"It's not the walls that make a city, but the people who live in them. The walls of London may be destroyed, but the spirit of a Londoner is unshakable," these words of King George VI, spoken by him after the devastating bombings of 40-41, fully reflect the general opinion of the nation. The British did not count on a quick victory and were morally ready for austerity wartime and hard work to recover what was lost.
Fires in the London docks after an air raid on September 7, 1940. Image source: wikipedia.org
Devastation in east London after a series of aerial bombings
Londoners spend the night at Aldwych tube station during the air raid. Image source: wikipedia.org
The ruined quarters of the British capital were thoroughly cleared, but they were in no hurry to rebuild them. Firstly, there was an acute shortage of building materials, and secondly, the authorities imposed strict restrictions on the construction of new housing in and around central London.
The British capital has been actively growing since the 6th century, and the industrial revolution made this growth rapid: in the XNUMXth century, the population of London increased XNUMX times. Extremely high density led to epidemics and riots. Mayors and kings tried to keep the city within its borders by banning and restricting new construction on the outskirts.
The concept of containing the capital within its pre-war borders became the focal point of the Greater London Plan, developed by Sir Patrick Leslie Abercrombie, architect and planner
Even before the beginning of the Second World War, the British Parliament delineated the area around the core of London's urban development as the Metropolitan Green Belt. About half a thousand hectares in the suburbs were set aside for a recreational zone, where only historic estates were allowed to exist and new residential or industrial construction was categorically prohibited.
Parks, forests, golf courses, riding schools, cemeteries and farmland were all allowed. It was this concept of containing the capital within its pre-war boundaries that became the linchpin of the Greater London Plan, developed by Sir Patrick Leslie Abercrombie, an architect and planner.
The area of the Metropolitan Green Belt is almost three times larger than the area of the British capital
The border between London and the Green Belt
Abercrombie presented his first designs at the height of World War II in 1942. London had already suffered catastrophic destruction from air raids, and it was obvious that repairs and clearing could not be dispensed with - the city would have to be radically rebuilt.
After the Great Fire of the XNUMXth century, London was shaped like a patchwork quilt, as it was rebuilt by wealthy landlords - each to the extent of his idea of the beautiful, without being guided by any single urban planning plan. Such chaos seemed magical to many creative people: poets, writers, playwrights were both horrified and fascinated by London's labyrinths. But Abercrombie decided it was time to put an end to this haphazard approach.
Plans for the post-war development of the British capital were developed in line with the modernist theories of Le Corbusier and the principles of the Bauhaus school. The concept of urban development was discussed at the pre-war Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne and was formulated in the format of the Athens Charter. At the 1947 congress, progressive approaches to development were somewhat updated and expanded on the scale of regional planning. In the context of London - on the scale of the county.
London is not rubber
In pre-war London, 305 million people lived on an area of 4 square kilometers. To understand what this means, imagine that Kyiv has shrunk by three times, and the number of its inhabitants has increased by a million. At the same time, housing in London was mostly low-rise, that is, there were practically no open spaces in the city: it was evenly and densely built.
Like thousands of his fellow architects engaged in post-war construction, Abercrombie was an opponent of excessively dense buildings. High population density means a large number of victims during mass shootings. The signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Germany did not at all mean that from now on the world could relax and forget the bloody lessons of the war. In addition, high density is a risk of new and new epidemics.
This is how Patrick Leslie Abercrombie saw the residential areas and shopping centers of the new London. Image source: Greater London Plan
Patrick Abercrombie was a fan of a healthy lifestyle and free spaces: regular parks and squares for walks and wild gardens and forests for recreation. They should all be connected by pedestrian routes to ensure "an easy flow of open space from the garden to the park, from the park to the boulevard, from the boulevard to the green sector, from the green sector to the Green Belt". "Parks are the lungs of London," wrote Charles Dickens. In London in the first half of the XNUMXth century, everything was bad with the lungs: they could not cope with the smog.
The author of the Greater London Plan calculated that there should be at least 4 acres (1,6 hectares) of public space, preferably green, per thousand residents
In areas adjacent to the Green Belt, this task was solved automatically. But a place in the central part of London had to be allocated and arranged. Abercrombie managed to create public spaces on the site of the most destroyed neighborhoods. Private clubs and parks were ordered to make free entry into their territory. Another reserve of the square is the courtyards, which were traditionally closed: "The house square is a specifically British invention that suits our temperament and way of life well. Areas must be open for full public use. Removing the fences from them as a military measure involved them in the life of society and destroyed their isolation. It is proposed to develop the tradition of the courtyard square."
