Boldness diminished? The post-war battle to replan a bomb-damaged provincial city

Urban History

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 437-461

  Essex, Stephen ^a   Brayshay, Mark ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

POST-WAR; RECONSTRUCTION; REDEVELOPMENT; URBAN HISTORY; URBAN PLANNING;

COVENTRY [ENGLAND]; ENGLAND; EURASIA; EUROPE; PLYMOUTH [ENGLAND]; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE;

EID: 56749156686     PISSN: 09639268     EISSN: 14698706     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0963926808005725     Document Type: Article

References (112)

1. P.J. Larkham, 'Rebuilding the industrial town: Wartime Wolverhampton', Urban History, 29 (2002), 388-409;
2. J. Hasegawa, 'Reconstruction of Portsmouth in the 1940s, Contemporary British History, 14 (2000), 45-62;
3. N. Tiratsoo, 'The reconstruction of blitzed British cities, 1945-55: myths and reality', Contemporary British History, 14 (2000),27-44;
4. J. Hasegawa, 'The rise and fall of radical reconstruction in 1940s Britain', Twentieth Century British History, 10 (1999), 137-61;
5. P.N. Jones,'" a fairer and nobler city" - Lutyens and Abercrombie's plan for the city of Hull 1945', Planning Perspectives, 13 (1998), 301-16;
6. J. Hasegawa, Replanning the Blitzed City Centre: A Comparative Study of Bristol, Coventry and Southampton 1941-1950 (Buckingham, 1992).
7. S. Ward, Planning and Urban Change (London, 2004), 81; Tiratsoo, 'The reconstruction of blitzed British cities'.
8. P.J. Larkham and K. D. Lilley, 'Plans, planners and city images: Place promotion and civic boosterism in British reconstruction planning', Urban History, 30 (2003), 183-205.
9. Hasegawa, Replanning the Blitzed City Centre, 8 and 46.
10. Hasegawa, 'Reconstruction of Portsmouth, 57;
11. J.M. Diefendorf (ed.), Rebuilding Europe's Bombed Cities (Basingstoke, 1990), 97.
12. P. Hubbard, L. Faire and K. Lilley, 'Contesting the modern city: reconstruction and everyday life in post-war Coventry', Planning Perspectives, 18 (2003),377-97.
13. Hasegawa, Replanning the Blitzed City Centre, 30-46;
14. T. Mason and N. Tiratsoo, 'People, politics and planning: The reconstruction of Coventry's city centre', in Diefendorf (ed.), Rebuilding Europe's Bombed Cities, 94-113.
15. Jones,'"... a fairer and nobler city..."', 301.
16. The test cases selected by Reith in 1941 to establish the future requirements of the planning system in blitzed cities were Birmingham, Bristol, Coventry and Southampton (see: Hasegawa, Replanning the Blitzed City Centre, 7).
17. Three principal sets of archives were used: The papers of Lord Astor, held by the University of Reading (RUL); the war-time papers of Plymouth City Council held in the Plymouth and West Devon Records Office (PWDRO); and the Ministry of Town and Country Planning reconstruction files for Plymouth held in the National Archives.
18. H.P. Twyford, It Came to our Door, revised edn by C. Robinson, from original published in 1945 (Plymouth, 2005);
19. G. Wasley, Plymouth: A Shattered City: The Story of Hitler's attack on Plymouth and its People, 1939-1945 (Tiverton, 2004);
20. F. Wintle, The Plymouth Blitz (Bodmin, 1981);
21. C. Gill, Plymouth: A New History, 1603 to the Present Day (Newton Abbot, 1979),197-215;
22. Western Morning News Company, Plymouth Blitz: The Story of the Raids (Plymouth, undated), 60-1.
23. Hansard, House of Lords, 22 Sep. 1943, vol. 129, no. 91, column 89.
24. Hasegawa, 'The rise and fall', 147.
25. M. Tichelar, 'The conflict over property rights during the Second World War: The Labour Party's abandonment of land nationalization', Twentieth Century British History, 14,2 (2003), 177.
26. P. Booth, 'Nationalising development rights: The feudal origins of the British planning system', Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 29 (2002), 129.
27. Hasegawa, Replanning the Blitzed City Centre, 110.
28. Ibid., 130.
29. Ibid., 109;
30. Diefendorf (ed.), Rebuilding Europe's Bombed Cities.
31. Hasegawa, Replanning the Blitzed City Centre, 15.
32. Ibid., 109.
33. Jones, '"... a fairer and nobler city"', 302.
34. Hasegawa, 'Reconstruction of Portsmouth', 30.
35. Ibid., 46 and 131.
36. S. Essex and M. Brayshay, 'Vision, vested interest and pragmatism: Who re-made Britain's blitzed cities?', Planning Perspectives, 22 (2007), 417-41.
37. See n. 11.
