entry, so that each
might be terminated by the facades of the houses, and
continued his scheme to include a sweeping crescent
on a larger scale than anything hitherto done, both
introducing the circular element that had not so far
been adopted in our street planning, though it was to
be found in the design of some of our large mansions.
It was some time before this element was generally
adopted, though eventually it achieved popularity,
more especially in our watering places, where the
crescent became a standard feature overlooking the sea,
and elsewhere when the site seemed to suggest it as a
suitable form. In London several examples date from
the end of the eighteenth century, but not in prominent
positions, till Nash, who fully recognised the value of
the contrast between straight and circular, planned
Regent Street, with its quadrant, its two circuses, and
its termination in Park Crescent.
About the same time Bayswater began to spread
westward, and Belgravia ran neck and neck with it,
60
ARISTOCRATIC PLANNING
reaching its limits the earlier of the two. Both districts
include a certain amount of circular planning, but are
in the main rectilinear in design. At the later stages
of the Bayswater development a slight variation was
made in the type of the square. On the adoption of the
central enclosure it had been treated as the joint
garden of the residents, who crossed the road to enter
it. ‘The new arrangement placed the enclosure between
the backs of two rows of houses, in the position formerly
occupied by a mews accommodating the range of
private stables, which were in the eighteenth century
regarded as necessary adjuncts to houses of this class.
By the middle of the nineteenth century the increase in
public conveyances rendered this accommodation super-
fluous, and terrace houses could have access from both
sides ; therefore, it was clearly advantageous that, while
one side faced the street, the other should have a private
access to the enclosure.
In following the fortunes of London we have been
drawn so far ahead that we must now turn back to
an earlier date to consider the progress made elsewhere.
On our way to Edinburgh, let us pause to pay a tribute
of regret to the delightful little “ Old Square” in
Birmingham, now entirely swept away, which was a
perfectly proportioned little “ place,” with its sixteen
wide-fronted early Georgian houses and the roads
entering in the middle of each side. Other towns can
still show us pleasant little squares, but none possessing
more quiet old-world dignity than this did.
In Edinburgh, George Square, to the south of the old
town, was built in 1766, and in the following year the
most comprehensive development this island can show
61
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
was commenced from the plans of James Craig. This
is the only large municipal scheme of that age, and the
southern section, first carried through, is noble in scale,
while the simple rectangular planning suits well enough
the comparatively level site. ‘Towards the end of the
century the extension northward was in hand, and this
included a fair proportion of circular planning in its
three circuses and two crescents. The site here would
have greatly exercised the mind of the modern town
planner, as it is on a slope falling rapidly to the north,
with a fine outlook in that direction. How far would it
be practicable to take advantage of the view and yet
secure that the houses should not have an aspect solely
northern—what ingenuity would not be expended in
achieving this? But the planners of that day had no
misgivings ; town was town, and had no concern with
natural beauties, viewpoints, or sunlight, so that the
monumental plan adopted bears no indication of a
hillside, and has every appearance of having been
designed for a level plain. The standard of dignity
here set up was maintained in Edinburgh until the rail-
ways came in and cut up the surrounding areas in such
a manner that its continuance was no longer possible,
apart from the fact that it was only suited to the needs
of the wealthier citizens.
The eighteenth century brought to Dublin also
much added dignity, with noble buildings, streets and
squares, but here the political union with Great Britain
had the tragical effect of depriving them of the occu-
pants for whom they were designed and bringing about,
even more quickly and emphatically, the degradation
to which other “ aristocratic” quarters have been
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ARISTOCRATIC PLANNING
reduced owing to the shifting of the centres of fashion.
In most cases the displacement has been in favour
of business undertakings, but here the finest houses
have been turned over to the poorest of the poor, for
whom they were quite unsuitable. In the north of
Ireland we find that much of Belfast was systematically
laid out during the early nineteenth century on not
very interesting lines, and crossing over to Glasgow we
see that somewhat later there was a good deal of sound
planning for the wealthier quarters of the town. The
remodelling of Newcastle under Richard Grainger was
skilfully done, and, as the fine streets he laid out now
form the central area of the town, his work has saved
the municipality the task of making costly improve-
ments such as have been found necessary in other large
towns.
From this summary it will be realised that at no time
was the art of planning our towns in complete abeyance ;
but if we are tempted to congratulate ourselves on this,
we can only do so if we shut our eyes to the fact that all
our illustrations have had, perforce, to be drawn from
undertakings concerned only with the wealthy, or at
least the well to do.
The fact that the west end is usually the part of the
city occupied by the opulent, except where the natural
formation of the site forbids it, has provoked many
attempts at an explanation. It has often been attributed
to an assumption that the prevailing wind drives the
smoke eastward, a statement that is, to say the least,
open to doubt. Is it not far more probable that, the
time of leisure and recreation coming towards the latter
end of the day, man naturally turns his steps towards
63
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
the brightness of the evening sky? Let any one try it
for himself and, standing at four or five o’clock where
conditions in all directions are fairly similar, see in
which direction he feels, eliminating any preconceived
intention, inclined to direct his steps. Will it not be
westward °
Moreover, in the old days of the walled city, by far
the pleasantest evening promenade must have been
outside the western walls, and, therefore, all who were
in a position to choose gathered themselves together in
this quarter, and thus established the “‘ west end ”
tradition. It may safely be said that the only towns not
obedient to this rule are those in which the conforma-
tion of the site, or some dominating economic require-
ment, imposes a marked physical obstacle to the
tendency towards such an arrangement.
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Facing page 65
CHAPTER VII
The Industrial Age and After
4 SHE title of ‘‘ the industrial age’ is given, per-
haps unfairly, to that period in which the rapid
discovery of machine methods of production
and the putting into operation of these methods took
such a predominant place in human activities as to
exclude, to a large extent, all other forms of effort, with
the result that we have to record, as against a clear
economic gain, a marked set-back in every branch of
social comity.
As is generally recognised, the British Isles had
almost a monopoly of this unenviable phase, and
though it spread abroad, and we see at the present day
an aftermath in the industrial centres of Asia, Britain
had such a long start in this form of unrestrained pro-
duction that the evils it brought in its wake were
becoming apparent before other countries followed
suit, and, therefore, things never reached the same
pitch of degradation elsewhere.
We can see on all sides the legacy that has come
down to us from the age that Dickens depicts so graphi-
cally in “ Hard Times,” but for those whose good for-
tune it has been to live far from any “ Coketown,”’ it
may not be amiss to quote one paragraph from his
description of the outward appearance of that place,
though, did space permit, one would be tempted to add
others exhibiting the psychology of those responsible,
more illuminating than the mere description of
appearances.
65 ) s
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
“It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would
have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it ;
but as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and
black, like the painted face of a savage. It was a town
of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which inter-
minable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever
and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black
canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling
dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where
there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and
where the piston of the steam-engine worked mono-
tonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in
a state of melancholy madness. It contained several large
streets all very like one another, and many small streets
still more like one another, inhabited by people equally
like one another, who all went in and out at the same
hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements
to do the same work, and to whom every day was the
same as yesterday and to-morrow, and every year the
counterpart of the last and the next.’
It is not easy to imagine how such a lapse from sane
living was possible, unless by accepting the theory that
man, having made the machine, this took its revenge by
mechanicalising him and his life, and sweeping away
the last fragments of the gracious relationships that had
survived from earlier times.
Communal life has at all times evoked struggles
between the groups and interests it comprehends, but
the rules of the game have varied, so that while in many
cases the results have left no enduring effect, in this
one they may take centuries to extirpate. Mere oppres-
sion and the reactions it provokes, responsible for much
66
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THE INDUSTRIAL AGE AND AFTER
bloodshed and devastation, have left behind fewer ills
than this apparently beneficent discovery of vast
economies in the methods of production, which unfor-
tunately brought with it an irresistible tendency to-
wards the destruction of individuality, and the change
from the man into the “ hand,” the latter coming to be
regarded as having no claim on any intelligent part in
the functioning of the social machine.
How this influenced the structure of our towns is
sufficiently obvious. ‘The urgent need of the moment
was simply to house the accumulating masses of
workers as cheaply and as rapidly as possible ; no one
had time or disposition to think of their future, and
though there is no reason to suppose that the actual
standard of housing was lowered, what may be harm-
less in scattered groups becomes disastrous in vast
masses with the cumulative disadvantages of dense
smoke and the removal from qualifying rural amenities.
Karel Capek emphasised this aspect when he drew the
following picture :—
“The horrible thing in East London is not what can
be seen and smelt, but its unbounded and unredeemable
extent. Elsewhere poverty and ugliness exist merely as
a rubbish-heap between two houses, but here are miles
and miles of grimy houses, hopeless streets, Jewish
shops, a superfluity of children, gin palaces and Chris-
tian shelters—everything equally dull, grimy, bare and
unending, intersected by dirty channels of deafening
trafic. In the south, in the north-west, in the north-
east again the same thing, miles and miles of grimy
houses, where the whole street consists of nothing but
a vast horizontal tenement, factories, gasometers, rail-
67
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
way lines, clayey patches of waste ground, warehouses
for goods and warehouses for human beings. There
are assuredly uglier quarters and squalider streets in
all parts of the world, even squalor is here on a higher
level, and the poorest beggar is not clad in rags ; but,
good heavens, the human beings, the millions of
human beings who live in this greater half of London,
in these short, uniform, joyless streets, which teem on
the plan of London, like worms in a huge carrion.
And that is just the distressing thing about the East
End—there is too much of it; and it cannot be re-
shaped. In this overwhelming quantity it no longer
looks like an excess of human beings, but like a geolo-
gical formation.” 3
Planning there was none, except that demanded by
the economics of arrangement and construction. ‘The
previous standards of density, bad even in the conditions
then subsisting, were not amended, and the need for
ameliorative provisions was not even visualised, except
by one or two more advanced thinkers, such as Robert
Owen and William Cobbett, who were unable to make
headway against the sweeping current of unrestricted
industrialism. Only about 1845 did any strong move-
ment arise to stem this current by means of sanitary
measures, a limited provision of open spaces, and by
improvements in the character of dwellings.
Titus Salt built a village for the workers in his mills
in the year 1851, and though this is by no means in
conformity with the ideas of the present day, it indicates
an awakening to the fact that the existing standards were
in dire need of amendment. However, there was a long
lapse of time before any other manufacturer followed
68
THE INDUSTRIAL AGE AND AFTER
his example, and though the standard of lay-out and
construction had an upward tendency, this was solely
from the “ practical ”’ standpoint, and it was not until
the ’eighties that any further move was made and
Bournville and Port Sunlight were founded.
But we are travelling too fast; before looking into
later phases of industrial town planning, it is incumbent
on us to visualise more definitely what preceded them.
When we come to consider the details of what has been
termed the “ utilitarian ”’ plan, we see that it embodied
almost every possible defect from the town planner’s
point of view. The actual houses themselves are dealt’
with elsewhere, but the allocation and arrangement of
sites for the homes of the people appear to have been
decided with such an utter disregard of normal human
demands, as we now visualise them, that it seems no
longer worth while to embark on a detailed criticism.
Nevertheless, a phase that has left so definite an impress
on our town life may not be altogether ignored, and a
bare outline must be given of what our heritage is in this
respect, if merely as a text indicating evils to be avoided.
‘“ Utilitarian ’’ planning—though the title be a
misnomer, it is a convenient one to employ—is simply
a negation of town planning as we now know it. Sites
were selected merely because they were at hand, regard-
less of whether they were suitable for occupation.
Well or badly drained, it made no difference ; smoke,
dirt or noise were of no consequence; aspect and
outlook were alike disregarded ; workers were there,
they must have a roof over their heads, and the more
you could pack together the better, as it saved the
bother of looking farther afield. It was not that at this
69
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
time the knowledge of building or planning had
deteriorated, since the rich were given fine streets and
good houses ; it was simply that no one had ever had
to plan on comprehensive lines for the worker, and
until the effects of the neglect to do so began to evidence
themselves it did not strike any one that such planning
was necessary. It is not to be believed that our fore-
fathers were deliberately inhuman ; more probably it
was mere absentmindedness in this direction. ‘They
had thought comfort in such things to be a luxury on
a par with fine clothes and rich food, and not a matter
of general necessity. It took a long time to realise
this error, and it is taking longer still to rectify it.
A brief quotation from Mr. Christopher Dawson’s
description of the state of affairs at this time helps us
to realise the position :—
‘* 'The living social organs were those of the national
state, and were rural and aristocratic in character.
The rulers of the country looked on the development
of the new coal mines and factories in somewhat the
same way as a Roman senator would have viewed the
work of his slave gangs on his provincial estates—as
something outside and below civic life. The medizval
constitutions of the municipalities were no longer
functioning. ‘The craft regulations were mere anti-
quarian survivals. ‘The body of Freemen had practically
disappeared ; the essential’ work of the Common
Council was being taken over by the Borough Justices
of the Peace, and by a number of anomalous bodies—
Paving Commissioners, Police Commissioners and the
like—created by special Acts of Parliament. Some of the
greatest industrial towns were not even corporate cities.
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THE INDUSTRIAL AGE AND AFTER
‘Moreover, as the ruling classes were not city
dwellers, there was no opportunity for contact and
adjustment between the new raw industrial city and the
contemporary standards of civilised living. Even the
rich manufacturers themselves did not make a perma-
nent home in the towns which produced their wealth.
It was their ambition to climb out of their town into
the society of the country, which preserved all its
social prestige, even in districts where the material
advance of the new towns was greatest. In medizval
Florence the nobles came into the city as it grew rich,
but in nineteenth century Leeds and Manchester the
merchants and manufacturers went into the country.
There was none of that civic patriotism which caused
the medizeval merchant to spend so large a proportion
of his wealth in the service and adornment of the city.
And, in the same way, the semi-servile class of wage-
labourers, who formed the true population of the new
towns, grew up without traditions or ideals, with no
share in the national franchise or in the government
of their city. Their standards of life were even lower,
and their interests more limited, than those of the rural
class from which they had sprung. No doubt the
medizval artisan had no high standard of life, but at
least he shared in the living organic life of his city ; and
the gulf between his existence and that of the collier
or cotton spinner of the later eighteenth century 1s
almost as great as that which separates civilisation from
barbarism.” |
If the planning for those engaged in industry had
stopped at this point it could only have claimed men-
tion as a deplorable phase, of no interest except as
Ti
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
exemplifying what to avoid. But fortunately it 1s pos-
sible to supplement our account of this with the story
of the last forty years, in which has been exhibited a
steady upward movement that has brought it to a point
where it became possible for a Cabinet Minister to
say, ““I am tired of hearing the term working-class
housing, it is time now to speak simply of housing,’
showing us that the ideals of the home need no longer
be differentiated in terms of the occupation of the
householder.
The obligation of providing good housing for their
employees was accepted by Mr. George Cadbury when
he founded Bournville in 1879, and by Mr. W. H.
Lever (now Lord Leverhulme) when he started to lay
out Port Sunlight in 1888. ‘The first-named is more
notable for the provisions dictating its development.
The basis was seven houses to the acre, giving, after
deductions for roads, etc., 500 square yards to each
house ; one-tenth of the whole was allotted to parks
and recreation grounds, and appropriate sites were
provided for public buildings. ‘The distance between
house fronts was fixed at 82 feet, so that in every way
the regulations were liberal in character. From the
points of view of health and general amenity, Bourn-
- ville takes a very high place, but the same favourable
verdict can hardly be extended to include the planning
from the zsthetic standpoint. The lay-out was unin-
teresting, and has been very greatly improved on in
schemes of later date. At Port Sunlight, much of
which was earlier than Bournville, the planning dis-
plays a much clearer intention as regards the grouping
of the houses, the lines of the roads, and the distribu-
72
- THE INDUSTRIAL AGE AND AFTER
tion of open spaces. If the economics of planning
could be disregarded it might be considered as ideal ;
that this was the aim of its founder is not to be doubted ;
he has made every provision that struck him as bene-
ficial regardless of a direct return for it, a course which,
while it makes the conception most interesting as an
illustration of possibilities, somewhat vitiates it as a
criterion of the principles to be adopted where less
ample resources are available. For example, the plan
adopted made heavy demands in making up the ground,
and, this done, there is at least 50 per cent. more road-
way than is necessary for the buildings served. In
the village of Earswick, Messrs. Rowntree have had
the advantage of being able to study the work of their
predecessors in this line, and have been able to plan, on
economic lines, an industrial colony that possesses the
merit of good lay-out from the points of view of amenity
and appearance.
A later industrial village is Dormanstown, built by
Dorman Long and Company for their steelworkers.
This is of quite a different type, and owes its formal
treatment to the fact that its designers felt that no other
type of plan would be appropriate to a uniformly flat
site. The village built by C. Furness and Company for
their shipbuilders on the other side of the ‘Tees is also
more or less geometric in plan.
In other parts of the country various industrial con-
cerns have of late years been making similar provision,
and on the Continent we must not pass unnoticed the
extensive activities of the firm of Krupp, at Essen, in
this direction, while even in the Far East we find at
Cawnpore the workers of the Lalimli Woollen Mills
73
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
housed in a model colony, which, while utterly unlike
any in Europe, at the same time represents the best
possible provision for those concerned.
But there is yet another branch of this development
that claims attention. For some fifteen years great
advances have been made in the provision of miners’
villages, which have in many instances, owing to difh-
culties of location and site, demanded very skilful
planning. Where the land 1s fairly flat there are no
marked differences between these and other industrial
villages, but in some parts, such as South Wales, the
mines are in very broken country, mostly narrow
valleys between ridges and uplands too high for con-
venience of access and for water supplies. Formerly
the cottages were crowded haphazard into these valleys,
but of late the hill-sides have been carefully planned out
to give convenient routes, and the latitude allowed in
proportioning roads to the demands on them has
enabled these to be reduced, where it was better to
place houses on one side only and this arrangement
makes a better scheme feasible. In one or two cases
good sites above the valley slopes have been found to
be available, and the villages placed at these higher
levels are healthier and more attractively developed
than those on the steep slopes below.
In the areas now being developed by deep mines,
with pit-heads some four miles apart, mining is less
destructive of the amenity of the district than formerly,
and the villages placed half a mile or more from the
shaft can retain an environment of a rural character. ©
There is thus some hope that the impending colliery
development in East Kent will not turn this attractive
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THE INDUSTRIAL AGE AND AFTER
district into the type of Black Country characteristic of
the older coal workings, and if it is decided to convert
the coal into electric energy at the pit-head the pros-
pect is more hopeful than would be the case if the
coal were to be transported to separate factories scat-
tered over the country-side. The Doncaster coalfield
includes examples of what might be anticipated in the
case of East Kent, where the preservation of the natural
beauty of the district is of even greater importance.
It must be placed to the credit of the town planning
movement that it has emphasised the fact that, with a
few exceptions, industrial activities can economically be
carried on without desolating the surrounding districts
to the extent of condemning those compelled to occupy
them to a life deprived of the amenities which should
be every man’s birthright.
75
CHAPTER VIII
Romanticism
of all deliberate planning which marks the indus-
trial expansion of our towns, there grew up a school
of design which, while limited in its appeal at the time,
was ultimately destined to exercise a very marked
influence on English towns, and ultimately to extend
thence, in a lesser degree, to other countries. ‘This
‘““ Romantic ”’ school quite obviously arises part passu
with a like development in literature, and is the outcome
of the almost inevitable reaction of the Anglo-Saxon
against the hard logic and civic formality of the Renais-
sance. A quotation from Washington Irving’s “ Sketch
Book ”’ will form a fitting prelude to the consideration
of this development :—
‘““In some countries, the large cities absorb the
wealth and fashion of the nation; they are the only
fixed abodes of elegant and intelligent society, and
the country is inhabited almost entirely by boorish
peasantry. In England, on the contrary, the metropolis
. is a mere gathering place, or general rendezvous, of the
polite classes, where they devote a small portion of the
year to a hurry of gaiety and dissipation, and having
indulged this kind of carnival, return again to the
apparently more congenial habits of rural life. The
various orders of society are therefore diffused over
the whole surface of the kingdom, and the most retired
neighbourhoods afford specimens of the different ranks.
“The English, in fact, are strongly gifted with the
76
|: is curious that, contemporary with that negation
ROMANTICISM
rural feeling. They possess a quick sensibility to the
beauties of nature, and a keen relish for the pleasures
and employments of the country. This passion seems
inherent in them. Even the inhabitants of cities, born
and brought up among brick walls and bustling streets,
enter with facility into rural habits, and evince a tact
for rural occupation. ‘The merchant has his snug
retreat in the vicinity of the metropolis, where he often
displays as much pride and zeal in the cultivation of his
flower garden, and the maturing of his fruits, as he does
in the conduct of his business and the success of a
commercial enterprise. Even those less fortunate
individuals, who are doomed to pass their lives in the
midst of din and traffic, contrive to have something
_ that shall remind them of the green aspect of nature.
In the most dark and dingy quarters of the city, the
drawing room window resembles frequently a bank of
flowers ; every spot capable of vegetation has its grass
plot and flower bed ; and every square its mimic park,
laid out with picturesque taste, and gleaming with
refreshing verdure.
“Those who see the Englishman only in town are
apt to form an unfavourable opinion of his social
character. . . . It isin the country that the Englishman
gives scope to his natural feelings. He breaks loose
gladly from the cold formalities and negative civilities
of town; throws off his habits of shy reserve, and
becomes joyous and free-hearted. He manages to
collect round him all the conveniences and elegancies
of polite life, and to banish its restraints. His country
seat abounds with every requisite, either for studious
retirement, tasteful gratification, or rural exercise.
ie
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
Books, paintings, music, horses, dogs, and sporting
implements of all kinds, are at hand. He puts no con-
straint either upon his guests or himself, but in the true
spirit of hospitality provides the means of enjoyment,
and leaves every one to partake according to his
inclination.”
The first indications of the movement are, as we may
well expect from the foregoing, an antagonism towards
the dignified and reticent formality of the parks and
gardens surrounding the great mansions. ‘These had
never been a really national form of expression, and had
always owed much to the influence of the Continental
gardeners, who had brought their technique into
harmony with the standards of the Renaissance, which
at no time dominated England to the extent it did the
Continent.
The initiative was doubtless with the cultivated
classes of the eighteenth century, who found in “ Capa-
bility ’ Brown and others, men competent to give their
views form and shape. As the result of the activities
of these men, most of the large geometrically-planned
gardens were swept away, and what were regarded as
naturalistic designs substituted. Now, we are not
especially concerned with these gardens as such, but
their reformation exercised so notable an influence on
English town planning of the nineteenth century that
we must find space for a brief description of the chief
novelties that were then introduced.
The rectilinear and rectangular planning of the
architect was to be reserved for buildings only, where
indeed it is largely inevitable. As the straight line is
not to be found in nature, and as the garden is made
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ROMANTICISM
up of natural features, it was decided that the use
of forms employing all uniformly straight lines or
geometric curves must be abandoned in favour of a
lay-out dictated by the eye on the site, in order to
make such groupings as could be regarded as pictures
simulating those to be found where untouched nature
exhibits scenes happily proportioned. Buildings were
to follow suit as far as possible ; balance of irregular
masses was to take the place of symmetry, and the
pictures could be completed by any features deemed
appropriate, such as artificial ruins, rock-work and
waterfalls. Of course these ideals were rarely pressed
to extremes ; roads and paths were still a necessity,
and the resulting compromises emphasised the fact
that a dwelling-house could not avoid being an artificial
intrusion, and that naturalism in relation to human
requirements could only be a travesty of nature. The
more extravagant features had but a fleeting popularity,
but the determination that all paths should take wavy
lines and all lakes and planting should have irregular
outlines persisted for more than a century, and such
ideas are even now the stock-in-trade of many a land-
scape gardener. As an indication of the established
popularity of this school of design, another reference
to Washington Irving’s “ Sketch Book” shows the
enthusiasm which its departure from previous traditions
had aroused :—
“The taste of the English in the cultivation of land,
and in what is called landscape gardening, is un-
rivalled. They have studied Nature intently, and dis-
cover an exquisite sense of her beautiful forms and
harmonious combinations. ‘Those charms, which in
79
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
other countries she lavishes in wild solitudes, are here
assembled round the haunts of domestic life. They
seem to have caught her coy and furtive graces, and
spread them, like witchery, about their rural abodes.”
During the earlier days of this fashion public streets
were still planned on geometric lines, no departure
from these being possible as long as dwelling-houses
were built in blocks ; but as Romanticism spread from
the few to the many, it became responsible for the
vogue of the detached villa, with its garden imitating
on a small scale the features of the grounds of a country
mansion. ‘Then it was seen that the roads could be
aligned on any varying curves that the levels or the
scenery dictated. Naturally the dictates of fashion
secured a preference for the winding road, and these
were often made without any extraneous reason for
such an alignment. We find areas around many of
our principal towns where the straight road appears to
be definitely taboo, as at Bournemouth, Hastings, Wim-
bledon Park, and elsewhere, and in many cases these
have obviously been formed with no specific intention
other than that of avoiding the straight line. Neverthe-
less, futile as many of these schemes were, they have
the merit of rendering more flexible our previously too
limited ideas as to the possibilities of development,
and in our own day we can hold the balance fairly
between the over-rigid demands of the geometrical
plan and the illogical ones of the later efforts to impart
curves and turns to every road, whether the formation
of the site suggested them or not. Thus present
practice takes account of natural features without
attempting the actual simulation of nature, a task clearly
80
ROMANTICISM
impossible in relation to the provisions for the needs of
human activities.
Outside England, the comparative rarity of the
adoption of the villa type of residence has given few
opportunities for street planning on “ naturalistic ”’
lines, but, at the same time, despite the magnificent
examples of formal lay-out then, and fortunately still,
maintained, the attractions of the new method proved
strong enough to establish the “ Jardin Anglais ” as
the type on which many of the public and private parks
were laid out around Paris and other Continental cities.
Beyond this, however, with the exception of a spas-
modic development at the Petit Trianon, Versailles,
where, under Louis XVI., a simulated rusticity was the
key-note, romanticism took no hold on planning until
towards the end of the nineteenth century, when it
reappeared, owing to the initiative of Camillo Sitte, of
Vienna, in a new form, supported by very well-thought-
out arguments and combined with many sound deduc-
tions as to the esthetics of town planning. He directs his
attack on two characteristics of the typical Renaissance
plan, namely, its open treatment, without enclosed
“‘ places,” and its rigid formality on an extended scale.
He only accepts the formal within limited areas, and
exhibits a distinct preference for a picturesque irre-
gularity in general treatment, pointing out, with justice,
that the mind derives little interest from anything which
can be appreciated at a glance, such as a straight and
uniform street, or an unvarying facade, and deducing
from this that geometrical planning should give way to
a deliberate effort to recapture by design the accidental
qualities of medizval towns, and to disguise the open
81
@
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
character of the ‘‘ place”’ by masking the street
entrances, limiting their number and varying their
direction. His arguments are strengthened by the
demands of traffic, as it has become increasingly obvious
that a number of routes gathered to one point result in
danger, confusion and delay. In this respect the geome-
trically triangulated plan has proved a failure unless
laid out on a very large scale. But we are not here deal-
ing with the practical aspects, or the consideration of
existing types of plan from the point of view of traffic ;
the question is how far we should qualify our designs
by simulating the accidental, as has been the general
practice in Germany during recent years. The logical
mind is naturally in revolt against this idea, as on a par
with stage effects unworthy of introduction into an art
that should, above all, express purpose, but we may go
so far as to suggest that, whereas formerly there was a
prejudice in favour of formalism, and developments
were liable to be distorted in this direction, there may
now be a prejudice against it, with corresponding dis-
tortions in the opposite one. Should we not try to
base our work on common sense, taking suggestions
from the character of the site and surroundings as to
the treatment we adopt? On level ground, with no
strongly marked natural features, it would surely
appear an obvious affectation to lay out irregular
routes and to invent, as it were, accidents, while on
undulating sites, perhaps with dominating lines of hill
or woodland, it would be equally out of place to intro-
duce a rigid plan. The latter error is the more frequent
of the two, therefore we owe this to the Romantics,
that they endeavoured to free us from obsessions which
82
ROMANTICISM
came to us from the time when tightly packed buildings
logically dictated a rigid plan, and if we cannot accept
their maxims in their entirety, we can yet apply them
when they help us to bring our work into harmony
with nature or to employ an economic solution to our
problems.
