Town Planning
| Published date | 01 December 1923 |
| Author | I. G. Gibbon |
| Date | 01 December 1923 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1923.tb02150.x |
~~ ~
Town
Planning
Town
Planning
Its
Place
in
Social Development
By
1.
G.
GIBBON,
C.B.E.
(
Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Health)
[Being
a paper discussed
at
the
Summer
Conference of
the
Institute of
Public Administration at Cambridge,
301h
July,
1923.1
I.
NEED
OF
A
NEW
URBAN
TECHNIQUE
(1)
WE
are in grave danger of being enchained by urban conditions, and
of being permanently subjected to inconveniences which seriously impair
the efficiency and the amenity of life.
London is an extreme instance of this problem
;
and it
is
now passing
through one of its periodical fevers over its transport difficulties, the
sphere in which the evils are most manifest, but not, therefore, necessarily
of graver injury than in other spheres.
Some persons seem to believe that the intensity of the transit problem
in London is due to British stupidity. There is no great city which
is
not suffering from the same
ill,
and some more acutely than London.
(2)
What
is
the cure, even of this one ill of transport congestion
?
Traffic improvements will help, and are essential
;
but,
as
past experience
amply demonstrates, for a time only
;
they
will
ameliorate, but not cure.
The conviction is growing steadily, though slowly, that these problems
are to be solved only by
a
radical alteration of urban development;
that
a
new technique is required
;
and that, instead of the unreasoned
growth of great towns, without heed to the ills which are thereby fostered,
there must be considered control of development,
so
that, instead of
human needs being subordinated to thoughtless growth, growth shall be
fashioned as human necessities require.
(3)
There are few more urgent questions than this of right urban
development.
How increasingly pressing is the problem of urban technique
will
be
manifest from the table of figures on the next page showing the large
growth of urban population, especially in the large towns.
Whereas the population in rural areas has actually fallen, that
in
urban areas
is
over three times as large in 1921
as
in 1851, while that
in
towns with over 100,OOO population
is
nearly four times
as
large.
The facts would be still more impressive were corresponding figures for
1801 or 1821 available. Practically
nothing;
it
scarcely exists for them. They live largely in
a
rarefied
What are the Universities doing towards a solution
?
333
23-(4156)
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