Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (; 6 June 1879 – 23 March 1957) was an English regional and

town planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...

. Abercrombie was an academic during most of his career, and prepared one city plan and several regional studies prior to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He came to prominence in the 1940s for his urban plans of the cities of

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, Hull, Bath,

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Clyde Valley The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

and

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

Early life

Patrick Abercrombie was born in

Ashton-upon-Mersey Ashton upon Mersey is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 9,693 at the 2011 census. It lies on the south bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre. Historically par ...

, one of the nine children of Sarah and William Abercrombie, a stockbroker and businessman who had wide artistic interests, particularly of the

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

school. In 1887, the family moved to a new home in Sale, designed by a Leicester architect, Joseph Goddard, with interiors influenced by designer John Aldam Heaton. Abercrombie was educated at

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. The headma ...

, and spent a year at the

Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Career

In 1897, he was

articled Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

to the architect Charles Heathcote, while studying at the

Manchester School of Art Manchester School of Art in Manchester, England, was established in 1838 as the Manchester School of Design. It is the second oldest art school in the United Kingdom after the Royal College of Art which was founded the year before. It is now par ...

. After four years, he started work under

Arnold Thornely Sir Arnold Thornely (7 October 1870 – 1 October 1953) was an English architect who practised in Liverpool. Although most of his designs were for buildings in Liverpool and the northwest of England, he is best known for the Parliament Buildin ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, and set up home in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

, which remained his home until 1936. After a year working in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

with architect Philip Lockwood, in 1907 he was offered a post as junior lecturer and studio instructor at the

University of Liverpool School of Architecture The School of Architecture is an architecture school in Liverpool, England, and part of the University of Liverpool. It was the first architecture school in the United Kingdom to be affiliated with a university, and the first to have degree pro ...

. In 1914 he won a

town planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

competition for

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, and the following year was appointed as Lever Professor of Civic Design at Liverpool, soon becoming a nationally-known authority on town planning and the

garden city movement The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...

. He was later appointed as Professor of Town Planning at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, and gradually asserted his dominance as an architect of international renown, which came about through the replanning of

, Hull, Bath,

and

, among others. Of his post-war replanning of Plymouth, Sir Simon Jenkins writes: :Poor Plymouth. It was badly blitzed in the Second World War and then subjected to slash and burn by its city fathers. The modern visitor will find it a maze of concrete blocks, ill-sited towers and ruthless road schemes. Most of this damage was done by one man, Patrick Abercrombie, in the 1950s. The old Barbican district would, in France or Germany, have had its façades restored or rebuilt. Here new buildings were inserted with no feeling for the texture of the old lanes and alleys. In the 1920s and 1930s, Abercrombie developed a specialty in regional planning, became chairman of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England in 1926, and was on the Council of the Town and Country Planning Association. In 1937, he served as President of the Geographical Association. His Presidential Address was entitled 'Geography - the Basis of Planning'.

Greater London planning

He is best known for the post-

replanning of London. In 1943 he created the

County of London Plan The County of London Plan was prepared for the London County Council in 1943 by John Henry Forshaw (1895–1973) and Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (1879–1957) Its main purpose was to point out the main directions of development and ...

, and in 1944 the

Greater London Plan The Greater London Plan of 1944 was developed by Patrick Abercrombie (1879–1957). The plan was directly related to the County of London Plan written by John Henry Forshaw (1895–1973) and Abercrombie in 1943. Following World War II, London w ...

, together commonly referred to as the ''Abercrombie Plan''. The latter document was an extended and more thorough product than the 1943 publication. The Greater London Plan proposed that physical growth of London should be stopped by a green belt and that over a million people should move out to expanded towns beyond it. In 1945 he published ''A Plan for the City & County of

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

'', with the assistance of

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...

. 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.

New towns movement

From the ''Abercrombie Plan'' came the

New Towns A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

movement which included the building of

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...

and

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

and the largest 'out-county' estate,

Harold Hill Harold Hill is a suburban area in the London Borough of Havering, East London. northeast of Charing Cross. It is a district centre in the London Plan. The name refers to King Harold II, who held the manor of Havering-atte-Bower, and who was k ...

in north-east London. He produced the Clyde Valley Regional Plan in 1946 with

Robert Matthew Sir Robert Hogg Matthew, OBE FRIBA FRSE (12 December 1906 – 2 June 1975) was a Scottish architect and a leading proponent of modernism. Early life & studies Robert Matthew was the son of John Fraser Matthew (1875–1955) (also an archite ...

that proposed the new towns of

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...

and

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; gd, Comar nan Allt, meeting of the streams) is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated t ...

. In 1949 he published with Richard Nickson a plan for the redevelopment of

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

, which proposed demolition of almost all the town's Victorian housing stock and construction of a large inner ring road.