83
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PART II
THE PRESENT DAY
CHAPTER IX
Civic Hygiene
OWN planning is so essentially an art of
co-ordination that, when we pass from the
historic studies to those of moment in our
present practice, we find it needful to take into account
a number of factors which were not consciously
embodied, though not hitherto deliberately ignored, as
a basis for the inception of a scheme, and which, owing
to our advance in the appreciation of social values, can
no longer be neglected in the contriving of plans for
towns suited to the requirements of the present time.
The science of social hygiene has received such close
attention during the best part of a century, and with
results so eminently justifying the labour devoted to its
study, that it is no longer possible to visualise the
growth of towns otherwise than in relation to the type
of citizens it produces. The late stage at which the
valid conclusions of the scientist and the social reformer
have begun to influence the general arrangement of the
city plan is largely due to the fact that, when a number
of specialists are working each in his limited field, it
takes time to grasp the bearings of the results arrived
at, in relationship to each other, and although specialisa-
tion in all cases is as necessary in the field of knowledge
as in that of production, in both cases the co-ordinating
brain must be present in order to employ both science
and material.
Now it is only with the development of the art of
town planning that the various sciences connected with
87
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
human welfare have been so co-ordinated that they can
take a definite form in respect to the handling of our
towns as a whole. As has been indicated, the early
years of the nineteenth century gave us a system, or
lack of system, that as time went on began to exhibit
the capability of destroying us mentally and physically.
Towns always operate to some extent parasitically,
and with the rapid growth of these at the expense of
the rural population, even had they been better than
they were, the massing together of the people was
bound to produce a detrimental effect, but, being what
they were, the racial deterioration could not for long
fail to attract attention. Of course, the material
elements first secured notice. Epidemics of cholera
dictated measures for the improvement of water supply
and sewerage ; then the diseases due to overcrowding
and lack of light and air evoked, somewhat tardily,
measures to restrict building density that have since
proved inadequate. The resistance of owners, who
saw their profits from property diminishing, retarded
progress, and it has taken some eighty years to establish
a standard that, but for this antagonistic attitude, might
have been reached in half the time.
Even were we to assume that we have now reached
finality in these respects, an assumption not warranted
in view of doubts yet to be resolved in regard to
tuberculosis and several other ills that still scourge the
poor in our towns, we have only handled one, and that
perhaps not the most important, section of our problem.
Step by step we have dealt with such questions as
river pollution and the worst cases of air pollution, but
this latter problem is still as yet only partially solved,
88
CIVIC HYGIENE
for there are many industries that cannot be carried on
without filling the air with volumes of smoke, and in
other cases, including that of the domestic fire, it is
admitted that any remedy presents grave economic
difficulties. It may be proved up to the hilt that the
annual loss through dirt and fog, and the ill-health and
waste of time due to these, would justify an enormous
capital expenditure, but with the numerous demands
on capital and the change of habits prescribed, it hardly
appears likely that the needful reforms will be effected
otherwise than very gradually.
Even if we imagine our towns delivered from all the
dirt, disorder, and discomfort due to the air being
charged with smoke and other impurities, we are still
far from achieving the ideal city. Assuming all the
physical disabilities removed, we have yet to cope with
the psychological ones, if we demand that our cities
are to be such as will bring forth the highest type of
citizen. Civic activity is not solely concerned with the
hygiene of the body ; it must also include all that tends
to evoke the pride and dignity of citizenship.
When we make a serious attempt to visualise the
existing conditions in any great centre of population,
the extent to which these make impossible any whole-
some or rational form of life would fill us with despair
were it not for the fact that we have a programme for
amelioration, a programme that, while it may take
generations to realise, does, at the same time, offer
features of immediate practicability. The distance we
have to go is certainly apt to appal us, and has even
induced some reformers to regard our great cities as
almost hopeless and to propose breaking new ground
89
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
by making an entirely fresh start. The efforts in this
direction have been of the utmost benefit, not so much
as an economic solution, for our existing centres, with
positions automatically dictated by economic factors,
are too strongly entrenched to be greatly affected, but
as an illustration of what a town could be like if well
organised from the beginning.
The “ Garden City,” first put forward as a solution
of this problem by Ebenezer Howard, was advocated
by him on the grounds that the drawbacks of the large
town were mainly due to its excessive extent, and that
if towns could be limited to a population of about
fifty thousand, and designed so that they could not
grow beyond this size, a much better life would be
possible in them. The garden cities of Letchworth and
Welwyn are laid out in strict accordance with these
principles, the area to be built on being limited by a
surrounding agricultural belt which not only defines
the population—a maximum density being prescribed—
but also ensures a supply of dairy produce and fresh
vegetables near at hand. Factories are encouraged,
with the intention that the town shall be a self-support-
ing organism, and naturally such factories are placed
so that they shall not be detrimental to the general
amenity, and are under regulation as to the emission
of smoke.
Such places as these, together with our newer indus-
trial villages, have proved that communities can have
the hygienic advantages of the country together with
the social ones of the town, and the idea that our
problems could be met in this way is a very attractive
one. At the same time it must not be allowed to blind
go
CIVIC HYGIENE
us to the fact that this solution can only be practicable
to a very limited extent. The position of towns has
almost invariably been dictated by productive or com-
mercial factors, and it is only some new development
in these that will bring about a new foundation. It
may be doubted if Letchworth or Welwyn would have
been able to establish themselves but for their proxi-
mity to London, and though a few other similarly
suitable sites may possibly be found in the future, it is
obvious that our attention must be mainly directed to
those centres where the masses of population are already
gathered, and which are in such urgent need of ameliora-
tion. }
The difficulties before us in securing cleanliness and
order cannot be understated, but, as will be seen subse-
quently, certain provisions now either in operation or
under consideration will assist in this. For areas at
present seriously overcrowded the remedies at our dis-
posal are costly to an extent almost prohibitive, except
where the houses are in such a bad state as to be
condemned for habitation. ‘Then the reduction of the
population in any such area involves the increase of
transit provisions for the accommodation of those dis-
placed, so that altogether the outlook does not appear
hopeful. Probably the most potent influence making
for betterment would be a change in the views of those
occupying such areas as to what they would regard
as possible for dwelling-places and environment, but
habits are so engrained that such a change can only
be gradual, working through the younger generations
that will eventually take the place of those who, living
so long under deplorable conditions, have come to
gi
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
regard these as quite normal. Discontent and emula-
tion of their “‘ betters’? may do something, but until a
serious change in their attitude takes places the recon-
struction on sound lines of the masses of undesirable
dwellings in our large towns will proceed but slowly.
That this can be done with advantage, and without
undue extravagance, has been proved by many schemes
of “slum improvement” already carried through in
London, Birmingham and other cities, but these do
not represent a tithe of what is needed to overtake a
century of neglect. In many places the worst instances
are not to be found among the rows of small and badly
built houses, depressing as they may look, but in
neighbourhoods that have seen better days, where the
large houses are now occupied by a number of families
in one and two room dwellings, without adequate pro-
vision for separate family life. ‘These are often worse
than the overcrowded tenements to be found on the
Continent and in Scotland, for the latter have usually
been planned for division, while the adapted large houses
were not.
The town planner is, however, less dismayed by the
magnitude of the task of reorganising our cities than
by the very limited appreciation of the fact that such
reorganisation is necessary to stop the gradual degrada-
tion that town life, as it now is, must result in. - Vitality
is essential to maintenance of a high place in civilisa-
tion, and the vitality of townsfolk is being sapped by
conditions which drive them to such narcotics as drink
and melodrama. Perhaps the most destructive of all
so-called recreations are those based, not on personal
action or experience, but on the passive acceptance of
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CIVIC HYGIENE
the real or fictitious activities of others, whether as
_ shown in the football ground or the cinema, and this
is the course to which the average town dweller is
inevitably driven.
It will be asked whether these are not questions for
the sociologist rather than for the town planner, and it
is true that it would be quite possible for the former to
prepare a programme and for the latter to prescribe the
measures by which the demands could best be met.
At the same time the technique of our subject so invari-
ably turns on the social influences that dominate it,
that a town planner is not worth much who is not also
something of a sociologist, and whether the co-ordina-
tions necessary are to be effected by one person, or
secured by the co-operation of several, the work can
only be efficiently carried through with a clear recogni-
_tion of the connection between the social requirements
and the executive measures. As these requirements
vary according to the activities and characteristics of
people of different nationalities, and even loealities, it
follows that there can be no uniformity of practice in
planning, and that the statement of this must, there-
fore, be made in general terms, so that its principles
may cover a multiplicity of different modes of opera-
tion.
The following chapters, in which the attempt is
made to classify town planning operations under
various heads, must therefore be regarded as subject to
the qualification that there exist numerous differences
in social organisation which involve variants of the pro-
gramme, and that while the general principles may be
regarded as valid throughout, the illustrations of these
93
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
depend on special conditions and might take quite
another form elsewhere. Social well-being, funda-
mental to sound town planning, is thus the criterion to
which every proposition must be referred, and as this
takes so many forms, the impossibility of defining
every solution is obvious, and the scope of our studies
is necessarily restricted by this limitation. At the same
time certain demands are common to most communal
developments, and are thus capable of being brought
under review in turn.
Towns usually come into being by reason of advan-
tages in respect of production and commerce, but occa-
sionally of others, such as administration, health and
recreation. They make their demands for the housing
of their citizens, for access to and communication
between the various quarters, for the suitable distri-
bution of the different activities, for provision for
education and recreation, and for all the other things
that will come to mind when we visualise a healthy and
active community ; and these aspects must now claim
our attention.
94
CHAPTER X
Preliminary Studies
AVING briefly cited in the last chapter the
range of subjects that come under the purview
of the town planner when considering his
schemes, it will be well to give some attention to the
methods by which he can best present, both for his own
information and for the enlightenment of the public
he serves, all these factors in such a manner as will
enable them to be most readily appreciated, and by
this means to justify his proposals both to himself and
to others.
Now, it is customary to begin by placing these
factors in tabular form, and this has been done in
various ways, both in England and abroad, with a view
to securing a systematic mode of investigation. It is
not appropriate here to inflict these elaborate schedules
on the reader, who can only be asked to take it for
granted that they cover the ground in all its aspects,
including topography, history, economics, housing, com-
munications, hygiene, education, recreation, zsthetics,
and administration.
Taking these in turn, we will endeavour to give an
impression of what these specific studies involve, but
before doing so it will be well to glance at the methods
accepted as exhibiting the results of investigations in
the most efficient way. We all know that statistical
tables are prepared for the purpose of recording con-
ditions and changes, but we are no less aware of the
dreary reading they make and the difficulty of memo-
95
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
rising them. The civicsurvey has long abandoned this
mode of presentation for the facts it is desirable to
emphasise in favour of a graphic method employing
maps, diagrams, and models, by means of which the
eye instantly appreciates the conditions they represent.
Thus, by different colours or tones of colour placed on
a map, altitudes, density of population, health con-
ditions, rate charges, and other facts can be compared
at a glance. In like manner, a scale of colours will
indicate the various purposes for which land and
buildings are employed, whether woodland or meadow,
allotments, houses, shops, warehouses, or industrial or
public buildings. Coloured zones show the time or the
money expended to reach a given centre from the areas
around it. Symbolic signs mark the positions of places
of public resort, such as churches, schools, theatres, and
hotels, also hospitals, gas and electric works, and other
concerns having a general interest. Public open spaces,
as parks and recreation grounds, are distinguished from
the private ones used for golf and other games, and also
from cemeteries and ground permanently open, but not
allocated to recreation.
Communications are treated on the same principle,
the routes being marked by bands of colour, wider or
narrower according to the amount of traffic indicated
by a census, or by a model with strips of uniform
width, but raised vertically to mark increased intensity.
Maps of this kind are supplemented by diagrams
enabling growth, output, commerce, and similar factors
to be estimated at a glance, and there is, in fact, no limit
to the resources of graphic presentation, the value of
which, in facilitating a clear understanding of conditions,
96
PRELIMINARY STUDIES
can hardly be over-estimated. To give but one
example of possible extensions of the method, we may
refer to a model prepared by the town of Gothenburg,
showing the existing state in relief, the intended
improvements being indicated by superimposed
colour.
It seemed best to give an idea of the mode of presen-
tation first, as, though the important matter is obviously
the range of study that will be advantageous, an under-
standing of the form in which this can be shown greatly
assists in affording the power to visualise the results in
relation to the ultimate town plan. It is here that the
statistical tables of former days fail, if not absolutely,
at any rate practically, because it is well-nigh impossible
to co-ordinate them mentally area by area so as to
grasp their bearings on each other, whereas a few maps
hung side by side will enable these co-ordinations to be
made almost instantaneously.
The first subject for study will be the general topo-
graphy of the town and its surroundings, which will
be illustrated by a contoured map, a geological map,
one showing the nature of the surface soil, and others
giving information as to watercourses, collecting areas
and flow, lakes and reservoirs, and the levels of water
in the ground at various seasons. Further maps will
show how the ground is occupied, whether by wood-
land, agriculture, wastes or marshes, and the extent of
building and other features modifying natural con-
ditions. In some cases mining activities will have to
be considered and shown, particularly where subsidence
may be anticipated. Again, it may be of importance
to deal with an area ethnologically, zoologically, and
97 x
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
botanically. Diagrams showing climate, including
temperature, rainfall, prevailing winds, and the like,
must also be added, and other factors will demand
attention in certain cases, such as that of towns in the
tropics, so that nothing affecting the ultimate scheme
may be left unconsidered.
Next we may look at the town from the historical
aspect, and prepare a series of plans showing its gradual
growth, at what stages the salient features appeared,
and how these, whether they still remain or not, have
affected subsequent developments. Old maps and
views will be very useful here. Diagrams showing the
expansion or lapse of local trades and other activities
may be valuable in forming a judgment on the possi-
bilities of the future. ‘Then, economic studies such as
these are incomplete without the corresponding social |
ones showing how occupation has influenced habits of
life and thought, on which interesting sidelights can
be thrown by records of local customs and views as
expressed in the types of recreation, the religious and
other observances, and the manner of conduct gene-
rally. There are also the more specifically archzeological
studies comprising records of all ancient sites and
buildings, with careful notes as to what remains of
them, with a view to their preservation and enhance-
ment in future operations.
Perhaps next in order we may place industry and
commerce, the usual considerations that have dictated
the location of the town. We shall require diagrams
showing the importation of raw materials, with the
costs of transport, which will suggest the causes of
their coming here in preference to elsewhere. The
98
PRELIMINARY STUDIES
industrial maps will indicate the distribution of the
various industries, and will give a clue to the reasons
for such a distribution, and supplementing these
diagrams illustrating the export and destination of the
productions of the town. Then, where the place 1s a
centre of exchange, records of imports and exports can
be presented graphically, the whole giving us an exposi-
tion of how the town makes its living.
‘These dealt with, we pass on to consider the people
who are engaged in making this living, and where and
how they live, which will involve maps of the different
classes of housing, distinguishing the good, bad,
and indifferent, and of the variations in the type of
house and in the status of the occupants. Practically
this is the housing section, though it concerns itself not
only with the actual houses but also with those dwelling
in them, whether they are well-to-do or earning more
or less than a living wage, whether any are forced into
bad houses who would occupy better ones, or are, on
the other hand, obliged to pay higher rents than their
income justifies ; generally, whether housing accom-
modation is appropriate and compares favourably or
unfavourably with other places. Comparison with
other maps will show how far the houses are well dis-
tributed in respect of the occupations of those living
in them, or otherwise, and the conditions indicated on
the housing maps will demand careful consideration in
relation to those in the health section.
It will be well to take next the question of com-
munications, as this not only affects the economic
position in respect of industry and commerce, but also
the facilities for transit between the residential areas
99
THE ART OF 'TOWN PLANNING
and the industrial and business districts. With good
communications there will be greater latitude in the
selection of areas available for housing and less conflict
between the demands of the various classes of transit
and transport. With plans showing clearly the routes
employed, whether water, road or rail, and the inten-
sity of traffic on these, we shall be better able to
visualise whether these are adequate, and, if not, what
will most efficiently and most economically supply the
remedies demanded.
Next let us take the important section of hygiene,
covering the maps to show density of population, the
general death rates through a series of decades, and, in
like manner, the infant death rates and those for the
principal epidemic and other diseases. It will also
include diagrams of the average physique in various
districts and occupations, the development of children,
and the moral standards as indicated by the statistics
of crime and misdemeanour. ‘The positions of all
remedial institutions, such as hospitals, dispensaries,
infirmaries, asylums and prisons, would be indicated,
giving the accommodation and the areas and popula-
tion they serve. Diagrams would illustrate the relative
conditions as regards overcrowding, lack of light and
air, effect of regulations and by-laws, the character of
the water supply, sewerage, sanitation and scavenging,
and generally of all services affecting health. In most
cases statistical maps will need to be prepared separately
for districts, wards, or even smaller areas, in order that
the divergent conditions in these may be properly
compared, and the causes discovered of ill-health and
poor development, whether defects of situation, over-
I0O
PRELIMINARY STUDIES
crowding, detrimental industries, failures in sanitation,
or other disadvantages, and the remedies poReon ate
to the case put in operation.
It will be convenient to place aegis and recrea-
tion in another group which will schedule the facili-
ties offered, the accommodation relatively to the
inhabitants, and the distribution. The diagram plan
showing schools should classify these according to the
type of education given, as primary, secondary, tech-
nical, State-aided, or otherwise, and should include an
indication of the extent of playground and garden
attached. Parks, playing fields, and children’s play-
grounds should be separately scheduled, and here again
division by districts will be required to show how far
the provisions are proportionate to the population.
Libraries, baths and public places of entertainment
will need another map rendered statistically as to
attendances, while theatres and other private halls may
be included with these and dealt with on similar lines.
Land values and charges, such as taxation, rating,
costs of gas and of electric light and power, lend them-
selves to graphic presentment on similar maps to those
described, while administration demands yet another
section indicating the various authorities controlling
the different communal undertakings and the areas
under their jurisdiction. Only when this is under-
taken does one realise the amazing number of authori-
ties exercising special functions in an urban area.
Forty is a number that is exceeded in several places,
and as their boundaries are by no means coterminous,
it is obviously desirable to have maps showing these.
Apart from ad hoc bodies, such as water boards and
Iol
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
port authorities, there are curious dovetailings between
county and municipal powers, in respect to acquisitions,
roads and other matters.
This is but a sketch outline of the civic survey,
touching only on its salient features. There are many
other aspects having almost equal claims on the
investigation which could only be set out in a treatise
dealing with this subject alone. The arts, constructive
and technical methods, customs and habits of a locality
are but a few of the things that repay illustration.
These, however, we must leave in order to take up the
question of what is to be done with the work of the
Civic survey when complete. Its value to those on
whom the responsibility for the city’s future rests is
easily appreciated, but unfortunately they, however
enthusiastic, can do very little in the directions suggested
unless they have the support of the general public
behind them. We conceive our authorities to be
apathetic, but they cannot go very far in advance of
the views of those who elect them, therefore, if the
survey is to be of real service, it must be exhibited and
advertised to the public at large. It makes by no means
a dull show ; well arranged and properly documented,
it draws large attendances, as has been proved at
Dublin, Manchester and elsewhere, even when the
exhibits were only in part of local interest.
What is wanted is a permanent civic museum in every
town, with the civic survey forming the key to each
section, its objects reinforced by suitable lectures and
demonstrations from tine to time. Such an exhibition
would become quite a popular affair, making the most
of all the interests the town possessed.
102
PRELIMINARY STUDIES
The rising generation, more especially, would be
disposed to accept it, by reason of the fact that this
mode of study is but an extension of the regional ones
_ now gaining popularity as a more vivid way of acquiring
knowledge than the former abstractions as set forth in
books. When we find the youth of our time being
encouraged to seek for themselves a knowledge of what
is around them on the lines of the following few extracts,
taken from a schedule in circulation among a great
many schools, we cannot imagine them finding
difficulties in appreciating and interesting themselves
in what the maps and diagrams of the civic survey
exhibit, especially when are added the actual objects
relating to the history and activities of the place that
every well-arranged museum should supply.
“What is the soil in your district? Is it all the
same ?
‘* How deep does it go, and what is underneath it ?
“‘ How do the inhabitants obtain water ?
‘““ Are there any woods, marshes, ponds, heaths, or
uncultivated lands near you, and what kinds of trees
and plants can you find?
“Make a map year by year showing the crops
grown. |
“ What wild animals and birds are there ?
‘What prehistoric remains are there, barrows or
camps, and do you know of anything that has been
found in these 7
“Make plans of any British camps, Roman camps
and roads. Show on a map the position of each village
and town, stating what they are, as ports, market towns,
manufacturing towns, or cathedral cities.
103
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
“Find out all you can as to their origin, and make
maps showing different stages of development.
‘‘ Make a time chart of notable events in the history
of your district.
‘‘ Mark all roads, railways, footpaths, rivers, canals,
and other lines of communication.”
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CHAPTER XI
Communications
HEN we come to consider the influence
of communications on town planning, and
remember the importance of transit by
water in the earlier history of city location and growth,
we are almost tempted to give it first place among the
means of communication to be dealt with, and might
do so with justice but for the fact that, with a few
notable exceptions, all places have been planned on the
basis of land communications, and that waterways,
while often affecting location, were incidental to, and
not dominating, the more intimate details of the
plan.
It is, therefore, better to start with the roads, and to
reserve consideration of water routes till we find the
artificial development of these influencing lay-out. 'The
chronology of street alignment has already been glanced
at in the historical notes, but it demands to be supple-
mented by an outline of road development in general,
in order that we may grasp how the towns have been
influenced by this. Such a study not only gives interest
to the roads as we find them to-day, but also provides
useful guidance as to the principles to be borne in mind
in the needed reconstruction of our road system, both
urban and inter-urban.
That substantial roads were constructed by the great
nations antecedent to the Romans is obvious when we
realise their varied activities, but it will serve our
purpose, after a brief digression on the prehistoric lines
105
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
of route in our own country, to begin with the technique
of road construction as laid down by the Romans.
The earliest tracks we can trace are those of the
Bronze period—perhaps some even date from the
Neolithic one preceding it—when the tribes of those
times determined the best routes by which to move
their flocks from one pasture to another. The lower
grounds seem to have been densely wooded and the
habitat of predatory beasts, so that we find these roads
taking the shortest lines across valleys, and following
escarpments and hill-tops. Where the natural formation
failed to make the line obvious, guidance appears to
have been afforded by natural or artificial landmarks.
These routes were retained for trade and war, and to
serve the early agricultural developments before the
advent of the Romans. They were, as we know,
distributed in accordance with the use of the land at
the time, leaving large districts untouched as unsuited
to the activities of that stage of civilisation.
When the Romans arrived in Britain they had
already formulated their practice as to roads, and had
classified these into five groups: the first, a paved road
accommodating two lines of vehicles; the second, a
similar road for one line only ; the third, a bridle road ;
and fourth and fifth, narrow ways mainly for the use
of agriculturists. The higher-class roads were provided
with bridges, culverts, drainage, etc.
The work of organising this country in accordance
with the political system of Rome involved the planning
of an entirely new system of paved roads, primarily for
the movement of troops, but at the same time so complete
as to be more than adequate for other requirements.
106
COMMUNICATIONS
As we are aware, these roads were fairly direct in
their general alignment and, with a few exceptions,
absolutely straight from camp to camp, placed a day’s
march (about twenty miles) apart. A map indicating
all the known roads shows the country well served with
routes most skilfully planned, except from one point
of view, now of much more importance than at that
time, namely, that of gradient, which was obviously a
minor consideration with so little wheeled traffic.
While many of these roads have remained permanently
employed, large sections of the Roman scheme have
gone out of use, and can be traced only by fragments to
be found here and there. This abandonment was not
connected with any unsuitability in the roads, but was
due to the dismemberment of Britain under the Saxons
and its only partial reintegration under the feudal
system. Not until the sixteenth century did we recover
anything resembling the unity of control exercised by
the Romans, and even then nothing equivalent to their
efficiency in sustained organisation. Of course, with
increasing population and production, the country
became covered with a network of routes, but many
of these were only pack-horse ways, and the art of
road-making having lapsed, main routes often fell
into a hopeless state where natural conditions were
unfavourable.
In the early days of wheeled traffic this became so
definitely the case that very circuitous routes had to be
taken in bad weather, sometimes involving detours
which more than doubled the distance between one town
and another. Stone sets were only employed in the
cities, and no other efficient mode of road-making being
107
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
known, roads in bad ground soon got so cut up as to
become impassable. Where the ground was open,
vehicles struck out new tracks till the old had recovered,
and so we find in places very wide roads, sometimes
subsequently narrowed by intakes.
A number of experiments in road surfacing carried
on for about a century finally crystallised into the
definite specification of MacAdam, and a reliable surface
capable of carrying the increasing wheeled traffic came
into general use. With easier and more comfortable
transit, travel increased rapidly, and immense numbers
of coaches and post chaises sped along our main roads.
New roads and improvements in alignment were found
necessary, and towards the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury an era of road building set in which lasted till the
advent of the railway.
MacAdam, Telford, and other leading engineers
were engaged on this work, and the return for the
capital was provided by means of tolls. The primitive
type of gate, the “ Turnpike,” gave the name to these,
and the period during which these roads were built has
been termed the “ Turnpike’ age. In the midst of
this activity the railroad and steam engine came on the
scene, and after a few years of incredulity every one
became convinced that the day of the road was over.
Roads ceased to be a profitable investment for capital,
which was promptly transferred to rail enterprises.
Not only this, but on the railroads securing popular
favour, railway schemes were often laid out in a
manner detrimental to future road development, par-
ticularly in the neighbourhood of the towns. Outside
the towns, things remained in this position until
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COMMUNICATIONS
towards the end of the nineteenth century, when
the development of the combustion engine as the
driving power for road vehicles brought the road
into enormously increased use, and demanded a re-
consideration of the problems of road planning and
construction.
The first of these to arise, that of dust, was not a
new one. In coaching days the Bath Road was kept
watered from end to end, but a better solution was now
found, and without recapitulating the recent history of
road-making, it will suffice to affirm that we can now
form roads physically and economically suitable for
motor traffic. :
In town areas also the eighteenth century provided
us with good schemes and spacious roads, and much of
the subsequent deterioration of these, including en-
croachments, took place in early Victorian times when
the railway filled the public eye. The road plan of
London south of the Thames dates from this period,
and Great Dover Street is a good example of a by-pass
road. Then we see the fine route laid out from the city
to Paddington, originally 150 feet between frontages.
Edinburgh and Bath may also be quoted as notable
examples, but many of our smaller towns retained their
medizeval plan, and not even this at its original standard,
market-places having been filled in with buildings and
the roads having suffered from gradual encroachments,
particularly near the busy centres.
Our latest roads are now being dealt with by two
methods. Road systems are being framed under town
planning, or, more comprehensively, under regional
planning schemes, while large arterial roads are being
109
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
planned and constructed to connect towns at a con-
siderable distance from each other.
In the first case a careful study has to be made of the
existing roads, their use, their adequacy, and their con-
nections. The trend of development has also to
receive consideration, and the new road pattern built
up on these factors, providing for the relief of over-
charged routes, safety at junction points, and a free
movement of traffic between industrial and residential
areas, so that the business of the district may be carried
on without the handicap of inadequate communi-
cations.