38. RUL, Air Raid Patrol (ARP) controller report, 10 Apr. 1941, MS 1066/1/ 439.
39. RUL, chief constable to under secretary of state, Home Office, undated, MS1066/1/439.
40. Astor had a long association with Plymouth, becoming one of its MPs in 1910 until he inherited his peerage in 1919. Lady Astor then stood in the by-election and became Britain's first woman MP to take her seat (1920-45). As chairman of the Observer and the Institute of International Affairs, Lord Astor was well connected nationally and internationally. It was this influence that was so valuable in Plymouth's reconstruction. For further discussion, see Essex and Brayshay, 'Vision'.
41. J. Paton Watson and P. Abercrombie, A Plan for Plymouth (Plymouth, 1943).
42. B. Chalkley and J. Goodridge, 'The 1943 plan for Plymouth: War-time vision and post-war realities', in B. Chalkley, D. Dunkerley and P. Gripaios (eds.), Plymouth: Maritime City in Transition (Newton Abbot, 1991), 82-94.
43. Essex and Brayshay, 'Vision'.
44. Historically, the Barbican was never enclosed by a wall. See M. Brayshay, C. Gaskell Brown and J. Baber 'Plymouth', in R.J.P. Kain and W. Ravenhill (eds.), Historical Atlas of South West England (Exeter, 1999), 520-3.
45. Times, 15 Aug. 1942, 5;
46. Patrick Abercrombie and Edwin Lutyens worked together on both the London Replanned study and A Plan for Kingston upon Hull (Jones, '"... a fairer and nobler city ..."', 301).
47. L. Mumford, The Social Foundations of Post-War Building (London, 1943).
48. RUL, Campbell [town clerk] to Astor, 24 Apr. 1942, MS1066/1/440.
49. RUL, Campbell [town clerk] to Astor, 18 Nov. 1942, MS1066/1/440.
50. PWDRO, paper by Paton Watson to Emergency Committee, undated, 1673/027/ GEN/1.
51. RUL, Paton Watson to Astor, 5 Oct. 1943, MS1066/1/442.
52. Hansard, 22 Sep. 1943, 10 Nov. 1943.
53. Hansard, House of Lords, 22 Sep. 1943, vol. 129, no. 91, column 97.
54. RUL, Campbell [town clerk] to Astor, 18 Apr. 1944, MS1066/1/443.
55. Times, 19 Sep. 1944, 6 ('Bold planning for Plymouth').
56. Hasegawa, Replanning the Blitzed City Centre, 14. There was a possibility of extending the period to 10 years.
57. RUL, Paton Watson's speech to the Town Planning Institute Conference in Torquay, 29-31 May 1947, MS1066/1/457.
58. National Archive (PRO), report by technical department, 20 Mar. 1946, HLG71/11/10135/10/3;
59. National Archive (PRO), report by technical department, 17 Apr. 1946, HLG71/11/10135/10/3.
60. RUL, Walsh to Campbell, 26 Jul. 1947, MS1066/1/457.
61. RUL, Walsh to Campbell, 26 Jul. 1947, MS1066/1/457.
62. RUL, Paton Watson to Reconstruction Committee, 5 Aug. 1947, MS1066/1/457.
63. PWDRO, unsourced and undated diagram on CPO procedure, 1673/027/GEN/3,
64. and PWDRO, Campbell paper to Reconstruction Committee, 14 Dec. 1945, 1673/027/GEN/13.
65. PWDRO, matters for the consideration of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning by Colin Campbell, 26 Jan. 1946, 1673/027/GEN/14.
66. PWDRO, district valuer's office to town clerk, 14 Jan. 1946, 1673/027/CC/ O.
67. PWDRO, Campbell paper to Reconstruction Committee, 14 Dec. 1945, 1673/ 027/GEN/13.
68. PWDRO, H.W.J. Heck, regional planning officer, Ministry of Town and Country Planning, Bristol, to town clerk, 14 Feb. 1946, 1673/027/CC/1/1.
69. PWDRO, Campbell to Smith, Coventry Council, 2 Apr. 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
70. The volume of objections that appear to have been considered by the ministry at the inquiry, and retained in two files held at the Plymouth and West Devon Records Office, number 183 (PWDRO, CPO objections, 1-119 and 120-83, 1673/027/CC/O).
71. PWDRO, notes: Objections to making of Declaratory Order, undated, 1673/ 027/CC/O.
72. PWDRO, application for a Declaratory Order, section 1; application under section 2(2) for confirmation of the City of Plymouth (City Centre) Compulsory Purchase Order No. 1, 30 Aug. 1949, p. 16, 1673/027/CC/1/1.
73. PWDRO, standard objections by property owners represented by W. Harry Taylor, Son and Creber, surveyors and valuers to Ministry of Town and Country Planning, various dates during March 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
74. PWDRO, Westminster Bank Ltd, 21, Bedford Street, to Ministry of Town and Country Planning, Objection No. 74, 18 Mar. 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
75. PWDRO, Rogers and Co. (Window Blind Specialists, Week Street) to Ministry of Town and Country Planning, Objection No. 84, 18 Mar. 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
