'A new look at the English landscape': Landscape architecture, movement and the aesthetics of motorways in early postwar Britain

Cultural Geographies

Volumn 13, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 78-105

  Merriman, Peter ^a  

^a ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARCHITECTURE; ESTHETICS; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; LANDSCAPE CHANGE; MOTORWAY; POST-WAR;

EURASIA; EUROPE; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE;

BRENDA; SYLVIA;

EID: 30944468964     PISSN: 14744740     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1191/1474474006eu351oa     Document Type: Review

References (249)

1. R. Banham, 'New way north', New society 20 (1972), p. 243.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid. There is also, of course, an important difference between the viewpoints and embodied engagements of drivers and passengers, and of passengers in the front and the rear.
4. Recent texts which have sparked debates include: W. Schivelbusch, The railway journey: trains and travel in the 19th century (Oxford, Blackwell, 1980);
5. S. Kern, The culture of time and space 1880-1918 (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1983);
6. J. Urry, The tourist gaze (London, Sage, 1990);
7. J. Crary, Techniques of the observer (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1990);
8. M. Jay, Downcast eyes (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1993).
9. On vision and travel by car and train see e.g. S. Daniels, 'Images of the railway in nineteenth century paintings and prints', in Nottingham Castle Museum, Train spotting: images of the railway in art (Nottingham, Nottingham Castle Museum, 1985), pp. 5-19;
10. W. Sachs, For love of the automobile (Oxford, University of California Press, 1992);
11. N. Thrift, Spatial formations (London, Sage, 1996);
12. M. Liniado, Car culture and countryside change (Cirencester, National Trust, 1996);
13. M. Featherstone, 'The flâneur, the city and virtual public life', Urban studies 35 (1998), pp. 909-25;
14. J.T. Schnapp, 'Crash (speed as engine of inviduation)', Modernism/ modernity 6 (1999), pp. 1-49;
15. J. Urry, Sociology beyond societies (London, Routledge, 2000);
16. M. Crang, 'Rethinking the observer: film, mobility, and the construction of the subject', in T. Cresswell and D. Dixon, eds, Engaging film: geographies of mobility and identity (London, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), pp. 13-31;
17. J. Larsen, 'Tourism mobilities and the travel glance: experiences of being on the move', Scandinavian journal of hospitality and tourism 1 (2001), pp. 80-98.
18. Recent geographical discussions of the performative and non-representational dimensions of landscape and architecture include: T. Cresswell, 'Landscape and the obliteration of practice', in K. Anderson, M. Domosh, S. Pile and N. Thrift, eds, Handbook of cultural geography (London, Sage, 2002), pp. 269-81;
19. S. Hinchliffe, '"Inhabiting" - landscapes and natures', in Anderson et al., Handbook of cultural geography, pp. 207- 25;
20. M. Rose, 'Landscapes and labyrinths', Geoforum 33 (2002), pp. 455-67;
21. J. Wylie, 'An essay on ascending Glastonbury Tor', Geoforum 33 (2002), pp. 441-54;
22. L. Lees, 'Towards a critical geography of architecture: the case of an Ersatz colosseum', Ecumene 8 (2001), pp. 51-86;
23. P. Merriman, '"Operation motorway": landscapes of construction on England's M1 motorway', Journal of historical geography 31 (2005), pp. 113-33;
24. P. Cloke and O. Jones, 'Dwelling, place and landscape: an orchard in Somerset', Environment and planning A 33 (2001), pp. 649-66.
