SIR PATRICK ABERCROMBIE

1879– 1957
Town & Country Planning Pioneer
 Early Years
j Born – 1879 in Ashton on Mersey, the 9th Child of a Manchester
businessman

j Educated at Uppingham School , Rutland, where he lost the sight in one

eye following a bout of measles. He spent a finishing year in Lausanne

j He was articled to train as an architect 11th May 1897 for 4 years to

Charles Henry Heathcote a Manchester Architect from whom he later
claimed to have learned nothing

j On completion of his apprenticeship he moved to Liverpool to work in

the offices of Sir Arnold Thornley and then to Chester where he was so
impressed by the complexity, history and structure of that city that he
began to become interested in the concept and issues of the whole
planned environment.
 Two Big Breaks
j 1907 – Invited by Prof. C.H.Reilly , Head of the Liverpool School of
Architecture, to a junior position at the institute

j Two years later a donation by the first Lord Leverhulme (William Hesketh
Lever) saw the creation of a Department of Civic Design at the School
and funding for a research fellowship. Despite requiring a drop in salary,
Abercrombie was happy to take up the post of Research Assistant as the
subject was of greater interest to him and the position also offered the
opportunity to become founding co-editor of Town Planning Review, a
new quarterly publication also created by the boon of the soap barons
grant

j This coincided with the publication of first government Health &

Planning Bill (the 1909 Act), so we see him moving quickly into the new
field of public interest
 Establishing an identity
Although an accomplished draftsman and an artist of some talent
(his brother Jacob also achieved some fame as an artist &
philosopher) Abercrombie never really settled as an Architect
‘per se’, preferring to see the broader sweep of civic design
and the interrelationship between urban and rural as his field
of interest and endeavour. Through his editorship of the TPR
he was able to keep abreast of all the new ideas and thinking
coming into the field of civic design and planning and absorb
these into his own work.
It is because of this wider vision that he is often considered one of
the very first career ‘Town Planners’
 A Statement of intent
j Taken from the Town & Planning Review Centenary issue – Abercrombie’s
forward describing the key objectives for the new journal;
j It was not to be exclusive to the new (Liverpool University) department
j It’s purpose was to support the development of the “somewhat new and unexplored
field” by encouraging and attracting contributions from all sources
j It noted the already established journals of a similar thrust in Germany and USA

j Its mission statement in that issue read;

“It is hoped then that the journal will, from its independent position, be able
to deal fairly but critically with the various town planning schemes that
arise in this country and abroad.. (the editors) will welcome contributions
from all sources which in their opinion aid in formulating useful and right
ideas.... by forming a general mart to which all may come”
j Abercrombie, along with the other editors, took forward the mission,
dealing with and discussing the development of planning and planning
techniques as they evolved to become the specific and specialist,
scientific, analytical and academic profession that we know today
 Success and Accreditation
j In 1915, at the age of 36 and without any academic qualification, he
was appointed Professor of Civic Design to the Lever department.
This as a result of Prof. A.D Adshead taking up the Chair at the London
University of Town Planning

j In 1916 the results were published of a competition which

Abercrombie and two of his students had entered in 1913. Organised
partly by Patrick Geddes, the brief was to create a new town plan for
Dublin, their entry won first place, and paved the way for
Abercrombie to establish his own practice.
 Forming & progressing the vision
j Through his editorials of the Town & Planning Review Abercrombie
became a great ‘networker’ and promoted the planning profession
vigorously, “Planning simply means proposing to do, and then doing
certain things in an orderly, pre-meditated, related and rational way
having in view some definite end that is expected to be beneficial”

j A devotee of the Geddis principle of ’Place: Folk: Work’ he passed this

ethos onto his students

j He always had a clear idea of the tasks and duties of a planner,”(it) seeks
to proffer a guiding hand to the trend of natural evolution as a result of a
careful study of the place itself and its external relationships. The result is
more than a piece of skilful engineering or satisfactory hygiene or
successful economics – it should be a social organism and a work of art.”
 Early projects
j Right from the start his work showed his abilities to understand and draw
all the aspects of the process together and bind them into one result.