In the second case, the determining factor is mainly
the economics of transport, whether a road service can
operate advantageously as against the existing railway
facilities. Per ton mile the road is at a disadvantage,
but this may be outbalanced by economies in tranship-
ment and terminal collection and delivery. For the
shorter distances, and for some classes of goods, the
case for the roads may be regarded as established, but
for distances of 100 miles and over it is possible that
further investigations are needed before such roads can
be justified on economic grounds. Undoubtedly a good
case could be made out at the moment, but the railways
are short of plant, and it is also questionable if they are
working at 2 maximum of efficiency and a minimum of
profit, as they might be capable of doing in competition
with an alternative mode of transport.
In order that these main arterials should answer
their purpose, their design would have to take, in some
measure, the character of the railway, by going over or
under important cross routes and by by-passing inter-
IIO
COMMUNICATIONS
mediate towns and villages so that these connect by
means of short branches. ‘They can only, to a modified
extent, be regarded as developing the districts through
which they pass.
The regional and local roads, on the other hand,
must be designed to provide for the development of
the adjacent areas and must therefore follow, as closely
as possible, the natural levels, embankments and, to
some extent, cuttings making it difficult to use front-
ages for building purposes and awkward to arrange
the connections with side roads. Therefore the align-
ment of these in hilly ground must needs be governed
by the contours. Where an arterial road is brought
into a regional system, it is often worth while to pro-
vide sufficient width for a central and two side roads,
the latter for the local traffic, thus reducing the number
of crossings on the central road and allowing these
crossings to be placed out of line with the openings
into side roads. The regional plan is prepared in
diagram form, giving the traffic routes demanded, and
then, after the road lines have received such modifica-
tions as the formation of the ground and the disposition
of industries and properties prescribe, there remains
the important question of road junctions. On the
design of these a great deal depends, both in regard to
smooth working, with a minimum of supervision, and
freedom from danger points. Where main routes cross
each other ample space should be provided, and no
building or other obstruction to a clear view extending
to a radius of at least 40 yards from the crossing point
should be permitted. But such crossings ought to be
eliminated as far as practicable, and it is better that
II!
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
subsidiary routes should enter and leave the main one
at different points, say about 100 yards apart, while
the small branch road is better with a funnel mouth and
central island so as to check the speed of traffic coming
into the main route. Where a record of accidents is
kept, many of these are found to be due to excessive
speed when emerging from a side road, either with the
intention of directly crossing the high road or of turning
to the right along it.
In planning these regional road systems it will often
be found that the existing railways add greatly to the
difficulties in regard both to levels and the cost of
bridges. It is, in this country, practically impossible _
to obtain any modification in the level of a railway, or any
bridge reconstruction otherwise than at the cost of the
local authority. The law in this respect operates most
unfairly. If eighty years ago a railway company pro-
vided a little bridge over a country lane, and this lane
has now become a busy highway, there is no power to
compel it to rebuild this bridge in accordance with the
increased needs, though the railway has secured its
share of the expansion of business that development
brings about.
The U.S.A. is very much in advance of us in this
matter ; not only can the authorities demand a reason-
able alteration in the rail level, but they can also claim
a proportion, which varies in different States, of the
cost of bridge building and road grading. One may
safely say that, but for these enactments, very little of
the work done towards eliminating level crossings in
American towns would have been accomplished.
We have so far been considering areas in course of
112
COMMUNICATIONS
development, but we must not overlook the traffic con-
gestion in our great cities and the possible remedies
for this.
Motor transport has at least doubled the capacity of
our streets, and, if all the traffic could be carried on at
the uniform higher speed of the motor, there would be
a still further gain. The abolition of the horse-drawn
vehicle has been frequently advocated, and although this
must take place sooner or later, it is still felt that too
great a hardship to certain classes of business would
result from it. An intermediate course is open, namely,
. the exclusion of the horse from the main roads, but
this would involve a degree of supervision that renders
it economically doubtful. It may be assumed that for
the moment neither of these alternatives is likely to
meet with acceptance.
To take London as an example, it has, from the
traffic standpoint, the advantages and disadvantages of
an old city. Like all places whose expansion has been
long continued, the general lines of route are the
natural ones and appropriate to traffic requirements,
but, on the other hand, many of the more important
roads are no longer adequate to the demands now made
on them, and at the crossings of the principal routes
the delays are particularly accentuated. Moreover, the
general plan being framed on a limited number of
main roads with large areas in between, laid out with a
view to excluding traffic rather than encouraging it, the
old arteries are overworked. Heroic efforts at improve-
ment have been made from time to time; during the
nineteenth century many important streets and street
widenings were carried out, not always very successfully
113 1
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
because of the obsession at that time in favour of con-
necting to existing ganglia, such as the Bank, Piccadilly
Circus, Charing Cross, and Victoria, which have now
become points at which it is most difficult to devise an
orderly system.
We are only just beginning to appreciate the value of
‘‘ one-way ”’ routes and the “ gyratory ” system, both
of which have proved useful in a number of cases in
other countries, and, though London affords fewer
opportunities for employing these remedies than cities
laid out on a larger scale, there are, nevertheless, quite
a number of streets where one-way traffic could be
adopted with advantage and where it could be put in
operation quite simply; but the employment of the
gyratory system, which would be of the greatest value
at important centres, is not such an easy matter as might
appear. To allow this to work smoothly there has to be
some little distance between each of the roads opening
into the circulating route, and many of our central
ganglia are too small for this. The alternative is the
inclusion of one or more blocks of buildings within the
line of circulation, thus giving this the character of a
“ one-way ”’ traffic route.
Incidentally, it is worth noting that the annual cost
of each post where a policeman is on traffic duty
amounts to something over £450, and that, as every
simplification would diminish the number of these
posts, there would be a definite saving under this head
in addition to that due to acceleration. These savings
would help to balance the cost of such street improve-
ments as would in some cases be essential to provide
for a workable scheme.
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COMMUNICATIONS
But roads are not the only form of communication,
and if we turn back to the time before the railway era,
when the demand for economical transport was met by
the improvement of natural waterways and by artificial
ones linked up with them, we see that the Romans
made canals and even started to cut the Isthmus of
Corinth, that in Venice the canals followed the original
tidal channels of the lagoon in which it was built, and
that in later times the necessity for canals in the
reclamation schemes of the Netherlands brought them
into general use there and demonstrated their utility
to the neighbouring countries. In England the first
canal was cut early in the eighteenth century, and from
this time onward private enterprise was gradually
covering the country with a network of water routes,
when the advent of the railways put an end to these
efforts. In France and Germany, where canals were
national undertakings, these being on a larger scale and
more efficiently co-ordinated have maintained their
position better, and few have been abandoned, a fate
which has befallen many of the smaller navigations in
England.
In the United States also many canals were cut
about the beginning of the nineteenth century, but these
also became obsolete, and at the present day the only
type of water route which is regarded as worth under-
taking is that planned on a scale to accommodate sea-
going ships, as, for example, those at Suez, Panama,
Manchester, and that linking up the great lakes in
North America. At the same time, inland water
transport is still of considerable importance, and the
development of inland ports has materially affected the
115
~
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
planning of many towns, more particularly in the Rhine
provinces, not to speak of the example we can claim at
Trafford Park, Manchester. London itself is still
encircled by the Regent’s Canal north of the Thames,
and penetrated for a considerable distance by the
Surrey Canal on the south side. Dublin has an
encircling canal both north and south, and several of
our inland towns are materially affected in their
planning by the waterways that pass through them.
Whether future conditions will produce an enhance-
ment of these facilities or the reverse is uncertain, but
where the scale of operations is capable of expansion
there seems little doubt that waterways will still retain
an important place in our scheme of organisation.
Though railways are not at present technically
included within the scope of town planning, it is
obviously out of the question to exclude them from |
its programme in view of their importance in respect
of organisation and amenity. It has been most
unfortunate that, on account of the extraordinary
difference this form of transit made in the speed,
comfort, and economy of travel, it was soon accepted
with such fervour that permission was readily granted
for operations now seen to have been extremely detri-
mental. Embankments and viaducts have wrecked the
orderly plan of many town areas, and have made good
planning impossible in many suburban ones. Public
open spaces, such as the Surrey commons, were allowed
to be cut up by railway routes without compensation,
and it is only quite lately that railway proposals have
been opposed on the ground of their affecting the
amenities. It is easy to understand that at the experi-
116
COMMUNICATIONS
mental stage, when encouragement was needed, large
concessions should have been made, but this attitude
was maintained long after it ought to have been
abandoned, and the railways were allowed a freedom
only permissible on the ground of economy, but which
has often been exercised with no such justification.
Indeed, on the other hand there has been, and there is
still going on, a great deal of extravagance and waste in
construction owing to the lack of a co-ordinating
authority to control competitive activities.
The suggestion has been made that in the towns no
railways should be allowed to be carried at a level above
that of the streets, and though this would certainly
remove the extraordinarily ugly bridges that our
engineers seem to delight in, overhead lines may be
admissible if skilfully planned and carried out with due
consideration to the artistic effect. Moreover, we have
no right to ignore the railway traveller in favour of his
brother in the street, though the railways themselves
have always taken this attitude. If it 1s a question of
outlook, the man in the train has his claims, and one
can call to mind many fine views of city and country
that, if not seen thus, would never be seen at all.
Hitherto both parties have been to blame, the rail-
ways for disregarding the harm they were doing to the
districts they ran through, and the planners and
builders for disregarding the railways and taking no
care that a presentable face was made to them. ‘The
course adopted at Port Sunlight of running a road
along the side of the line is an unnecessarily extravagant
one, as there is no reason why the backs of houses
should present any worse appearance than the fronts,
117
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
and common sense would place them at sufficient
distance from the trains to allow of some planting and
gardening between. Given this, there is no reason why
the railway front of a house and garden should not be
just as good to look on as the street front.
Then, again, we have serious cause of complaint
against our railways for their neglect of the areas
around the large termini, and the purely utilitarian way
in which these are handled. Both the Continent and
America put us to shame in this matter, and it may be
doubted if even the excuse of economy may be pleaded
when we see the degree of confusion and hustle which
the haphazard arrangements now general provoke.
The fact is that the monopolies granted have encouraged
incompetence, and railway practice is in many respects
obsolete compared with the possibilities clearly visible
to those who have been trained to take a wide view
of civic organisation. One example only need be
mentioned as an illustration. About the same time
two large termini were planned, one in New York and
one in London. At the first the incoming and outgoing
passengers are given separate routes between street and
platform ; at the second no attempt is made to separate
them. The difference in capacity and smoothness of
working can easily be imagined. Not until the railway
element is brought within the scope of town planning
schemes shall we be able to secure the co-ordinations
required.
118
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42. Southampton. An Aeroplane Map
Facing page 119
CHAPTER XII
Allocation of Areas
HE allocation of areas to the purposes for
which they are or may become most suitable
has, for reasons of brevity, been given the title
of “ zoning,” though the form these areas take can only
occasionally approximate to that of a series of belts or
zones. At times regulation may be on these lines, as
in the case of some German and American towns,
where the heights permitted are gradually diminished,
starting from the centre and proceeding towards the
outskirts, but in the case of varied utilisation, as for
commerce, industry, and housing, clearly the character
and suitability of the ground must dictate the use to
which it is put, rather than a merely diagrammatic
relationship to a given centre.
In taking a glance at the conditions general in our
cities as they are at present, we find administrative and
business premises usually in possession of a central
position, with industry and commerce stretching out
from this in one or more directions, and residential
quarters in others, commerce seeking a place where
rail and water transport is available, and residences the
areas most attractive and accessible. This broad
generalisation is, however, very greatly qualified in
practice, as industry and commerce draw into the
interstices of their quarters a great deal of housing for
the workers employed, so that these may be close at
hand; while industries less dependent on transport
distribute themselves among the residential districts.
11g
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
Thus, instead of a defined scheme of production, trans-
port, and distribution, we see only a blurred travesty
of such an organisation. Much of this has doubtless
been due to lack of adequate provision for transport
and transit, which, instead of being planned in advance,
has been improvised to cope with demands after those
have made themselves evident. ‘This being the case, it
is not often possible to do all that might be desired for
our existing towns, which can only be regarded as
illustrations of certain forms of failure to be avoided
in planning for the future.
In laying down principles for zoning we must bear
in mind that it is impossible to predict the future with
absolute accuracy, and therefore alternatives in utilisa-
tion should be admitted to the maximum extent com-
patible with the validity of the scheme as a whole, so
that in many parts more than one type of occupancy
may be allowed. This is, however, a long step in
advance of the latitude formerly customary, which has
left us with so much confusion in our towns, detrimental
from the aspect not only of health and amenity, but of
economics as well. Large areas of low-lying ground
are covered with houses, and the smoke from factories
on the neighbouring riverside streams over them,
while elsewhere big industrial concerns have had to
abandon their works because the ordinary road com-
munications on which they relied have become obsolete.
There are a few main factors which, if borne in mind,
will enable us to visualise the lines on which a town can
profitably develop, and though much more intimate
study has to be given to the special circumstances of
each case before zoning regulations can be safely laid
120
ALLOCATION OF AREAS
down, these will suffice to give a general idea of the
differences that such regulations have in view.
The business organisation will necessarily retain its
‘central position, and we must bear in mind that in a
growing community it must also expand, and will
probably do so by increased height in the buildings and
by extending into adjacent areas occupied by residences
or factories, a course not without its advantages, as it is
usually the older and obsolescent houses and factories
that go. ‘These movements are, however, of less import
than the continued demand to add accommodation by
increasing the height of business premises, which, if
acceded to, would intensify the traffic, and as the
existing communications are often inadequate, it 1s
essential that an appropriate limitation should be
maintained.
Passing on to industrial and commercial organisations
as carried on at the present time, we see that these
demand good transport facilities, the ordinary road
access being only suitable for those that are relatively
small in their scope, or which handle light material
only. Where there is navigable water, many will want
frontages on this, and water is also useful in connection
with some manufacturing operations. Direct rail trans-
port is also essential to large concerns, and this is more
easily organised on the flat ground to be found at the
lower levels, which is undesirable for housing purposes,
so that we have good general guidance in this respect.
We are, therefore, enabled to reserve the higher
ground for residential purposes, and if this is irregular
in its conformation it will lend interest to the lay-out,
with the advantage that any too steep to be built on
I2I
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
with economy can be planted and developed as strips
of park with pleasant walks, breaking up the monotony
of large areas of building.
While everything else favours a marked separation
between large industrial undertakings and the workers
employed therein, it must not be forgotten that, if we
segregate these two groups, convenient and economical
means of transit must be provided between them, and
this demand will have to be satisfied before any scheme
of zoning on these lines can be accepted. Whatever
the other merits of such a scheme might be, it would
not be popular if an undue expenditure of energy in
getting from one part to another were involved. Apart
from the considerations of amenity and health, one of
the main objects of zoning being to simplify and
improve organisation, no scheme could be justified
that failed in this respect.
There are still other matters that remain to be dealt
with, such as the allocation of areas peculiarly suited
for use as parks, recreation grounds and allotments, the
best position for shops and the minor industries, like
laundries and garages, which are needed in residential
districts. It is possible to go even farther with advan-
tage and define sites for churches, schools, etc., but
this degree of detail is only likely to be of value where
there is an immediate development in view.
The claim of town planning to include in its scope
powers of this nature, though now accepted in prin-
ciple, has probably aroused more antagonism than any
other feature in its programme. It is felt to be sub-
versive of the freedom of the individual to do what he
likes with his own, and has affected two classes more
122
ALLOCATION OF AREAS
accustomed than others to have unfettered initiative,
namely, the landowner and the industrial leader. It
would have made little headway had not the lines of
procedure laid down provided for consultation with
these, thus affording the opportunity for criticism and
of meeting any valid objections by judicious modifica-
tions. It is easy to realise why in this country, less
subservient to State controls than most, the system of
zoning has made less rapid progress than elsewhere,
and 1s still limited to areas not yet developed, whereas
in Germany and the United States it extends to towns
as a whole. As might be imagined, it was in Germany
that the idea originally took shape, when in 1884 Franz
Adickes, then burgomaster of Altona, prepared a zone
plan for that town. Other German towns followed suit
with schemes governing height, character and density.
In America the city of Los Angeles was the first to pass
a zoning ordinance in 1909, and in a large number of
American towns similar regulations are in force. Those
adopted by New York in 1916 were of a comprehensive
nature, and have met with general approval in that
city, and it is claimed that they have effected savings
amounting to many millions of dollars. In St. Louis
the ordinance is said to have resulted in a very noticeable
stabilisation of values in several residential areas which,
previous to the adoption of the system, were declining
or showing a tendency toward depreciation.
As we have mentioned, the provisions of this kind
included in the Town Planning Act of 1909 were much
less comprehensive, but even for what they are, two
instances may be quoted illustrating their utility in
checking disorganised growth. Birmingham began by
123
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
prohibiting any dangerous, noxious, or offensive trade
to be carried on except on lands already so used or
appropriated for the purpose; otherwise no specific
factory area was set apart, but no factory or building
other than a dwelling-house could be built anywhere
in the town-planned area without the consent of the
corporation. Manchester, in its scheme for the
southern area, set aside a portion where any type of
factory can be erected subject to the approval of the
corporation as to the manner of erection, height, eleva-
tion and character of building. Factories in other
parts of the area will only be permitted subject to
certain restrictions.
It may be confidently predicted that the regulation
of the growth of cities on considered lines, such as these,
will effect an enormous improvement in their future
efhiciency, and it cannot be long before an appreciation
of the necessity for control in this matter will bring
about an amendment extending these powers to the
occupied areas. It need not be assumed that in such
an event established interests will be much interfered
with ; this is hardly likely, but occupied areas are to-
day changing their character in all our large towns, and
guidance is urgently needed to ensure that such changes
shall take place as part of a movement clearly defined
in accordance with a comprehensive programme and
not in a piecemeal and haphazard fashion.
When this stage is reached those whose interests give
them an influential position in civic affairs will perforce
have to take part in shaping the city’s future instead of
standing aside from municipal activities on the ground
that these are not of sufficient importance to be worth
124
ALLOCATION OF AREAS
their attention. In past times the services of the
ablest citizens were devoted to these activities, and
though at the moment their claims in this respect seem
to have been in a measure forgotten, there are signs
that the expansion of civic control is bringing about a
more general realisation of civic responsibility.
125
CHAPTER XIII
Planning for Commerce and Industry
ITHERTO industrial concerns have had a
fairly free hand as regards the selection of sites,
and while the positions chosen have often been
injurious to the community as a whole, they have
usually been taken up with a view to advantages of one
kind or another in relation to the operations contem-
plated. With the restriction of this freedom, so essen-
tial from the town planning aspect, it becomes the more
necessary to ensure that the areas allocated to indus-
trial purposes shall be such as will enable these to be
economically and profitably carried on, and that they
can be apportioned in sites suitable for the classes of
industry likely to be in demand.
It has been suggested that this question can be
appreciated with greater clarity if the operations of
industry be subdivided into their constituent parts,
including most of those that fall under the head of
commerce. Beginning with what is termed “raw
material,” we have first the processes by which this is
won or gathered, next its transport to, and reception
at, the place where it is to be worked on, and possibly
a period of storage there ; then the manufacturing pro-
cesses, which may be the complete series to the finished
article, or only a partial one preparing it to be passed on
elsewhere, as in the case of a smelting works or a tannery ;
then another period of storage and the distribution of
the finished or partially finished article.
The appropriate relationships between all these
126
PLANNING FOR INDUSTRY
operations demand consideration, and where the assem-
bling of various constituents or the provision of power
comes into the account, it is often a question of great
nicety in economics as to which factors are to dictate
the location, whether ore is to be brought to coal or
coal to ore, whether material to power or power to
material, and the successful prosecution of an industry
will be found to depend not alone on facilities in respect
of material nor as to ultimate markets, but on a
balancing of both these factors, together with others,
such as competing demands for labour, climatic suita-
bility, etc. ‘Thus we see that the task of the industrialist
is no easy one, and when his requirements have to be
understood by the town planner, this aspect must needs
take an important place in his studies.
Bearing this in mind, the wisdom of planning
industrial areas with as much flexibility as possible
will be recognised, so that provision will be made
alternatively for smaller or larger undertakings, with
lines of communication spaced out so that supple-
mentary ones can be formed when the actual allocations
are defined. Where there are valuable water frontages,
these should be economised as far as the character of
the industries permits, and a good depth given to sites
so situated, as in most cases there will be certain
branches of the work not demanding proximity to the
water front. Where the principal means of transport
is by rail, the planning requires care in providing that
sidings can be carried to the necessary points without
undue waste in arranging curves. ‘To effect this it is
often best to align the sites obliquely to the railway
route, so that the sidings may be run into them without
127
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
too long acurve. A portion of the plan of the industrial
area of Lucknow illustrates this; here there was the
added complication of two railway services of different
gauge, the narrow gauge bringing most of the raw
material, the broad gauge bringing the fuel and also
receiving the bulk of the finished product.
In no city does the difference between good and bad
planning so seriously affect the economic welfare as in
the large commercial seaport, and it is here, owing to
the rapid advances made in marine construction and
transport methods during recent years, that the greatest
activity has been found necessary to keep pace with the
progress made. Many of our wharves and docks,
together with their plant, are obsolete, both in scale and
efficiency, and it is only occasionally that their position
renders the solution possible that has proved of value
in Liverpool, where several important office buildings
have taken the place of one of the older docks. ‘Though
the course taken in this case can hardly be a usual one,
it seems likely that in London and one or two other
places where the demand for an enlarged business
centre is pressing, extensions may be secured by the
abandonment of the older docks, which are outgrown
by the shipping of the present day.
The planning of new docks is dictated by the class
of trade and the size of the vessels accommodated, the
former determining the proportion of land area and the
arrangement of the warehouses and shore communica-
tions, the latter the scale and design of the water areas.
It may be imagined that these engineering questions
are outside the range of town planning, but experience
has shown that the arrangement of the docks or
128
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PLANNING FOR INDUSTRY
wharfage is the most vital factor in the extension of a
sea port, and that efficient planning would be impossible
were this excluded. The physiography of the site must
influence to a large extent all planning of this nature,
but, apart from this, port organisations divide them-
selves into two types, each of which has its sub-
divisions. |
Where the tidal variation is small and the position
sheltered, the port may be open to the sea, but where
it is considerable the scheme almost always takes the
form of enclosed docks with locks and gates. Quite
frequently accommodation of both types is provided.
The two main variations of the open port give wharfage
parallel to the shore, running the length of natural or
artificial frontages, and, alternatively, a series of piers at
right angles to the shore line, the first and older type
being more general in Europe and the second that
usual in America. Enclosed docks exhibit similar
variations, as in some the ships lie along the walls of
the dock, and in others along jetties projecting from
these walls. Formerly these jetties were placed at right
angles to the wall, but an oblique position is now found
more convenient for manceuvring ships and in giving
more economy in the space taken up by railway sidings,
just as in the oblique arrangement already described for
factory sites.
The special planning for port areas in the way of
sorting sheds, storage, elevators, bonded warehouses,
and the like does not call for consideration here, as,
when the general lines of development are settled and
the necessary areas allocated, this will pass into other
hands, but outside these areas the lines of access and
129 K
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
communication still remain to be dealt with, both in
regard to the service of the port and to that of the sites
in proximity to it. These sites will in most cases be
of eminent value for industrial purposes allied to the
commercial interests, and it will thus be of the utmost
importance that, apart from the lines of communication
by road and rail between the port and its “‘ hinterland,”
there should also be, distinct from these as far as
possible, transport facilities between it and the sur-
rounding sites occupied by important industrial con-
cerns. In former times these were often served by
inland canals running from the port, and railways now
do most of this work, but it is a question if these might
not be supplemented by overhead transport, such as
travellers or rope lines serving large works, when in
proximity to the port area.
Port undertakings being as a rule on low-lying
ground, it is probable that, avoiding the bad practices
of the past, we shall only find sites suitable for housing
the workers at some distance, leaving us free to organise
the zone immediately around the port for appropriate
industries, and arranging to bring the employees from
some more desirable places in the district by a rapid
transit service. Such a form of organisation is obviously
demanded both north and south of the Thames estuary,
and also along the ‘Tyne, the Tees, the Dee, and several
other rivers. The lay-out of the communications for
transit demands careful study, not only to avoid con-
flicting with those for transport, but also to give such
routes as may be economical in working and, at the
same time, so unified as to provide varied routes
according to the requirements of the workers. ‘The
130
PLANNING FOR INDUSTRY
housing of the workers in each group of docks and
works at the nearest appropriate point, with a direct
connection between these, sounds a simple solution, but
it is not an adequate one, as members of a family may
work at different places, and workers may change their
place of employment without wishing to move their
homes. Some compromise between direct routes and
a circulating one will probably best meet the circum-
stances of the case.
There are other difficulties associated with industrial
operations which must not be overlooked. It is only
here and there that sites are by nature too irregular or
too steep to exclude development, but where the ground
has been quarried or excavated for gravel or clay it is
usually left in such a state as to be useless for any
economic purpose. ‘The owners obtain their royalties,
and sometimes compensation in addition, but this is
rarely expended in restoring the levels, and when the
town extends to these areas the desired communications
and planning are found to be impossible owing to the
prohibitive cost. They might often be reserved as
open spaces, and even made quite attractive with pools
and walks, but a fictitious value being usually placed
on them, with the idea that restoration may be ulti-
mately justified, they remain in the meantime an
obstacle to good planning. It is essential that a definite
programme should be laid down in respect of these
activities, permission only being given conditionally
on the restoration of the land to a state capable of use
or handed over to the authorities at a nominal figure to
be adapted as permanent open spaces. In either case
the further provision must be made that necessary lines
131
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
of communication are not interfered with, or, if this is
too inconvenient, are subsequently restored.
Similar provisions are desirable in the case of the
huge mounds resulting from mining or smelting opera-
tions. ‘These have done much to destroy the few
amenities which remain possible around our industrial
centres, and while we must guard against regulations
so severe as to preclude the economic pursuit of these
industries, it is only too obvious that the recklessness
hitherto habitual must give place to a more considered
treatment of these artificial hills. Fortunately it is now
found practicable to shift the spoil in coal mines into
the worked-out portions, thus diminishing the sub-
sidences and also limiting the surface mounds, while a
use has been found for the material from slag heaps in
the metalling of our arterial roads. So far, however,
the reduction of these mounds is not keeping pace with
their increase, and we have an unfortunate legacy of
areas destroyed by them in former days. Where it is
still unavoidable to form deposits of this type, the
surface soil should be removed and reserved, the
deposits should be kept as uniform and level as pos-
sible, with provision for grade approaches, and the
whole undertaking so organised that some degree of
restoration is subsequently practicable, by tree plant-
ing or such other operations as could be undertaken
where the surface was approximately level. The
employment of cable transport, which is now tending
to take the place of rail trolley lines, gives more flexi-
bility to the mode of deposit, making it easier to distri-
bute the spoil in a less destructive fashion.
Apart from this, the problem of mining areas is one
132
PLANNING FOR INDUSTRY
that makes exceptional demands on the efforts of the
town planner. Owing to the increased depth of the
more recent mines, the workings extend over a larger
area, reaching to a radius of two miles from the shaft,
and being on this scale the mining village is corre-
spondingly increased in size. On this point we may
quote Professor Abercrombie, who has written as
follows :— |
“The natural tendency of coal working on a com-
paratively level site is to distribute growth in a series of
communities more or less attached to each pit. But the
pit-head village, however well designed and cut off or
screened from the pit, is not the ideal unit. It possesses
the drawback of too great a similarity of social structure
and consequent narrowness of interest. ‘The Garden
City, it will be remembered, always contemplated the
existence of varied factory, business and agricultural
life, combined, in the two cities so far attempted, with a
strong infusion of purely residential leaven. A new
coalfield, perhaps, does not offer the same attraction to
energising personalities to settle there and philosophise,
as does for example Letchworth and Welwyn. ‘There
is also the important factor of size; the Garden City
movement rightly deplores and attempts to prevent the
creation and continued growth of huge towns ; but in
the other extreme, villages of 5,000 inhabitants or so
are under very severe limitations for learning, art,
amusement, shopping and general business.”’
