Scattered Satellites

Charles Benjamin Purdom

[Sir] Leslie Patrick Abercrombie

by Franz Sdoutz

1920 'Satellite Towns round London'
Charles Benjamin Purdom

"[…] as part of the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition in February 1920, the [Garden Cities and Town Planning] Association mounted a conference on Satellite Towns for Greater London. A proposal was made for a system of twenty-three satellite towns around London." V.) 4

http://cashewnut.me.uk/ [… 2]
http://www.archive.org/ 2

1943
'The County of London Plan'
by [Sir] Patrick Abercrombie

» […] London has been divided into marked residential areas, the purpose of which was to identify those areas with a "high proportion of obsolescent property", in relation to others that were used with more regularity. « I.) 1

Despite its rendered meaning this truly magnificent graphic artwork equivalents a [mind]map of popular urban conditioning - of passed on territorial imprints, manifest through toponyms and their administration.
In the course of urban identity-restoration IX.) 5 this mapping conceptualises the "Twin City of London and Westminster" to form a "cellular" plural[ent]ity of distinct discrete sites III.) 2 and thus projects "growth" by clusters of [exactly such] offshoots.

"[…] Our plan is an idea, a plan for something that is living, something that is growing." III.) 3

Video
http://www.archive.org/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ 2

Plans
'The County of London Plan explained by E. J. Carter and Ernö Goldfinger' 1945 […] http://www.flickr.com/ 2 3 4 identical
http://bpsarchive.com/ 2 3 […]
http://www.btinternet.com/ […]
http://www.architecture.com/ 2
http://www.gardenvisit.com/ 2 […]
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/
http://www.rudi.net/ […]

Model
http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/ […]

1944
'Grater London Plan'
by [Sir] Patrick Abercrombie


Based on a policy of containment [already pursued in the 16th century] a permanent Green Belt should limit that vast "uncharted sea” of terraces …

http://nzdl.sadl.uleth.ca/
http://www.idoxplc.com/
http://website.lineone.net/
Neighbourhoods 1 2 3 4 5

PDF
http://jph.sagepub.com/
http://www.tcpa.org.uk/

Video
http://www.bbc.co.uk/

1964
'The South East Study'

"[…] since the end of the war the population of London, far from attaining the stability envisaged by Sir Patrick Abercrombie, had increased at an unprecedented rate […]" VIII.) 6

London [still] spread …


http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/

1967
'A Strategy for the South East'

"With the need to preserve a widened Green Belt, urban development could be confined to specific axes [corridors …]" VIII.) 7

London channelled …

http://books.google.at/

1970
'A Strategic Plan for the South East'



1976
'London Docklands Strategic Plan'

http://www.docstoc.com/
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/


1979
Thatcherism […]

http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/

1995
'Thames Gateway Planning Framework'

http://www.communities.gov.uk/

2004
'The London Plan
Spatial Development Strategy for Greater London'

Still in the green …

http://www.london.gov.uk/ 2 […]

'London Thames Gateway'
http://www.lda.gov.uk/ […]

2009
'Consultation draft replacement London Plan'
http://www.london.gov.uk/ […]
http://en.wikipedia.org/

2006
'The Thames Gateway Interim Plan'



http://www.communities.gov.uk/ 3 4 […]
http://www.audacity.org/

"Gateways" and "Corridors": towards a more linear expansion …

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/

1941
Ludwig Hilberseimer

JPG:
http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/

1942 'A Masterplan for London'
Modern Architecture Research Group [MARS = British CIAM Group]
Plan by Arthur Korn and Felix James Samuely

http://www.oxforddnb.com/
http://designmuseum.org/
http://www.jstor.org/
http://books.google.at/
http://en.wikipedia.org/

References:

1. 'Instant Cities' by Herbert Wright published by Black Dog Publishing London 2008
   
   Img. _02 [page 17] Patrick Abercrombie, 'The County of London Plan' 1943
   1 Caption for Img. _02 [page 16]
2. IN:
   'New Towns: The British Experience' edited by Hazel Evans, published for the Town and Country Planning Association by Charles Knight & Co. Ltd. London 1972
   
   '2 "The new town movement" ' by Frank Schaffer [page 11 - 21]
   Img. _03 [page 19] Diagram of the 'Grater London Plan' 1944; there are various versions all ascribed to Abercrombie …[?]
   http://books.google.at/ ['Urban Geography' page 191]
3. IN:
   'The modern city revisited' edited by Thomas Deckker published by Taylor & Francis, 2000 http://books.google.at/
   