25. On nonrepresentational theories, see Thrift, Spatial formations. An engagement with nonrepresentational theories has already led geographers to trace the embodied practices and performances of dancers, musicians and performances artists;
26. see e.g. N. Thrift, 'The still point: resistance, expressive embodiment and dance', in S. Pile and M. Keith, eds, Geographies of resistance (London, Routledge, 1997), pp. 124-51;
27. N. Thrift and J.-D. Dewsbury, 'Dead geographies - and how to make them live', Environment and planning D: society and space 18 (2000), pp. 411-32;
28. D.P. McCormack, 'A paper with an interest in rhythm', Geoforum 33 (2002), pp. 469-85;
29. D.P. McCormack, 'Drawing out the lines of the event', Cultural geographies 11 (2004), pp. 211-20;
30. cf. C. Nash, 'Performativity in practice: some recent work in cultural geography', Progress in human geography 24 (2000), pp. 653-64. Drawing upon phenomenology, anthropologists have been arguing for a focus on movement in the landscape for some time;
31. see e.g. T. Ingold, 'The temporality of landscape', World archaeology 25 (1993), pp. 152-74;
32. E. Hirsch, 'Landscape: between space and place', in E. Hirsch and M. O'Hanlon, eds, The anthropology of landscape (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 1-30,
33. C. Tilley, A phenomenology of landscape (Oxford, Berg, 1994);
34. B. Bender, 'Introduction', in B. Bender and M. Winer, eds, Contested landscapes: movement, exile and place (Oxford, Berg, 2001), pp. 1-18;
35. B. Bender, Stonebenge: making space (Oxford, Berg, 1998).
36. American architect Stan Allen uses the term 'infrastructural urbanism' to describe recent attempts to 'move away from the representational imperatives' of modernist and postmodernist architecture. Infrastructural urbanism focuses on issues of 'material practice' and 'performance': it is 'less concerned with what things look like and more concerned with what they can do'. See S. Allen, Points + lines: diagrams and projects for the city (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), pp. 52, 53.
37. Cresswell, 'Landscape and the obliteration of practice', p. 280.
38. Nash, 'Performativity in practice'.
39. J.B. Jackson, 'The abstract world of the hot-rodder', in J.B. Jackson, Landscape in sight: looking at America, ed. H. Lefkowitz Horowitz (London, Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 206-7;
40. see also J.B. Jackson, Discovering the vernacular landscape (London, Yale University Press, 1984);
41. J.B. Jackson, A sense of place, a sense of time (London, Yale University Press, 1994).
42. Jackson's writings were a key source of inspiration for Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour's Learning from Las Vegas (London, MIT Press, 1972), an architectural study of the Las Vegas strip.
43. See D. Scott Brown, 'Learning from Brinck', in C. Wilson and P. Groth, eds, Everyday America: cultural landscape studies after J.B. Jackson (London, University of California Press, 2003), pp. 49-61.
44. Cresswell, 'Landscape and the obliteration of practice', p. 271.
45. On J.B. Jackson, see also D.W. Meinig, 'Reading the landscape: an appreciation of W.G. Hoskins and J.B. Jackson', in D.W. Meinig, ed., The interpretation of ordinary landscapes (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 195-244;
46. H. Lefkowitz Horowitz, 'J.B. Jackson and the discovery of the American landscape', in Jackson, Landscape in sight, pp. ix-xxxiv;
47. Geographical review, 'Special issue on J.B. Jackson and geography', 88 (1998), pp. 465-579.
48. D. Appleyard, K. Lynch and J.R. Myer, The view from the road (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1964), p. 3. Their work has been criticized for universalizing the experience of movement and focusing on cognitive aspects of vision - overlooking the habitual and pre-cognitive aspects of driving.
49. See M. Conan, 'Introduction: garden and landscape design, from emotion to the construction of self, in M. Conan, ed., Landscape design and the experience of motion (Washington, DC, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2003), pp. 1-33. A contrasting example is the work of the French landscape designer Bernard Lassus, whose writings and designs were influenced by the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Lassus served as a landscape consultant to the French Ministry of Transport.
50. See M. Conan, 'The quarries of Crazannes: Bernard Lassus's landscape approach to diversity', Studies in the history of gardens and designed landscapes 23 (2003), pp. 347-65;
51. C. Leyrit and B. Lassus, Autoroute et paysage (Paris, Éditions du Demi-Cercle, 1994);
52. B. Lassus, The landscape approach (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).
53. L. Halprin, Freeways (New York, Reinhold, 1966).
54. S. Daniels, 'On the road with Humphry Repton', Journal of garden history 16 (1996), p. 179;
55. S. Daniels, Humphry Repton: landscape gardening and the geography of Georgian England (London, Yale University Press, 1999).
