Plans and Egos

I came across a copy of the Abercrombie and Lutyens Plan for my home city Hull, East Yorkshire quite some years ago now. 

It was a radical proposal for one of the UK’s least self promoting  places even though it had borne the brunt of wartime bombing which was only surpassed in ferocity by the blitz on London. 

The Plan was not a knee jerk reaction or a gesture of patronising concern offered as a consolation for the devastation to the population and its buildings but a well considered and quite revolutionary set of ideas which had been set in play as early as 1941. 

That year was the focus of much enemy attention with large-scale airborne attacks on several nights in March 1941, resulting in some 200 deaths. The most concentrated attacks were in the month of May resulting in 400 deaths, and another large-scale bombing took place in July 1941 with around 140 fatalities. The city spent more than 1,000 hours under alert during raids from June 1940 to 1945, with around 1,200 people in the city killed as a result of the bombing. Only a handful of the densely packed housing stock escaped any form of damage. 

The two heavyweights of architecture and urban planning worked on the project through the war years before presenting their report in 1945/1946. 

Edwin Landseer Lutyens, held by some to be the greatest British Architect of the 20^th Century was responsible for private and public commissions in the UK covering country houses, war memorials and government buildings and also his major contribution to the design and construction of New Delhi, India over a twenty year period to 1930. 

Sir Patrick Abercrombie gave his name to the post war reconstruction of London and from this came the New Towns Movement which saw satellite towns being established to ease pressure on many declining and overstressed cities. 

Unfortunately, Lutyens died in 1944 before final publication but he was acknowledged for his contribution by his co-author. 

Whether down to the collaboration with the genius of Lutyens or the blank canvas opportunity offered by the great city of Hull it was reported that Abercrombie regarded this piece of work as the best he had ever been associated with.

It was certainly a very comprehensive approach. 

The city centre prior to the wartime bombing had featured a host of notable commercial and civic structures as befitting a wealthy maritime economy derived from a global shipping trade, whaling fleet and deep sea trawling as well as home grown industries by entrepreneurs such as James Reckitt and Smith and Nephew amongst many others. 

This bomb devastated district was to be given the requisite treatment to create "a fairer (as in beautiful) and nobler" city image which was nothing less than spectacular.  

The traditional industrial areas of mills, warehouses and refineries were to be found deep inside the inner city and along the River Hull corridor and amongst them were the densely populated housing areas of typical slum dwellings regularly affected by unchecked tidal flooding. 

It was part of the proposals that 54,000 of the population, representing at that time around a sixth of the total, were to be moved from the insanitary and substandard housing stock to a suburban idyll comprising modern estates and greenspace. 

The hamlet of Burton Constable to the north east of Hull was identified as the location for a satellite town on the Garden City theme. 

A neighbourhood model would establish 17 self centred districts of up to 10,000 people again in a low density of housing and broad avenues. 

The plan must have received regular updates on the bombing as these devastated swaths through the city were added to the available land bank. 

It was not a slash and burn approach however with the historic Old Town excluded from the main Plan and with Abercrombie obviously keen to unnecessarily demolish those few buildings which escaped damage and had a role in and value to the scheme by being retained. 

It appears that the vision of the plan was just too much for those who held civic office and positions of influence in Hull and it was rejected.

In hindsight it was a fantastic opportunity missed to achieve a phoenix like resurgence for a demoralised population. It was not until 1949 that an alternative plan was unveiled as a compromise albeit still of similar ambition. 

The austerity of post war Britain will have contributed to the inaction of local government in Hull in respect of ideas which had the future development and prosperity of the city at its heart. How could a society enduring rationing and shortages in raw materials contemplate what must have seemed like a pretention to grandeur and with a price tag to match?

The lack of commitment was perhaps to be expected in a provincial city which was and still is perceived as being at the end of the line in relation to the rest of the country and for hand outs by central and regional government. A fiercely independent business community will have thrown up local criticism and suspicion of State interference. The practicalities of property and land ownership should also not be ignored although these would have been sidestepped by Compulsory Purchase and other Statutory Powers for the greater good. 

There was a certain strength of local chamber of trade opposition and a reluctance to accumulate a financial civic deficit. The shortage of building materials after the war should not be disregarded as a valid reason for lack of any progress similarly the absence of suitably competent and skilled personnel through secondment to the war effort in a deserted planning department who would be responsible for overseeing and implementing the Plan.

The businessmen, owners and investors of the city centre under the prevailing circumstances won the day against the Abercrombie Plan in the 1950s by rebuilding and expanding the shopping district in its previous location and extending it northwards. That impacted on other aspects of the plan including for example the catalyst of a well designed ring road. It may have been in the perceived best interests of this select group of citizens for Hull but it was not until the last twenty five years that such schemes as Princes Quay and more recently St Stephens shopping centres and the adjacent transport interchange represented a long awaited catch up with regional and wider national competitor cities.

A new development plan approved in 1954 did show that some of the ideas and ideals of the Abercrombie Plan had been taken on board. The neighbourhoods approach was developed in the form of a number of large peripheral social housing estates which were laid out from the mid 50’s until the 1970’s with schools through to senior level, recreational playing fields and community amenities. 

Hull has the highest number of Council Houses for any UK city dominating its eastern and northern districts. It was not until beyond the 1970’s and to the present day that stubborn areas of traditional straight to street or off road terraced houses were eventually demolished to make way for good quality modern housing.

There has, in the last decade, been a resurgence in Hull with increased inward investment and a new sense of confidence culminating in its status as UK City of Culture for 2017. 

Lutyens and Abercrombie should however be credited with having the original vision for and optimism in the city and its people although it was clearly well ahead of its time.