To counterbalance the drawbacks mentioned, he
suggests that the development of a central town should
be encouraged either with good transit facilities to the
various pit-heads, a course which he regards as appro-
133
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
priate in the new East Kent coalfield, or else the form-
ing of a focus around which the villages are grouped,
in the way the Doncaster area is already shaping
itself.
When we review the industrial possibilities of any
country as a whole, it becomes clear that the exploita-
tion of these exercises a preponderating influence on
the problems of development, and determines the
general distribution of the population and, to a large
extent, the commercial organisation. The survey of
national resources, present and possible, is essentially
the fundamental preparation for all future planning,
not only around the existing towns, but of the country
as a whole, so that every likely expansion of the indus-
trial activities may be adequately provided for, as a
portion of a general scheme with appropriate co-ordina-
tions in all its aspects.
134
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CHAPTER XIV
Housing
HE question of housing is fundamental to town
planning. We have seen that this art may have
been said to have begun with the demand for a
house of two rooms instead of one, and ever since the type
of house has been the main influence determining the
layout, the area to be covered, and the spacing of the
streets. At the same time we must not ignore the fact
that occasionally changing conditions have reversed
the process, and the house has then been compelled to
adapt itself to the area available and to grow vertically
instead of horizontally, as aforetime, to subdivide itself
into tenements, or to combine into aggregations.
These adaptations have been the cause of most of
the “ housing problems,” which predate time historic.
In Asian and African villages man builds his own
domicile just as he would cook his own dinner ; it is a
domestic matter, and he constructs what he wants as
far as his means permit, and usually secures what he
regards as appropriate. So long as such structures can
be placed in “‘ open formation,” no great evil results
from their relatively unsubstantial character. It is only
when they begin to get packed closely together that
danger from fire and from lack of appropriate sanita-
tion comes to be felt. This is clearly exemplified in
India, where in case of plague the inhabitants are moved
to camps of isolated dwellings from the denser agglo-
merations of the mud-built houses that have been
penetrated by the infected rats. These more primitive
135
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
types of building were no doubt general in all ages,
when only the aristocracy of the day was able to
secure a large share of the advantages that the civilisa-
tion of the period could offer. In the plains of Meso-
potamia, in Egypt, and even in Greece and Italy, the
depressed or enslaved classes had nothing better, while
it was only by slow degrees that in medizval times the
standard was raised, and the building craftsmen took
over the work of providing homes for the poorer
classes. Thus we find Harrison as late as 1577 remark-
ing :—
‘* And yet see the change, for when our houses were
builded of willow, then had we oken men; but now
that our houses are come to be made of oke, our men
are not onlie become willow, but a great manie, through
Persian delicacie crept in among us, altogither of straw,
which is a sore alteration.
‘“ Now haue we manie chimnies; and yet our
tenderlings complaine of rheumes, catarhs, and poses.
Then had we none but reredosses ; and our heads did
neuer ake. For as the smoke in those daies was sup-
posed to be a sufficient hardning for the timber of the
house, so it was reputed a far better medicine to keepe
the goodman and his familie from the quacke or pose,
wherewith, as then, verie few were oft acquainted.”
While in London, then as now by far the largest city
in England, we may see by some of the regulations of
Richard I. that substantial building was only at that
time (1189) becoming general.
‘When two neighbours shall have agreed to build
between themselves a wall of stone, each shall give a
foot and a half of land, and so they shall construct, at
136
HOUSING
their joint cost, a stone wall three feet thick and sixteen
feet in height. And, if they agree, they shall make a
gutter between them, to carry off the water from their
houses, as they may deem most convenient. But if they
should not agree, either of them may make a gutter
to carry the water dripping from his house on to his
own land, except he can convey it into the High
Street. |
“They may also, if they agree, raise the said wall as
high as they please, at their joint expense, and if it shall
happen that one shall wish to raise the wall, and the
other not, it shall be lawful for him who is willing, to
raise his own part as much as he please, and build upon
it, without damage of the other, at his own cost.
“ And if any shall build his own stone wall, upon his
own land, of the height of sixteen feet, his neighbour
ought to make a gutter under the eaves of the house
which is placed on that wall, and receive in it the water
falling from that house, and lead it on to his own land,
unless he can lead it into the High Street.
** Also, no one of two parties having a common wall
built between them, can, or ought, to pull down any
portion of his part of the said wall, or lessen its thick-
ness, or make arches in it, without the assent and will of
the other.
‘ And if any one shall have windows looking towards
the land of a neighbour, and although he and his pre-
decessors have long been possessed of the view of the
aforesaid windows, nevertheless, his neighbour may
lawfully obstruct the view of those windows, by building
opposite to them on his own ground, as he shall con-
sider most expedient ; except he who hath the windows
137
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
can show any writing whereby his neighbour may not
obstruct the view of those windows.
** Whosoever wishes to build, let him take care, as he
loveth himself and his goods, that he roof not with reed,
nor rush, nor with any manner of litter, but with tile
only, or shingle, or boards, or, if it may be, with lead.
Also all houses which till now are covered with reed or
rush, which can be plastered, let them be plastered
within eight days, and let those which shall not be so
plastered within the term be demolished by the alder-
men and lawful men of the venue.
“* All wooden houses which are nearest to the stone
houses in Cheap, whereby the stone houses in Cheap
may be in peril, shall be securely amended by view
of the mayor and sheriffs, and good men of the city,
or, without any exception, to whomsoever they may
belong, pulled down.”
We know that at the time of the Great Fire London
was still largely of wooden construction, andit is hardlyto
be doubted that the idealistic provisions of 1189 in regard
to the construction of stone division walls had only
been accepted to a limited extent. ‘There were at least
two reasons for this: firstly, stone is not plentiful near
London, while its substitute, brick, did not come into
general use till three centuries later; and, secondly,
valuable space would be lost by the substitution of
a three-foot wall for the comparatively thin timber
framing it was intended to replace.
We can further judge of the general scale of buildings
in the twelfth century by the reference to sixteen feet
as a probable height. Clearly no more than two stories
was then the rule, and this in the metropolis ; elsewhere
138
HOUSING
it is hardly likely that a large proportion of the build-
ings was of more than one story. The characteristic
medizeval street, with its tall and overhanging facades,
irregular projections and steep-pitched roofs, such as
Gustave Doré loved to emphasise even beyond the
possible, was the growth of later times, when the city,
still packed within its defensive wall, was impelled to
develop vertically through being precluded from. exten-
sion laterally, resulting, as has been mentioned earlier,
in the type of city we now recognise as representative
of this period.
It was not the natural adaptation of means to an end,
but the tradition of the tall house on a limited site that
dictated the form of town houses during the seven-
teenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and it was
the designer’s endeavour to justify this height that led
him to group them in blocks and treat the whole as a
unit simulating a palace, by the employment of detail
borrowed from Palladio and those other Italians, the
authors of the genuine palaces of the Renaissance.
The standard of the closely built city having been
thus established, it has remained with us ever since,
and its one claim to merit, namely compactness and
shortening of distances, has been given undue weight
in the balance against its numerous defects. ‘This is,
moreover, not the end of our heritage from the Middle
Ages in respect to housing. ‘The one family one house
type, from which all communities start, has at various
periods been driven to give place to the tenement block
housing a number of families. We find it in ancient
Rome, and in the East at the present day, antagonistic
though it be to the Eastern ideal of family life.
139
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
In Europe it has generally arisen out of changes in
conditions or of fashion that have drawn the well-to-do
away from extensive blocks of large houses and left
them to those who could only afford to rent them
piecemeal. We see that this has taken place in London,
in Dublin, and other large towns, while on the Continent
this tendency appeared still earlier than here, Paris
and many other cities affording us examples with which
Edinburgh may be classed with these as being at least a
century ahead of similar developmentsin England. As
an improvement on this accidental form of housing, we
come next to the block planned for the purpose of pro-
viding a number of houses. Such blocks seem to have
been erected by the Romans where conditions dictated
this course; they reappear on the Continent and in
Scotland during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies, but not until the nineteenth in England, and
even then for a long time only reluctantly as an expe-
dient for housing the very poorest. Flats for middle-
class residents, long accepted elsewhere, hardly existed
in London before 1880, and for some two decades after
this were usually designed to simulate the appearance of
private house as far as possible.
Of course the tenement or flat planned ad hoc
has clear advantages over improvised subdivision, and
London suffered from its conservatism, many being
housed in a fashion of which Dublin presents the only
exact equivalent. If we grant the necessity for residen-
tial flats, it is important that they should be as skil-
fully designed as possible, and of late years it may be
claimed that this has been effected, but there are yet
many English towns of medium size where their utility is
140
HOUSING
still repudiated, in marked contrast with the Scottish
ideal, which dictates the building of tenement blocks
even in quite small places.
It may perhaps be felt that these considerations are
somewhat remote from the subject, but the influence
of the type of dwelling on the character of a town
demands their inclusion before we pass on to the aspect
of town planning as affected by housing standards.
Having reviewed at sufficient length the trend of
housing development in the past, it will now suffice to
look at our towns as they stand at the present day, and
here a marked contrast is evident between those of the
Continent and those of our own island. While the build-
ings in the large Continental cities average four or five
stories in height, in ours the larger proportion of the area
is covered by houses of two stories only, the appropriate
height of the one-family house for nine people out of
ten. We know, of course, that the impressive masses of
buildings we see abroad are divided into small and, to
our mind, not very comfortable dwellings, but, none
the less, they create an impression of ordered dignity
lacking in our towns at home. Even though we may
be inwardly convinced that our own arrangements are
preferable, we are yet so far dominated by the tradition
of what a city should look like as to feel that the Con-
tinental town corresponds to this more closely than our
own widespread ranges of small homes.
If we determine to study the housing question on its
merits we must free ourselves from all obsession as to
past standards in the characteristics of a town. We
have been accustomed to get our impressions from the
imposing houses of the wealthy in our own country,
141
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
and from such houses, reinforced by massed buildings
simulating them, elsewhere. In these days the demand
for the large town house has practically ceased, and the
alternative before us is either to substitute the flat or
tenement block or to reconstruct our plans so as to
make it possible to occupy wide areas with cottage
residences. On the Continent the former alternative
is the one most generally accepted ; with us the second
remains the more popular ; but, as a result, our large
towns are becoming increasingly difficult to organise, and
only the acceleration of traffic has made it possible
up to the present. One of the strongest arguments of
the advocates of the garden city has been the undesira-
bility of unlimited expansion, and in view of the depress-
ing effect of mile after mile of small houses, there is a
great deal to be said for the substitution of “ satellite
towns ”’ and detached suburban villages, which are,
from both the hygienic and the social points of view,
preferable to the extended “ agglomeration ’’ and more
in consonance with our national temperament. To
encourage these we need improvements in the planning
and working of our systems of transport, but there is
every hope that these will be effected, not perhaps as
fast as is desirable, but possibly in time to afford a fair
chance for the required revision in the mode of pro-
viding for massed population. We recognise now that
mere extent adds nothing to the dignity of a city, indeed
rather the reverse, as even where from time to time we
may meet with salient features, a deadening impression
on the mind is bound to be created by vast areas of
houses that cannot reasonably be expected to exhibit
much variety in type.
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HOUSING
At this point a brief note on housing, as it has
influenced the welfare, apart from the appearance,
of many of our larger towns, is desirable. For many
decades the lack of adequate transit facilities resulted
in houses being packed together in limited areas con-
veniently near to business and industrial districts, and
though by-laws came into operation to restrict this, the
regulations were, as we have seen, far less drastic than
modern practice demands, only prescribing curtilages
too small for gardens, and in many cases still accepting
houses built back to back, a system which could only
be of economic value with dwellings of two or three
rooms, and which has been condemned, not only in the
case of separate houses, but also in that of tenement
blocks on account of the impossibility of securing a
thorough current of air. Even now such tenement
blocks are being constructed in Continental towns with
separate flats on each front, so that they are in effect
back to back.
The type of dwelling now established as best from
the point of view of health is open on as many sides as
possible, and while cottages may be grouped for
economic or zsthetic reasons provided there is plenty
of air space around each group, those planned as
detached or semi-detached always show a slight
superiority in the increased freedom as regards aspect
and aeration.
143
CHAPTER XV
Education and Recreation
ROM the town planning point of view, educa-
tion and recreation may well be grouped to-
gether, and there is a sound basis for such a
grouping, as recreation undoubtedly educates and
education is, or ought to be, recreative. Separate
classifications of the two are possible, if difficult,
but for our purpose they may be dealt with together,
since we have little connection with book learning, which
is the popular concept of education as a distinct opera-
tion, but a great deal to do with those other aspects that
concern themselves with open air pursuits and merge
indistinguishably into what are recognised as recreative
ones.
It has long been accepted by educationalists that the
latter are of primary importance in the education of the
young, and various steps have been taken in the
interests of physical and mental development to change
the type of school building so as to make provision for
working as much as possible in the open air, and the
school surroundings in order to facilitate practical
operations, such as gardening and constructive work,
as a part at least of the programme. ‘The experiment
has even been made of taking the children en masse into
the country during the school hours, a plan economi-
cally practicable, because they can travel in an opposite
direction to that of the daily influx of workers into the
town.
Whether this be generally possible or not, the typical
144
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EDUCATION AND RECREATION
town school, with a playground so limited that it must
needs be but an asphalte yard, is so far from the recog-
nised ideal as to ensure that only in the most acute
emergency will others be erected on this model. With
the increasing provision of open spaces it is probable
that future schools will be located adjoining these, so
that there will be scope for games and the study of
nature, without involving journeys for these pursuits.
As it is recognised that no extensive housing schemes can
be laid down without ample provision for open air
recreation, it will become a matter of course that the
provision for schools will be considered in relation to
these, and that the structural characteristics of what are
misnamed our “ public schools’ will be aimed at in
the design of schools for all classes. This will not be
so costly as might be imagined, for the playing fields
can serve different sections of the community at dif-
ferent times, the infants mainly before 2 p.m., the
scholars between that hour and 5, and the adults from
5 p-m. till dark.
The type and amount of the accommodation which
is being established as the standard in newly developed
districts will gradually influence the general attitude
towards the older schools where there is a pronounced
shortage of open space, and in course of time the defects
of these will be felt intolerable, and there will be a
stronger demand than there is at present that advantage
should be taken of all clearances of insanitary property
for the purpose of providing open spaces. The prin-
ciple is recognised in the legal provision for reduced
compensation where this course is adopted, and though
this has often the effect of visiting on the children the
145 :
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
sins of the fathers, we know that there is a sanction
for this form of vicarious retribution, without even the
proviso that it is to take effect for the good of the
greater number.
Having laid down the axiom that school buildings
should be in proximity to open spaces, though these
latter, if economy demands it, need not be exclusively
allotted to the school, we can now pass on to the con-
sideration of the parks and recreation grounds them-
selves.
The formal park of the eighteenth century, and the
“landscape” one of the nineteenth, are of far less
value from the educationalists’ standpoint than the
types of open space most in demand at the present
time, and though the former has a value in definitely
enhancing the unity between city design and natural
features, we cannot afford to give it the dominant posi-
tion it once held. ‘The social reformer asks for two
things, the nature reserve, where townsfolk can appre-
ciate those aspects of life which would otherwise be
beyond the range of their observation, and the recrea-
tion ground, varying in type according to local demand,
but laid out to afford the maximum accommodation for
the physical activities which counteract the defects due
to their absence in most of the occupations of the
dwellers in a town.
It is incumbent on all towns of any size to keep a
look out for positions reasonably accessible which
offer advantages in situation or character, and to secure
them when opportunity offers. Very often these are
areas of the least value for economic purposes, irregular
in formation, bluffs or escarpments, the valleys of small
146
EDUCATION AND RECREATION
streams, dingles or cloughs, just the kind of places that,
if encroached on by building operations, destroy most
effectually, for very small profits, the amenity of the
locality in which they occur. They possess, as a rule,
not only the attractions of varied landscape effects, but
also a wider range of fauna and flora than more uniform
tracts, an important advantage from the point of view
of their educational value. We must not, however, look
at them solely with the eye of the naturalist. Education
is not alone the acquisition of knowledge, it covers the
expansion of the faculty of appreciating the drama, so
to speak, of both nature and art, and thus it is of import-
ance that any feature of outstanding effect on its
surroundings, be this hill or valley, should be pre-
served from obliteration by the encroachment of undis-
tinguished buildings.
Turning to the provision for recreation in the form
of playing fields, the selection would usually be of level
ground, suited to those games which give the maximum
activity in relation to the area employed. The national
games of football and cricket must, of course, be pro-
vided for, while tennis gives more intensive use in pro-
portion to the ground occupied. Bowling greens are
not extravagant of space, and gymnastic exercises take
comparatively little. A running track can easily be
arranged, but it is only with exceptionally favourable con-
ditions in the matter of open land that public golf links
can be included, though this game has the advantage
that it is independent ofa levelsite. Ofcourse there are
many examples of parks where a part is available for
games, and the remainder, suitably laid out, provides
walks and pleasances, and doubtless this division is a
147
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
sound course where circumstances have dictated it, but
such parks would not replace the quieter reserves the
naturalist willask for. In addition, where part of an area
required for games is irregular in its outline and levels,
it might be profitably laid out as an open air concert hall
or theatre.
Besides the larger grounds for organised games,
small playgrounds among the groups of houses must
be provided for young children, so that they can have
the benefit of free exercise in the open air conveniently
near theirhomes. ‘These playgrounds will only demand
a relatively small proportion of the total area required
for playing fields, and at the same time the cost will
be trifling, since they can be calculated as part of the
allowance for garden ground in a housing scheme.
The proportionate allocations for these open spaces
will be considered in the chapter on Parks, and we can
therefore pass on to a type of activity which, while
ostensibly concerned with the lighter forms of recrea-
tion, sometimes embodies educational features in addi-
tion, namely, the temporary exhibitions and their
adjuncts. ‘These, no doubt originating in the old fairs
which combined business with entertainment, have
acquired a changed complexion, owing first to the estab-
lishment of pleasure gardens such as Cremorne and
Vauxhall, and later on to the inauguration of the large
international exhibitions in various European capitals
and the more important cities of the United States.
While the more serious features of these have gained an
increasing popularity, the peripatetic entertainments
appertaining to the fair have expanded their plant and
have continued their peregrinations among the minor
148
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The Exhib
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50
a
Facing page 149
EDUCATION AND RECREATION
towns. These have not sufficed for the more populous
centres, where “joy cities,” offering the same class of
entertainment on a larger scale, have been established.
In the United States the “joy city ”’ is a permanent
feature as a distinct establishment, but in Europe it is
more usually joined to an organisation which either
temporarily or year by year purports to have a serious
aim, thus more nearly typifying the medizval fair,
-which gathered people from far and wide for the pur-
poses of commerce and hirings, and where the amuse-
ments were at first merely incidental in character. St.
Bartholomew’s, Barnet, and other Fairs, afforded pic-
turesque incidents and a good deal of rough and tumble
amusement to those frequenting them, the prototypes of
the present-day votaries of the “ joy city,” while those
having a taste for rather more sedate enjoyments
brought into popularity the gardens of Vauxhall,
Cremorne, and their successors.
In more recent times the combination of these
various ideals has brought into vogue the exhibition as
a place of interest and amusement, and the emulation
of the nations in displaying their resources by this
means has been responsible for a vast amount of
grandiose planning and the display of effects more
easily secured by means of temporary structures than
would be possible with more costly permanent buildings.
Despite much that may be open to criticism from the
point of view of design, it can be affirmed that the
impression given by many of these undertakings has
been definitely beneficial, as they embody more digni-
fied and spacious planning than is to be found generally.
Of course the lay-out and massing of buildings on
149
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
a site selected for the purpose, and free from the
restrictions met with under ordinary conditions, to-
gether with the fact that the structures themselves are
less dominated by economic and practical require-
ments, offers more opportunity for untrammelled
imaginings, and therefore the more successful efforts
have exercised a definite influence on the appreciation
of comprehensive design.
Paris, already in the forefront in this respect, may
have had little to learn, but there can be no doubt that
the popular standards of Chicago and San Francisco
have been materially raised by the very effective plan-
ning of their exhibitions. Yet nowhere has the full
advantage been taken of the opportunities these under-
takings have afforded for experiments in the subsidiary
aspects of design, such as gardening, water and illu-
mination. In spite of the fact that from time to time
quite exceptionally good effects have been contrived,
these have not been regarded as setting a standard for
the decoration of our cities, which still sadly lack the
vivacity obtainable by a few of the expedients that have
been freely employed to gain popularity for exhibitions
and their adjuncts.
After these excursions into specialised activities we
thus come back in the end to the city itself, which is, in
its functions and organisation, the main factor in the
education of the townspeople. It is for this reason that
the movement for better and more logical design in the
development of our large towns is of such paramount
importance. Confused and sordid surroundings can
only result in a correspondingly sordid outlook on life,
while the noble city cannot fail to evoke a broad-
150
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Facing page 1513
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San Franc
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.
The Exhib
52. Water Effect.
os
*
EDUCATION AND RECREATION
minded nobility in its citizens. Education is only to a
minor extent a matter of books and class-rooms ; what
makes or mars a people is mainly the type of environ-
ment, no less from the point of view of the social stan-
dards themselves than from that of their expression in
material form.
151
CHAPTER XVI
Civic and Social Centres
E must once more turn to Rome for the idea
of both the civic and the social centre,
though in neither case do we now demand
the exact equivalent of what was then provided. In the
first case it was the custom of the Romans to group
round the Forum the buildings connected with civil
administration, and in the second the magnificent
Thermz provided for the various forms of communal
social activity, including, as they did, not only the
baths, but provision for various athletic exercises, and
also for social meetings, discourses and recitations.
These, as we have seen, it was the recognised duty of
the authorities to establish and maintain, though they
were often aided in this by private munificence.
Only quite recently has a similar attitude towards
these centres become at all general. It is true that
during the Middle Ages the combination of religious
and municipal functions with social activities tended
towards the concentration of all these in a definite
centre, but when these interests separated themselves,
this tendency lapsed and no effort was made to provide
on similar lines for the less unified activities of the
modern city. Official buildings were left to find a place
when and where they could ; churches and chapels, as
might be expected, distributed themselves in various
quarters, while the other communal provisions were
forgotten altogether, and were only re-established piece-
meal on an opportunist basis, just how and where it
152
CIVIC AND SOCIAL CENTRES
seemed possible, with no idea of a co-ordinated group.
Schools claimed attention first ; then “‘ baths and wash-
houses ”’ secured popular support ; games found a foot-
ing in odd corners of the parks, and the free libraries
began to be accepted as a public need. Art galleries and
museums were for long regarded as appropriate only to
cities of metropolitan importance, but we now find
that most places of any size are endeavouring to include
them in their municipal programme.
While there is no occasion to be pedantic on the ques-
tion of grouping all these together, it being obvious
that there is no real necessity for this, and often very
definite difficulties in so doing, it is clear that a much
more emphatic expression of civic dignity will be
achieved by a studied placing of public buildings in
relationship to each other.
Taking the administrative centre first, we shall find
here and there that such a group has either formed itself
or has been found practicable without too great an
effort. Birmingham’s chief public buildings are massed
together, though not with any very striking effect as
regards their architectural position. Cardiff has been
more fortunate in that a large park, reserved by the
Marquis of Bute till long after the town had extended
beyond it, was transferred to the corporation and laid out
in sites for the city hall, law courts, museum, univer-
sity, and several other public buildings. The arrange-
ment of these has not been all that could be desired, but
the spaciousness of the site, and the inclusion of trees
and gardens, place it far ahead of anything else of the
kind in this country. It is to the U.S.A. that we must
go to see the civic centre established as an essential in
153
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
the design of an important town. In many towns
there such a grouping has either been secured or is in
contemplation. That of Cleveland was one of the
earliest to take shape, but Pittsburg, St. Louis, Chicago,
and a number of other cities have schemes laid down
for this purpose.
From the civic standpoint it is a great drawback that
in England we have such a large number of administrative
bodies functioning quite independently of each other.
Post and telegraph offices are a Government affair : the
county may have its offices in one place and the town
council in another: the town hall may, or may not,
be in conjunction with the latter, the courts perhaps in
a district quite remote: and the list could be extended
almost indefinitely. Apart from the obvious incon-
veniences of such a distribution, it militates seriously
against the effect of dignity that would be gained by the
co-ordinated grouping of all these buildings in a well
chosen position, and though we know that this is not
always practicable in an old established centre, much
more could have been done in this direction if the ideal
had been kept in mind and a scheme forecasted with the
aim of its gradual realisation.
The same principle applies no less imperatively to the
educational group. ‘The university, with its allied
institutes and schools, now a recognised feature of all
important centres, has a definite claim to consideration
as a whole, and though the character may vary according
_ to local occupations and conditions, it will be the excep-
tion rather than the rule if these suggest that educational
activities should be distributed between various locali-
ties in preference to being grouped in a suitable site not
154
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CIVIC AND SOCIAL CENTRES
too remote from the focal centre of the city. It must
be outside the commercial area or it will be impossible
to provide space for the inevitable extensions, and as
university activities are rapidly, and fortunately, ceasing
to be the concern of the adolescent only, the educa-
tional group should be easily accessible, both from all
parts of the city itself and from the outside region of
which the city is the focus.
Passing on to the social centre, as the group of
buildings having recreation as their main objective is
usually entitled, a much more varied type of demand
presents itself. Social life takes many different com-
plexions, ranging from that to be found in the clubs
of the great capitals to the simple intercourse of the
village hall. Nor is it solely a matter of wealth and
culture; there are even in a single nation wide varia-
tions in the attitude towards social relationships, and
any organisation providing for them must base itself on
the local traditions. It is out of the question to discuss
these at length, and the only course is to admit that,
while defining in general terms the features to be
included in such a centre, this is subject to reserva-
tions in regard to national or local customs and ideals.
Then, again, there must be main and subsidiary centres
in our large towns since they have outgrown any possible
civic unity in this respect, and it would be as futile as
it would be unreasonable to try and cultivate social
relations on a mass basis. This is easiest in the village,
less easy in a city suburb, and almost impossible in many
of the overcrowded districts which are our heritage from
the “‘ industrial’ age, but these centres are wanted
if people are to have a chance of lifting themselves
55
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
out of the depression in which it has deposited them.
The beginnings are already with us, and that they
will eventually take their place in the civic organism
cannot be doubted. We have picture galleries, museums,
libraries, public baths, and recreation grounds as
separate institutions, having their specific values, but
they would exercise a much stronger influence if they
were grouped and supplemented by other desirable
provisions, so as to give the idea of a gathering point for
all local activities, on the lines of the club group at Port
Sunlight.
The art gallery, museum and library, with their
intimate inter-relations, should obviously be combined,
together with studios for art work and for the prepara-
tion of scenic effects to be employed in the adjacent
theatre, which would also link up with facilities for
cultivating music and the dance. ‘Then the baths and
gymnasium seem naturally to demand a place in the
group, with such supplementary adjuncts as a small
running track, a skittle alley, and the like. Of course
there must be the usual club rooms for meetings, lec-
tures, games, social intercourse and refreshments, with
separate provision as far as necessary for men, women
and children. ‘This is more or less what the group
would offer where nothing beyond a good building site
is available, but where this can be secured in juxta-
position to a recreation ground, we can add playing
fields for adults and children, tennis courts, bowling
greens, lawns for dancing, and possibly such additions
as a swimming pond, an open air theatre, and even a
golf course. Birmingham is developing a recreation
centre on these lines at the Lickey Hills.
156
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Bestand 1. J. 1887
Erweiterung
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Regulierungen }
56. Vienna. ‘The Ringstrasse laid out on the Site of the Inner Fortifications
Facing page 157
CIVIC AND SOCIAL CENTRES
Naturally the programme must be proportioned to
local resources and demands, but it should cover as
broad a range of activity as possible, and even the village
hall may find space for a small library and local museum.