56. Artists and photographers who have developed novel techniques for representing movement and travel include J.M.W. Turner, the Italian Futurists and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (to name just three, quite different, examples). On vision and mobility in photography, film and art, see e.g. P.D. Osborne, Travelling light: photography, travel and visual culture (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2000);
57. Crang, 'Rethinking the observer';
58. British Council, Landscape (London, British Council, 2000).
59. A. Gallagher, 'Landscape', in British Council, Landscape, p. 8.
60. Historical studies of the work of architects and planners in postwar reconstruction include: N. Bullock, Building the post-war world: modern architecture and reconstruction in Britain (London, Routledge, 2002);
61. R. Elwall, Building a better tomorrow: architecture in Britain in the 1950s (Chichester, Wiley-Academy, 2000);
62. J.R. Gold, The experience of modernism: modern architects and the future city 1928-1953 (London, Spon, 1997);
63. D. Matless, Landscape and Englishness (London, Reaktion, 1998);
64. J.B. Cullingworth, Environmental planning, 1939-1969. Volume 1: reconstruction and land use planning, 1939-1947 (London, HMSO, 1975);
65. D. Hardy, From new towns to green politics: campaigning for town and country planning, 1946-1990 (London, Spon, 1991).
66. On the landscaping of the German Autobahnen and American parkways and freeways, see T. Zeller, '"The landscape crown": landscape, perceptions, and modernizing effects of the German autobahn system, 1934 to 1941', in D.E. Nye, ed., Technologies of landscape: from reaping to recycling (Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), pp. 218-38;
67. W.H. Rollins, 'Whose landscape? Technology, Fascism, and environmentalism on the National Socialist Autobahn', Annals of the Association of American Geographers 85 (1995), pp. 494-520;
68. E. Dimendberg, 'The will to motorization: cinema, highways, and modernity', October 73 (1995), pp. 91-137;
69. G. Gröning, 'The feeling of landscape - a German example', Landscape research 17 (1992), pp. 108-15;
70. J.D. Shand, 'The Reichsautobahn: symbol for the Third Reich', Journal of contemporary history 19 (1984), pp. 189-200;
71. Sachs, For love of the automobile;
72. I. Boyd Whyte, 'National socialism and modernism', in D. Britt, ed., Art and power: Europe under the dictators 1930-45 (London, Hayward Gallery, 1995), pp. 258-69;
73. A. Wilson, The culture of nature: North American landscapes from Disney to the Exxon Valdez (Oxford, Blackwell, 1992);
74. M. Gandy, Concrete and clay: reworking nature in New York City (London, MIT Press, 2002).
75. While there are no book-length studies of the role of landscape architects in the reconstruction of postwar Britain, see T. Aldous and B. Clouston, Landscape by design (London, Heinemann, 1979), esp. pp. 46-52 on roads;
76. G.A. Jellicoe, 'War and peace', Landscape design 125 (1979), p. 10;
77. L.J. Fricker, 'Forty years a growing', Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects 86 (1969), pp. 8-15;
78. S. Harvey and S. Rettig, eds, Fifty years of landscape design 1934-84 (London, Landscape Press, 1985), esp. pp. 125-40 on roads;
79. S. Harvey, ed., Reflections on landscape: the lives and works of six landscape architects (Aldershot, Gower Technical Press, 1987);
80. A. Powers, 'Landscape in Britain', in M. Treib, ed., The architecture of landscape (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), pp. 56-81.
81. On the design, construction and use of the M1 motorway in early postwar Britain, see P. Merriman, Driving spaces (Oxford, Blackwell, forthcoming);
82. P. Merriman, '"A power for good or evil": geographies of the M1 in late fifties Britain', in D. Gilbert, D. Matless and B. Short eds, Geographies of British modernity (Oxford, Blackwell, 2003), pp. 115-31;
83. Merriman: 'Operation motorway';
84. P. Merriman, 'Driving places: Marc Augé, non-places and the geographies of England's M1 motorway', Theory, culture, and society 21 (2004), pp. 145-67;
85. P. Merriman, 'M1: a cultural geography of an English motorway, 1946-1965' (PhD thesis, University of Nottingham, 2001).
86. See also RJ. Williams, 'Pleasure and the motorway', in P. Wollen and J. Kerr, eds, Autopia: cars and culture (London, Reaktion, 2002), pp. 281-87.