j His limitations as an outright architect or planning theorist he overcame by

always assembling teams for his projects, often working with his own
students but also with other luminaries of the architectural profession of
the time.

j Early, small, schemes were prepared for Chester, Mouldsworth,

Dormanstown near Redcar and at Kirk Sandall for the Pilkington brothers.

j His first large scale project soon followed, a Greater Doncaster Plan. He
was asked in 1920 to prepare a brief for a regional planning scheme for the
whole of the area which covered a population of 140 k inhabitants in an
area of 170 square miles.
 The Doncaster Regional Plan
j The report received approval in 1922 and was described as being the
‘first comprehensive regional plan in Britain’ and as exhibiting
‘Organisation, Survey and Recommendations’. It was immediately
recognised as a ‘model of the manner in which such subjects should be
dealt with’ and it set the style for modern planners and the
profession generally

j It also highlighted Abercrombie’s other great vision – a regional

centre orbited by smaller satellite towns, so as to prevent the centre
becoming overcrowded & inefficient. These orbiting towns would be
buffered from the centre by a zone of restricted development, a
‘Green Belt’

j These ideas were not new but they were workable adaptations of
the ideals set out by such as Ebenezer Howard in his ‘Garden City’
proposals and Arthur Crows in his ‘Ten Cities of Health’
 Building on success
j Abercrombie quickly moved on to further projects and in 1924
reported a plan for Sheffield much in the same vein as the Doncaster
dossier.

j Between 1923 and 1935 he completed 15 other plans gradually honing

and improving his techniques throughout. He incorporated improved
surveying techniques, including photography, and geological and
topographical reports in his researches

j The 1925 East Kent plan was of particular interest as it comprised of a

‘clean slate’ for development of an infrastructure to accommodate
the projected new development expected following discovery of coal
seams in the area. Abercrombie's appreciation of countryside and
open spaces led to him developing a system of small towns within the
development area in order to preserve the overall character of the
landscape.
 Frustrations and response
j In many cases Abercrombie’s plans never saw fruition. He constantly
encountered neighbouring local authorities failing to co-operate with
each other over his proposals, preferring instead to instigate their
own, self satisfying projects – to the greater detriment of the overall
area and contrary to the outlines he had prepared

j This was particularly so in the case of the East Kent proposals and the
resulting sprawl that ensued so incensed Abercrombie that he lent his
influence to The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres and Sir Guy Dawber in
their 1926 establishment of the Council for the Preservation of Rural
England which still flourishes today as the Campaign to Protect Rural
England (CPRE). One of the first campaigns undertaken by the
organisation was to lobby against ribbon development and the
proliferation of urban sprawl which was prevalent at the time.
 Capital ideas ( sorry!)

j In 1935 he was obliged to move to London as he had been again

appointed to succeed Prof. A.D Adshead this time by taking up the
Chair at the London University. He was also engaged by the
government to assist on the commission led by Sir Andrew Montague-
Barlow investigating cause and effects of the economic depression.

j In 1932 he had written a critique of the 1932 Town & Country Planning
Act advocating that a single body, rather than the joint overseeing by
the Health and Transport departments, should be responsible for
planning matters and that national policies and guidance should be
created by this body. He called for positive action to go beyond
regional outlooks and for national guidance to embrace all planning
areas such as industry & commercial location, agriculture, forestry,
location of population and transport & utilities. Also for the
establishment of National Parks, Metropolitan Green Belts and
settlements zones.
 Report bodies and War
j The Barlow Report was issued in 1939 but was overshadowed by the
outbreak of war. Abercrombie and his offices were evacuated to
Cambridge and it is thought that Abercrombie believed that the work
would be subsumed in the war effort and that his usefulness had
perhaps been exhausted. In 1940 he was engaged in the creation of a
University in Ceylon but was soon recalled to oversee the work of
locating new air fields and sites for the many new hospitals which
were required at this time.