The main value in the system of grouping is the facility
it offers for widening the interests of those frequenting
one or more of the sections. Some who regularly visit
the library have no idea of taking part in music or the
drama, while others, enthusiastic over athletics, ignore
the existence of books or pictures. Of course it would
be absurd to demand that every one should be modelled
on the same pattern, but one of the chief obstacles to
social intercourse in all classes is the existence of
numerous blanks in experience and knowledge due to
too limited an outlook. |
Again, if each district has its own centre, we shall
get the incentive of emulation, and with the huge
agglomerations of dwellings having but little interest or
distinction that now characterise our great cities, it
should not be forgotten that the appearance alone of a
group of buildings on a scale allowing for dignity in
their conception will give focal points that are sadly
needed to break the monotony of these far-stretched
suburbs.
The city can only have one municipal group, but the
social centres will take their place in the encircling
districts, adapting themselves to the needs of each, and
counteracting the tendency of the overgrown town to
swamp the social contacts of its denizens.
157
CHAPTER XVII
Parks and Open Spaces
HOUGH it has not been possible to escape a
few references to parks and open spaces, the
importance of these in town development de-
mands that they shall come under review more specific-
ally, a number of considerations being involved in the
study of the whys and wherefores of park site selection
and lay-out.
To begin with the selection, this may be in response
to what might be termed a “ positive ” demand, such as
the “‘ natural beauty or historic interest ”’ of the area, to
quote from the title of the National Trust. Then
places with an interesting flora or fauna have a claim,
and, as well as these, we need good level sites in con-
venient situations for the playing fields and smaller play-
grounds for children to which we have previously
referred, and suitable allocations for allotments. In
providing for the living we must not forget the dead
and the need for cemeteries, placed neither too far for
convenient access nor in places which could otherwise
be more profitably employed.
We must add to this list areas to be reserved as open
spaces for negative reasons, such as sites which are
steep and irregular by nature or by the operations of
man, and which cannot be economically developed,
brooks to be kept pure and bright, low lying ground
on which it would be unhealthy to build, zones to pro-
tect residential districts from proximity to undesirable
industrial operations, and other reservations of this
158
PARKS AND OPEN SPACES
type. It will be well, however, before going into
further detail, to take a brief retrospective view of the
types of park we have inherited from the past, and the
extent to which these have been adapted to meet
changing ideals.
The royal hunting parks have mostly come into the
hands of the people, and on the Continent, these were
usually laid out as described in the chapter on the
Renaissance, with geometric triangulations having
circular clearings at the principal intersections. Those
in England had rather less of artifice and more of nature,
but the formal treatment was accepted for the smaller
parks, such as Greenwich, Hampton Court, and Ken-
sington Gardens. Later on these regular designs were
abandoned in favour of a studied “‘ naturalism,’ and in
some cases were even swept away under the same in-
fluence, a course adopted at the Bois de Boulogne and
in our own St. James’s Park. Throughout the nine-
teenth century the “‘ Landscape School”’ was para-
mount, a school which, while it abandoned formality,
still retained the sophisticated neatness and definition
of grass, gravel and shrubbery belonging to the tradi-
tions of the formalist.
The parks of the continental cities mainly belong to
these two categories and are, in general, welded into
the city pattern by the customary tree-planted avenues
and boulevards. In this country we have a curiously
mixed heritage of parks planned, private parks acquired,
and woodlands, heaths, and commons left in their
natural state. In almost all cases the park is regarded
as an entity in itself, and, with perhaps one or two
exceptions like Regent’s Park, no attempt has been
159
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
made to combine the park and its surroundings in a
comprehensive design. Such instinct as we have for
reinforcing groups of buildings by formal lay-out,
seems to expend itself in private gardens, and but few
efforts on these lines are to be found at the present
time in our public places, though there are hints of a
movement from which we may expect something in the
future.
Whatever may be done in this direction, it is unlikely
that we shall carry out the idea of unity of park and town
to the extent customary on the Continent, and we shall
assuredly retain our preference for the park as a relief
and respite from the life of the city rather than as an
enhancement of it,asis the accepted view abroad. For
this reason the more recent municipal acquisitions of
rural areas are not elaborately laid out, except in so far
as it is necessary for games or to complete a scheme
incidental to a mansion or an existing plan, and this is
right, because, given equally easy access, the “ nature
reserve ”’ will be far more popular than the landscape
gardener’s park. Apart from the playing fields, distinct
in their purpose, the only strong competitor is the well-
furnished flower garden, not just the few circles and
crescents, carpet bedded, that every self-respecting
park includes, but such as may be found with the old
houses which have sometimes come into the possession
of the public. Real flower gardens with herbaceous
borders, beds gay with well-chosen colours, water and
water plants, flowering shrubs and trees, where the
changes from season to season ensure a sustained
interest—these, and the woodlands with streamlets
and viewpoints, are the pleasure grounds that most
160
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Facing page 161
In Memorial, Washington
Inco
58, The L
PARKS AND OPEN SPACES
delight our townsfolk, and though there is no need to
disparage other types, it may be borne in mind that
hilltops, woods, and flowers are sure in their appeal.
The Enclosure Acts, framed with the intention of
providing an increased agricultural output to meet the
needs of a growing population, deprived us of large
areas of common land which in many instances would
have been most valuable as playgrounds for our great
towns: in other cases the greed for land has resulted
in the filching of large slices of public property, and
this more especially where proximity to the town in-
creased the temptation. Only towards the middle of
the nineteenth century did we begin to wake up to the
danger and set to work to secure what remained of the
common lands. Some were then recovered, some bought
back, but even later than this there were losses from
encroachment. Only in a few cases have these acquisi-
tions been transformed into the accepted type of park, the
more usual operations having fortunately been limited
to the making up of a few of the principal roads and
paths, and provision for games where this was demanded.
We may look forward to an increasing desire for
public open spaces, and to a more intimate study of the
means by which these can be made easily accessible from
the populous districts. Some of our great towns own
widespread parklands, Leeds, for example, where there
is an acre to every 240 inhabitants, and Bradford, where
this ratio is more than doubled, in each case with new
roads and tramway routes making these parks their
objective, and yet in them as elsewhere there are still
densely-built-up areas from which it is by no means
easy to reach playgrounds of even moderate size.
161 be
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
In many towns the bulk of the land on the fringe
of the built-up area ought by rights to be reserved
as open spaces, but as this will in most cases be
economically impracticable, an alternative is the reten-
tion of strips or belts of ground which will appro-
priately link up the built-up areas with the larger parks
or reserves that have been secured further afield.
Boston, U.S.A., offers a good example of how this
ought to be done, and many other American cities are
following on the same lines. ‘The valleys of small
rivers or brooks are suitable for reservation as park-
ways of this type, and in Surrey an effort is being made
to secure the course of the Wandle from Carshalton to
Merton against undesirable developments that would
destroy its beauty. ‘There are numberless streams of
this type around London and our other large cities
where similar action is urgently needed.
Then there are other sites, mentioned as of low value
for practical purposes, that may be of great assistance
in the provision of a comprehensive park system. Apart
from the classic example of the Buttes Chaumont in
Paris, made out of the former refuse tip of the city, we
may cite Leeds as having acquired an old quarry area
of 53 acres which will, at comparatively small cost, form
a most interesting park. Then we have in some dis-
tricts extensive mounds left by disused coal pits,
which, unpromising though they appear, are yet
capable of being planted and ultimately organised as
attractive open spaces. A good deal of work in this
direction has been carried out in South Staffordshire
under the auspices of the Midland Re-afforesting Asso-
ciation, which has, during the last twenty-two years,
162
PARKS AND OPEN SPACES
dealt with some 14,000 acres, and has found that on
this seemingly unpromising ground it is practicable to
grow alder, wych-elm, birch, robinia, ash, sycamore,
and other British trees, together with shrubs such as
elder, gorse and broom, while in the course of a few
years the bare surfaces cover themselves with wild
flowers and grasses. Nature itself gradually provides
a superficial soil, and in the end the disorganised irre-
gularity of these neglected mounds becomes a source of
beauty. There are still large areas awaiting these
ameliorative operations, and it may even be hoped that,
when the worser influences of fumes and smoke have
given way to improved methods in the consumption
and utilisation of fuel, such operations may follow on
the heels of the industries concerned, so that no long
period may elapse during which the country suffers
from the disfigurements now regarded as inevitable.
Given the desire for this, it would not be difficult to
deposit such accumulations as cannot be avoided, so that
there should be a rotation over a series of areas by
means of which reorganisation may be provided for in
conjunction with the operations responsible for the
injuries.
‘These incidental opportunities, though it is impor-
tant that they should not be neglected by reason of their
influence on the standards of living among those who
are otherwise subjected to the depressing effects of
untidy and sordid surroundings, must not be per-
mitted to obscure the necessity for a careful investiga-
tion of communal requirements in the way of parks and
recreation grounds. The most definite of these is that
of playing fields, for which there is an increasing
163
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
demand that will not, under average conditions, be met
by the provision of less than about two acres for every
1,000 townspeople; a further quarter acre per 1,000
will, if the sites are properly selected, provide for the
needs of young children, while the amount allocated to
allotments will vary considerably, according to the
occupations and traditions of the workers. It has been
found, however, that where ground has been well
chosen and is easily accessible, the demand for these
tends to increase, and cultivation as a profitable recrea-
tion becomes more general. It has been pointed out
that the too frequent untidiness and casual construction
of allotment buildings detracts very seriously from the
appearance of this feature in our suburbs, but this
aspect is now claiming attention, and an improved
standard is likely to secure popular support in the
future, though, of course, it will take time to
arrive at a very general appreciation of the merits
of orderly planning and design as applied to these
garden plots.
There is less definite guidance as to the area for
ornamental parks and gardens, and for reserves of a
more rural character. Hygiene and amenity suggest
that these cannot be too extensive, subject to the
limitation that they do not interfere with the con-
venient and economic organisation of the occupied
districts. This will rarely be the case, as we can see when
we bear in mind the speed and cheapness of modern
modes of transit. Relatively to their recreative value
‘“‘ nature reserves ”’ are much more economical in up-
keep than carefully maintained parks, though these latter
have their appropriate place as part of the decorative
164
MAP OF THE ENVIRONS OF
BOSTON
5
SCALE OF MILES
=
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MIDDLESEX
FELLS
PROSPECT {ow
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Facing page 164
o
FE;
60. Formal Entrance to a Park
Facing page 165
PARKS AND OPEN SPACES
scheme of a town area. The municipal budget will,
however, impose a limit on the areas kept up in this
form, while the expenditure on the natural reservations
may be kept very low when resources are limited, more
especially where the citizens have acquired the sense
of civic responsibility that eliminates the risk of wilful
damage.
Thus we may picture the city as a whole, with playing
fields and playgrounds distributed according to the
needs of the population, these being provided with mar-
ginal walks and trees to give form and definition to
their lay-out, with a limited allowance of decorative
parks, gardens and avenues, and with an extensively
ramified network of parkways and reservations, secured
as opportunity offers, and linking the urban area with
the surrounding countryside.
In this connection it is apposite to include the fol-
lowing extracts from notes on “ ‘Town Trees and their
Characteristics ” collated by Robert H. Mattocks :-—
“The Robinia or False Acacia is perhaps the best
tree for standing prolonged heat and drought and for
withstanding the effects of impure atmosphere. It
grows freely in almost any soil, and retains its leaves
until the first sharp frost, which takes them all off.
“The Ailanthus glandulosa has rich green spreading
foliage, which is coarse in texture and tropical in effect,
but green until late in the year. It will thrive under
most adverse conditions, including barren soil, dust-
laden and smoke-filled atmosphere and paved sur-
roundings. Where it would be impossible to have a
good street tree the ailanthus may be planted, and
with a little care in training, a fair shade tree may be
165
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
secured. When other trees will grow well the ailanthus
should not be considered.
“The Ash has been little used for street planting, but
possesses some points that recommend it as a shade
tree. It is a rapid grower, hardy, a good smoke-
resister, and has no serious insect pests. It will suc-
ceed in almost any soil and will stand sea air. Its
leaves are about the last to come out ; as a compensa-
tion, they are shed late.
“The Birch. Both the common and silver varieties
make beautiful trees for suburban roads, having a light,
graceful appearance ; but they should not be used in
very smoky districts. ‘This tree is short-lived, quick-
growing, will succeed in very exposed situations, and
may be planted in almost any soil, though preferring a
light loam.
‘“‘'The Catalpa is a quick growing, ornamental tree of
moderate size, with flowers resembling those of the
horse chestnut. It is a splendid smoke resister, and
retains its leaves until late in the season, but it should
only be planted to give variety in the areas most
injurious to plant life. The best variety is Catalpa
spectosa.
“The Elm. Elms are not good smoke resisters, but
will grow well in the more open districts. Although
almost ideal in shape, branching and general beauty of
form, the elm is subject to attacks from a great variety
of insects, which make it a costly tree to look after,
and render the limbs of the larger specimens liable to
fall off without warning.
‘The Hackberry is a medium-sized tree, in foliage
and general appearance resembling the elm, for which
166
PARKS AND OPEN SPACES
in America it is often substituted. Its straight trunk
divides high above the ground, it gives good shade, and
is free from serious disease and insect pests. It is slow
growing, but vigorous and long-lived, and iolerant of
many conditions of soil and climate, but is not a good
tree for the most severe street conditions.
“The Horse Chestnut is best in open situations, as
it is not a good smoke resister, and in confined spaces
soon shows signs of distress and becomes a danger.
“The Laburnum succeeds well either inland or near
the sea, even when subjected to a large amount of
smoke, but it casts its leaves early. ‘The seeds are
poisonous, and the tree should only be planted where
these cannot be eaten by children.
“The Lime grows to a medium-sized, shapely tree,
with a straight trunk and numerous twigs which improve
the winter appearance and render it a favourite tree for
pleaching. It is a splendid avenue tree, but most
varieties do not succeed in the worst parts of a large
town, with the exception of the Crimean linden, which
has a more leathery leaf and will stand much more
severe conditions in this respect.
‘The Maidenhair ‘Tree is superior to most in with-
standing smoke and fumes, and it is entirely free from
insect enemies or disease. Even when the foliage is
ready to fall it betrays little effect from the atmosphere.
It will grow in any soil, whether rich or poor, but its
growth is slow.
“The Norway Maple withstands city conditions
well ; it has splendid resistance to insect attacks, and
is easily transplanted. It puts forth its leaves earlier
and retains them later than many other maples, and is
167
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
adapted to a great variety of soils and situations. The
Red Maple is a quicker-growing variety, hardy, and
thrives well in rich and rather moist soils. The Syca-
more seems to withstand chemical fumes well. The
variegated variety is preferable for smoke resistance.
It will grow in any soil, but prefers one that is rather
moist.
“The Oaks have not been used much in this country.
This may be due to the ordinary English variety
branching low and throwing branches out horizontally,
but, more probably, to the lack of properly prepared
saplings, as without careful preparation it is difficult to
transplant. Oaks have, however, much to recommend
them. ‘The Red Oak and Scarlet Oak will stand severe
street conditions.
“The London Plane stands first in the list of town
trees. It is adapted to a wide range of soils, and is one
of the few trees which succeed when planted in a hole
made in the side-walk. It grows a good clean stem,
reaching a considerable height before lateral branches
are thrown out. ‘The foliage is not too dense, and the
annual shedding of the bark keeps the breathing pores
open. ‘The trees are easily transplanted, and are unusual
in that they combine rapid growth with long life.
Planes are specially suited for planting on wide avenues
and boulevards, but, in spite of their large size when
grown naturally, they can be planted, when specially
desired, on narrower streets, as they withstand pruning
well and can be trimmed at any time with any degree of
severity.
‘‘ Poplars are splendid smoke resisters, being grown
successfully under the worst conditions, but they are
168
PARKS AND OPEN SPACES
quick growing and soon find the slightest flaw in any
drain near which they may be planted, quickly filling it
with a ball of fibre. They should be reserved, as far as
possible, for places where other trees will not thrive,
Most varieties throw out heavy lateral branches which.
if not annually hand-pruned during the earlier period of
growth, break off close to the trunk in high winds when
the tree has attained full size. This annual pruning
is expensive. In some American towns the planting of
poplars is forbidden.
“Of the varieties of pyrus the Mountain Ash is a
valuable small tree for town planting. It withstands
smoke and fumes well, and is a tree of great beauty,
capable of growing almost anywhere with a minimum of
attention. ‘The White Beam is another valuable small-
growing variety which will grow luxuriantly in confined
places and even in poor soil. The tree grows fairly
rapidly until its tenth year, when it gradually slows
down. ‘The Service Tree is a rather larger type of
pyrus with silvery leaves. It is also a slow grower, but
does well in the cleaner parts of towns and at the
seaside.”
This brief summary must suffice here. Those whose
interests stimulate them to further studies in this sub-
ject will find it dealt with in the works specifically
devoted to trees for town planting.
CHAPTER XVIII
The Furnishing of the City
T has been generally recognised that, even after
the main lines of the plan and the proportions of
the buildings have been considered and appraised,
there yet remains a great deal that can enhance, or
injure, the effect of the street pictures in our towns.
The memorials and monuments, the lighting arrange-
ments, the kiosks and other structures such as waiting
shelters, etc., which are provided for the public,
all claim to be studied in regard to site, character
and suitability to environment. More particularly do
pleasure resorts and watering places require ample
provision of this kind, and also special features for
open-air entertainments, usually, but not necessarily,
limited in other towns to the bandstand in the park.
Incidentally may we not suggest that these activities
are considered to be too exclusively the prerogative of
the holiday resort, which employs them competitively
to attract patrons. Could not the busy commercial
centre well afford to provide more in this direction and
offer these forms of recreation as a part of the daily life
of the citizen rather than as only to be enjoyed during a
brief annual holiday ? This is the general practice on
the Continent, and it must be admitted that our own
towns suffer by comparison in this respect.
To return to our “ furnishing.” In former times the
city relied to a much greater extent on this than we do
nowadays. In the Middle Ages the religious ceremonies
and civic customs gave us the market crosses, shrines,
170
THE FURNISHING OF THE CITY
well heads and other features, all handled with decora-
tive intent, and the void left by the cessation of these
demands was filled in later days by a return to classic
motifs for the decoration of the salient positions in the
Renaissance plans. The old entry through a gate in
the town wall, often elaborately decorated, suggested
to the designers of this period the revival of the
triumphal arch of the Romans, one of the principal
features of classic times, when the cities were embel-
lished by numerous altars, monuments, colonnades,
and the like.
Reminders of our professed faith would in this era
often be inconvenient intrusions into every-day life.
Our spiritual supplies being delivered to us by means
of the printed page and ethereal vibrations, and our
material ones by vehicles, pipes and wires, these no
longer offer an excuse for communal activities, and
traditional features of long standing in the civic organi-
sation disappear. Statues of eminent citizens, whose
careers thus advertised might presumably excite
emulation among their successors, rarely seem to suc-
ceed in their appeal, and the pillar box, though not to
the seeing eye without its element of romance, seems
to fail as a social substitute for the well head or even
the parish pump. ‘Thus the furniture of our streets
becomes less of an essential feature and merely inci-
dental, and our attitude towards it has accentuated this
diminution of values. Civic buildings seldom seem to
achieve a more monumental character than the ambi-
tious efforts of commerce, and, as for our monuments
themselves, a dreary formalism or else an absent-
mindedness as regards their purport seems to neutralise
171
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
their influence in conveying any meaning to the
observers.
The plethora of statues and monuments that are
dumped haphazard about our streets and squares do
nothing towards enhancing the beauty and interest of
the city. If they are observed at all they cannot be
properly seen amid a crowd of vehicles and with no
adequate background, but more often they escape
notice altogether. In some countries where this matter
is better understood, the symbolic aspect which in
London has been remembered only in the placing of a
few politicians in Parliament Square, dictates the form
and position to the maximum degree possible. ‘The
naturalist meditates in a grove, the philosopher sits
sedately within the cloister of the university, and the
demagogue gesticulates in the public square. It is true
that our Duke of Cambridge rides past the front of the
War Office, which, by the way, was barely completed
in his time, but his memorial makes little more impres-
sion than would an omnibus held up by the traffic.
When a public building is designed provision could
so easily be made for its facade and surroundings to pro-
vide appropriate settings for statues and monuments,
commemorating individuals or events connected with
its purpose, be this administrative, artistic or scientific,
and this course would serve the double purpose of
enhancing the effect of the building itself and of ensur-
ing that the memorials could be properly seen and
appreciated. In contrast with the firm lines and sedate
masses of a well-designed structure, it is fitting to
employ the more vivacious ones that sculpture offers,
and the inevitable horizontality of all buildings devised
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THE FURNISHING OF THE CITY
for the purposes in general demand will both gain from
and give emphasis to such added decorative features as
masts or obelisks seen in conjunction with them.
Egyptian architecture, so rigorously horizontal, de-
manded the strongly expressed vertical of the obelisk.
The Roman qualified both the horizontal element in
buildings and the verticality of the obelisk, substituting
for the latter the monumental column, but the intention
of contrast between these remained and was continued
when the dome was accompanied by the minaret,
when Wren designed the steeple of St. Martin’s, Lud-
gate Hill, to emphasise the mass of St. Paul’s dome,
and Fischer von Erlach placed copies of Trajan’s
column on either side of his dome to the Karlskirche.
Contrasts of this kind are still within the gamut of
civic design ; the beautification of the city demands
their employment, and if used with judgment and
imagination they will do much to enhance and enliven
the rigid solidity of the masses of building, a function
they share with the suitable placing of groups of trees.
This does not, however, bring us to the end of the
possible embellishments; colonnades, arcades and
balustrades are helpful in linking buildings together
and in bringing them into harmony with their sur-
roundings.
Then, again, moving water, as a means of enlivening
the effects of rigid compositions by the use of foun-
tains and falls, has its recognised charm both in nature
and in art. In former times, wherever practicable,
runlets of water fed by a river, spring or fountain, were
carried through the streets. ‘These simplified cleansing,
but being no longer necessary for this purpose, water
173
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
effects are now decorative only, and, while making a
less emphatic appeal in our climate than in hot, dry
countries, yet claim a place in our schemes. More-
over, the challenge that a waste of water is involved is
no longer valid now that it has been found economically
practicable to circulate this by means of a pump, except
in cases where high jets form part of the design.
Fountains are at their best in the sunlight, but also lend
themselves to artificial illumination, and it is regret-
table that this form of display is not more generally
employed in England. Now and again special efforts
have been made in this direction, but the experience so
gained has not been utilised, as abroad, for the benefit
of the general public. Even when we have duly dis-
counted the defects of our climate, there does not seem —
adequate ground for restricting all gaiety to exhibitions
and specially organised fétes.
Artificial lighting has for over a century taken an
important place in town organisation. Before the dis-
covery of gas the cost of maintenance only admitted of
the barest minimum lighting for the streets, but with
gas a much more liberal provision became possible and
the almost simultaneous development of cast iron
offered an appropriate material for the lamp standards.
While many of these displayed little artistic merit, a
large number of designs were produced having a highly
decorative quality, and in France especially we see
many such standards of suitable and graceful character.
In England a few good ones adorn some of the more
important positions, while in recent years attention has
been paid to lamp design in the United States.
The advent of electric lighting has not entirely dis-
174
THE FURNISHING OF THE CITY
placed the old type of standard, and the treatment of
these, though it has undergone some modification, is
still a suitable subject for the skill of the designer, but
where high power lights are employed the much greater
altitude appropriate involves an entirely different
handling of the supports. The more massive type with
decorative enrichments has to give place to a more
uniform shaft with much less decoration, and that of a
lighter character ; so far most of the achievements in
this direction have not been strikingly successful, and
the combination of lighting and tramway standards has
added to the difficulty, but there are possibilities in the
arrangements now demanded, and we may expect to
see in the near future a marked advance in their
esthetic treatment. For efficient lighting with power-
ful lamps the centre of the road is a suitable position,
but, in the narrower streets, this seriously hampers
traffic. The alternative of suspended lamps has been
employed, but here again there are disadvantages.
Probably the best solution is to be found in standards
at the side with reflectors directing the light down-
wards and across the street.
We have not yet escaped from the tradition of pro-
viding only the light necessary for the road and pave-
ment, a heritage from the days when lighting was
relatively more costly than it 1s at present; conse-
quently, after dark the streets are architecturally null
and the buildings indistinguishable.
Increased altitude and readjustments in the distri-
bution of the light would have obviated this failure
to make the best of our principal streets, and the
advertiser coming along would not have been able to
175
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
flash out his electric signs with the same irritating
insistence as now, when he is free to occupy the dark
facades that we have left at his disposal. Some of our
more important buildings are receiving flood light
illumination as the result of private enterprise, and
the success of this seems bound to bring about a
movement for the general lighting up of the street
fronts in business thoroughfares.
Probably in no aspect of civic management may we
expect a more rapid advance than in that of street
lighting. The range of light effects available, and now
being exploited in shops, theatres, and other premises,
will establish a standard calculated to make the town
dweller intolerant of the measure of light at present
accepted as adequate, and as electricity is one of those
commodities on which there is a reduction on taking a
quantity, it seems safe to prophesy that the demand for
light will be a rapidly increasing one. May we not also
anticipate that some day or other light will be employed
not solely as an illuminant, but also to make its own
contribution to beauty in the city. We have already
seen something of what can be done in this way in stage
effects and in firework displays, and even the electric
advertisements make an attempt in this direction.
With the support of buildings and foliage, something
much more subtle could be devised, and perhaps we
may yet see this as a recognised civic undertaking.
There is still another important factor in the furnish-
ing of the city, namely, the provision for, and treat-
ment of, those temporary decorations which accompany
the festivities at the reception of honoured guests. These
are too often improvised without any regard to appro-
176
THE FURNISHING OF THE CITY
priate character or imaginative treatment, and merely
consist of rows of venetian masts and strings of flags
which obscure rather than enhance the expressive quality
of the scene. Firstly, the general lines suited to the areas
to be dealt with should be decided on for good, and the
necessary sockets and other fitments permanently
installed so as to simplify the erection and removal of
the temporary decorations. This will make easy the erec-
tion of masts, pylons, triumphal canopies, and other
features more decorative in their effect than that
which is secured by filling the air with a haphazard
assortment of flags. The triumphal arch was much
in vogue some time back and simulated a permanent
structure. ‘T’his was its undoing, as it was bound to
look rather stagey and second-rate among the buildings
around it. ‘The last thing such decorations should
attempt is a semblance of permanence, there being so
many interesting effects that can be achieved without
this in the way of colour, draping and decorative designs,
when these are free from the handicap of having to
resist dirt and damp. A well-designed city lends itself to
this added ornamentation, but it is always difficult to
secure a complete harmony and avoid a tawdry and
meretricious appearance when the support from ordered
planning and finely grouped buildings is lacking.
L]7 N
CHAPTER XIX
Scale and Proportion
TUDIES in town planning cannot be regarded as
complete without the inclusion of some considera-
tions respecting the appearance of buildings in
relation to each other, and many problems arise as to
maintenance of a general harmony when structures for
widely differing purposes come into juxtaposition. Of
course zoning would be of material assistance here, but
this is still at an early stage, and even were it fully
operating a complete solution would not be within its
province. ‘There would still remain many points at
which differing types of building come in contact with
each other, and therefore, as we recognise that these
are, or ought to be, of a character suited to their use, it
is inevitable that they must then be distinctive ; indeed,
there is no reason why they should not, nor will such
distinctions be detrimental, provided their designers
have a general unity in outlook, and even with some
degree of latitude in this there may be quite a consis-
tently good effect, provided one consideration is kept in
mind, namely, that of scale.
Broadly speaking, the tendency is that with increased
resources scale will increase in proportion. We see this
in all branches of activity, in mass production, in
mechanical engineering, in ships, and in other commer-
cial activities. No one can have a word to say against
it, but we have to realise that, unless we are content
to live in a heterogeneous agglomeration of conflicting
features, measures must be taken to reconcile the
178
SCALE AND PROPORTION .
different objects that our varied needs bring into
demand, and it is, inter alia, the function of the town
planner to effect this reconciliation.