87. For an overview of Britain's motorway programme, see G. Charlesworth, A history of British motorways (London, Thomas Telford, 1984).
88. B. Colvin, 'Presidential address', Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects 22 (1951), p. 4.
89. G.A. Jellicoe, 'The wartime journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects', in Harvey and Rettig, Fifty years, p. 9. In 1947 there were 170 members of the ILA, with 65 being categorized as horticulturists and 81 as architects or town planners.
90. See Fricker, 'Forty years'.
91. Lady Allen of Hurtwood, in: 'A review of policy', Wartime journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects 3 (1943), p. 5.
92. Matless, Landscape and Englishness, p. 223.
93. See H.F. Clark, 'Landscape architecture in the Festival of Britain', Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects 21 (1951), pp. 2-4;
94. D. Scott, 'New towns', in G. Collens and W. Powell, eds, LDT monographs no. 2: Sylvia Crowe (Reigate, Landscape Design Trust, 1999), pp. 47-67.
95. Parliamentary debates, House of Commons, 'Highway development (government programme)', 422 (1946), 6 May, cols. 590-95.
96. Brenda Colvin was the first female president of the ILA. See S. Harvey, 'Brenda Colvin (1897-1981)', in Harvey, Reflections, pp. 139-50;
97. Colvin, 'Presidential address';
98. B. Colvin, 'Beginnings', Landscape design 125 (1979), p. 8;
99. M. Laurie, 'Women of substance', Landscape design 278 (1999), pp. 53-56;
100. Aldous and Clouston, Landscape by design.
101. B. Colvin, 'Roadside planting in country districts', Landscape and garden 6 (1939), p. 86.
102. The Roads Beautifying Association was formed by Dr Wilfrid Fox following discussions with Minister of Transport Wilfrid Ashley. Fox was consulting physician for skin diseases at St George's Hospital, London, and an amateur horticulturist and arboriculturist who established Winkworth Arboretum in Surrey. On the history of the RBA, see E. Ford, 'Byways revisited', Landscape design 234 (1994), pp. 34-38;
103. Merriman, 'M1'. The RBA were paid to act as official advisers to the Ministry of Transport between 1938 and 1947, and 1954 and 1956. See The National Archives of the UK (TNA), PRO MT 121/73, Letter from P. Faulkner to W. Fox, 12 May 1947; TNA PRO MT 121/575, Letter from A. Lennox-Boyd to W. Fox, 28 July 1954.
104. Colvin, 'Roadside planting';
105. B. Colvin, Land and landscape (London, John Murray, 1948).
106. The Roads Beautifying Association, Seventh report of the Roads Beautifying Association October, 1933-March, 1935 (London, Roads Beautifying Association, 1935), p. 15.
107. W. Fox, 'Roadside planting (including post-war suggestions)', Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 69 (1944), p. 231.
108. Colvin, 'Roadside planting', p. 88.
109. Colvin, Land and landscape, p. 244.
110. Ibid., pp. 245, 247.
111. On the American concept of 'the fitted highway', see F.W. Cron, 'The art of fitting the highway to the landscape', in W. Brewster Snow, ed., The highway and the landscape (New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1959), pp. 78-109.
112. Colvin, Land and landscape, p. 246.
113. Ibid., p. 249.
114. Ibid., p. 248.
115. S. Crowe, The landscape of roads (London, Architectural Press, 1960).
116. I. Nairn, 'Outrage', Architectural review (special number) 117 (1955), pp. 363-460;
117. cf. S. Crowe, Tomorrow's landscape (London, Architectural Press, 1956);
118. S. Crowe, The landscape of power (London, Architectural Press, 1958);
119. Crowe, The landscape of roads;
120. Collens and Powell, Sylvia Crowe. Of course, published his own positive response to 'Outrage' in: 'Counter-attack', Architectural review (special number) 120 (1956), pp. 353-440.
121. E. de Maré, 'Notes on books: to-morrow's landscape. By Sylvia Crowe', Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 105 (1956), p. 121.