International projects

During the postwar years, Abercrombie was commissioned by the British government to redesign Hong Kong, for which he submitted plans in 1947. In 1956 he was commissioned by

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

to draw up plans for the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa; he submitted the plan in 1957 but its major aspects were not carried out.

Awards

Abercrombie was appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

in the 1945 New Year Honours. He was the most celebrated British planner of his generation. In 1948 he became the first president of the newly formed group the

International Union of Architects The International Union of Architects ( French: ''Union internationale des Architectes''; UIA) is the only international non-governmental organization that represents the world's architects, now estimated to number some 3.2 million in all. About ...

, 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 AIA Gold Medal is awarded by the American Institute of Architects conferred "by the national AIA Board of Directors in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture." It is the Ins ...

Legacy

The Abercrombie Building at

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic (United Kingdom), Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and High ...

is home to the Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment. He appears in the film ''The Proud City'' presenting his plan to the public. He died in 1957. A

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

has been erected at a house where he lived from 1915 to 1935, on Village Road,

Oxton, Merseyside Oxton is a suburb of Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. Administratively it is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Originally a village in its own right, it became part of the Municipal Borough of Birkenhead upon its creation in 1877. Bef ...

. He was the architect of the

North East Wales Institute of Higher Education North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

(NEWI) in

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

Family

Abercrombie married Emily Maud Gordon in 1908; they had one son and one daughter. He was widowed in 1942. Abercrombie was the brother of the poet and critic,

Lascelles Abercrombie Lascelles Abercrombie, (9 January 1881 – 27 October 1938) was a British poet and literary critic, one of the "Dymock poets". After the First World War he worked as a professor of English literature in a number of English universities, w ...

and uncle to

Michael Abercrombie Michael Abercrombie FRS (14 August 1912 – 28 May 1979) was a British cell biologist and embryologist. He was one of four children of the poet Lascelles Abercrombie. Early life Michael was born at Ryton near Dymock in Gloucestershire on 14 A ...

Publications

* Patrick Abercrombie, Sydney Kelly and Arthur Kelly, ''Dublin of the future : the new town plan, being the scheme awarded first prize in the international competition'', University Press of Liverpool, Liverpool, 1922. * Patrick Abercrombie and John Archibald, ''East Kent Regional Planning Scheme Survey'', Kent County Council, Maidstone, 1925. * Sir Patrick Abercrombie, ''The Preservation of Rural England'', Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, London, 1926. The book that lead to the foundation of the CPRE. * The Earl of Mayo, S. D, Adshead and Patrick Abercrombie, ''The Thames Valley from Cricklade to Staines: A survey of its existing state and some suggestions for its future preservation'', University of London Press, London, 1929 * The Earl of Mayo, S.D. Adshead and Patrick Abercrombie, ''Regional Planning Report on Oxfordshire'', Oxford University Press, 1931 * Patrick Abercrombie and Sydney A. Kelly, ''East Suffolk Regional Scheme'', University of Liverpool, Liverpool and Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1935 (prepared for the East Suffolk Joint Regional Planning Committee). * Patrick Abercrombie (ed), ''The Book of the Modern House: A Panoramic Survey of Contemporary Domestic Design'', Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1939 * J. H. Forshaw and Patrick Abercrombie, ''County of London Plan'', Macmillan & Co. 1943. * J. Paton Watson and Patrick Abercrombie, ''A Plan for Plymouth'', Underhill, (Plymouth). Ltd., 1943. * Edwin Lutyens & Patrick Abercrombie, ''A Plan for the City & County of Kingston upon Hull'', Brown (London & Hull), 1945. * Sir Patrick Abercrombie, John Owens & H Anthony Mealand, ''A Plan for Bath'', Sir Isaac Pitman (London) 1945 * Sir Patrick Abercrombie & R. H. Matthew, ''Clyde Valley Regional Plan'', His Majesty's Stationery Office, Edinburgh, 1946. * Patrick Abercrombie, ''Hong Kong Preliminary Planning Report'', Government Printer, Hong Kong, 1948. * Patrick Abercrombie and Richard Nickson, ''Warwick: Its preservation and redevelopment'', Architectural Press, 1949. * Sir Patrick Abercrombie, Revised by D. Rigby Childs, ''Town and Country Planning'', Third Edition, Oxford University Press, 1959, Reprinted 1961 and 1967.

References

Sources

External links

*
RIBA: Royal Inst. of British Architects

Encyclopædia Britannica, Patrick Abercrombie

Department of Civic Design, Liverpool

Warwick Town History, including description of Abercrombie's 1949 redevelopment plan

GA Presidential Lecture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abercrombie, Patrick British urban planners Academics of University College London Knights Bachelor 1879 births 1957 deaths Presidents of the Royal Town Planning Institute People associated with transport in London People educated at Uppingham School Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium People from Sale, Greater Manchester Recipients of the AIA Gold Medal Presidents of the International Union of Architects