Wartime plans
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The Second World War put a halt on London's sprawling growth. This provided something of a breathing space, in which a comprehensive plan could be developed to rebuild and control London after the war.
London was seen as a city with many problems at this time, but the destruction of German bombing raids over the city provided an opportunity for redevelopment that, even in the darkest months of the war, was not to be missed.
The key figure in this period, picking up the baton from Lutyens and Bressey, was Patrick Abercrombie, the professor of Town Planning at University College London. His vision for post-war London bore all the hallmarks of the "brave new world" optimism that would subsequently permeate planning for the next few decades.
His work involved two successive reports for the London County Council: in 1943 he examined the area known as the County of London; and then in 1944 he drew up a wider plan for what was coming to be known as Greater London, taking in "Metroland" and the leafy new suburbs of the 1930s.
The County Of London Plan, 1943
The London County Council tasked JH Forshaw, its resident architect, and Patrick Abercrombie with drawing up a comprehensive plan for the old County of London. The authors saw London's four "major defects" as traffic congestion, depressed housing, inadequacy and maldistribution of open spaces, and the jumble of houses and industry ("indeterminate zoning"). The first of these is of greatest interest here, but it should be noted that the plan was equally visionary in all four areas, proposing the creation of new parkland from slum clearance and extensive re-zoning of land uses.
The road plan they created had three classifications of road:
Arterial Roads, without any frontages or access to side streets, and with parallel service roads;
Sub-Arterial Roads, main roads in the built-up area, with frontage development permitted, but with service roads provided wherever possible and side streets blocked off;
and Local Roads, which covered everything else.
All through traffic would be directed onto a network of arterial roads, and it would generally not be possible to travel long distances by local roads, as they would be effectively blocked off from through traffic. Areas within the grid would be as self-contained as possible, to reduce the demand for travel. For the first time, the plan hinged on a system of ring roads - most importantly the "B-Ring". The diagram to the left shows their plans for central London (click to enlarge).
Arterials and Sub-Arterials
Roads in the plan were identified with letters and numbers; each ring road moving out from the central area received a letter (hence "A-Ring", "B-Ring" etc.); most radial routes were numbered. The arterial roads (shown in black on the map) would be:
The B-Ring, the principal ring road around central London, built for fast traffic. It was to be fully grade-separated (as shown right; click to enlarge).
- From the NW corner (now the Westway/West Cross Route roundabout) this would follow Westway to Ladbroke Grove, then cut across in a straight line to Royal Oak, turn NE to Warwick Avenue, Lord's Cricket Ground, then along Prince Albert Road (meeting radial X), across Camden Town to Agar Grove, then through Barnsbury to Highbury Corner. It would turn ESE here through De Beauvoir Town, to the SW side of Victoria Park, then following the canal and the A1205 through Mile End to Limehouse (meeting radial Y). The road would then proceed down the western side of the Isle of Dogs, plunging into a tunnel and emerging at Evelyn Street on the south bank of the Thames. From here, it would go in a straight line to Queens Road (Peckham) station, then follow the railway line through Denmark Hill to Brixton. From Brixton, the road would shoot across to Clapham Common, taking the north side, then abruptly turning northwards along the A3220 to Battersea Park Road, and follow the West London Line back to the start.
- Route X, the old north-south cross route proposed by the Royal Commission.
- Connecting radial 5 at Swiss Cottage with radials 16 and 19 at the Elephant, using Waterloo Bridge. It would pass (approximately) along Adelaide Road to Chalk Farm, there turning south-east to follow the railway line, and then the A400 (Hampstead Road) to Warren Street station. Here it would tunnel under the A ring (Euston Road) and Bloomsbury to emerge just south of High Holborn. From here it would plough south to use Waterloo Bridge, and then proceed to Elephant and Castle.
- Route Y, the Royal Commission's east-west cross route.
- This would connect radial 13 at Limehouse with the B ring at Battersea Bridge. The route would be (approximately) the current A1203 (The Highway and East Smithfield), Thames Street, Embankment. It would then tunnel under Whitehall and St James's Park to emerge at Ebury Street, then go via Royal Hospital Road to join the Chelsea Embankment.
- The main radial roads, all of which would have a junction with the B ring.
"Sketch suggestion of a typical traffic roundabout on the sub-arterial 'A' ring-road". Click to enlarge
There would also be sub-arterial roads, shown in blue on the map:
- The A-Ring, roughly where the Inner Ring Road (and Congestion Charging boundary) is today. It would have linked the major railway termini, and formed "the boundary of the Empire, cultural and commercial core of London". There were to be sections in tunnel under Hyde Park and under the Thames east of Tower Bridge.
- The C-Ring, effectively the North and South Circular Roads. It would largely follow the route proposed by Bressey and Lutyens, but with a modification to prevent the demolition of a swathe of Hammersmith and Fulham. The Woolwich Ferry would be replaced with either a bridge or a tunnel.
- Other radials and some connecting roads.