122. Crowe, Tomorrow's landscape, p. 15.
123. Crowe, The landscape of roads, p. 13.
124. Ibid., p. 34.
125. Ibid., pp. 33-34.
126. Ibid., p. 34.
127. G.A. Jellicoe, 'Motorways: their landscaping, design and appearance', Journal of the Town Planning Institute 44 (1958), pp. 274-83;
128. a version was reprinted in G.A. Jellicoe, Studies in landscape design (London, Oxford University Press, 1960). Jellicoe's paper was one of only 15 references in the bibliography of Crowe's The landscape of roads.
129. Jellicoe, 'Motorways', pp. 275, 276. Crowe's discussion of links between English landscape traditions and Chinese philosophies of landscape and nature may well have emerged from her reading of Jellicoe's paper.
130. Ibid., p. 276.
131. Daniels, 'On the road'.
132. Jellicoe, 'Motorways', p. 276.
133. Ibid. The shadowed road is usually titled Landscape with cottages.
134. R. Spurrier, 'Caution - road works', Architectural review 125 (1959), p. 242.
135. Crowe, Tomorrow's landscape;
136. Crowe, The landscape of roads.
137. Jellicoe, 'Motorways', p. 280.
138. Spurrier, 'Caution', p. 244.
139. On the life and work of Jellicoe, see M. Spens, Gardens of the mind: the genius of Geoffrey Jellicoe (Woodbridge, Antique Collectors' Club, 1992);
140. M. Spens, The complete landscape designs and gardens of Geoffrey Jellicoe (London, Thames & Hudson, 1994);
141. S. Harvey, ed., LDT monographs no. 1: Geoffrey Jellicoe (Reigate, Landscape Design Trust, 1998);
142. G.A. Jellicoe, 'Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe', in Harvey, Reflections on landscape, pp. 1-29.
143. On the interweaving of picturesque theories with modernist planning and architecture see, e.g. N. Pevsner, Studies in art, architecture and design, volume 1: From Mannerism to Romanticism (London, Thames & Hudson, 1968);
144. N. Pevsner, The Englishness of English art (London, Architectural Press, 1956);
145. I. de Wolfe (pseudonym of Hubert de Chronin Hastings, owner of the Architectural review), 'Townscape', Architectural review 106 (1949), pp. 354-62;
146. R. Banham, 'Revenge of the picturesque: English architectural polemics, 1945-1965', in J. Summerson, ed., Concerning architecture (Harmondsworth, Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1968), pp. 265-73;
147. Bullock, Building the post-war world;
148. Matless, Landscape and Englishness;
149. D. Matless, 'Topographic culture: Nikolaus Pevsner and the buildings of England', History workshop journal 54 (2002), pp. 73-99;
150. Powers, 'Landscape in Britain'.
151. de Wolfe, 'Townscape'.
152. Ibid., p. 362.
153. 'Foreword', Architectural review 110 (1951), p. 78.
154. G. Cullen, 'Alphabet or image', Architectural review 120 (1956), p. 243.
155. See B. Colvin, 'Introduction', in Association for Planning and Regional Reconstruction, Trees for town and country (London, Lund Humphries, 1947). The choice of trees was decided by the Association of Planning and Regional Reconstruction, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the Institute of Landscape Architects, and the Roads Beautifying Association.
156. Institute of Landscape Architects, Roads in the landscape: a report prepared by the ILA, 21 March 1946 (London, Institute of Landscape Architects, 1946).
157. This was a joint committee whose main role was to prepare an illustrated version of the ILA's 1946 report for publication. See: Joint Committee including representatives of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, the Institute of Landscape Architects, the Roads Beautifying Association, the Royal Forestry Society of England and Wales, and the Standing Joint Committee of the Royal Automobile Club, the Automobile Association and the Royal Scottish Automobile Club, The landscape treatment of roads (London, Council for the Preservation of Rural England, 1954). Wilfrid Fox represented the RBA on both the ILA and CPRE committees, but while he advanced his often controversial ideas on the planting of roads, they tended to be omitted from final reports.
158. TNA PRO MT 121/74, 'Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads. Minutes of first meeting held in Room 6042, Berkeley Square House, at 2.30p.m. on 30 April 1956', 17 May 1956. On the Landscape Advisory Committee, see C. Williams-Ellis, Roads in the landscape (London, HMSO, 1967);
159. B. de Hamel, Roads and the environment (London, HMSO, 1976
160. TNA PRO MT 121/81, Letter from W. Fox to Mr Watkinson, 6 Sept. 1956. Fox was replaced by the RBA's Madeleine Spitta, whose views were more in line with the rest of the Committee.
