Patrick Abercrombie was a major person in the development of town planning, and was another of the Presidents who were chosen because of their public profile, rather than a connection with geography teaching per se.
I remember learning about his work in a module on planning which formed part of my degree in the early 1980s.
His name has since cropped up with respect to BAAS Section E and links with Sir Peter Hall, who is referenced quite a bit on the blog.
He was born in Cheshire, and studied at Liverpool School of Architecture.
His work's legacy persists today and is still influential in discussions around town planning.
When he became GA President, the Second World War was approaching, but there was still a lot of change occurring in the British landscape.
Following the Second World War, Abercrombie became a leading person in the rebuilding of London and other places. This was also a time when planning was a big focus of the BAAS Section E.
His work led to the New Towns Act which has left a legacy of cities across the UK, and work on other cities which have been influenced by the movement, spreading worldwide.
From his Wikipedia page (shared under CC license)
Sir Patrick trained as an architect before becoming the Professor of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture in 1915, and later Professor of Town Planning at University College London.
Afterwards, he made award-winning designs for Dublin city centre and was involved in the replanning of several other cities, including Hull.
He was also closely involved in the founding of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE). After its formation in December 1926, he served as its Honorary Secretary. This is yet another important institution with a link to a GA President.
When Abercrombie became GA President, he had not yet completed his most famous work, which was yet to come after the Second World War.
His Presidential Address was entitled 'Geography, the basis of Planning'.
Duncan Hawley (and other geologists) need to look away from this extract.
He championed the idea of a Green Belt around London, and contributed to the Royal Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population, the report of which (Barlow Report) appeared in 1940. Green Belts are very much in the news in the summer of 2023 in terms of their suggested impact on new housing which is needed.
He is perhaps best known for the post-Second World War replanning of London. He created the County of London Plan (1943) and the Greater London Plan (1944) which are commonly referred to as the Abercrombie Plan.
His work's legacy persists today and is still influential in discussions around town planning.
When he became GA President, the Second World War was approaching, but there was still a lot of change occurring in the British landscape.
Following the Second World War, Abercrombie became a leading person in the rebuilding of London and other places. This was also a time when planning was a big focus of the BAAS Section E.
His work led to the New Towns Act which has left a legacy of cities across the UK, and work on other cities which have been influenced by the movement, spreading worldwide.
From his Wikipedia page (shared under CC license)
Sir Patrick trained as an architect before becoming the Professor of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture in 1915, and later Professor of Town Planning at University College London.
Afterwards, he made award-winning designs for Dublin city centre and was involved in the replanning of several other cities, including Hull.
He was also closely involved in the founding of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE). After its formation in December 1926, he served as its Honorary Secretary. This is yet another important institution with a link to a GA President.
When Abercrombie became GA President, he had not yet completed his most famous work, which was yet to come after the Second World War.
His Presidential Address was entitled 'Geography, the basis of Planning'.
ABERCROMBIE, PATRICK. “GEOGRAPHY, THE BASIS OF PLANNING.” Geography, vol. 23, no. 1, 1938, pp. 1–8. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40560522. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.
Duncan Hawley (and other geologists) need to look away from this extract.
He championed the idea of a Green Belt around London, and contributed to the Royal Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population, the report of which (Barlow Report) appeared in 1940. Green Belts are very much in the news in the summer of 2023 in terms of their suggested impact on new housing which is needed.
He is perhaps best known for the post-Second World War replanning of London. He created the County of London Plan (1943) and the Greater London Plan (1944) which are commonly referred to as the Abercrombie Plan.
I've seen the plan / map referred to as the potato map.
He appears in the film The Proud City presenting his plan to the public - a rare film of a GA President talking:
The Proud City. Patrick Abercrombie from Planum. The Journal of Urbanism on Vimeo.
In 1945 he published A Plan for the City & County of Kingston upon Hull, with the assistance of Sir Edwin Lutyens. Lutyens had died the year before publication whilst much of the plan was being finalised, and the plan was ultimately rejected by the Councillors of Hull.
From the Abercrombie Plan came the New Towns movement which included the building of Harlow and Crawley. He produced the Clyde Valley Regional Plan in 1946 with Robert H Matthews that proposed the new towns of East Kilbride and Cumbernauld.
