Our back pages

We rejoin sculptor Bernard Reynolds, as Ipswich Society representative, at the Conference of Civic Societies of the Eastern Region in Norwich, 28 October, 1964. His write-up in Issue 6 of the Newsletter continues.

"The problems of the countryside were taken up by Mr Herbert Taylor, an architect who specialises in rural housing. His immediate concern, he said, was that commuters were thrusting deeper and deeper into the countryside. Every new building presented a frightful problem and they as a firm refused to undertake the design of individual houses. They liked to think of themselves as artist-designers (not the long-haired type!) sensitively relating groups of buildings to vast landscapes aesthetically conceived mainly in the 18th Century. The alternative would be to redesign the whole countryside and in these days this was a practical impossibility. In any event, he considered, county authorities should employ designers who would be responsible for the aesthetic control of a whole district.

"Mr R.I. Maxwell, Planning Officer to the Norfolk County Council suggested that in the past there had been immense pride, from squire to labourer, in every inch of the town and countryside. This seems to have faded now that farm mechanisation and efficiency had reduced the man power for the visual upkeep of estates...

"The meeting was thrown open to discussion and among points made were those by the Earl of Euston who spoke of the awakening abroad to the threat of modern development to the architectural heritage of their cities and told how in France Andre Malraux, Minister of Culture, had been authorised by General de Gaulle to spend a half a million pounds on the study of the problem...

"The Buchanan film 'Traffic in Towns' was shown. This dealt with the traffic menace in general and gave examples of successful attempts to keep vehicles out of selected areas of cities, of pedestrian segregation schemes, and finally suggested how an area of North London could be developed to accommodate at various levels, one upon the other like a layer cake, public transport, through traffic, local traffic, pedestrians, shops, industrial, social and commercial buildings and dwellings such as might be necessary sixty years hence.

"The principal guest speaker in the afternoon was Mr Tim Rock of the Civic Trust. He spoke of the special isolation of real and urban councils in the East Anglian area. Borough Councils and County Councils must cut out the competitive status-seeking and work together. They must see the priorities of their own programmes in relation to others' and co-operate on combined programmes.

"During the ensuing discussion Mr Norman Scarfe, the Earl of Euston and others spoke on the tragedy of many of our historic city centres which had in the last ten years had their individuality and character reduced to nonentity by speculative developers. Mr Tim Rock described how they worked. After selecting a suitable district they would make extremely attractive offers to the owners of the key properties. After completion of sales they would leave the properties empty for five or six years until the whole area began to run down. They could then buy the rest at very reasonable prices which the owners felt glad to accept. Immediately they would confront the town council with a magnificent redevelopment plan which usually carried the day but which meant piecemeal planning and was perhaps not at all what the town needed. And the scheme would hardly be likely to take into account the special character which belonged to that part of town." Plus ca change...

Robin Gaylard