j During the course of the war the government engaged many of the
great minds of the country to prepare for peacetime. The aim was to
prevent making the same mistakes that had been made after the first
world war, when the promise of a ‘Home Fit for Heroes’ had been a
cruel and empty statement, eventually leading to much civil strife.
Preparing for peace in the depth of war
The Barlow Report had a deep effect on the strategic planning aspirations
of government during the war. It did not go unnoticed that the report
had predicted that the over concentration of population, industry and
supply networks would result in the crippling effect of bomb attacks
and other logistical problems that occurred during the conflict. The
coalition war government was determined that post war Britain
would be better organised and so instigated the studies
recommended in the report. Scott & Uthwatt reported on land
utilization in rural areas and urban development, including issues of
compensation and betterment, Dower and Hobhouse on National
Parks and Abercrombie was tasked with looking at the post war
regeneration of London with Lord Reith appointed to see through the
implementation of the New Town policies which Abercrombie
espoused.
 Two Plans for London
j It was apparent to Abercrombie that the whole conurbation of London
suffered from four main issues;
j Traffic and congestion
j Depressed housing
j Inadequate, erratically sited and uncontrolled open spaces
j Indeterminate zoning i.e. A developers free for all!

j He proposed to tackle these issues by establishing a ring system of

managed development;
j A central ‘Administrative County of London’ zone with established parameters
j An inner urban and sub-urban ring
j A Green Belt buffer zone of strictly limited development potential
j An outer ‘County’ ring with satellite and ‘new’ towns and garden cities

j The final reports were hailed as “the town planning classic for which the
time was ripe and the world has been waiting”
 The London County Council Plan
j The brief was to provide a plan capable of delivering ‘works of great
magnitude and expenditure’

j It was to be ‘indicative only, precise routes and boundaries to be

decided in the light of later investigation’

j Lord Latham, leader of the council, although supportive of the plan

warned of obstacles to implementation such as; ”conflicting interests,
private rights, an outworn and different scale of values and a lack of
vision”

j The plan, though generally accepted in principle, proved slow and

difficult to turn into reality, and never fully reached its conclusion
 The Greater London Plan
j This was to be a much more extensive, yet less detailed plan than the
LCC Plan. It was in this plan that Abercrombie’s vision was allowed full
reign

j The four ring principle was applied, the inner ring essentially being
formed by the limits of the LCC Plan and some of the most central
urban development, the suburban ring reaching out some five miles
beyond this, the green belt buffer then covered a depth of between
seven and ten miles until the outer country ring began. It was in the
country ring that the satellite and new towns were to be established,
as well as a projected number of garden cities.

j Green wedges, radial pathways linking the zones, were also

envisaged in the plan, such as that which eventually became the Lea
Valley Park. These fulfilled Abercrombie’s ambition to maintain the
openness of the development
The Greater London Plan

This illustration shows the extents and

boundaries envisaged by Abercrombie
for his ring system and the satellite and
new town placements. Although many of
the ‘county’ ring developments did not
occur where originally envisaged, the
similarity of this projection and the
current reality is striking
 Failures of the plans
j Ultimately the sheer scale and complexity of the two plans defeated
them. The overall area considered amounted to 2,600 square miles
and involved a population of 6½ million.