In order for residents to have access to these public goods, it was necessary to create a dense network of public transport. For this, the architect proposed to lay 5 car rings in the central part of London. Let's say right away: only the construction of the ring road was implemented, the projects of other highways were "banned" by the parliamentarians, because for this it would be necessary to demolish more buildings than were destroyed by Nazi air attacks. But the plans for a high-speed connection between the capital and the suburbs were maximally supported and implemented. As Lord Arthur James Balfour, XNUMXst Earl Balfour, aptly put it: "London is a wonderful place to live for those who can get away from it."
Sketch for the construction project of new ring roads in London. Image source: roads.org.uk
Postwar London experienced radical deindustrialization. Industrial enterprises and craft workshops were closed, and those who tried to restore pre-war productions were forbidden by the city authorities to do so. The economy was reoriented to finance and administration, and part of the post-industrial zones, such as docks, were conserved as a reserve (which came in handy in the XNUMXst century).
And yet the main problem remained overpopulation. After the end of the war, not only the old residents evacuated to the rural hinterland returned to London, but also thousands of Englishmen and migrants came in search of work. Abercrombie insisted that at least one and a half million people must be evicted from the capital.
A large exodus
If you think that the proposal to resettle the residents of the capital outside the city limits is a flagrant violation of civil rights, then the residents of the "cradle of world democracy" perceived it a little differently.
The topic of resettlement of the excessively dense capital was discussed in the British Parliament at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. The possibility of moving from a dirty, suffocating stone jungle to a garden city, with the prospect of reuniting with nature, but maintaining mobility and quick connection to the administrative and economic core, was the dream of many families. But for the organization of new settlements and the laying of transport highways, the state had to buy from the landlords their large lands, which, however, were not used. This required political will and some kind of revolutionary factor, which was the Second World War.
New residential development in Hemel Hempstead
The British "New Towns Act" announced the construction of eight towns on the site of villages outside the Green Belt: Basildon, Bracknell, Crawley, Harlow, Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City. Londoners who lost their homes in the bombings should be resettled in new cities planned along the lines of Ebenezer Howard's Garden City.
At the same time, the government undertook to ensure the easiest possible connection between the new satellite cities and the capital. There was no question of forced eviction, on the contrary, there were more applicants than new apartments. For example, in 1949, when the first flats in Longlands and Adeyfield were let in Hemel Hempstead, 10 people were waiting in line to move in.
Hemel Hempstead New Town Centre
When thinking about new cities, Labor saw them as green, architecturally and socially diverse settlements. But these ideas like social idealism were slightly corrected by reality. Resettlement, or, as it is now fashionable to say, "relocation", with the provision of work and accommodation at a reduced rental rate, was centrally offered to representatives of industrial and construction specialties.
New cities, built in a short period of time, almost from scratch and according to typical projects, were deprived of any identity. "The community resembles a modern poultry farm, where each chicken lives in a similar box," - this is how one resident of Hemel Hempstead described his new town.
People exhaled, unpacked their suitcases, drank tea and began to inhabit and arrange new spaces, changing the sterile concrete environment with their creativity and temperament
The government concluded an agreement with the developers that most housing remained owned by housing associations and was intended for rent. The lucky owners, wealthy British, of course, thought that it did not suit them. And if their London house was destroyed, they preferred to move to a deep province, but to their own walls. The new towns behind the Green Belt, the settlement of which began at the end of the 40s, became primarily local settlements of representatives of the working class.
“Our house was one of the first to be built in the area and we all moved in within a few weeks of each other. Since there was nothing else here, everyone was very friendly. When the neighbors came in, they were brought a cup of tea," one of the residents of the new Stevenage told British journalists. At one point, the project teetered on the brink of failure: critics declared that "the new cities will remain dormitories for workers and migrants, but will never become a family home." And yet, time played its positive role. People exhaled, unpacked their suitcases, drank tea and began to inhabit and arrange new spaces, changing the sterile concrete environment with their creativity and temperament.
In general, the bold urban planning experiment was recognized as a success, and already in the 60s, responding to the challenges of the "baby boom", the construction of a second series of new cities began in Great Britain - with a more flexible planning grid and a more diverse architecture.
As a result of the comprehensive measures, the population of London fell by almost 2 million people, from 8 people in 193 to about 000 people in 1951. But at the end of the 6th century, the number of residents increased again, which led to a speculative increase in real estate prices. Square meters in the British capital have become considered the best investment in the eyes of wealthy people around the world.
Architecture of new residential and public buildings
Patrick Abercrombie was not opposed to high-rise buildings. On the contrary, he promoted the construction of 10-story buildings as a solution to the housing shortage. By the 1960s, more than half a million new apartments were built, a significant number in apartment buildings.
In total, more than 50 residential high-rise buildings were built in Greater London in the 2700 years after the Second World War. The increase in height was not taken kindly by everyone: "I don't know what London is going to, but the higher the buildings, the lower the morals," lamented the authoritative playwright Noel Coward.
