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ABSTRACT
In 1962, the University of Edinburgh proposed that the area adjacent to its central campus should be designated as a Comprehensive Development Area, with the planner (and university senior lecturer) Percy Johnson-Marshall showing how historic tenements could be replaced by a new urban landscape of slab blocks situated on an elevated pedestrian podium above new roads, creating a seamless continuum between the university and the city. The proposals sit alongside contemporaneous ‘paper’ renewal projects, including SPUR’s plans for Boston Manor and the proposals of the 1963 Buchanan Report. Drawing on the archive, the article explores the genesis of the scheme, the terms in which it was presented to the public, and the reaction it gained. It also considers how and why the proposals were abandoned in the early 1970s. At its core, the article reflects on the often messy processes which shaped urban renewal in 1960s and 1970s Britain, the continuities of the period, and the value of looking to the specific local factors which explain why particular approaches were taken.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the staff of the Centre for Research Collections at the University of Edinburgh for making archive material available during the difficult summer of 2020, as well as Clive Fenton for lending documents from his personal collection, and Miles Glendinning for helpful discussions. Edinburgh City Archives and the Centre for Research Collections at the University of Edinburgh kindly gave permission for the reproduction of historic material. Planning Perspectives’ two anonymous reviewers made useful suggestions for improvement, while John Gold provided welcome encouragement and editorial guidance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the author.
Notes
1 University of Edinburgh, Centre for Research Collections [hereafter ‘UoE CRC’], GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.4, “University of Edinburgh, Comprehensive Development Area 1963”, 1.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 2–3.
4 Ibid., 2.
5 Johnson-Marshall, Rebuilding Cities.
6 Gunn, “Rise and Fall of British Urban Modernism”; Saumarez Smith, Boom Cities.
7 Kefford, “Housing the Citizen-Consumer in Post-war Britain”.
8 Ministry of Transport, Traffic in Towns.
9 Gunn, “Rise and Fall of British Urban Modernism”; Saumarez Smith, Boom Cities.
10 Glendinning, Conservation Movement, 200; Saumarez Smith, Boom Cities, 9–35; Gold and Pendlebury, ---“The ‘Spirit of Living Continuity?’”
11 Gunn, “Rise and Fall of British Urban Modernism”, 858.
12 Urban, “Modernising Glasgow”.
13 Flinn, “The City of Our Dreams”.
14 Gold, The Practice of Modernism, e.g. 120–25; Gosseye, “Uneasy Bedfellows”.
15 Gunn, “Rise and Fall of British Urban Modernism”, 869.
16 E.g. Muthesius, Postwar University; Harwood, Powers and Saumarez Smith, eds. Twentieth Century Architecture 11.
17 Whyte, Redbrick; Haynes and Fenton, Building Knowledge.
18 Ortolano, Thatcher’s Progress, 21.
19 Haynes and Fenton, Building Knowledge, 33–86.
20 Ibid., 115.
21 Ibid.
22 Fenton, “Appleton’s Architects”, 16, 28.
23 Haynes and Fenton, Building Knowledge, 115–16.
24 Ibid., 148.
25 Ibid., 154.
26 Ibid., 181.
27 Patrick Abercrombie and Derek Plumstead, A Civic Survey and Plan of the City of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1949), map 7; Fenton, “Appleton’s Architects”, 62.
28 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/A/1.1, “Vehicles Licenced [sic] in the City of Edinburgh” [1963].
29 Fenton, “Appleton’s Architects”, 63.
30 Glendinning, Modern Architect, 47–49.
31 UoE CRC, GB 0237/PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.2, note by Matthew, ‘Comprehensive Plan for the Central Area of the University of Edinburgh’, 5 June 1961.
32 Fenton, “Appleton’s Architects”, 62–63; UoE CRC, GB 0237/PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.2, Report of meeting on 21 February 1961.
33 UoE CRC, GB 0237/PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.2, letter from Charles Stewart to Percy Johnson-Marshall, 3 February 1961.
34 Fenton, “Appleton’s Architects”, 63. For a biography, see Fair, “Percy Johnson-Marshall”.
35 Glendinning, Modern Architect, 114, 121–22, 205.
36 Ibid., 228–29.
37 RMJM and Percy Johnson-Marshall and Partners, Coleraine – Portrush – Portstewart Area Plan.
38 Glendinning, Modern Architect, 292, 304.
39 Johnson-Marshall, Rebuilding Cities, 19.
40 Ibid., 5.
41 Gold, Practice of Modernism, 95.
42 Gold, “York: A Suitable Case for Conservation”, 98.
43 See e.g. Fair, “A Social Revolution that has Come to Stay”.
44 E.g. Goldhagen, “Something to Talk About”.
45 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/A/3.1, Transcript of address by Edward Appleton, 7 June 1962.
46 Fenton, “Appleton’s Architects”, 67.
47 Glendinning, Modern Architect, 445–46.
48 Garcia Ferrari et al., “Putting the User First”.
49 Glendinning, Modern Architect, 229.
50 UoE CRC, GB 0237, PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.7, Undated typescript by Johnson-Marshall.
51 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.2, meeting of 21 February 1961.
52 For shared cost: UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.7, typescript ‘University Developments’.
53 Minutes of the University of Edinburgh Development Committee and Report, 9 February 1962. Copy supplied by Clive Fenton.
54 Minutes of the University of Edinburgh Development Committee and Report, 9 February 1962. Copy supplied by Clive Fenton.