In times when there was a strong artistic feeling
dominating all the activities, this harmony came about
automatically, and even now we see a marked variation
in the degree of appreciation this aspect meets with in
different countries, those following the Latin tradition
making a more sustained effort towards consistency in
scale. Elsewhere, the great progress that has been
made in constructive possibilities seems to have obscured
the other points of view, and we find the relationship of
structures to a comprehensive harmonic conception
practically ignored, while even apart from the driving
force of practical and economic factors, there is also in
operation a gargantuan cult of bene for its own
sake.
Size in itself is not inherently antagonistic to the
preservation of scale. Medizval churches generally
tower above their surroundings and yet contrive to
remain in precise scale with them; St. Paul’s Cathe-
dral continues this tradition, in so far as.that 1t combines
breadth of treatment with components of the smallest
dimensions compatible with such a design.
Bridges are a crucial test, and even when these were
customarily constructed of stone there was some risk
that they would dwarf their surroundings, though at
the time this was generally evaded by skill in the design
and by the introduction of subsidiary features, such as
columns to the piers, tending to preserve continuity
with the surroundings, as may be seen in the notable
example of Waterloo Bridge, where the scale enlarges
179
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
gradually from the facade of Somerset House, through
the terrace on which this stands, to the bridge, which is
itself diminished in scale by the coupled columns, an
expedient employed on previous bridges with the same
intuitive intention. No less skilful in this respect is the
treatment of the bridges over the Seine, and more
recent examples can be seen in those spanning the
Danube canal at Vienna.
The substitution of iron did not at first materially
change the position, as the cast-iron arched bridges,
though giving an increase of span, were not larger in
scale than their stone prototypes, while the airy form of
the suspension bridge removed it from competition with
more solid structures. It was only with the introduc-
tion of the girder bridge, whether of the rectilinear or
bowstring form, that the scale began to jump away
from its surroundings, and, where no special measures
were taken to qualify it, to introduce the disaccord in
this respect which is a feature of so many modern towns.
It will be well, before pursuing the consideration of
special relationships such as these, to look into the
fundamental factors primarily evoking a sense of scale.
This starts naturally with the stature of man and his
first needs in respect of shelter from the elements,
therefore, as regards dwelling-houses, the scale takes
care of itself, and even the pilasters and columns of
Palladio and his school, applied with the intention of
aggrandisement, rarely succeed in disguising the struc-
tural unit. Nowadays these embellishments are some-
what out of fashion in domestic architecture, and doors
and windows of appropriate size are accepted as
dictating the proportions of our homes. There will be
180
SCALE AND PROPORTION
some variation, but that not great, and as the scale of
the lay-out must follow that of the buildings, we see
that what was appropriate in Renaissance times can no
longer be accepted for the two-storey houses, detached
or in small groups, which are the standard types in Eng-
land at the present day. This, though it has not always
been recognised, is fairly well understood by those who
have planned most of our housing schemes, and a more
intimate type of design is general, giving less width to
roads while preserving the desired sense of spaciousness
by greater liberality in forecourts and gardens. Formal
effects on large lines are clearly impossible, but sym-
metry and balance in the lay-out and grouping are still
available as features in the designs. Passing from
strictly domestic buildings to business ones, such as
shops and offices, there will probably be a slight
increase in the scale, but not such as would make the
transition difficult were it not for the fact that the Palla-
dian manner, abandoned in the design of dwellings, is
retained, and even accentuated, in these, probably by
reason of its being thought to give an impression of
dominating importance in such cases. Not being
here concerned with architectural aspects, we are not
called on to give an opinion as to the extent to which an
imposed scale, such as is effected by the inclusion of a
number of floors in one unit, is admissible. If the sur-
roundings are proportionate to this the civic harmony
is maintained, but it is obvious that where a town con-
tains these different types there should be a graduated
transition from one to another.
Pursuing the subject further, we find another gap
between the scale of our public and large commercial
181
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
buildings and that of engineering undertakings. Rail-
way stations were wont to be covered with roofs of
which the height and extent overshadowed everything
in proximity to them, and, as mentioned above, many
modern bridges cannot be reconciled with their sur-
roundings. Without prejudicing the logical treatment
of these structural problems, it is yet open to us to
challenge whether the solution adopted may not have
ignored the aspect we are now considering without
sufficient economic justification. While in some
instances, such as that of the Forth Bridge, the engi-
neer may be able to make good his claim that it was a
case of this solution or nothing, in many others, notably
the girder bridges across the Thames, we can be
assured that the adoption of this type was simply due
to the fact that their appearance was never considered
in relation to the surroundings. The economic gain
was relatively small and the esthetic loss very con-
siderable. Much injury has been done on these lines,
and as it is only very gradually that this can be righted,
all that remains to us is to see that in the future the
considerations of scale and harmony are not over-
looked.
But there are yet a few more words to be said on the
question of proportion. As regards buildings alone,
this is a matter for the architect, but with buildings
grouped together in streets and open spaces, the
relationships between solids and between solids and
voids are the concern of the town planner. Our atti-
tude towards town buildings is at present an eclectic
one, coloured by our recollections of what pleases us
in the work of former times. In England, at all events,
182
SCALE AND PROPORTION
we are equally content with street frontages in formal
blocks, symmetrically arranged with a uniform cornice,
and with those including a number of separately designed
fronts irregular in height with the resulting broken
skyline. Even accepting that either may be good, we
make the fatal mistake of jumbling them up together,
and get a Regent Street conforming to one and Oxford
Street to the other. Consistency in general treatment,
evident in many continental cities, is not a characteristic
of our own.
Another factor in street design which seems to have
escaped the attention of those responsible for our regu-
lations is the relationship between height and width. It
is often laid down that the buildings may be as high as
the street is wide—absolutely the worst proportion
that could be chosen esthetically. While for all resi-
dential streets the width, for the sake of light and air,
should not be less than double the height of the build-
ings, in business quarters it is usually necessary to
allow a much greater height. Now, if we review the
streets that impress us as interesting, we shall find that
they divide themselves into two types, those lanes and
streets that secure their effect by narrow proportions
[the canyon type] and those that strike us as spacious
and open. ‘The first demands buildings at least half
as high again as the width, while in the second the
heights may not exceed two-thirds of the street width.
Northumberland Avenue and the new Regent Street
come between the two, and consequently they fail in
having neither the verticality of the lane nor the
spaciousness of Regent Street as it used to be.
The same principles are applicable to the circus, the
183
THE ART OF 'TOWN PLANNING
crescent, and other limited open spaces. Oxford Circus
no longer suggests its form, but becomes four truncated
angles. ‘The crescent is more flexible, but to secure the
combined feeling of space and enclosure a square
demands that the height of the surrounding buildings
should not be more than one-third, nor less than one-
tenth, of the distance between the frontages. It is
unnecessary to review all the possible problems of this
character arising in the laying out and building of a
city as a work of art, but their existence is so often
forgotten that no excuse is needed for a brief reference
to the forms they most frequently take.
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CHAPTER XX
Tradition
HE element of change always coincident with
vitality ina communal organisation brings about
the need to formulate new types of expression,
which will in time result in a complete alteration in
the aspect of the city; and while it is undesirable to
place any restrictions on the facilities for providing for
such new demands, it is one of our problems to secure
that they are met without introducing discords between
them and the traditional practices which have evolved
the towns as they are at the present time. The old
traditions were the outcome of the conditions under
which they arose, and the proper course is obviously to
expand and develop these to meet the changing state of
affairs rather than to ignore them entirely and attempt
to wedge in a new type of development based on “ first
principles’ without relation to what exists. The
argument against this is naturally that, the city being
the result of a series of phases of development,
it might be equally appropriate to go to work
independently of the past and add yet another phase,
based on the exact requirements of our own day.
Such a course looks so logical and simple that it seems
almost a pity to have to refuse its acceptance. These
exact requirements are, however, a fiction ; all require-
ments being in small measure material and, in far
larger measure, psychological, and this latter factor
would be, in the ideal community, materially influenced
by continuity of tradition.
185
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
In former days, when travel was less universal and
the builder was little influenced by work outside his
own town, it was only natural that the style of building
should develop progressively and gradually from one
manner to the next. Now that these conditions are
changed, there is a much greater liability to a breaking
down of the traditions and the importation of exotic
methods.
One of our chief difficulties to-day lies in the fact
that transportation facilities have changed the normal
building materials in many districts. We cannot afford
to disregard the economic aspect of building ; in most
cases we are pledged to give the maximum convenience
within our means, using brick where we should formerly
have employed stone, and making other substitutions of
a like character. As each material demands appropriate
treatment, this adds a further difficulty to the task of
harmonising the old with the new, yet with study and
care a great deal can be done in the way of reconciling
the general forms and colour schemes, even where
different materials have to be used.
In the present day the purpose of artistic expression
takes a small place in the interest of the community.
To many this may be an unpalatable statement, but it
is none the less true. The exceptional advances made
of late in the application of scientific knowledge to
material requirements must be paid for, and part of the
price appears to be a certain degree of stagnation in
other fields of activity, more especially in those arts
having form and space as their basis. It is therefore
all the more important that we should endeavour to
maintain and pass on the traditions of periods more
186
TRADITION
expert in these methods of expression than our own,
awaiting patiently from generation to generation the
time when the inevitable turn of the wheel will bring
these activities once more into a prominent place in the
human economy.
So far we have dealt mainly with building, and it may
be assumed there is reason for believing that any attempt
widely departing from local traditions is unlikely to be
satisfactory ; but the art of civic development com-
prises many other things besides the buildings them-
selves. There is the framing up, as it were, and here
we have again the task of reconciling new requirements
with old, in a more accentuated form probably than in
the case of the structures themselves.
It must not be forgotten that the outward and
material appearance of a city is the natural outcome and
expression of the life and ideas under which it has deve-
loped. ‘The value of its tradition is consequently
measurable by the value of the part it has taken in the
history of human development. In appraising this
value we must beware of taking too narrow a view, of
forming our opinions too closely on the ideals of the
moment. Such ideals are perpetually reconstituting
themselves, forming new combinations, by the advance
and retirement of their leading components, as in a
complex dance movement. Thus it is impossible at a
given moment to place comparative values on the
influences that have governed the form of this or of that
city, as we lack a reliable standard for our comparisons.
Of course we all have our individual preferences, some
for the acute mentality of the Greek, others for the
dominant force of Rome, the vivid life of the Middle
187
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
Ages, or the dignity of the Renaissance ; and perhaps even
the despised “ industrial age’ may in future take its
turn in exercising the fascination of a period when
ideas and methods differed from our own.
Let us not forget those useful guides, the artists,
pictorial and literary. How varied and multifarious
are the things that have inspired them—from the subtle
line of chiselled marble to the sombre masses of smoke-
blackened kilns; from the ordered beauty of the
Italian garden to the accidents of form and mass in
warehouses, derricks and smoke shafts.
We have, and rightly, the feeling that we ourselves
have something to say in the development of the city,
that with the recognition of a higher sense of communal
life must come a more consistent and more definite
manner for its expression; but let us not, on the
other hand, condemn without the most careful con-
sideration the efforts that are perhaps a little too near
us to have acquired the dignity of age, lest we fall into
the hands of the fashion mongers, who are ever too
ready to exploit the craving for novelty, and would
persuade us that nothing can be so good as the method
of the hour.
The supply of really imaginative work is limited in
any age, and most assuredly the present one cannot
claim to be exceptionally prolific in this respect. It is
therefore all the more important that the traditions,
both remote and comparatively recent, should be
respected, and that nothing should be obliterated
unless we are very sure that we can substitute something
better. No historical detail should escape notice in
our dealings with the city that lays claim to a past. In
188
TRADITION
cases where no great development can be anticipated,
the obvious course is to maintain the existing character,
in so far as it is compatible with modern modes of life.
We may not sacrifice the health or legitimate needs of
the citizen in the interests of archzology, but the con-
flict between the two is far less acute than many are apt
to imagine. Far more often the conflict is between
defective taste and the claims of the past rather than
between these claims and any genuine social demands.
In the city that has come down to us as a heritage
from our ancestors without material increase in size,
our main duty is to secure that the inevitable additions
and modifications shall affect its character as little as
possible.
With the old city that is developing the problem is
more complex. It will probably present features
belonging to different stages of its development, which,
while imperfectly harmonised, nevertheless have a value
in marking the phases of growth, and we shall be com-
pelled to strike a balance between their claims and those
of modern requirements if we are to secure a consistent
harmony throughout.
There are, in all old- metered centres, a few fea-
tures or structures that will be regarded as inviolate,
but there are many more which it may be highly
desirable to retain, subject to the proviso that their
retention does not militate too greatly against the con-
venience or amenity of the city as a whole. They may
be capable of adaptation, but if not will have to give
place to new types of structure and arrangement. The
transition is bound to introduce discords unless
managed with more than ordinary skill, but if a definite
189
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING.
reconstructive aim is kept in view, these operations will
be less destructive to a unified harmony than if allowed
to proceed by casual instalments.
When we come to the extensions of our cities we are
often faced with marked changes in the views as to
housing. The present movement towards smaller
houses with more space around them has entirely
altered the characteristics of city suburbs. The modern
ideal is that suburbs should take the form of a series of
villages rather than stretches of building. The natural
grouping round suburban railway stations supports
such a method, with the result that the outskirts of
the city cease to convey the impression that they are
‘parts of a whole, and might, for all one can see at any
one point, be five, ten, or 100 miles away from the
centre. On several grounds it may be contended
that this is not undesirable. It is often felt that the big
town is unpleasantly oppressive, and were it not for
the exigencies of a livelihood there are numbers who
would not dream of joining themselves to such a vast
community, and would prefer to belong to a smaller
one, such as the garden suburb simulates. The very
large community only advantages a few of its members
whose faculties are highly cultivated in some special
direction. As far as a great many people in the cities
are concerned, they would be far better, far more com-
fortable, and far healthier living in rural surroundings ;
but the actions and reactions in great cities are necessary
to produce that keenness of mentality in the few which
gives the actual life, the actual vigour and force to the
nation. This is not, as a rule, excited by the calm and
quiet surroundings of rural life. For this the great
190
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TRADITION
cities exist. In this respect they are an essential part
of the national economy, but their existence levies a
heavy tax on the rank and file among their citizens.
Again, it may be argued that many of our larger towns
_ have ceased to possess a definite and individual character
for so long a time that they are now a hopeless agglo-
meration of conflicting elements which cannot possibly
be brought together into a harmonious whole. In
order to challenge this view we must look at the other
side. ‘The largest cities of a couple of centuries ago
could be felt and realised in their entirety, while many,
from some favourable point, could even be viewed as
a whole, and to this day there are some of which the
general character can be grasped from a neighbouring
eminence. ‘These, it may be admitted, are the excep-
tions, and the usual manner in which we comprehend
the character of a large town is by a succession of
impressions aS we pass from one point to another.
These impressions being successive, it follows that,
under ideal conditions, they should lead up to and
reinforce each other like passages in a musical com-
position.
First, let us consider how and when we are likely to
receive these impressions. Normally, this would be
during our approach to, or departure from, some point
near the centre; in the first case there would be a
gradual transition from natural beauty to formal
dignity, in the other the order would be reversed. In
speaking of a gradual transition, we do not mean
it to be inferred that we may not, from point to point,
vary the effects towards formal art or free nature. We
may reach a subsidiary centre with formal lay-out and
IQI
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
afterwards return to a looser and more open type of
plan ; but as we pass inward each culminating point
should transcend the preceding one in respect of
importance and dignity, while in the outward course
the domination of natural beauty should become more
marked at each intermediate point. In the railway
approaches to a city such effects as these are only attain-
able to a modified extent, and more or less accidentally,
as we have never realised the railways as an integral
part of our civic scheme, and have allowed them to
develop on absolutely independent lines, to the detri-
ment of all other interests. Our main roads were
almost forgotten as means of transit, but now that they
are once more coming into their own, through the
acceleration of vehicular traffic, their importance is
correspondingly increased.
With the railways little can be done; but there is
much that we ought to take in hand in amending and
beautifying our road approaches. Before the advent of
the railways a fine tradition had been established in
respect of main roads, and it is for us to take up this
tradition where it was dropped and develop it on the
basis of our own requirements. In so doing a number
of difficulties face us, the most serious being the linking
up of new developments with the older ones of the ante-
railway period. As far as traffic requirements are con-
cerned, this is a mere matter of practical economics,
difficult enough to handle, maybe, but simpler than
that of bringing these two sections of our city into
artistic unity.
The railway era exhibits not only a marked reduc-
tion in the spaciousness of main roads, but also a
192
TRADITION
change in the mode of their utilisation. From this time
dates the idea of the main road as a shopping centre.
Prior to this, the great through road and the shopping
centres were not necessarily identical. Now once
more similar conditions have returned; but in the
intermediate period the main road, losing the bulk of
its through traffic while still retaining some of its tradi-
tional importance, became a kind of elongated market,
so that by this time we have come to consider the
important thoroughfare as a shopping street.
In actuality, the demands of the thoroughfare and
the marketing area are utterly different, and no attempt
should be made to combine them. The main road into
a large town, if adequate to present and future needs, is
too wide to make a good shopping street, and at many
points too remote from the more populous areas to
demand shop frontages. However, nearly all the
main roads during the railway era developed as shop-
ping streets, rather too wide for these but, at the same
time, not wide enough for the through traffic now
demanded.
We have to break through this zone somewhere, and
the question now before us is how this is to be done. As
a rule, financial considerations preclude drastic widen-
ings, while the disorganisation of business would be
enormous. Probably the best solution is to seek alter-
native routes and to improve these, for the purpose of
separating the long distance from the local traffic.
The use of two roads instead of one is not a perfect
solution zsthetically, but it is improbable that economic
considerations would admit of one more satisfactory
from this’ point of view.
193 0
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
There is another aspect of the problem. An impor-
tant route demands a certain firmness of definition and
formality. If we seek for the traditional method we
find lines of building on either side of the wide road.
We have abandoned the use of blocks on this scale and
demand that dwellings shall be spread over a much
larger area of land; our buildings are therefore rela-
tively ineffective and are not to be relied on as an
enhancement of the dignity of the thoroughfare.
What can be substituted ? We must have trees; a
fine avenue (double rows on each side if possible) is
almost as impressive and dignified as the massive ter-
races of former years, and the farther we go from the
city centre the more appropriate these avenues become.
They need not be continuous, as this would be some-
what monotonous in effect. Where justifiable, a group
of buildings of suitable mass and scale should strike
the eye, and advantage should be taken of the proximity
of water or hills to provide variety of outlook. The
most attractive portions of a railway journey are found
where a viaduct crosses a valley or where the line skirts
a hillside overlooking a plain. With our road we can
rarely depart much from the general level of the ground,
but still opportunities may occur to follow the line of a
river or to skirt high ground possessing an open outlook
on one side. |
We have now some idea of the general framework of
our city—the centre, the earlier developments, the
later and generally less satisfactory ones, and the pro-
gramme for the future. We have a rough notion
of how these sections or zones may be linked up
together, and of the modifications desirable in order
194
TRADITION
to bring them into harmonious relationship with each
other.
The more open lay-out, the increased proportion of
detached buildings, and the new requirements for
administrative, educational and other purposes, involve
of necessity a revised type of plan. Unnecessary diver-
gencies would tend to break up the harmony of effect
still further, so that we should endeavour, by maintain-
ing the general characteristics of form and design, to
secure as far as possible a continuity of manner with
the old blending insensibly into the new.
Our city is bound to be composed of a number of
different kinds of buildings expressing their differ-
ences, but these buildings may be held together by the
thread of tradition in architectural expression, much
in the same way as the actual masses and groups of
building, discordant in the variety of their intention,
can be unified by lines and masses of trees, linking
them together and disguising or softening their dis-
cordancies.
195
CHAPTER XXI
Town Planning in the Dominions
HE towns laid out in the Dominions, mainly
during the nineteenth century, have mostly
followed the conventionally rectangular plotting
usually regarded as typical of America, and though
Canada is in the forefront as regards regional and civic
studies, only a few recent towns and town extensions
show a marked advance on the types general in the
United States. Interesting schemes have been pre-
pared for Vancouver and other towns on the west coast,
and efforts are being made elsewhere to qualify, by
means of civic centres and parkways, the monotony of
the uniform rectangular plan which has also dominated
practice in the newer Dominions of South Africa and
Australia, though in the latter we find variations in
schemes worthy of closer attention. Sydney, owing to
its magnificent water frontage and irregular shore line,
has had perforce to adopt a plan giving more varied
interest, and though the width of 200 feet originally
proposed for the principal thoroughfares has come
down to 60 feet, which is inadequate to the present
demands of traffic, considerable relief is afforded by
the fact that many of the suburbs lie in the numerous
coves around the magnificent harbour, and are quickly
accessible by means of radiating boat services. A com-
prehensive improvement scheme is now in preparation
which includes a high level bridge across the harbour at
its narrowest point.
W. R. Davidge, who has studied the cities of the
196
TOWN PLANNING IN THE DOMINIONS
Antipodes, describes a number of them, and the follow-
ing extracts from his work will give a general impression
of their more important characteristics :—
“The city of Adelaide is known throughout the
world as a city town planned from its inception in 1837
and surrounded with a broad belt of ‘ park lands ’ half
a mile or so in width belonging to the town. The
original ‘ square mile,’ which was approximately the
size of many colonial towns planned about this period,
was laid out by Colonel Wm. Light on rectangular
lines. ‘The limited area of the first town was contained
in a rectangle about one mile by one and a half miles, and
any further growth had to take place outside the line of the
park lands. In the case of the suburb first constructed
—North Adelaide—an extension of the park lands sur-
rounds it, but with later suburbs this ideal was, unfor-
tunately, discontinued. Recent development has been
much more haphazard, and even in the town itself the
original blocks have been divided and subdivided to
obtain more intensive use of the available land. Radiat-
ing roads, leading out into the country in all directions,
were provided in the original plan, thus remedying one
of the main defects in any rigidly rectangular lay-out of
large dimensions.
“The early plan of Melbourne, laid out in 1837, was
arranged with the main streets, such as Collins Street
and Bourke Street, roughly parallel with, or at right
angles to, the River Yarra. ‘The land was then divided
into ten-acre blocks, and back roads 33 feet wide were
laid out to give access to the back of each settler’s
‘allotment.’ These to-day are narrow streets contain-
ing some of the most important businesses in the city.
197
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
The later suburbs of Melbourne, originally separate
settlements, have now coalesced to form part of a
general rectangular pattern on the north and south
lines originally adopted by the Government surveyor
as a convenience for survey purposes. There are few
diagonal or radiating roads, and such as exist are sur-
vivals of the early tracks made before the land was
completely “ surveyed ’ on the north and south compass
bearings so dear to the surveyor.
‘* Brisbane is a striking example of the failure of the
rectangular plan on undulating or hilly country. In some
of the suburbs of Brisbane the road gradients due to
this cause are almost as much as one in three, although
by departing from the rectangular plan a much easier
gradient could have been arranged.
“Not only in the Australian city of Adelaide, but
also in quite a number of early townships in New Zea-
land, a ‘town belt’ of continuous open land was
reserved around the town. Dunedin, in particular, still
retains this belt of open wooded land, which forms a
particularly attractive feature for the town. In Well-
ington, the great difficulty has been the steep mountain
sides which rise immediately at the back of the town,
and consequently the very limited amount of level land
available. A wonderful series of drives has been laid
out along the seashore, and by a steady policy of tree
planting on what remains of the original town belt, the
amenities of Wellington are being steadily improved.
Here, however, much of this belt has disappeared. The
city of Christchurch was laid out about 1840 with the
typical square mile of town, having its cathedral square
in the centre and the whole surrounded by a belt of
198
TOWN PLANNING IN THE DOMINIONS
park land, the property of the town. A few years later,
however, a railway tunnel was required through the
neighbouring hills to the port of Lyttelton, and the
whole of these town lands were sold to aid this pur-
pose.”
Mr. Davidge also notes an interesting, though by no
means beneficial, effect of a legal enactment on town
planning.
“One of the curious effects of land registration in
New Zealand is that the compass bearing of each length
of road must be stated ; hence curved roads are prac-
tically impossible in New Zealand, and the nearest
approach to one that can be secured is a ‘ curved ’ road
consisting of a series of straight lines from point to
point.”
When it was decided to provide a new capital for
Federated Australia, and Canberra was chosen as an
appropriate location, the site was generally acclaimed
as presenting good opportunities for development, and it
was the more unfortunate, therefore, that the conditions
of the competition for a plan were not such as could be
accepted by British designers, who declined to enter.
However, a number of plans were prepared in America
and on the Continent, and that by Mr. W. B. Griffin,
of Chicago, which was selected, is of marked distinction
and displays many points of originality. While care-
fully considered as regards the allocation of areas for
various purposes, the scheme binds these together by a
well-devised system of axial routes, and the whole gains
firmness by the orientation of the plan on a main axis
linking up two summits. As this axis crosses the prin-
cipal valley at right angles the degree of symmetry thus
199
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
secured allows of many minor variations in detail
which give interest to the plan without allowing it to
fall into confusion.
On the way to India we must stop to glance at
Rangoon, where the rectangular plan was adopted
with some justification, the site being level lowland,
and though it was intersected by numerous channels
these were not large enough to preclude reclamation.
The starting point for the plan was made at an
important pagoda then in existence, and the alignment
was determined by the river frontage. Rangoon having
now filled its original site, and having begun to extend
into the undulating ground to the northward, the new
extensions no longer follow the rectangular plan, but
are laid out on lines dictated by the formation of the site
and the directions of the main roads.
In India, entirely different conditions present them-
selves. Here the only cities which can be regarded,
even comparatively speaking, as modern, are the sea-
ports of Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, and Karachi, the
first dating from the sixteenth, and the next two from
the seventeenth century. As the controls were by no
means rigid, and the country generally was organised
on lines which might be termed medieval in character,
the problems of the town planner, both in these and in
the older cities inland, are as comprehensive as any to
be faced in European towns.
The above-mentioned seaports are not characteristic,
being only semi-oriental, and even the other cities vary
greatly, those of the south differing from those on the
west coast, and these again from the towns in the
northern provinces. For our purpose it will be most
200
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Facing page 200
TOWN PLANNING IN THE DOMINIONS
illustrative to describe a typical northern city. There
is a closely-packed central area, filled with buildings
three or four stories in height, and intersected by streets
generally not more than 20 feet in width. In the older
cities this was surrounded by a defensive wall which
may or may not remain, and often some portions of
this area have gone out of use and become derelict,
though rarely completely unoccupied, as even where
the houses are ruinous people contrive.to live in some
portion of them. Around this centre, which is some-
times called the fort, and of which the main streets are
termed bazaars, will be found various forms of sporadic
growth. In some directions there may be fairly good
houses with gardens, and perhaps also a few industrial
buildings, but in almost every case large areas covered
with mud huts of a single story, like an aggregation of
villages. Beyond this will be found the European
population, housed in bungalows, with compounds of
two or more acres which accommodate also the range
of servants’ quarters. The European may live for years
at a place and never once visit the Indian city, endea-
vouring as far as possible to ignore its existence, if he
is not concerned with it in some official capacity.
Town planning work in India started on a different
basis from that in England. Here it is regarded as
primarily the organisation of new developments,
whereas in the East it arose out of health measures
dealing with insanitary and overcrowded areas. Before
the initiation of comprehensive schemes, a good deal
had been done in clearing plague-ridden districts and
opening new streets, while plague camps were a recog-
nised sanitary measure; but apart from these, re-
201
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
housing did not receive adequate consideration, with
the result that new slums were constantly growing up
in lieu of the old.