161. Merriman, Driving spaces.
162. On German landscaping policy, see Dimenberg, 'The will to motorization';
163. Shand, 'The Reichsautobahn';
164. Rollins, 'Whose landscape?';
165. Zeller, 'The landscape crown';
166. G. Gröning and J. Wolschke-Bulmahn, 'The native plant enthusiasm: ecological panacea or xenophobia?', Landscape research 28 (2003), pp. 75-88.
167. Of course, there were a significant number of other British thinkers and organizations during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s who did draw links between race, landscape, ecology, health and the nation. See Matless, Landscape and Englishness.
168. Merriman, Driving spaces;
169. Merriman, 'M1'. The first sections of the M1 that were opened on 2 Nov. 1959 were designed and built in two sections: the 55-mile-long London to Birmingham section of the London-Yorkshire motorway (stretching between Luton and Rugby and incorporating the M45), designed by Sir Owen Williams and Partners, and the 17-mile-long St Albans bypass motorway (stretching between Watford and Luton, and incorporating the M10), designed by Hertfordshire County Council.
170. TNA PRO MT 121/576, minute 15 by Mr Haynes, 23 Dec. 1954. See Merriman, 'A power for good or evil'.
171. TNA PRO MT 121/577, Letter from Godfrey Samuel to Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, 20 Apr. 1956;
172. TNA PRO MT 121/77, Minute 70 by L.S. Mills, 26 Nov. 1959.
173. TNA PRO MT 121/77, 'Note of a meeting held on the 31st July to discuss the appointment of a landscape architect for the London-Yorkshire Motorway', 10 Aug. 1956.
174. See: 'Motorways', Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects 47 (1959), pp. 13-16;
175. 'Relating the motorways to landscape: joint planning urged', The Times (15 Apr. 1959), p. 6;
176. 'RIBA and motorways', Architects' journal 129 (1959), pp. 613-14;
177. Royal Fine Art Commission, Sixteenth report of the Royal Fine Art Commission, January 1958-August 1959 (Cmnd. 909) (London, HMSO, 1959);
178. Parliamentary debates, House of Lords, 'Planning of motorways', 216 (7 May 1959), cols. 207-9;
179. TNA PRO MT 121/77, 'Motorways: statement by the Royal Fine Art Commission', HT.33/2/06, 15 Apr. 1959. Mr A.P. Long was employed as Consultant on Forestry and Landscape and Mr Clay as a junior forestry officer. Long was President of the Society of Foresters of Great Britain, a retired Director of Forestry for Wales, and former Assistant Commissioner for Forestry for England and Wales.
180. See TNA PRO MT 95/503, Letter from Sir Owen Williams to J.D.W. Jeffery, Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, 13 Feb. 1957.
181. S. Crowe, 'Roads through the landscape', The Times (20 May 1959), p. 11.
182. A.J. Harris, 'The London/York motorway: an engineer's view', Architects' journal 130 (1959), p. 162.
183. Crowe, The landscape of roads, pp. 94, 93.
184. Ibid., p. 57.
185. B. Colvin, 'The London-Birmingham motorway: a new look at the English landscape', Geographical magazine 32 (1959), p. 243.
186. Sir Owen Williams, cited in D. Cottam, 'Selected projects: M1 motorway', in G. Stamp, ed., Sir Owen Williams 1890-1969 (London, Architectural Association, 1986), p. 139.
187. Sir Owen Williams, paraphrased account of speech in: 'Minister visits the motorway', Team spirit: the monthly news sheet issued by John Laing and Son Limited 141 (July 1958), p. 5. Although Sir (Evan) Owen Williams and his son and partner, Owen Tudor Williams, wrote a number of papers and articles on the design of the M1, these tended to focus on the civil engineering dimensions of the scheme. Sir Owen did not engage in any published discussions on the aesthetics of the bridges, although other engineers defended the use of the solid parapets and centre supports for reasons of economy and functionality.