   'Towards the functional city? MARS, CIAM and the London plans 1933-42' by John Gold [page 80-100]
   Img. _10 [page 81] 'Master plan for London' 1942
4. 'The Proud City' [Film] ~ 1943 or later [for 'The County of London Plan' shows in the background] available online from: http://www.archive.org/
   
   3 Text narrated by [Sir] Patrick Abercrombie
   2 The past framing the future as a matter of course:
   "London of course used to be a collection of scattered village communities […] " Text narrated by J. H. Forshaw. The Film also exemplifies the "neighborhood unit principle” [Clarence Arthur Perry 1929 …] for London.
   See also: The Growth of London
   The notion of London as a "metropolis of villages" connected by high streets was still conveyed to me in the 1990s …
5. 'From Garden Cities to New Towns: Campaigning for town and country planning, 1899-1946' by Dennis Hardy published by Taylor & Francis, 1991 http://books.google.at/
   Img. _01 [page 148] There are at least three versions of that diagram prepared by C. B. Purdom. Compare to: 'The Building of Satellite Towns' by C. B. Purdom published first 1925 […]
   4 [page 148, 149] Probably referring to:
   'International Garden Cities and Town Planning Conference at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition, Olympia, London, S.W., on February 16th, 17th, and 18th, 1920' … http://books.google.at/ b ?
6. 'The New City - PRINCIPLES OF PLANNING' by Ludwig Hilberseiner, [With an Introduction by Mies van der Rohe], published by Paul Theobald Chicago 1944 http://www.archive.org/
   
   Img. _09 [page 153] 'A Diaggrammatic Sketch for London' 1941http://www.archive.org/
7. 'Milton Keynes: image and reality' by Terence Bendixson and John Platt, published by Granta Editions, Cambridge 1992 [reprinted 1998] http://books.google.at/
   
   Img. _05 [page 82] Diagram of 'A Strategy for the South East : A First Report by the South East Economic Planning Council' published November 1967;
   there are at least two different versions of that diagram VIII.) … [ ?]
8. ^ 'New Towns: Regional Planning and Development' by Pierre Merlin, published by Methuen & Co Ltd 1971 [First published 1969 as Les Villes Nouvelles by Presses Universitaires de France, Paris] http://books.google.at/
   
   Img. _04 [page 43] Diagram of 'The South-East Study' published by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government 1964 http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/
   6 [page 40 onwards]
   7 [page 48]
9. IN:
   'LONDON : THE UNIQUE CITY' Revised Edition by Steen Eiler Rasmussen, published by The MIT Press, Cambridge, London 1982 (original edition in Danish, London 1934)
   'An Essay on London New Towns Modern and Ancient: A New and More Happy Ending but No End', by Steen Eiler Rasmussen 1978 [appendix, page 405]
   
   5 "[These] projects were regarded as a weapon in the war. They were supposed to strengthen the morale of the people by promising a better England for all after the war." [page 427]
10. 'The London Plan : Spatial Development Strategy for Greater London' published by the Greater London Authority February 2004 http://www.london.gov.uk/
    
    Img. _07 [page 50] 'The Key Diagram'
    8 [page 49]
11. 'The Thames Gateway Interim Plan: Policy Framework' published by the Department for Communities and Local Government 22nd November 2006 http://www.communities.gov.uk/
    
    Img. _08 [page 27] 'The Thames Gateway Parklands'
12. 'Thames Gateway Planning Framework (RPG 9A)' published by HMSO 16 June 1995 http://www.communities.gov.uk/
    
    Img. _06 [inside cover] 'Thames Gateway Framework Diagram'

Links

http://www.haroldhill.org/
http://www.cbrd.co.uk/
http://www.avenir-suisse.ch/
http://www.inspiringcities.org/
http://www.idoxplc.com/

Abercrombie
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://www.plymouthdata.info/

PDF
http://www.knstwrk.nl/

more Google Urbanism™

• Google Urbanism™ with Steen Eiler Rasmussen
  The Growth of London in the 17th and 18th century (details to diagram)
  London Metrology - a retro urban tape
  Garden Cities (Howard, Unwin & Parker)
  Scattered Satellites (Purdom, Abercrombie, Hilberseimer, MARS)
  Milton Keynes (New Town)
  

File Log

• Very preliminary version - work in progress …
  Dates according to various sources … caution advised!

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