j Successive governments were reluctant to allow the 131 authorities

encompassed by the plan to unite to consider and implement it
properly, as the resultant body would have rivalled Westminster for
influence

j The main failures of the plan would be considered to be;

j All but two of the new towns failed to appear on the sites originally allocated them
j The Green Belt rules are frequently misunderstood and misapplied
j The plan failed to anticipate the growth and movements of industry and commercial
enterprise
j The traffic plans were slow to be implemented due to failures of neighbouring
authorities to communicate and co-operate
 Pastures new
j As soon as the plans had been completed, and before any chance of
implementation, Abercrombie had moved on again. In 1943 he was
appointed Principle Consultant for the Clyde Valley Regional Planning
Committee.
j He again utilised his vision and abilities to draw on new skills by
interweaving his, now established, planning methods with socio-
economic engineering to approach the problem of dealing with issues
such as;
j An area encompassing 66% of the entire population of Scotland
j A changing industrial base
j Major housing problems
j Open spaces such as Loch Lomond and the Clyde resorts in close proximity
j His solutions were typically visionary;
j New towns to be established at East Kilbride, Cumbernauld & Bishopston, with a
further one at Houston if required
j The middle & lower Clyde basins to be designated Green Belt
j National Parks to be established at Loch Lomond, The Trossochs & St Marys Lake
 Post War demand
j Post war regeneration was in swing and despite his advancing years
Abercrombie found himself in demand, preparing further plans for
Plymouth, Hull, Edinburgh, Warwick and Bournmouth

j Eventually though all of these plans were only implemented by

degree and not to full fruition. Lack of inertia by development bodies
constantly frustrating the grand plan

j His final years of practice were spent on overseas projects and he

travelled to work in Addis Ababa, Hong Kong, Cyprus and Ethiopia

j He died in 1957 whilst working on a plan for Winchester

 Honours
j Abercrombie was afforded many honours through his work amongst
which he was;
j Appointed president of the Town Planning Institute in 1926
j Knighted in 1945 for his contribution to the practice of civic planning
j Awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1946
j Awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects in 1950
j Awarded the Gold Medal of the American Town Planning Institute in 1953
j Presented with the Legion d’honneur in 1956

j He also received many honorary doctorates and had a Blue Plaque

erected at his Liverpool residence celebrating his tenure at the
University from 1915 - 1935
 Plaudits
j He is primarily remembered for his efforts as a protagonist and
propagandist for the profession of planning, rather than as a great
practitioner or theorist. His vision and ability was to absorb and
organise the ideas of the great theorists of planning and use them to
create frameworks for his own plans and reports, and that is his
greatest legacy. The styles and methods by which he worked are
followed as a model for today's practitioners

j His other great legacy is that, through his written works and
insistence on regard for open spaces, National Parks were established
and the British conscience developed a regard for its own natural
heritage. The CPRE and other countryside and heritage bodies still
campaign on this stance.
 My impressions
j Through my research on the life and works of Sir Patrick Abercrombie
I have been struck by how much of the work and practice that he
established is still relevant and taken as de rigour today. However,
when he began in practice there was no established, or even an
acknowledged ‘Planning profession’ as such. Architects took it upon
themselves to prepare such details as were necessary to complete
their employers brief and the skill sets, which would now be
considered essential and part of the planners contribution, were un-
regarded.

j He standardised the methods by which a ‘Plan’ would be researched

and prepared with procedures which are still employed today. His
dictum was;
j Survey and thoroughly research the site or region
j Develop the proposals
j Consider and prepare the methods of Implementation
j His final plans & reports always left room for flexibility in their execution
 Further impressions
My other reflection is that, as a man and practicing planner, Abercrombie
seems to have had so much energy and been so be incredibly active
and busy that, in always looking toward the next project, he
constantly seems to have failed to follow up on his previous
proposals. Consequently the plans that he had prepared so carefully
seem consistently to have failed to reach their completion in the
manner which he had so carefully prescribed. However, it is recorded
that he regretted not having been granted the opportunity to design
one of his own post-war new towns

This leads me to wonder what the landscape of Britain might like now if
he had been as deadly in the execution of his own plans as he was so
diligent and thorough in the laying and reporting of them?
Any Questions?
It’s a view looking south west along
the A131 towards Chelmsford
from almost directly above the
Great Leighs Racetrack