188. See Sir E.O. Williams and O.T. Williams, 'The London-Birmingham motorway: Luton-Dunchurch: design and execution', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 15 (1960), pp. 353-86;
189. Sir E.O. Williams, 'The London-Birmingham motorway', Financial Times civil engineering supplement (10 Nov. 1958);
190. 'Discussion on the London-Birmingham motorway', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 19 (1961), pp. 61-119.
191. B. Spence, 'Inaugural address of the president', RIBA journal 67 (1959), p. 36.
192. Crowe, The landscape of roads, p. 94.
193. S. Crowe, 'The landscape of roads', Journal of the Institution of Highway Engineers 9 (1962), p. 225.
194. 'London-Birmingham motorway: landscaping recommendations', Surveyor and municipal and county engineer 118 (1959), p. 623.
195. J.W.R. Adams, 'Trunk roads: the work of the Landscape Advisory Committee', Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects 60 (1962), p. 4.
196. Harris, 'The London/York motorway', p. 165.
197. I. Nairn, 'Look out', Architectural review 133 (1963), p. 426.
198. Banham, 'New way north', p. 242. In his Guide to modern architecture (London, Architectural Press, 1962), Reyner Banham chose his words more carefully, stating that Sir Owen Williams's early work 'helped to build him an impressive reputation' which was 'now somewhat diminished by his rather unimpressive work on the M1 motorway' (p. 62).
199. R. Banham, 'The road to ubiquopolis', New Statesman 59 (1960), p, 786.
200. For an earlier appreciation of some of Williams's prewar structures, see J.M. Richards, An introduction to modern architecture (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1940). As Gavin Stamp has argued, Owen Williams 'was, in many ways, a man of the Establishment' and was never a 'conventional avant-garde architect', although his pioneering use of reinforced concrete and glass in the 1920s and 1930s brought him great respect from British and European proponents of the Modern movement.
201. See G. Stamp, 'Sir Owen Williams and his time', in Sir Owen Williams, p. 7. Williams turned down two separate invitations to join the Modern Architectural Research Group (the British group affiliated to the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne).
202. See Stamp, Sir Owen Williams; D. Yeomans and D. Cottam, The engineer's contribution to contemporary architecture: Owen Williams (London, Thomas Telford, 2001).
203. Banham, 'The road', p. 784.
204. J. Betjeman, 'Men and buildings: style on road and rail', Daily Telegraph and Morning Post (27 June 1960), p. 15. Betjeman did not elaborate on this comment, but it is likely that his reasoning would have been very different from Banham's.
205. N. Pevsner, Northamptonshire (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1961), p. 66;
206. cf. N. Pevsner, Buckinghamshire (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1960).
207. On the rivalry between, and differing architectural viewpoints of, Betjeman and Pevsner, see T. Mowl, Stylistic cold wars: Betjeman versus Pevsner (London, John Murray, 2000). Pevsner was Banham's PhD supervisor at the Courtauld Institute between 1952 and 1958.
208. Crowe, The landscape of roads, pp. 95, 116;
209. see also S. Crowe, 'The London/York motorway: a landscape architect's view', Architects' journal 130 (1959), pp. 156-61.
210. Colvin, 'The London-Birmingham motorway', p. 246.
211. Sir Owen Williams and Partners [A.P. Long], London-Yorkshire Motorway (south of Luton-Watford Gap-Dunchurch special road). Landscape report and model (London, Sir Owen Williams & Partners, 1957). A copy is held in the offices of Owen Williams in Birmingham.
212. TNA PRO MT 123/59, 'Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads. Minutes of 15th meeting held in Room 6042 Berkeley Square House at 3p.m. on Wednesday 17th July, 1957', LT/M 15, 9 Aug. 1957.
213. TNA PRO MT 123/59, 'Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads. Note of a meeting of sub-committee on 28th January, 1958', LT/61;
214. 'Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads. Minutes of 21st meeting held in Room 6042 in Berkeley Square House at 3p.m. on Wednesday 12th February, 1958', LT/M 21;
215. TNA PRO MT 121/78, L.E. Morgan, 'London-Yorkshire Motorway: landscaping proposals. Meeting between representatives of Sir Owen Williams & Partners and Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, 27 Feb. 58', 7 Mar. 1958.
216. TNA PRO MT 123/59, 'London- Birmingham Motorway. Mr. Williams-Ellis' observations arising from the committee's inspection of the motorway on 21st May, 1959', LT/113.