During the postwar years, Sir Patrick was commissioned by the British government to redesign Hong Kong.
In 1956 he was also commissioned by Haile Selassie to draw up plans for the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.
Patrick Abercrombie was Knighted in 1945. In 1948 he became the first president of the newly formed group the International Union of Architects, or the UIA (Union Internationale des Architectes). The group now annually awards the Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize, for excellence in town planning. In 1950 he received the AIA Gold Medal. The University of Liverpool's Department of Civic Design also continues to award an Abercrombie Prize annually to its top-performing student.
He died in 1957.
A Blue Plaque has been erected at a house formerly occupied by Patrick Abercrombie (lived there 1915-1935), in Oxton, Merseyside. Another place on the list to try to visit in my Presidential year.
References
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Abercrombie
Source of image - Creative Commons
I amended the entry to add his GA Presidency - something I have done for each GA President who has a Wikipedia page.
Presidential Address: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40560522?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
David Matless piece: Matless, David. “Appropriate Geography: Patrick Abercrombie and the Energy of the World.” Journal of Design History, vol. 6, no. 3, 1993, pp. 167–178. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1316006.
https://www.ft.com/content/97afa1b2-44a3-11e4-ab0c-00144feabdc0
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2014/mar/22/london-county-plan-abercrombie-forshaw
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095343737
Update (late September 2019)
Thoughts on Abercrombie's legacy from Brendan Conway
Update (October 2019)
Abercrombie's legacy is also discussed in the new Short History of London by Simon Jenkins - a current read of mine.
The author is not a fan of the period where a lot of the historical streets of London were replaced, buildings removed, and threats to other buildings such as St. Pancras, in the period after the Second World War.
Abercrombie talked about London's past as a time of 'obsolescence, bad and unsuitable housing, uncorrelated road systems and inequality in the distribution of open spaces'.
I have a copy of a book which features the plan. A green belt was proposed to stop the expansion of the city, and there would be up to five 'ringways' to take traffic around the city centre.
People would be moved out of the city to new towns to take the pressure of the centre. The 1947 Town and Country Planning Act gave Abercrombie the power to change the lives of the 7 million inhabitants of the city, but it met opposition from the realities of a city which had survived the Blitz and needed to be rebuilt and given a new energy.
Jenkins' books is well worth reading.
In G. R. Crone's chronology of Geography in the 20th Century, there is a brief mention of Abercrombie's Presidential address.
Reference
Crone, G. R. “British Geography in the Twentieth Century.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 130, no. 2, 1964, pp. 197–220. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1794582.
Update
A video describing the plan.
Matless, David. “Appropriate Geography: Patrick Abercrombie and the Energy of the World.” Journal of Design History, vol. 6, no. 3, 1993, pp. 167–78. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1316006. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.
The Proud City. Patrick Abercrombie from Planum. The Journal of Urbanism on Vimeo.
In 1945 he published A Plan for the City & County of Kingston upon Hull, with the assistance of Sir Edwin Lutyens. Lutyens had died the year before publication whilst much of the plan was being finalised, and the plan was ultimately rejected by the Councillors of Hull.
From the Abercrombie Plan came the New Towns movement which included the building of Harlow and Crawley. He produced the Clyde Valley Regional Plan in 1946 with Robert H Matthews that proposed the new towns of East Kilbride and Cumbernauld.
During the postwar years, Sir Patrick was commissioned by the British government to redesign Hong Kong.
In 1956 he was also commissioned by Haile Selassie to draw up plans for the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.
Patrick Abercrombie was Knighted in 1945. In 1948 he became the first president of the newly formed group the International Union of Architects, or the UIA (Union Internationale des Architectes). The group now annually awards the Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize, for excellence in town planning. In 1950 he received the AIA Gold Medal. The University of Liverpool's Department of Civic Design also continues to award an Abercrombie Prize annually to its top-performing student.
He died in 1957.
A Blue Plaque has been erected at a house formerly occupied by Patrick Abercrombie (lived there 1915-1935), in Oxton, Merseyside. Another place on the list to try to visit in my Presidential year.
References
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Abercrombie
Source of image - Creative Commons
I amended the entry to add his GA Presidency - something I have done for each GA President who has a Wikipedia page.