The principal feature of town planning in the East
still remains the treatment of congested areas, but
clearances are now made on more studied and conser-
vative lines, while the provision of suitable sites for the
accommodation of those evicted is regarded as of
primary importance. The expedients to secure ade-
quate rehousing depend on many varied conditions, but
one feature cannot be passed over, namely, the neces-
sity for giving close attention to the caste of those to be
moved and for providing that locations for them are
selected, not only with regard to occupation, but also
as suitable in respect of surroundings ; they must not
be near other groups which may be, from their point
of view, unclean, and the access to each quarter must be
so arranged as to avoid a confusion between groups
which, by religion or custom, are distinct from each
other. In some towns the caste groups are fairly
defined, and the various occupations follow this group-
ing; but in others they have already become confused,
and industries are tangled up in a way antagonistic to
good organisation. ‘This is the more disadvantageous,
as the Indian trader prefers to combine store and
dwelling, so that there are often traffic difficulties due
to the frequent transfer of goods from one district to
another. While the nature of the sites to be dealt
with, and the difficulties due to climatic conditions are,
of course, subject to considerable variation, it must be
remembered that all the more fertile land, carrying the
denser population, is almost level, and relatively low
202
TOWN PLANNING IN THE DOMINIONS
lying, so that it may be cultivated by irrigation ; there-
fore much of the area around the cities is of this
character, and the water is provided by rivers, wells
or tanks. In the case of the first two it is practicable,
without an undue outlay, to transfer the land to urban
purposes, as the feed canals from the rivers can distri-
bute water at other points in lieu of the closed outlets
in the town area, while the operating of wells is so
large a proportion of irrigation costs that this land has
a much lower agricultural value. In case of tanks, as
the reservoirs are called, much more studied reorganisa-
tion is necessary. In the decadence that preceded
British occupation controls had lapsed, and the urban
tanks and channels had become foul and contaminated,
so that our officers, unfamiliar with the basic principle
of the scheme, that of irrigation, conceived the only
remedy to be the filling in of all these depressions, a
method that made no provision for disposing of the
volume of water due to the heavy tropical rains, some-
times Io to 12 inches in a day. One of the duties of
the town planner is to restore the old systems, or pro-
vide some efficient substitute for them, so that the flood-
ing so frequent in many Indian cities shall be obviated.
Many other problems arise in the improvement and
development of the Eastern city. Apart from those of
caste and housing, already touched on, one meets with
that of the family group and the distaste for separation,
which induces overcrowding and provokes encroach-
ments, by the division and the enlargement of houses
originally planned for one family so that they can
accommodate three or four.
Then again temples, mosques and graves must not be
203
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
touched, and as these are to be found throughout the
occupied area they often put very great difficulties in
the way of reorganisation. Both the Hindu and the
Mohammedan are much more inclined to build anew
than to maintain the old, but as a religious building,
however ruinous, remains inviolate, the number of these
makes it imperative to exercise a great deal of ingenuity
in devising an improvement scheme so that they will fit
in with it.
The old Hindu civilisation included a very definite
technique in which a rational organisation was indicated
by means of rules, which were given a religious or
symbolic significance. ‘The old cities of the south
conformed to one or other of the various established
types, though subsequent centuries of neglect have often
resulted in the partial obliteration of the original scheme.
Nevertheless, an Indian city stimulates the imagination,
and even where much of it is squalid and insanitary, it
rarely lacks characteristic features and hints of beauty
on which to frame afresh a series of effects, making the
best of what is there and bringing order and decency
into even the humblest streets. One never sees any-
thing so depressing as the ee regularity of the
average English suburb.
India claims, in the new Delhi, the other modern
capital, planned to occupy a large area to the south-
west of Shah Jehan’s city. The outlines of the scheme
follow the Renaissance tradition of triangulations with
focal points. The main axes N. to S. and E. to W.
have good terminal features, but some of the subsidiary
vistas are badly related to them and are aligned awk-
wardly on the principal buildings. The prepossession
204
TOWN PLANNING IN THE DOMINIONS
in favour of the equilateral triangle has involved the
designers in a series of problems that are imperfectly
resolved.
Throughout the tropics generally the advent of the
European makes demands on the town planner for the
elimination of conditions adverse to health, as an essen-
tial preliminary to planning, and the science of pre-
ventive medicine provides him with a programme that
widely extends his field in such areas. ‘Then, where
there is a mixed population, the problem of complete
or partial segregation adds other complexities. ‘Town
planning in the tropics must be treated as a special and
separate study, since it introduces factors that could
only be dealt with adequately in a special treatise on
the subject.
205
CHAPTER XXII
Modern Practice
N the earlier chapters we have briefly reviewed
the developments in various ages to which can be
traced the elements that find a place in the tech-
nique of town planning in our own day. We have seen
the co-ordinated arrangements characteristic of ancient
Rome ; the intimate study of building groups in rela-
tion to a naturally developed plan, the outstanding
feature of the medieval city ; and the road planning
on geometric lines which dominates the Renaissance
conception. Subsequently an endeavour has been
made to review the component factors affecting the
problems that confront us. It is now due to attempt
the task of indicating how, by a synthesis of these
various factors, our present practice in city planning
has been built up.
In endeavouring to trace the growth of town planning
practice as we see it to-day, we may go back to the
eighteenth century, when, owing to national conditions,
Sweden stepped into a foremost place in appreciating
the need for comprehensive planning in town develop-
ment. This was recognised in a legal enactment dating
back to 1734, and after this several towns secured
powers to acquire property where this was necessary to
enable such planning to be carried out. Their position
in this respect was strengthened by further legislation
in 1845, and in 1874 the Act for regulating the planning
and building of towns put the matter on a broad and a
systematic footing, including both improvements and
206
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MODERN PRACTICE
extensions. No other nation had at that time imposed
a legal obligation to lay down a plan, though many
plans had been officially prepared in one city or another.
While Sweden must be given the credit for its pioneer
work in regard to its legal enactments, and while these
kept it well abreast of current practice, its town plans
were more or less on the lines of those of other coun-
tries, and it must share with Germany the credit for
substituting, in the latter part of the nineteenth cen-
tury, a freer technique for the mechanical rigidity of
road plans based on the Renaissance tradition.
About 1880, the Renaissance plan being then in
possession of the field on the Continent and the so-
called economic one in Britain and America, it began
to be realised that neither was an adequate solution in
view of modern demands. ‘To review Continental con-
ditions first, we find that it was customary to insist on
a formal lay-out with roads proportioned to intensive
building, irrespective of the formation of the ground and
the tendency towards diminished density of occupation.
The planning, in the hands of the authorities, was
systematic, but like all official business, remained
stereotyped and failed to keep pace with the change in
demand. With us, on the other hand, the failure was
of another character. Planning, being under the aus-
pices of private enterprise, usually avoided the more
obvious extravagances, but came to grief through being
done piecemeal with no attempt to connect the indivi-
dual schemes, and, what is worse, often with a deli-
berate attempt to avoid connecting such schemes with
those adjacent to them; while roads, being only
governed by a provision for a minimum width, were
207
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
in many cases either inadequate or excessive. More-
over, it was quite a chance whether the schemes were
skilfully laid out or not, this depending on the owner’s
judgment in choosing his technical adviser, if he
employed one at all. In America the practice differed
both from our own and from that of the Continent.
The general lay-out was established by custom on a
uniform rectangular plan, which had the defects, with-
out the merits, of the Continental geometric one,
and could claim as its sole virtue that it avoided the
disorganisation of the individualistic development usual
in England.
As the first movement towards the present attitude
was in the ‘Teutonic and Scandinavian countries, the
course this took demands priority in our studies, and it
will be well to begin by reminding ourselves that the
firm control of the general plan by the municipality
was largely due to the custom of dividing landed pro-
perty among families, generation by generation, so that
much of it was held in small strips impossible to lay out
for building, and that, consequently, towns could only
expand by co-operative action, which was rarely
secured, and house famines were frequent. Muni-
cipal control was the most obvious remedy, but even
then the difficulty of dealing with small ownerships
was almost insuperable until the passing of the Lex
Adickes gave powers to pool them, and, after planning
as a whole, to return to the owners building sites pro-
portionate to their original holdings. Only by this
means could plans of the Renaissance type have been
achieved, and even later, when more freedom was
accepted, the method proved too valuable to be aban-
208
MODERN PRACTICE
doned. It would not in itself have produced any change,
but owing to its putting the responsibility on the
shoulders of active officials, it paved the way towards
the acceptance of new ideas which brought about the
departure from the formal plan.
This departure was influenced from two directions ;
one, the obvious incapacity of the formal plan to adapt
itself economically to irregular sites ; and the other the
studies of Camillo Sitté on medizval cities and the
deductions he made as a logical romanticist in regard
to the zsthetic superiority of what he claimed to be the
““ medizeval method.”’ Now, without entering into an
argument as to whether his interpretation of the illus-
trations he employs is correct, the fact is indisputable
that he and his school entirely remodelled, in most
ways for the better, the practice of city planning in
Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Of course
the reaction overshot the mark at times, and produced
affectations of the picturesque that are too obviously
evident as such, but, in the main, the release from an
unintelligent formalism has been a great gain, more
especially where it has harmonised the lines of lay-out
with the natural formation of the site and its sur-
roundings.
Though Sitté’s book was translated into French, it
did not affect the standards in France very strongly ;
but ever since 1909, when Raymond Unwin (who may
fairly be acclaimed the pioneer of this school in Eng-
land) included in his book, “’'Town Planning in Prac-
tice,’ a very comprehensive exposition of Sitté’s prin-
ciples, these have taken an important place in the philo-
sophy of town planning here, the more so as in this
209 7
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
work, while giving varied illustrations of the German
practice at that time, he covers many expansions of this
and takes a broad outlook over the whole subject, based
on his own experience. Apart from Professor Patrick
Geddes’s studies on the sociological aspects, no contri-
butions towards our present technique in town planning
have been of greater import than those of Raymond
Unwin, and much of what is now our established prac-
tice owes its inception to his demonstrations. ‘The
value of his work, and of that of his contemporaries
abroad and in this country who have done so much to
establish the principles of town planning as we now
know them, lies in the recognition that each kind of
development has its appropriate treatment artistically,
and that, instead of approaching the subject with a
preconceived ideal, often based on conditions no longer
applicable, the proper course is to investigate the neces-
sities of the case and then to devise the right form of
expression, not neglecting what history offers towards
this, but only accepting it as a stimulant to the
imagination.
In illustrating what is involved by such a course it
will be best to begin by citing a few practical considera-
tions which must be attended to, and then to point out
the relationship between them and the factors that
conduce to harmony and character in the design as a
whole.
For practical reasons a plan should be based on the
contours of the site, as by following these it will adapt
itself to the natural features and secure that they will
reinforce the characteristic effect of the scheme. Again,
common sense dictates that roads shall be varied in
210
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MODERN PRACTICE
plan and design to suit the class of traffic to be accom-
modated. This, in turn, gives a sense of fitness which
is an element of beauty. Trunk and branch roads
are welded together into a pattern which should
appear as inevitable as the growth of the forest tree
from which the nomenclature is borrowed. Then we
come to the utilisation of sites for the purpose of
public buildings, shops, houses, open spaces, etc. ;
here the best allocations from the standpoint of con-
venience, will, with buildings of suitable design, exactly
coincide with the demands of expression. We might
continue the same course with regard to other features
of the plan, such as the junctions of roads, the distri-
bution of trees, and discuss at length all those details
that must be worked out to produce a sound plan, but
these few examples are enough to define the position
of the town planner of to-day, whose faith is firmly
pinned to the essential unity between reason and
imagination. His work must be logical and reasonable,
but without imagination no amount of logic will produce
a good plan.
On the other hand, imagination must have material
to work on, and this is provided by the factors that
have to be taken account of and dealt with in such a
way that the scheme is not only the most efficient
possible but also gives an impression of balance which
makes its every beauty appear as something so obviously
right as to be inevitable. ‘Thus the most important
contribution to modern town planning has been the
recognition that we must be at liberty to base our
designs on logical requirements, without prejudices in
favour either of formal pattern or of studied irregu-
2I1I
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
larity. In making a plea in 1910 in favour of an appre-
ciation of the art of town planning, Raymond Unwin
closed his remarks as follows :—
“T believe that it is only when we have got beyond
these prejudices in favour of so-called formal and
informal work, and feel free to make use of either,
recognising at once the naturalness of formality in
design and the importance of subordinating mere
formality on paper, to seize upon the magnificent
opportunities which many undulating sites afford, that
we shall be able to do the best work in town planning.
If, to the other advantages of town planning, we are to
add the completing glory of creating beautiful cities,
let us not forget that we have not really learned to do
any work until we have learned to do it beautifully. It
seems to me the function of the town planning archi-
tect, who is specially trained to find beautiful forms of
expression for practical requirements, is first to accept
obediently the instructions which should be prepared
for him by the sociologist, the economist, the surveyor,
and the engineer ; and then within the limits prescribed
to find a beautiful form of expression in the plan. It is
a task as difficult as it is inspiring, for which he must
prepare himself in whatever way is his equivalent to
the prayer and fasting of the ancients. Having mas-
tered all the practical requirements that have to be
satisfied, if, in a spirit of respect for all of traditional
interest or natural beauty that goes to make up the
individuality of the city, and welcoming the difficult
features of the site as affording greater opportunities for
his art, the town planner can fuse the whole into one
imaginative creation beautifully expressing the life of
212
MODERN PRACTICE
the city community, then, indeed, he will deserve well of
his fellow men, for not only will he have added to the
convenience of their lives, the health and comfort of
their homes, but he will have provided for them and
their children a wealth of beauty for their delight, ever
growing in the grace of its appeal by the kindly influence
of time and the enriching glamour of association.”
Thus is summarised the faith of the craftsman ; and
when it becomes that of the citizen also, we may hope
for towns which will bear comparison with the best of
all past ages.
The scheme for the reconstruction of the central and
eastern quarters of Tokyo destroyed by earthquake
and fire might be assumed to afford a good illustra-
tion of modern practice, but this is hardly the case, as
the conditions are responsible for unusual features, and
the decision to exact the utmost economy in the pro-
posals admissible is responsible for departures from
the course dictated were the ideal of a modern capital
permitted to determine the form of the design. The
plan includes a broad ring route encircling the Imperial
Palace, the eastern section of this route running
parallel to, and relieving, the traffic in, the Ginza and
Nihombashi, streets which respectively serve the retail
and wholesale business centres of Tokyo. This ring
road links together the important radial routes which,
together with all the main roads and most of the minor
ones, are to be widened and improved. It is so planned
as to form part of the broad road designed to traverse
the city from south to north, and to connect with the
213
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
high speed road to Yokohama running southward, and
at its northern end with the road to Nikko.
The canals, which take so important a place in the
city, are also to receive attention, and a number of
realignments and widenings are included in the scheme,
though the modifications here are by no means so
drastic as in the case of the roads, which will cover
four times the area of those they replace. This extra
ground will be provided in part by requiring every
owner to give up one-tenth of his present holding,
without compensation. Payment will be made only
for further expropriations, the idea being that, as but
little building work of a permanent character has yet
been undertaken, no serious hardship will be involved,
for it may fairly be estimated that the improvement of
the frontages will raise the value of sites by at least
ten per cent.
Open spaces are required to serve as refuges in case
of fire, and in most cases these are to be secured by
building all the primary schools with spacious play-
grounds, a recompense which the great disaster has
given to the children of the city. ‘The fine parks that
Tokyo possesses are embodied in the scheme, with
some limited extensions, but the city, as a whole, comes
far short of the European standard in regard to public
open spaces, though, as some compensation for this, a
liberal amount of tree planting is to be employed on
the main roads. Again, owing in large measure to the
system adopted of demanding a proportion of each site,
it has not been possible to make much change in the
existing lay-out, and as this is, in the main, a uniformly
rectangular plan, the future city will still exhibit the
214
73. A Temple and ‘Tank, Chidambaram, South India
Facing page 214
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MODERN PRACTICE
monotonous effects inseparable from such a system.
The need for economy may justify this as a general
rule, but surely it ought to have been possible to vary
it at salient points in order that public builcings and
other features might be afforded sites enabling them to
give interest and variety to the new scheme. While
America, having discovered the artistic ineffectiveness
of the “ gridiron ”’ plan, is endeavouring to extenuate
this by supplementary radials and closed vistas, it is
remarkable that in this case, where there is compara-
tive freedom, these demands should have been ignored.
Recognising that it is the desire of the Japanese to
make their capital worthy to rank with those of other
nations in dignity and beauty, it is only fair to point
out this failure in a scheme exhibiting many merits.
215
CHAPTER XXIII
Social Demands
E have now defined the general principles of
the art of town planning as recognised at the
present day, but, unfortunately, their accep-
tance by no means assures us that all future operations
will be carried out in accordance with these principles.
The art has still to receive much fuller and wider
recognition before this can be hoped for. At the same
time, in spite of the sacrifice of individual freedom
involved, its social value is generally or conclusively
accepted, and on this ground, if on no other, it has
secured such a measure of support as to give it a place
among the old established customs possessing legal
sanctions for limiting personal activities where there
was a risk of their conflicting with communal welfare.
Strictly speaking, the function of the town planner
terminates when he has correctly interpreted the
demands of the public, whose servant he is, and has
formulated the best possible proposals for meeting
these demands, 2.e., the best possible having regard to
the means at his disposal, and in view of the limitations
of various kinds that will inevitably be associated with
operations so comprehensive in their character. At
the same time the study of town planning, involving
an intimate recognition of hygienic, psychological and
social requirements, is bound to draw those who
interest themselves in it beyond the strict limits of
technical practice, and to encourage anticipatory visuali-
sations as to the trend of communal developments.
216
SOCIAL DEMANDS
Reverting to our historical résumé, we can find no
point at which social life remained stationary, however
rigid the systems of control, and even after making
allowance for the fact that the events of the moment
loom unduly large in our eyes, it appears incontrover-
tible that the present time is one of more than ordinary
activity in respect of such changes. While a detailed
and elaborate forecast would probably meet the same
fate as has befallen similar forecasts in the past, no one
whose function it is to deal with proposals that may
take two or more generations to reach fruition can
avoid the effort of endeavouring to realise what condi-
tions may be like at the end of that period.
We have two factors on which to base our estimates,
the economic one, which changes with great rapidity,
and the psychological one, which in any one race
changes hardly at all. We have only to step back a
century to realise the immense difference between the
economic position of our own and other countries then
and now, while we may go back three or four and find,
after making allowance for the differences in environ-
ment, that the men of each race exhibit similar traits in
behaviour. While it is true that, when a people
secures an overwhelmingly predominant position, this
position seems to hold within it the elements of decline,
we must avoid confusing the political cycle with the
much more subtle permanence of racial characteristics,
the continuity of which could be confirmed by many
examples.
Beyond just a mention of the parallelism that R. G.
Collingwood finds between the arts of Britain, Gaul,
and Jugo Slavia under the Roman Empire and
217
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
those of the same countries in later times, and a
reference to the similarity of the general attitude of the
worker towards his employment and the dole after the
plague of the fourteenth century and our own recent
experiences, we must leave it to the reader to multiply
illustrations of this persistence of national charac-
teristics. |
There is therefore little likelihood of a world-wide
uniformity in the technique of this art, and this may be
hailed as fortunate, for not only is it desirable in itself
that countries should exhibit varied aspects, but also
that these variations in ideals should exist to influence
each other and maintain a certain fluidity in national
developments. Each nation works in accordance with
its own temperament and traditions, and by this course
achieves a unique position in some particular directions,
but, at the same time, there is a continual comparison
being made between the merits of its achievements
and those of its neighbours, with the resulting emula-
tion in all points not definitely based on racial differences
in ideals.
Here and there we have indicated, in general terms,
the demands of our own townsfolk at the present time,
and have been bound to recognise that the characteristic
attitude of the Anglo-Saxon still influences Britain.
The preference for open air pursuits and rural sur-
roundings has so persistently dominated our race that
it has brought us back, despite the fact that towns have
been forced on us by a misunderstood economic pres-
sure, to the ideal of the garden city and garden suburb.
We have never really desired the city, and that is why
our cities are, from the town planning point of view, so
218
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SOCIAL DEMANDS
bad. Other nations have delighted in the city, and the
pride of the citizen is reflected in its structure and
embellishments. In England it has been merely
tolerated as a necessary evil, and while a few travelled
Britons have been able occasionally to impose civic
features borrowed from abroad, these make no impres-
sion on the mass of the people, who attach but little
importance to them.
The result is that, while we have been driven out of
the country by force of circumstances, we have never
become genuine townsfolk ; if we had, it would long
ago have been recognised that our towns must be
beautiful to look at in their own conventional way,
must be clean, and not defiled by the smoke of the
numerous firesides that are an admissible delight only
where dwellings are not crowded together. The
remedy now popular is to provide for the increasing
population on lines simulating, as far as possible, the
effect of the countryside, and to make this practicable
by the provision of rapid transit facilities. From many
points of view this is probably the soundest solution,
but it must be accepted that it will preclude any rapid
advance in the city centres, except from practical and
economic points of view, by drawing the interest from
these centres to the outlying residential districts. Of
course it will be pointed out that, if there has never
been a very strong feeling in favour of the dominant
beauty and dignity of the city centre, no loss can be
shown, but it is to be feared that many who hoped to
see our Cities emulating those of the Continent in these
respects will be doomed to disappointment.
Deprived of an understanding public, no art can
219
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
retain vitality, least of all one that depends on the
expression of communal purpose, and unless we can
regard ourselves as capable of idealising both rural and
civic life, an anticipation unlikely to be widely realised,
it is clear that the growth, or rather the re-establish-
ment, of the rural ideal must take place at the expense
of the civic one, to an extent that will, at all events, keep
the standards of the city below those in countries
where a large proportion of the people are integrally
citizens. |
It is characteristic that there are many sociologists
in this country who hold that the city is parasitic and
detrimental to the national welfare, and this view can
be justified, inasmuch as that a nation which aban-
doned agriculture would be doomed, therefore the less
the city is divorced from its rural environment the
better the chance of survival. That the size of our
larger cities is beyond what is desirable can hardly be
questioned, but could all the imaginable reorganisations
be effected they might be adapted to a wholesome
civic life, with such ameliorations as would place this
life almost, if not quite, on equal terms with rural con-
ditions. ‘The reconstructions that this would demand —
are, however, more drastic than we can hope to see
effected in several generations, and in the meantime
we shall continue to pay the toll that these over-
grown towns demand in diminished vitality and racial
deterioration.
The appearance of a city is the material interpreta-
tion of the life it contains, and thus it is that cities
usually exhibit a definite character, and that merely
imitative effects, independent of an inspiring cause, do
220
SOCIAL DEMANDS
nothing to build up a consistent and expressive har-
mony. For this reason our town planners get few
opportunities to carry out their visions of dignified and
impressive groupings, such as are to be seen in other
countries. ‘I‘hese owe their dramatic quality to a con-
ception of the town as an absolutely distinct form of
development, having its conventions of mass, propor-
tion and scale, unrelated to nature except through the
human medium. The faculty for appreciating these
qualities can only arise with generations of town
dwellers who have learned to delight in them. Few
Britons have followed this road, and therefore our
towns are rarely expressive of civic dignity, and the
designer whose studies have made him more or less
cosmopolitan is in the dilemma of either trying to force
on his public something beyond its demands, or, more
rationally, of accepting these latter and adapting his
practice to the type of design they suggest. Neverthe-
less, even if the exponent of civic design is prepared to
accept the limitations imposed on him by the social
structure as he finds it, there will yet remain to him a
wide scope for the exercise of his imagination. Though
he may have to put aside many of the ideals he has
derived from his comprehensive studies, he will be
able to substitute a considered logic as to the expres-
sion of characteristics not without value in themselves.
Town planning in Britain has already followed this
road, and if it continues in this direction it may make
its contribution to the international standards of design,
which, even if insular in aim, will possess a definite
value as an interpretation of recognised social demands.
A factor that influences the future course of city
221
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
design is the increasing extent to which municipal con-
trol is taking the place of private enterprise. While the
latter is by no means excluded from taking part in new
developments, the tendency is towards increase in
public ownerships, partly with a view to the facility
this offers in directing future growth, and partly with
an eye to securing for the community a share in the
“unearned increment” that expansion brings into
existence automatically. We are all aware of the
attempt made to secure some of this increment for the
nation, the complications this involved, and its conse-
quent abandonment. Notwithstanding this failure,
the principle that the results of communal activity
should, as far as practicable, benefit the community,
is widely accepted, and public ownership has been
proved to promote this. Thus an efficient municipality
finds it profitable to acquire property and undertake its
development. ‘This favours the preparation of com-
prehensive schemes considered more specifically from
the aspect of the public interest, and though it can
hardly be claimed that the highest technical standards
are often reached, owing to the fact that it takes time
for these to influence public opinion, a better basis
than the individualistic one is provided for the lines of
development. While the art of town planning is not
necessarily dependent on public undertakings, any
enlargement of these is bound to affect its future
character.
222
CHAPTER XXIV
Technical Methods
ROM time to time a number of writers, among
whom G. B. Shaw and H. G. Wells stand out
prominently, have vouchsafed us their anticipa-
tions of what the world may be like in the nearer or
further future. While it is not for the technical exponent
of an art to take such distant flights as the poet or the
philosopher, he is unlikely to refrain altogether from
attempting to visualise the effects of some of the more
obvious probabilities. We have discussed at some
length the influences of stability in national characteris-
tics, but we cannot allow these to disguise from us that
the advances in science and its applications tend towards
changes in the mode of life and, ultimately, in the ideals
of what life should afford.
Agriculture can hardly be displaced from its basic
position, but even this undergoes alterations due to
scientific discoveries and transport developments. As
a factor in human well-being, its essential purpose is
strongly supplemented by the value of its activities in
maintaining a good standard of physique, a standard
that cannot be placed to the credit of many other forms
of productive effort, owing to the adverse conditions
inherent in their operations. Therefore the co-ordina-
tion of towns and their environment is at the root of all
our problems of communal advancement. In former
times this limited the size of the city and its dependent
area, though these varied from age to age according to
the better or worse organisation and security of trans-
2.23
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
port. In recent times transport has improved with
unprecedented rapidity, and the facilities have out-
distanced our capacity for maintaining control over them.
Thus we have allowed the false economy of measure-
ment by price values to take the bit between its teeth,
and drag us from the road of the true economy that
recognises racial welfare as an essential factor in the
organisation of production. The quantity and quality
produced is of less importance than the life such pro-
duction involves, and though the majority has always
allowed itself to be exploited at the expense of this
life, it is the hope of the social reformer, who carries the
standard for the town planner, that one of these days
this criterion, of price values regardless of the other
factors, will be generally pronounced an invalid one.
This in no way involves a negation of the benefits
that science is every day conferring on us in the way of
increasing productive capacity, using the term in its
widest sense, to cover all facilities in location, transport,
and transit. These are all to the good, and the only
distinction between the so-called ‘“* economist’s ”’ atti-
tude towards them and that of the town planner, is that
the former omits the most important factor, the effect
on the producer, while the latter places this first and
considers the actual production a subsidiary question,
which will decide itself quite efficiently when the ideals
of life are sound.
We have now at our disposal advantages beyond any
previous experience, and if we keep an open mind as
to what these may give us, it is in our power to organise
them to benefit all. Apart from the possibilities of
flight, making demands on the town planner that have
224
TECHNICAL METHODS
not yet been adequately explored, there are numerous
types of provision for rapid transit, on the level, above
and underground. If desired, a combination of these
enables us to occupy sites very intensively, and as it is
practicable to construct buildings fairly economically
up to a height of 500 feet or so, it will be seen that at
this extreme the possibilities, as exemplified in American
towns, are far beyond those of a few decades ago.
These possibilities are mentioned because they may,
under certain conditions, prove of great value, but at
the same time there is risk in their employment without
a most carefully studied programme in regard to the
proportion of site to be covered and the provisions for
access and communication. In the typical case of New
York, there was not, until recently, any restriction on
the heights of buildings, and consequently, in the
business quarters, overbuilding has in many blocks
deprived the lower floors of daylight and has caused
acute congestion in traffic. The practice outside
America has been to place a definite restriction on
height, the usual average for business districts being
about 100 feet, with various systems for gradual
reductions in the outer zones. This is the safer course
to pursue in view of the difficulty of securing diminished
site areas in exchange for increased height, an alterna-
tive method which would, if capable of practical opera-
tion, afford advantages in the provision of increased
light and air for a given volume of building. Such a
course is little likely to be adopted, as it would in most
cases involve more drastic replanning than is feasible
in old-established centres.