Development model of the area between Moorgate and Aldersgate. Image source: barbicanliving.co.uk
Building the core of the Barbican district. Image source: barbicanliving.co.uk
The Barbican, an architectural ensemble of brutalist buildings — office, cultural, residential — is considered the most striking example of complex post-war construction in London, built on the site of the district between Moorgate and Aldersgate, which was destroyed in one night. The construction of the Barbican lasted almost 30 years, from the 1960s to the 1980s. The master plan and conceptual design was developed by Jeffrey Powell, Christoph Bohn, Peter "Joe" Chamberlin of CP&B Architecture, who previously designed the Golden Lane Estate council housing complex.
Green yards of the residential complex Golden Lane Estate. Image source: thespaces.com
Since the 60s were years of turbulent economic and emotional uplift, the Barbican had to become its personification and the heart of the City of London. CP&B Architects targeted "young professionals who are likely to have a taste for Mediterranean vacations, French cuisine and Scandinavian design."
Exit of the "Barbikan" metro station. Image source: thespaces.com
The Barbican is 2000 apartments in high-rise towers and 7-storey blocks, a man-made lake with terraces, a school of music and drama, a library and a cultural center with its own tropical conservatory, as well as gardens, fountains, shops. Despite the rough concrete "skin" of the facades, the interior of the apartments and layout would satisfy even the sybarite of the XXI century.
Customers could choose the layout, size and configuration of the apartment from 100 options. Flats with heated floors (an unprecedented comfort in Britain!) were sold and let partly furnished - CP&B designed kitchen units with built-in appliances, original design switches and door handles especially for the Barbican.
The Barbican has survived a period of boom and bust and today has found a new lease of life - with modernized magnificent roof gardens and new activity
The structure of the Barbican is still relevant, as it corresponds to the most progressive trend of the XNUMXst century — mixed use, and the brutal design has become the core of its identity.
Barbican, promenade. Photo: © Max Colson Courtesy of Barbican Centre
Instead, the South Bank on the south bank of the Thames, built on the site of an industrial and warehouse district obliterated by bombing, is considered a symbol of post-war public architecture. The Royal Festival Hall was reduced to the 1951 Festival of Britain, dedicated to national recovery. It was the first new public building built after the war. The creative character of the area, given by the events and exhibitions of the Festival of Britain, remains vivid today.
The Royal Festival Hall is the heart of the South Bank. Photo: wikipedia.org
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Boris Johnson, occupying the chair of the mayor of the British capital, claimed that the economic success of new cities harmed London. He and his colleagues suggested recognizing that the capital was and would remain a magnet for bodies, minds and hearts, and treating London as a city of 20 million people. Accordingly, and plan it in this way.
City of London architectural collection of skyscrapers. Photo: Tristan Surtel
In recent decades, attacks by developers on the territory of the Green Belt have become as active as possible. Under the guise of reconstruction of parks or sports schools, there is an invasion of construction equipment on the land. According to the tension level of the discussion on the topic "Isn't it time to review the Green Belt?" can be compared to the political battles around Brexit. London's green belt is not uniformly decorative - in places it is derelict fields and farms. But its main meaning is not to decorate the lives of Londoners, but to restrain their appetites.
Farms and fields - this is what most of the Green Belt area around London looks like
The growing demand for new housing is leading to compromise plans, such as the London Stansted Cambridge Corridor plan, which involves the creation of innovative technology parks along a transport corridor from London to Cambridge. At the same time, new construction would be carried out on protected Green Belt lands.
Linear development along the thread of public transport should consist of new university campuses, business centers, high-tech enterprises and residential neighborhoods. The width of the strip is determined by pedestrian accessibility — up to 3 km.
Residents of the suburbs of London oppose the plans of developers and demand to preserve the Green Belt
Proponents of the corridors insist that it is impossible to ignore the shortage of housing in London any longer, and the development of abandoned agricultural land - of which there are many within the Green Belt - will not harm the parks intended for the recreation of citizens. The current mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, also believes that the city needs new apartments, so the developer lobby is slowly winning over the defenders of the age-old status quo. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, plans for the London Stansted Cambridge Corridor were put on hold, but now discussions are gaining momentum again.
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Modern society rejects rigid restrictions. And yet, reading the Abercrombie Plan, it is difficult not to recognize that almost any chapter of it, written about a century ago (and especially the part devoted to open spaces and park systems), remains relevant. In fact, all the concepts and plans of the new urbanism resonate in one way or another with the principles of the great British planner.
Will the Ukrainian architectural community be able to form its collective "Abercrombie" for post-war construction in Ukraine, so that by the power of consolidated authority, it will force developers to give up the temptation to quickly develop new and new territories, and to concentrate on the difficult and troublesome task of clearing the ruins and on building in the old patch of buildings ?
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