Presidential Address: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40560522?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
David Matless piece: Matless, David. “Appropriate Geography: Patrick Abercrombie and the Energy of the World.” Journal of Design History, vol. 6, no. 3, 1993, pp. 167–178. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1316006.
https://www.ft.com/content/97afa1b2-44a3-11e4-ab0c-00144feabdc0
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2014/mar/22/london-county-plan-abercrombie-forshaw
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095343737
Update (late September 2019)
Thoughts on Abercrombie's legacy from Brendan Conway
Every time we drive on the M25 or London's Circular roads, it's a reminder of the significant long-term impact of decisions taken by Abercrombie and his team 75+ years ago. His influence on life in the UK, especially in SE England, was profound. pic.twitter.com/YvNW3GX9h1— BC (@mildthing99) September 25, 2019
Update (October 2019)
Abercrombie's legacy is also discussed in the new Short History of London by Simon Jenkins - a current read of mine.The author is not a fan of the period where a lot of the historical streets of London were replaced, buildings removed, and threats to other buildings such as St. Pancras, in the period after the Second World War.
Abercrombie talked about London's past as a time of 'obsolescence, bad and unsuitable housing, uncorrelated road systems and inequality in the distribution of open spaces'.
I have a copy of a book which features the plan. A green belt was proposed to stop the expansion of the city, and there would be up to five 'ringways' to take traffic around the city centre.
People would be moved out of the city to new towns to take the pressure of the centre. The 1947 Town and Country Planning Act gave Abercrombie the power to change the lives of the 7 million inhabitants of the city, but it met opposition from the realities of a city which had survived the Blitz and needed to be rebuilt and given a new energy.
Jenkins' books is well worth reading.
In G. R. Crone's chronology of Geography in the 20th Century, there is a brief mention of Abercrombie's Presidential address.
Reference
Crone, G. R. “British Geography in the Twentieth Century.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 130, no. 2, 1964, pp. 197–220. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1794582.
Update
A video describing the plan.
And a dramatised film describing the rebuilding of Plymouth based on Abercrombie's planning after the war.
Updated November 2020
In November 2019, Abercrombie got an English Heritage blue plaque unveiled at his house in his honour. Here's the ceremony...
Updated August 2021
A plan for a future Dublin - from 1922
Updated July 2022
I'm adding in additional perspectives on the work of Presidents and the people themselves as I find them, particularly where they may be problematic and relate to the current need to decolonise the subject itself but also revisit what are accepted narratives.
This thread is an interesting one with respect to the reasoning behind some of Abercrombie's planning decisions - this is of course a great responsibility.
Delighted to have a forthcoming paper in Town Planning Review on Hong Kong, colonial planning, & Patrick Abercrombie. Started many years ago in the @UkNatArchives reading complaints about Hong Kong's hotels & UK Gov's poor consultancy fees pic.twitter.com/AxkCwGQUIn
— Dr Yasminah Beebeejaun (@yasminah_b) May 10, 2022
Researching planning history & empire. Unfortunately Patrick Abercrombie was not one of life's great record keepers whereas Gerald Dix even kept his Cathay Pacific flight menu cards. Here's a picture of Abercrombie in Ethiopia on the invitation of Haile Selassie pic.twitter.com/FA4PJ1Fw57
— Dr Yasminah Beebeejaun (@yasminah_b) September 13, 2021
Updated August 2023
Abercrombie met Patrick Geddes... another person linked with the GA...
Abercrombie was apparently influenced by Feng Shui
A piece in Nature from 1938 by S H Beaver (another former GA President to be...)
THE Geographical Association's annual conference usually has a theme corresponding to the interests of its president for the time being, and since in its choice of presidents the Association does not confine itself to academic geographers, considerable service to the subject is often done by this importation of a new viewpoint. This year the keynote of the Conference held at the London School of Economics on January 4–6 was the part that geography can play in planning. The presidential address, delivered by Prof. Patrick Abercrombie, professor of town planning at University College, London, was entitled “Geography, the Basis of Planning” ; and a symposium on town and rural planning was the principal individual item in the programme. To a certain extent these items in the Conference may be considered as corollary to the important discussion on “Planning the Land of Britain”, which was held at the Nottingham meeting of the British Association, as reported in NATURE of November 6, 1937, p. 791.
On his work on the Green Belt
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