217. Sir Owen Williams and Partners [Sir William Ling Taylor], London- Yorkshire Motorway: south of Luton-Watford Gap-Dunchurch-Crick special road. Interim report at end of first planting season (London, Sir Owen Williams & Partners, 1960). A copy is held in the offices of Owen Williams in Birmingham.
218. See TNA PRO MT 121/182 and TNA PRO MT 121/359.
219. TNA PRO MT 121/150, 'Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads. Minutes of 34th meeting held in Room 6042 Berkeley Square House at 3p.m. on Wednesday 8th July, 1959', LT/M 34.
220. TNA PRO MT 121/355, 'Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads. Minutes of 38th meeting held in Room 6042 Berkeley Square House at 3p.m. on Wednesday 9th December, 1959', LT/M 38.
221. TNA PRO MT 121/182, Letter from G. Langley-Taylor to T.R. Newman, Ministry of Transport, 26 Jan. 1960.
222. TNA PRO MT 121/355, 'ACLTTR. Minutes of 38th meeting', LT/M 38.
223. Astragal, 'Pull-up for socks?', Architects' journal 1132 (1960), p. 417.
224. R. Spurrier, 'Road-style on the motorway', Architectural review 128 (1960), p.406.
225. TNA PRO MT 123/59, 'Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads. Minutes of 21st meeting held in Room 6042 in Berkeley Square House at 3p.m. on Wednesday 12th February, 1958', LT/M 21.
226. TNA PRO MT 123/59, Letter from E.P. King to J.D.W. Jeffery, 15 July 1959.
227. Sir Owen Williams and Partners, London-Yorkshire Motorway. Landscape report and model, p. 5.
228. Ibid.
229. Ibid., p. 6.
230. TNA PRO MT 121/360, 'Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads. Landscaping of service areas on M1', LT/167, undated, c. July 1960.
231. Ibid.
232. TNA PRO MT 121/355, 'Advisory Committee on the Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads. Minutes of 45th meeting held in Room 6042, Berkeley Square House at 3p.m. on Wednesday 10th August, 1960', LT/M 45.
233. I. Nairn, 'Outrage twenty years after', Architectural review 158 (1975), p. 329.
234. J.M. Way, 'Wildlife on the motorway', New scientist 47 (1970), pp. 536-37;
235. B. de Hamel, Roads and the environment (London, HMSO, 1976).
236. See e.g. R.K. Tabor, ed., Motorways and the biologist: proceedings of a symposium held on 25th October 1973 (London, North East London Polytechnic Motorway Research Project, 1973);
237. J.M. Way, Grassed and planted areas by motorways (occasional reports no. 3) (Abbots Ripton, Institute of Terrestrial Ecology Monks Wood Experimentation Station, 1976).
238. A. Saint, quoted in J. Glancey, 'A bridge too far?', Independent magazine (18 July 1992), p, 30. When I telephoned English Heritage in Oct. 2000 they stated that 'listing' had never been investigated in any depth.
239. Colvin, Land and landscape, p. 243.
240. See Matless, Landscape and Englishness;
241. D. Matless, 'Ordering the land: the "preservation" of the English countryside, 1918-1939' (PhD thesis, University of Nottingham, 1990);
242. Merriman, Driving spaces;
243. Merriman, 'M1'.
244. Harvey, 'Brenda Colvin';
245. S. Crowe, 'From coast to coast', Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects 44 (1958), pp. 4-6.
246. On the attempts of different authorities to shape and govern the conduct of motorway drivers, see P. Merriman, 'Materiality, subjectification and government: the geographies of Britain's Motorway Code', Environment and planning D: society and space 23 (2005), pp. 235-50;
247. P. Merriman, "Mirror, signal, manoeuvre": assembling and governing the motorway driver in late fifties Britain', in S. Böhm, C. Jones, C. Land and M. Paterson, eds, Against automobility (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, forthcoming).
248. M. Baker, Discovering M1 (Tring, Shire, 1968), p. 3.
249. For a non-representational account of the relational construction of places, see N. Thrift, 'Steps to an ecology of place', in D. Massey, J. Allen and P. Sarre, eds, Human geography today (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1999), pp. 295-322.