55 Glendinning, Modern Architect, 254–55.
56 Minutes of the University of Edinburgh Development Committee and Report, 9 February 1962. Copy supplied by Clive Fenton.
57 Ibid.
58 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.2, meeting of May 1961.
59 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.1, ‘University of Edinburgh Comprehensive Development Area’ [June 1962 typescript].
60 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.7, Undated typescript.
61 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/A/3.1, Transcript of address by Edward Appleton, 7 June 1962.
62 Ibid.
63 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.4, ‘University of Edinburgh, Comprehensive Development Area 1963’, 1–2.
64 Ibid., 3.
65 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/A/3.1, ‘Progress Report to the Development Committee’ [handwritten note by Johnson-Marshall].
66 Ibid.
67 Johnson-Marshall, “The University of Edinburgh”.
68 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.7, Undated typescript; Johnson-Marshall, Rebuilding Cities, 116–20, 152–53.
69 Chamberlin Powell and Bon, University of Leeds Development Plan 1960.
70 Gosling, “Precinct Centre”.
71 John G. Gray, “A Second New Town – or a Lost Opportunity?” – offprint from July 1962 Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Journal, UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.7.
72 Johnson-Marshall, “The University of Edinburgh”.
73 Johnson-Marshall, Rebuilding Cities, 372–74.
74 Glendinning, Modern Architect, 293.
75 ‘Report to the Development Committee’, 8 November 1963. Copy supplied by Clive Fenton.
76 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.2, meeting with City Engineer, 16 May 1961.
77 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/A/1.1, Major Highways Working Party minutes, 9 March 1964.
78 ‘Report to the Development Committee’, 8 November 1963. Copy supplied by Clive Fenton.
79 Ibid.
80 ‘Report to the Development Committee’, 27 February 1964. Copy supplied by Clive Fenton.
81 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.1, ‘South Side District Plan: Feasibility Probe’ [1974].
82 Ibid.
83 Ibid.
84 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/2.3, City of Edinburgh South Side Local Plan: Volume 2.
85 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/A/1.1, Note of June 1964, and Working Party on Major Highway Planning – Memorandum on Car Parking, 12 January 1965.
86 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.1, The University in the City: Memorandum by the Planning Consultant [13.12.73].
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid.
89 Glendinning, Modern Architect, 468–77.
90 Fenton, “Appleton’s Architects”, 73.
91 UoE CRC, GB 0237/PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/2.2, ‘Conservation and University Expansion’ [January 1969].
92 Ibid.
93 Fenton, “Appleton’s Architects”, 70–71.
94 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/2.2, ‘Forgotten Southside’, and accompanying press release.
95 Glendinning, Modern Architect, 468.
96 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/2.1., South Side Local Plan: Review by the University’s Planning Consultant, May 1975.
97 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.1, ‘South Side District Plan: Feasibility Probe’ [1974].
98 Ibid.
99 Ibid.
100 Ibid.
101 Pendlebury and Strange, ‘Urban Conservation’, 369.
102 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/B/1.7, partial typescript lecture by Johnson-Marshall, n.d.
103 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.1, ‘South Side District Plan: Feasibility Probe’ [1974], and report ‘Public Participation (In Relation to the South Side District Plan)’, 1 November 1973.
104 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.1, City Planning Memorandum, 12 November 1973.
105 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.1, City Planning Memorandum, 12 November 1973.
106 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.1, Revision of Draft Study Programme/Progress Report, 6 May 1974.
107 ‘Nicholas Fort’, Dictionary of Scottish Architects.
108 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.1 ‘Revision of Draft Study Programme/Progress Report’, 6 May 1974.
109 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.1, Inter-departmental meeting minutes, 19 September 1973.
110 ‘University of Edinburgh / Nicholson Street area: Ideas Study by the Planning Consultant’, 1973, Copy supplied by Clive Fenton.
111 UoE CRC, GB 0237/PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/2.3, ‘City of Edinburgh South Side Local Plan’ Volume 1, 26, 32, 97.
112 Ibid., 202.
113 Ibid., 203.
114 UoE CRC, GB 0237/PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/2.2, ‘Forgotten Southside’.
115 Ibid.
116 Gosseye, “Uneasy Bedfellows”; Sharr and Thornton, Demolishing Whitehall, 215–48.
117 E.g. Edinburgh’s planned ‘opera house’, for which see Fair, Modern Playhouses, 150–54.
118 ‘C.D.A. Plans Hang Fire’, Universiy of Edinburgh Bulletin, 8/1 (October 1971). Copy supplied by Clive Fenton.
119 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/2.3, ‘City of Edinburgh South Side Local Plan’, Volume 2, para 1.1
120 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.2, Cockburn Association comments on South Side Local Plan, 1978.
121 UoE CRC, GB 0237 PJM/PJMA/EUD/C/1.2, Percy Johnson-Marshall memo, 22 October 1980.
122 Percy Johnson-Marshall Associates, ‘University/Nicholson Street: 1973 Review’, 18. Copy supplied by Clive Fenton.
123 Ortolano, Thatcher’s Progress, 21.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Alistair Fair
Alistair Fair is a Reader in Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh, and a historian of architecture in Britain since 1918. His recent books include Modern Playhouses: an Architectural History of Britain's New Theatres, 1945-1985 (2018), while his current work includes research on the Scottish new towns programme, the idea of ‘community’ in twentieth-century Britain, and the architecture of post-war Edinburgh.