76. PWDRO, notes: Objections to making of Declaratory Order, undated, 1673/ 027/CC/O.
77. PWDRO, standard objections by property owners represented by W. Harry Taylor, Son, and Creber, surveyors and valuers to Ministry of Town and Country Planning, various dates during March 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
78. PWDRO, Stidson-Broadbent to town clerk, 21 Mar. 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
79. PWDRO, Stidson-Broadbent to Ministry of Town and Country Planning, 19 Feb. 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
80. RUL, Campbell to Ministry of Town and Country Planning, 31 Aug. 1946, MS1066/1/453.
81. PWDRO, memorandum on compensation under the War Damage and the Town and Country Planning Acts by town clerk, 7 Dec. 1944, 1673/027/GEN/9.
82. RUL, Abercrombie to Astor, 5 Nov. 1944, MS1066/1/443.
83. RUL, Abercrombie to Astor, 13 Nov. 1944, MS1066/1/443.
84. PWDRO, Bedford [Spooner and Co. Ltd] to Astor, 30 Oct. 1944, 173/027/GEN/ 9.
85. PWDRO, C.H.M. Pinkey, Cotehele Avenue, Keyham, to Ministry of Town and Country Planning, Objection No. 72, March 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
86. PWDRO, Bedford [Spooner and Co. Ltd] to Astor, 30 Oct. 1944, 1673/027/ GEN/9.
87. RUL, Astor to Abercrombie, 19 Dec. 1946, MS1066/1/453.
88. PWDRO, secretary of Phoenix Assurance Company Ltd, London, to town clerk, 6 Nov. 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
89. PWDRO, notes from High Court of Justice Judgment, 20 Feb. 1947, 1673/027/ CC/O.
90. PWDRO, Campbell to Dingle [town clerk, Manchester], 1 Mar. 1947, 1673/ 027/CC/O.
91. RUL, Abercrombie to Astor, 8 Apr. 1947, MS1066/1/455.
92. PWDRO, Reconstruction Committee: Table showing annual expenditureby Reconstruction Committee on land acquisition, 14 Apr. 1958, 1673/027/GEN/ 26.
93. PWDRO, note on rebuilding of blitzed towns, lord mayor's parlour, May 1953, 1673/027/GEN/22.
94. PWDRO, Estates and Development Valuer's Department: Allocation of sites in the new shopping centre, December 1947, 439/25a/1.
95. PWDRO, Reconstruction (Allocation of Sites) Sub-Committee, 23 Jan. 1948, 1673/027/GEN/15.
96. Essex and Brayshay, 'Vision', 417-41.
97. RUL, Paton Watson to Astor, 29 Nov. 1944, MS1066/1/443.
98. RUL, Paton Watson to Works Committee, 27 Nov. 1944, MS1066/1/443.
99. RUL, Paton Watson to Astor, 29 Nov. 1944, MS1066/1/443.
100. RUL, Paton Watson to Astor, 30 Jan. 1945, MS1066/1/452.
101. RUL, Paton Watson to Works Committee, 9 Apr. 1945, MS1066/1/452.
102. RUL, Paton Watson to Astor, 11 Apr. 1945, MS1066/1/452.
103. RUL, Astor to Abercrombie, 27 Aug. 1945, MS1066/1/448. At the same meeting, Astor suggested that a central organization should build the basic infrastructure and public services on reconstruction sites. Indeed, the shortage of trained staff meant that the city's application for a Declaratory Order was delayed by 12-18 months, which caused much consternation in the Ministry of Town and Country Planning (PWDRO, Valentine to town clerk, 29 May 1945, 1673/027/GEN/11. Campbell's explanation was: 'We have been trying for 12 months to obtain the release from the Services of 9 Engineering Assistants formerly employed in the City Engineer's Department, and up to date, we have succeeded in obtaining one man only. The present staff must, of necessity, be concentrated on work in connection with the preparation of housing sites, and there is only one assistant to work on the preparation of the necessary information to submit applications for the designation of area's (PWDRO, town clerk to Valentine, 29.5.45, 1673/027/GEN/11).
104. PWDRO, Ministry of Town and Country Planning, south-west region, to Campbell, 7 Jun. 1949, 027/CC/1/2.
105. RUL, memo by Paton Watson on housing, 24 Nov. 1945, MS1066/1/449.
106. RUL, Bedford to Astor, 14 Nov. 1946, MS1066/1/453;
107. Paton Watson's wife to Astor, 2 Dec. 1946, MS1066/1/454.
108. J. Gould, Plymouth Planned: The Architecture of the Plan for Plymouth, 1943-1962 (Street, 2000), 19-20.
109. PWDRO, Stidson-Broadbent to Ministry of Town and Country Planning, 21 Mar. 1946, 1673/027/CC/O.
110. PWDRO, T. Lloyd, Tonoids Ltd [manufacturing chemists], to minister of town and country planning, 7 Aug. 1946, 1673/027/CC/1/1.
111. PWDRO, A. Black to Churchill, Dec. 1953, 1673/027/GEN/23.
112. Ibid.