In the United States the necessity for height limita-
225 Q
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
tions has now been recognised, and, though in most
cases much greater heights are permitted than would be
acceptable in Europe, the system adopted is a sound one,
with a maximum height for frontage walls and a limiting
angle above this, so that building in the central part of a
site may be carried higher than the surrounding portions.
Having determined the maximum heights admissible,
with regard to climatic conditions and the adequacy of
communications, and the best system of limitation,
there yet remain many factors worthy of considera-
tion if the central areas of our cities are to keep pace
with the advances that our command of resources make
practicable. No one will contend that these are not in
need of improvement ; for example, the discomfort of
the streets in bad weather must, to every thinking man,
appear an absurdity in view of the obvious expedients
available in the way of protected communications. At
one time there seemed a probability that we should
follow the practice in more southern climes and adopt
covered footways, but this was only a partial remedy,
still involving exposure when crossing streets, and had,
moreover, the disadvantage, owing to our sombre skies,
of darkening the shop frontages and rendering them less
attractive. ‘The glazed arcade running from street to
street is better in this respect, and would have been much
more generally employed but for the sub-division of
ownerships, which makes comprehensive planning
difficult.
Now it looks as if we are moving towards another
solution. The rapid increase of underground transit
in the larger towns suggests that this should be expanded
to afford access to all the more frequented buildings,
226
Qez aspd SUID
yIOK MON ‘sosprug pue siadesoshyg “LL
78. The Shelton Hotel, New York, showing the effect of Height Regulations
Facing page 227
TECHNICAL METHODS
such as the large stores, hotels and theatres. Already
in New York there are a number of connections of this
kind. A general scheme of subway routes linking up
stations and buildings might surely be expected to
more than compensate for the initial cost. The move-
ment towards this has barely started yet, but when it
gets under way the inevitable competition for such
facilities will make it a rapid one. Not only does it
offer the advantage of giving clean and easy routes pro-
tected from the weather, but also that of saving time
and money at the busy hours when traffic congestion is
acute. ‘Those who frequent London restaurants and
theatres must be familiar with the facts that the aggre-
gation of these in a very limited area, and the concen-
trated traffic at certain times, make organisation and
regulation extremely difficult. Street widening would
do much less towards effecting a remedy than a two-
level system of access, where one of them obviate
the necessity for vehicles, which make much greater
demands on space and on control than foot traffic. In
London, for example, about half a mile of subway
would suffice to link up some sixteen theatres and half
a dozen large restaurants, with three tube stations on
different routes. Less urgent, perhaps, but also advan-
tageous, would be the connection of the large stores
with the underground lines. ‘The question has been
raised as to whether we have followed a wise course in
providing first for passenger traffic in our underground
routes, leaving the transport of goods on the surface.
Probably we were wrong in so doing, but we are now
committed to this policy and must make the best of it,
though there may yet come a time when it will be found
227
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
necessary to contrive a better organisation for the
collection and distribution of merchandise. London
already has an extensive underground provision ex-
change at Smithfield, which might be made the nucleus
for some system of distributing tubes to other centres
or to important private establishments. Again, Covent
Garden as a market has been obsolete for half a century
or more, and if it is to retain its present site new means
of access should be provided either by rail or tube.
There is a tram subway within a hundred yards, and
as this connects with routes running right to the verge
of the town area, it might be possible to make such
adaptations as would enable it to be used for trans-
port at slack hours during the night.
All the possibilities in these directions will have to
be explored sooner or later, but until the situation
becomes desperate there is little chance of reform, for
the dice are loaded against it. A few years ago a pro-
posal for a goods clearing-house on American lines
was brought forward in London, and, though it un-
doubtedly offered many advantages, as soon as it
became evident that large vested interests would be
adversely affected, the scheme was doomed. Naturally,
when vested interests include valuable plant and
organisation that might be thrown out of use, such
disturbance must be taken into account when striking a
balance, but more often these interests succeed in pre-
venting even an attempt to obtain an unbiassed study
of the question at issue.
There are other instances in which two-level traffic
routes may be worth consideration. We see, for
example, that the difference in use and value between
228
TECHNICAL METHODS
the north and south banks of the Thames is in some
measure due to the discomfort of crossing long bridges
exposed to the rigours of our climate. Now there is
neither practical nor esthetic difficulty involved in
designing a two-tier bridge, in which the lower tier could
accommodate tram routes and covered footways and the
upper one the open road and fair weather footpaths. In
several positions the terminal levels are capable of adjust-
ment, and where this is the case, bridges on these lines
would be an economical method of improving the com-
munication between the two sides of the river.
Mons. E. Heénard, who has made comprehensive
studies as to the possibilities in street planning, goes
so far as to suggest even as many as five superimposed
roads, describing this as a many storied street, just as
we haveamany storied house. ‘Thesurface road would
take the ordinary traffic; immediately below this would
be the tramways ; below this again the subway for the
various services and supplies, the sewers and removal of
refuse; next the high speed electric railways, and at
the bottom the lines for the transport of merchandise.
Naturally, it is only in places enjoying a climate
euphuistically termed “‘ temperate ’’ that these expe-
dients are seriously demanded. Man is not by nature
troglodytic, and it is only as a remedy for existing defects
that these adaptations are justified. At the same time,
there is no reason why we should not adopt common-
sense solutions for obvious difficulties. The work of the
town planner is, with rare exceptions, that of making the
revisions and adaptations suggested by new conditions,
and such reconstructions as can be effected without dis-
organising too drastically the existing structure of the city.
229
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
The above suggestions are merely illustrative. Their
value is less as definite proposals, the validity of which
can only be established by investigation, than as afford-
ing a clue to the attitude to be taken in regard to the
future development of our towns. The examples have
been taken from London, simply for the reasons that it
is, among Englishmen, the city most generally known,
and that the problems it offers are the most intricate
and acute. Other great towns have their difficulties,
and the need of the time is that these should be
approached in a scientific manner, with the broadest
outlook both as to amenity and economics. ‘The science
of city construction lags, at the moment, far behind the
other sciences, mainly because it demands a degree of
co-operation not easily secured, so that there is little
encouragement for the individual exponent. An in-
ventor can devise a new machine, and has only to
succeed in demonstrating its utility to a few to
secure its adoption, but it is quite another matter to
gain the support of the community as a whole for a new
type of civic organisation. Not only are larger interests
affected, but the innate conservatism of the human race
will resist anything involving altered habits until driven
to it by very severe inconveniences.
The technical methods of administration, and the
legal provisions governing these, are outside our range.
They exhibit many points of interest, but, in view of the
fact that several important works deal solely with these
aspects, it is obvious that they could not receive ade-
quate exposition in a book aiming at a general view of
town planning as an art.
230
CHAPTER XXV
The Atsthetic Outlook
S there a place for beauty in the city yet to be?
Surely, if the art of town planning is to lead
us anywhere, it must be to the restoration of
cities to the position they once held as focal points in
the considered harmony, which man, at all periods
of civilisation, endeavoured to evolve by a studied
revision of his environment in order to bring it into
conformity with his psychological and economic needs.
The numberless attempts at a philosophical defini-
tion of beauty concern the artist but little, as his method
of approach is by quite another road. We must, how-
ever, gather together a few fragments of these to help
us towards a realisation of the principles, recognised or
unrecognised, by which towns have grown into beauty
in the past, and may yet do so in the future. The
standards by which beauty is judged become increas-
ingly complex as we move towards an enhanced varia-
tion in human mentality, a condition concisely stated
by the phrase that ‘beauty is in the eye of the
observer,” and yet to accept this as the sole criterion
apart from qualifications would lead us nowhere.
Taking as our guides those who possess acute sensi-
bility towards their environment, we find that this 1s
evoked by a number of different aspects. To one, the
beautiful seems to appear in the guise of absolute
unity with function, such as nature exhibits in the
growth of a plant or the proportions of an animal, and
artifice displays in the lines of a ship or the structure
2g
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
of a Gothic church ; to another, beauty is a matter of
the associations it calls to mind, by transporting him.
mentally into a world which is, or seems to be, pecu-
liarly sympathetic to his temperament ; while a third
has reached the stage at which beauty has become an
abstraction in itself, not to be defined by any law
of function or association. ‘There may be yet other
relationships between the human mind and its ideals,
but a pursuit of these would involve us in the meshes
of metaphysics and would only lead us away from the
course to be followed. Even the last attitude of the
three we have mentioned is of little avail to us, and we
shall have to confine our efforts in the main to the
demands of the first two, and to begin by estimating
the relative force of these.
It seems likely that perfection of function is the
basis of all beauty, but whether, as some claim, it is
itself beauty, we need not attempt to decide ; for our
purpose it will suffice to state that a falsification of
function is, as Ruskin afirmed, a dangerous enemy of
sound artistic expression. Here, however, we must
pause for a moment to put in a word on the side of the
exponent of beauty from its traditional aspect. The
appeal of Ruskin, in its attempt to enforce the logic of
function on the arts, has failed, owing to the fact that
the majority appreciate the arts through the channel of
their association with life, and to forbid the employ-
ment of features that belong to tradition removes for
many the charm that derives from the story of past
achievement.
Even in the practice of the arts themselves we find
it the invariable rule that each of the more outstanding
232
THE ZESTHETIC OUTLOOK
developments has grown out of that which went before,
more or less rapidly, according to the imaginative
vigour of the age. The expression of the new demands
has, in the long run, taken material forms, only
departing step by step from the old. Deliberate revivals
have broken this continuity, and these, though a less
rational manner of progress, have been of value, as
they could have made no headway against traditions
which were adequately expressing the spirit of the time.
In town planning, to a greater extent than in most
other arts, do we find the traditions strongly en-
trenched, and in the aggregate they receive a full
measure of respect. Unfortunately this is often paid
to the wrong type of tradition, those of real value being
neglected while some that could well be dispensed
with hold their ground. For example, there is urgent
need for a complete reconsideration of the general
structural organisation in such matters as the distribu-
tion of activities and the system of communications, but
in these cases it is assumed that what has suited the
past will be appropriate to the future. On the other
hand, many of the buildings show departures from the
established scale and manner, not by reason of changes
in constructive method, which might be an adequate
excuse, but solely through a desire to emphasise the
new at the expense of the old, as in the case of a rural
owner who refused to build a stone cottage in a Cots-
wold village for fear people should not recognise that
it was a new one. Lest it may be imagined that this
indicates an unusually primitive mentality, we may
point out that the same spirit is evident in many of
the recent buildings in the metropolis itself.
233
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
Change in the form of our cities is inevitable if they
are to hold their own in the world competition for
organised production on lines consistent with national
well-being, and it is to the art of town planning that we
must look for guidance as to how such changes can be
given appropriate expression, harmonising the new
developments with what it is necessary or desirable to
retain of the old. Such problems must be faced in the
broadest possible spirit. In the chapter on Tradition,
we have already dealt with the claims of the past, and
it now devolves on us to consider those of the imme-
diate future. We may anticipate that our large towns
will be divided more specifically into two sections, one
concerned with production and commerce and the other
the residential area. These may sometimes, but not
invariably, take the form of a central group and an
outer ring, and their relative locations will determine,
to a large extent, the type of design. Normally, the
dominant masses of the commercial and industrial
buildings will be the more obvious features from dis-
tant points, and though they will rarely be planned
with a definite idea as to their effect, we shall often be
able to find interest in the accidents of grouping that
they exhibit. The main commercial centre will be
more adequately emphasised by the inclusion of the
public buildings that ought to dominate it, but there
is a risk that, following the example of America, these
will be overshadowed by some of the commercial
structures which may advertise themselves by lofty
towers or domes. It is, perhaps, an open question
whether this should be accepted as typical of our
times, or rejected as detracting from the expression of
234
THE ASSTHETIC OUTLOOK
the dominance of municipal government. If we are
thinking of the impression of the city seen as a whole,
we are less concerned with these alternatives.
Passing on to the residential districts of the modern
town, these will make but little impression in a general
view, except where the larger buildings designed for
public purposes are grouped. The trees we delight in
are bound to dominate houses of the type now de-
manded by all classes, and give a general park-like effect
when these districts have acquired the permanent
character aimed at in their planning.
These general effects, being less often the aspects of
the city that strike the eye, are not of the same impor-
tance as the more intimate pictures that come to our
notice at one point or another, made interesting, or the
reverse, by combinations of vista, grouping, colour and
outline. The importance of a general harmony in the
treatment of the buildings, and of good proportions
between these and the spaces around them, has already
been emphasised, but we need more than this if the
city is to create the right impression when we are
within it. |
Variety in unity is what we seek, varied effects
secured by the appropriate grouping and embellish-
ments of the more important buildings, unity by a
consistent treatment of the whole, avoiding affectations
and freakish attempts to attract notice where increased
emphasis is not justified by purpose or by situation.
Such emphasis is admissible only in special cases, more
particularly at centres of public, commercial, or social
importance, and if not limited to these there is bound
to be conflict and confusion. As yet it is hardly
235
THE ART OF TOWN PLANNING
recognised that a city must be regarded as a whole, just
as any other work of art, plastic, musical or literary, so
that we rarely escape this confused and distracting
effect. ‘The treatment in detail of the buildings and
their accessories is a matter for the architect and
outside the legitimate realm of town planning, though
we must recognise that the latter divorced from the
architectural aspect is a futility.
The discussion of what are, or what are not, the
right modes of expression for the city might be pur-
sued in many directions, but present conditions suggest
that little would be gained by this. The main reason
why we have so little beauty in our cities is, not that
the capacity to produce this is lacking, but that so few
among us realise that there is any real necessity for the
city to possess this quality. Even those interested in
one or more of the recognised arts rarely apply their
critical appreciation to civic design, and seem quite
content to accept many shortcomings as inevitable.
The general attitude towards this question will need a
radical change before the artist will be permitted to
exercise his imaginative faculties in this field of opera-
tions. At no time has he failed to answer the call, but
the call must come first. When it comes, then will
town planning fully justify its claim to rank as a
fine art.
236
abER rt 15 My
INDEX
BERCROMBIE, hunting
parks, 50
Abercrombie, the pit-head
village, 133
Adelaide, 197
Adickes, Franz, zone plan, 123
African village domicile, 135
Agamemnon, 28
Agriculture in a basic position, 223
Alexandria, home of later Greek
culture, 26
Alfred, a town builder, 43
See ae buildings, untidiness of,
104
Altona, zone plan of, 123
American gridiron plan, 32
American towns, zoning regulations,
119
Anglo-Saxon attitude still influences
Britain, 218
Anglo-Saxon villages, 41
Antagonism to zoning, 122
Antonine age, 24
Antipodes, the cities of the, 197
Arterial roads, 109
Artificial lighting, 174
Artist’s plan of Paris, 52
Arx or fortress, 10
Asia Minor, towns of, 25
Asian village domicile, 135
Assyria, palaces, 8
Athelney, 42
Augustus, Building Act for Rome, 19
Aurelian wall, 21
Australia, 196
Authorities, number of, 1o1
Autun, 25
Avalon, 42
ABYLON, palaces, 8
Back-to-back houses, 143
Barnet Fair, 149
Basilica Ulpia, 21
Bastides, 32
Bath, 56
Bath Road kept watered, 109
Bayswater, 60
Belgravia, 60
Bernini, 49
Birmingham recreation centre at the
Lickey, 156
Birmingham regulations, 123
Black Death, 31
Bois de Boulogne, naturalistic treat-
ment, 159
Bombay, 200
Boston, U.S.A., parkways, 162
Bournemouth, winding roads, 80
Bournville, 69, 72
Bradford, wide parklands, 161
Brisbane, 198
Bronze period tracks, 106
Bungalows in India, 201
Buttes Chaumont in Paris, 162
By-pass roads, 109
ADBURY, George, 72
G Caerleon, 39
Cerwent, 25
Calcutta, 200
Campus Martius, 21
Canada, civic studies, 196
Canberra, capital of Federated
Australia, 199
** Capability ’’ Brown, 78
Cape sea route, 37
Cardiff civic centre, 153
Carlo Fontana, 49
Carlovingian houses, 12
Carnarvon, 43
Caste requirements, 202
Castle usually determining location,
35
Cawnpore, 73
Centres, main and subsidiary, 155
Charing Cross, congested point, 114
Chester, 25, 39
Chester Rows, 41
Chicago civic centre, 154
Chicago Exhibition, 150
Chichester, 25
Christchurch, N.Z., 198
Church and Market, 36
Circular hut, the primitive house, 4
Civic museum, 102
Civic survey, 96
Civil War, 45
Cleveland civic centre, 154
Cobbett, William, 68
239
INDEX
Collingwood, parallelism in arts, 217
Commercial organisations, 121
Communal life, expression of, 188
Communications, 99-105
Conway, 43
Corinth, canal, 115
Cortona, 10
Count de Grammont on Tunbridge
Wells, 46
Crossing points of roads, 111
Covent Garden, 51, 59
Covent Garden, market obsolete, 228
Craig, James, 62
Cremorne Gardens, 148
Crete, palaces, 8
AVIDGE, cities of the Anti-
podes, 196
Dawson, Christopher, 70
Delhi, 204
Detroit, 55
Development of children, 100
Dickens, “‘ Hard 'Times,”’ 65
Dill, Samuel, 22
Dock planning, 128
Dominions, towns in the, 196
Doncaster, 75
Doncaster coalfield, 134
Doré, Gustave, the medieval street,
139
Dormanstown, 73
Dublin in the eighteenth century, 62
Dunedin, N.Z., 198
Du-Plat- Taylor, harbour construc-
tion, 18
Durham, 30
ARSWICK, 73
East Kent Coalfield, 74, 134
East, trade with the, 37
Edinburgh, 31, 56
Edinburgh and
Continent, 59
Edinburgh “ new town,” 62
Education and recreation, 101
Edward I., 32
Egypt, temples, 8
Electric lighting, 174
Electric signs, 176
Elizabeth’s limit on expansion of
London, 46
Enclosed docks, 129
Enclosure Acts, 161
Encroachments, 161
England, the suburb of Europe, 38
influence of the
Essen, 73
Etruscans, technical improvements,
II
Etruscan towns, 10
AIRS and markets, 45
Fiesole, 10
Fire of London, 41
ees von Erlach, the Karlskirche,
Flats. ioe middle-class residents, 140
Flint, 43
Florence, 25, 27
Flower gardens, 160
Forum, grouping in, 152
Framework of the city, 194
French hunting parks, 50
Furnishing of the City, 170
AMES, fields for, 147
** Garden City,”’ 90
Garden City Movement, 133
Gascon towns, 32
Gaulish {tribes
Britain, 38
Gerasa, 25
Geddes, Patrick, 210
German towns, zoning regulations,
119
Germany, simulating the accidental,
found in South
2
Glastonbury lake villages, 5
Goods clearing-house, 228
Grainger, Richard, at Newcastle, 63
Greek acropolis, 12
Greenwich, formal treatment, 159
Greenwich Hospital, 59
Griffin, design for Canberra, 199
““ Gyratory ”’ system, 114
AMPTON Court,
treatment, I59 ©
Hansa league, 36
Harmonising old and new, 186
Harrison, houses of willow, 136
Hastings, winding roads, 80
Haussmann, reconstruction of Paris,
formal
52
Hemicycle, Nancy, 57
ee E., “‘ a many storied street,”
Heatet the Third’s marriage, 33
Heré, architect, 57
Herodes Atticus, his liberality, 2
240
INDEX
Hill-top defences, 4
Hindu civilisation, rules having
symbolic significance, 204
Historical aspect, 98
Holconii as benefactors, 23
Housing, good, bad and indifferent,
99
Howard, Ebenezer, advocate of the
Garden City, 90
Hut circles, 5
Hygiene, 100
Imaginative work limited in any
age, 188
Impressions of a large town, 191
India, a typical northern city in, 201
Indian trader combines store and
dwelling, 202
India, plague in, 135
India, town planning work, 201
Industrial age, 65
Industrial areas, planning of, 127
Industrial organisations, 121
Industry and commerce, 98
Inigo Jones, 59
Inland ports, 115
Irving’s, Washington, ‘‘ Sketch
Book,” 76
I DEAL cities, 49
“VF ARDIN Anglais,” 81
* Joy cities,”’ 149
AHUN, workers’ colony in
Kk Egypt, 9
Karachi, 200
Karel Capek, East London, 67
Karlsruhe, 57
Kensington Gardens, formal treat-
ment, 159
** King’s town upon Hull,” 43
AKE village, 4
Lamp standards, 174
Land registration
Zealand, 199
Land values, 101
Large houses rented piecemeal, 140
Leeds, wide parklands, 161
Leicester, 39
L’Enfant, Washington, 55
Le Notre, Versailles, 52
in New
Leonardo da Vinci, double system
of routes, 50
Letchworth, go
Leverhulme, Lord, 72
Lex Adickes, 208
Lincoln, 39
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 59
Liverpool, obsolete dock, 128
Logic of function, 232
London, 39
London, road plan of, 109
London squares, 59
London, wooden construction, 138
Los Angeles, zoning ordinance in
1909, 123
Louis XIV., remodellings of Paris,
52
Lucca, 25
Lucknow industrial planning, 128
ACADAM, 108
Madras, 200
Manchester, regulations, 124
Manchester, ship canal, 115
Mannheim, 57
Mattocks on “‘ Town Trees,” 165
Mediterranean coast cities, 9
Melbourne, 197
Mexico, 13
Michael Angelo, 48
Middle Ages, the city structure, 28
Middle Ages, the combination of
functions, 152
Middleton, Imperial era in Rome, 19
Midland Re-afforesting Association,
162
Military exigencies, 29
Minos, 28
Montpazier, 32
Motor transport, doubled capacity
of streets, 113
Mounds resulting from mining, 132
Municipal control, 222
Nz. Place de la Carriére,
57
Nancy, Place Stanislas, 57
Nancy, the hemicycle, 51
Napoleon I., 52
Napoleon III., 52
Nash and Regent Street, 60
National Trust, 158
Naturalistic designs, 78
Nature reserves, 146, 164
Neolithic tracks, 106
241 s
7 INDEX
Nero, reform in construction, 20
Netherlands canals, 115
Newcastle, 30
New York, 225
New York, zoning ordinance in 1916,
123
Norman builders, 43
Northumberland Avenue, 183
BLIQUE alignment, 127
Old Sarum, 44
“ One-way ” routes, 114
Open ports, 129
abbe eG of industry subdivided,
12
Orvieto, 10
Overhead railway lines, 117
Owen, Robert, 68
Oxford Circus,
angles, 184
AGAN tombs, 11
Presisine Hill, 21
Palladio, employment of detail
from, 139
Palma Nuova, ideal city plan, 49
Palmyra, 25, 27
Panama, ship canal, 115
Parasitic character of the city,
220
Parks and gardens, area for, 164
Parliament Square, 172
Passenger traffic underground,
goods on the surface, 227
Pelasgic towns, 10
Perret de Chambéry, ideal city plan,
four truncated
49
Perugia, 10
Petit Trianon, Versailles, simulated
rusticity, 81
Pheenicians, 16
Physique in occupations, 100
Piazza della Signoria at Florence,
4
Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 49
Piccadilly Circus, congested point,
11
prec rectangular planning, 14
Pittsburg civic centre; 154
Place de la Concorde, 52
Place Royale, 51
Plague camps, 201
Planting pit mounds, 162
Playing fields, 147
Pliny, 22
Policeman on traffic duty, cost of,
114
Pompeii, 20
Pope Nicholas V., remodelling of
the Vatican, 48
Porsena, 28
Port Sunlight, 69, 72
Port Sunlight club group, 156
Port Sunlight, road next railway, 117
Post-Roman times, 27
Preneste, 21
Priene, rectangular planning, 14
Proportions of streets, 183
Protected communications, 226
Public buildings overshadowed by
commerce, 234
OO ground, use of,
13%
AILWAY era, reduction in
main roads, 192
Railways, lack of a co-ordi-
nating authority, 117
Rangoon, 200
Recreation grounds, 146
Rectangular plan, the elementary
scheme, 6
Regent’s Canal, 116
Regent Street, 183
Regent’s Park, the
treatment, 159
Regional and local roads, 111
Regional studies, 103
Renaissance, 48
Reorganising our cities, 92
Republican Rome, abandonment of
hill sites, 15
Restriction on heights, 225
Revivals in the arts, 233
Rhine ports, 116
Richard I., regulations, 136
Ringstrasse at Vienna, 54
River traffic, 43
Road service wv. railway facilities, 110
Road surfacing, 108 :.
Road systems under town planning,
109
Roman colonisations, 32
Roman gods, temples of the, 17
Roman harbours, 17
Roman practice as to roads, 106
“Romantic ”’ school, 76
surrounding
242
INDEX
Rome, origin in three villages, 12
Royal hunting parks, 158
Ruskin, 232
149
St. James’s Park, naturalistic
treatment, 159
St. Louis civic centre, 154
St. Louis of France, 32
Salisbury, 36
Salt, Titus, village for workers, 68
San Francisco exhibition, 150
“* Satellite ’ towns,” 142
Sauveterre, 32
Scale in towns, 178
Scamozzi, ideal city plan, 49
Scandinavian countries, the present
attitude, 208
Science of city construction, 230
Scottish ideal, tenement blocks, 141
Segregation, where a mixed popula-
tion, 205
Selinus, rectangular planning, 14
Servius, wall of, 21
Shaw, G. B., his anticipations, 223
Sitté, Camillo, of Vienna, 81, 209
** Slum improvement,” 92
Social centres, 155
Social hygiene, 87
South Africa, 196
South Wales, 74
Statues and monuments, plethora
of, 172
Street lighting, 176
Suez Canal, 115
Surrey Canal, 116
Surrey commons, cut up by rail-
ways, 116
Sweden in a foremost place, 206
Sydney, 196
ANKS and channels in Indian
towns, 203
Tarquin, 28
Telford, 108
Temporary decorations, 176
Terminal features, 53
Termini, neglect of, 118
Terramare, 12
Teutonic countries,
attitude, 208
Teutonic peoples, 27
Therme at Rome, 21
Thirty Years’ War, 56
SG: BARTHOLOMEW’S fair,
the present
Timgad, in Algeria, 25, 27
Tokyo, canals, 214
Tokyo, destroyed by earthquake and
firey 203
Tokyo, public open spaces, 214
‘Topography of the town, 97
‘Towns operate parasitically, 88
Town Planning Act of 1909 and
zoning, 123
Town walls, 30
Tradition, 185
Trajan, 21
Transit must be convenient and
economical, 122
Trees for town planting, 165
Tropical town planning, a separate
study, 205
Tudor dynasty, 45
Tunbridge Wells, 46
Turin, 25, 27
“Turnpike ”’ roads, 108
Two-level traffic routes, 228
N cal R GROUND transit,
22
“* Unearned increment,” 222
United States, latitude as to build-
ings, 55
University, position of, 154
Unwin, Raymond, 209
“ Utilitarian ”’ planning, 69
Utilitarian plans, 47
ANCOUVER, 196
Vauxhall Gardens, 148
Venice, 13, 50, I15
Vested Base taken into account,
22,
Victoria, congested point, 114
Viterbo, 10
Vitruvius, 16
Volterra, 10
ANDLE, preservation of
river banks, 162
Washington, L’Enfant’s
plan, 55
Water effects, 174
Water frontages, 127
Wellington, N.Z., 198
Wells, 36
Wells, H. G., his anticipations, 223
Welwyn, 90
West end, reasons for, 63
243
INDEX
Wimbledon, winding roads, 80 ORK, 39
Winchelsea, 44 Young children, playgrounds
Winchester, 36 for, 148
Wood, architect of Bath, 60
Wren, St. Martin’s, Ludgate Hill,
173 ONING principles, 120
Wren’s plan for rebuilding London,
58
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London and Tonbridge
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