- County of London Plan
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County of London Plan Author(s) J.H. Forshaw and
Patrick AbercrombieCountry United Kingdom Language English Subject(s) Urban planning Publisher Macmillan and Company, Ltd. Publication date 1943 Media type Print (Hardback) Pages 188 ISBN N/A The County of London Plan was prepared for the London County Council in 1943. Its authors were John Henry Forshaw (1879-1957) and Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (1895-1973).
Its main purpose was to point out the main directions of development and reconstruction of London, which in the past decades had faced big changes and irregular growth. It was prepared in anticipation of the end of World War II and the reconstruction after bomb damage and large movements of population.
It particularly focused on five defects of London, to which the plan proposed remedies. The defects were:
- traffic congestion
- depressed housing
- inadequacy and maldistribution of open spaces
- jumble of houses and industries
- sprawl of London and consequent suburbanisation of surrounding country towns
Contents
Ring roads
One of the proposed solutions was a number of ring roads around the capital. Construction would have involved considerable disruption, even through parts of the city damaged by bombs, and the roads were not built. However, the "C Ring" (the third ring out from the city centre) was to include what is now the South Circular Road. The plan to build a high-quality road was not realised but the semi-circular route was assigned to existing roads through the southern suburbs. A similar plan was revisited in the 1960s under the name of the London Ringways.
Predecessors
In 1937, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Charles Bressey had published a Ministry of Transport report, The Highway Development Survey, which reviewed London's road needs and recommended the construction of many miles of new roads and the improvement of junctions at key congestion points. Amongst their proposals was the provision of a series of orbital roads around the city with the outer ones built as American-style Parkways- wide, landscaped roads with limited access and grade separated junctions.
See also
- Greater London Plan
- Park system
- Landscape planning
- North Circular Road- the north London counterpart of the South Circular Road
- M25 London Orbital Motorway- the outermost London ring, completed (through both building and upgrading) in 1986
References
- J. H. Forshaw and Patrick Abercrombie, County of London Plan, Macmillan & Co. 1943.
Categories:- 1940s in the United Kingdom
- 1940s in London
- 1943 in London
- Regional planning in London
- United Kingdom politics stubs
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