The Greater London Plan, 1944
The second plan dealt with the wider area, and was written by Abercrombie alone. For the area outside the County of London, he proposed three ring roads, one of which had already been detailed in the 1943 report. The plan is shown right (click to see full size).
- The C-Ring would again be sub-arterial, following the line of the already extant North Circular Road, and adding its complement in the south.
- The D-Ring, an express-arterial, and almost entirely a new route. This was intended to "girdle the general limits of the built-up area in London", in conjunction with the Green Belt.
- Starting from the west, its alignment was similar to A312 up to Northolt. Then it would proceed to Ruislip, Pinner Green, Bushey Heath, joining the Barnet Bypass at Well End, and along the alignment of the M25 to Waltham Cross. Here it would turn SE, and is "carefully" routed across Epping Forest to pass between Loughton and Buckhurst Hill to reach Chigwell. From here, it would follow the west side of Hainault Forest, then pass between Chadwell Heath and Romford to the proposed Dartford Tunnel. South of the river, the D-Ring follows the A282/M25 as built to Swanley, then turns west via Chelsfield and, skirting Selsdon and Sanderstead, would be carried on an 80 ft viaduct from the Purley Downs towards Croydon Airport. Then between Ewell and Epsom to Hook, through Esher and crossing the Thames on a new bridge from Walton to Sunbury.
- The E-Ring, another sub-arterial, being a revised version of the North and South Orbital Roads. This would be a parkway, with frequent laybys and picnic areas. The E-Ring did not join up across the Thames.
- Ten principal radial routes, of express-arterial standard.
Abercrombie's express-arterial roads were very much equivalent to motorways. He described them as being designed for motor vehicles only, interrupted by a very small number of fully grade-separated junctions. The Plan detailed three styles of grade-separated junction: the two-level roundabout interchange; the three-level roundabout interchange (both of which had appeared in the 1943 plan); and the cloverleaf. Abercrombie was careful to note that he had modified the latter to turn the four round loops into triangular roadways with sharp corners, though he did not say why.
Three junction layouts suggested for Arterial roads. Click to enlarge
Express arterial routes
Abercrombie's proposals for motorway-style routes were as follows:
| No. | Route | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | London to Exeter and Plymouth via Chertsey | Current A4, A316 and M3. |
| 2 | London to South Wales via proposed Severn Bridge | Begins as two spurs at the London End: one from Sunbury (route 1 / D ring) and one from Duke's Wood (route 3), meeting at Lake End. Then as M4. |
| 3 | London to Gloucester and Cheltenham | A40 Western Ave, then passing slightly south of the alignment of the M40, just north of Marlow. Then Reading, Oxford, Gloucester. |
| 4 | London to Birmingham | From Paddington to Harrow via the A404. Then along the LMS (Chiltern) line through Sudbury. Meets D-Ring at Pinner Farm, and strikes out to meet the E-Ring at Chandler's Cross (near M25 J19). Then up to Birmingham and Carlisle! |
| 5 | London to Newcastle and Edinburgh via St Albans | From B ring west of Camden Town, up to Haverstock Hill, with a three-mile tunnel beneath Hampstead Heath, rising by East Finchley station, following the eastern boundary of Islington Cemetery up to the North Circular. Then through Friern Barnet, meeting the D-Ring at Dancers Hill, and A1 north. |
| 6 | London to Cambridge | Across Tottenham, joining the North Circular. Northwards to follow a line up the Lea Valley, then swings eastwards to join the current M11, continuing north past Bishop's Stortford. |
| 7 | London to East Anglia via Chelmsford and Ipswich | Passes between Woodford and Wanstead, out east past Havering atte-Bower, to run parallel with the A12. |
| 8 | London to Canterbury and Thanet via Swanley, Meopham and Faversham | From B-Ring out to Catford, then the railway to Bromley and Swanley. Follows current line of A20 and M20 until Farningham, where it would have struck across to Meopham and Cuxton, crossing the Medway where the M2 does now. Onwards to Faversham, then splitting to Canterbury and Margate (as A2/A299 now). |
| 9 | London to South Coast Resorts (Brighton and Eastbourne) via Coulsdon and Horley | A3 to Clapham Common, then turning southwards, avoiding Tooting Common, then A23. Bifurcation at Horley: one branch following A23 to Brighton; other striking across to A22 and bypassing East Grinstead and Forest Row. |
| 10 | London to South Coast and Portsmouth via Stoke d'Abernon | Equivalent to A3, but Kingston Bypass not used (too many frontages to convert to express standard) and Guildford bypassed to the East. |
When the war ended, there was a great deal of optimism for the newly rebuilt London, but the dreamy utopia promised by Abercrombie was held back by a crippling lack of funds with which to work. The creation of vast new highways and rezoning projects couldn't be justified against the more pressing need to rebuild homes and commercial premises as quickly as possible.
Planners in the 1950s were left in the incredible situation that, despite such a comprehensive plan being drawn up just a few years earlier, post-war redevelopment had failed to leave any vacant land protected from development. Any new roads would have to involve demolition, often of buildings that had only recently been rebuilt. It was a whole new planning challenge.
