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

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

urban design Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes based on geographical location. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, city, ...

er 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, tow ...

. 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

, Hull,

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Clyde Valley The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. T ...

and

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

Early life

Patrick Abercrombie was born in Ashton-upon-Mersey, seventh of nine children of Sarah and William Abercrombie, a stockbroker and businessman who had wide artistic interests, particularly of the

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

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. He spent a year at the

Realschule Real school (, ) 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''), F ...

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Career

In 1897, he was articled to the architect Charles Heathcote, while studying at the

Manchester School of Art Manchester School of Art on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road 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 ...

. After four years, he started work under Arnold Thornely in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, and set up home in

Birkenhead Birkenhead () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic co ...

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

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

with architect Philip Lockwood, son of renowned architect T.M Lockwood, in 1907 he was offered a post as junior lecturer and studio instructor at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture. In 1915 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 Green belt, greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, i ...

. In 1920 he went into partnership with architect Philip Lockwood and F.C. Saxon, as Lockwood Abercrombie and Saxon, a firm which still operates in

as Lovelock Mitchell, one of the world's oldest architecture firms. He was later appointed as Professor of Town Planning at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

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

, Hull,

and

, among others. Of his post-war replanning of Plymouth, Sir

Simon Jenkins Sir Simon David Jenkins FLSW (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust f ...

has written: :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. Throughout his life, he devoted his time to civic bodies. He was a founding member of the Town Planning Institute (TPI) formed in 1914 and became its president in 1925. In the 1920s and 1930s, Abercrombie developed a specialty in regional planning. He 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 an urban planning proposal prepared for the London County Council in 1943 by John Henry Forshaw (1895–1973) and Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (1879–1957), with foreword from Charles Latham, leader of ...

, 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 ...

, together commonly referred to as the ''Abercrombie Plan''. The latter document was an extended and more thorough product than the 1943 publication. Abercrombie conceived the Ringways scheme of London in 1944, proposing four ringroads around Greater London. In 1945 he published ''A Plan for the City & County of

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a historic maritime city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Est ...

'', 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 memorials ...

. 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 town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a Planned community, new town in 1947, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, and occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the ...

and

Crawley Crawley () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, 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 populat ...

and the largest 'out-county' estate, Harold Hill in north-east London. He produced the Clyde Valley Regional Plan in 1946 with Robert Matthew that proposed the new towns of

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; ), sometimes referred to as EK, is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland, and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. Historically a small village, it was designated Scotland's first "new town" on 6 Ma ...

and

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; ) is a large town in the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, most-populous locality in Scotl ...

. 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, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

, 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 (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...

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 Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

in the 1945 New Year Honours. He was the most celebrated British planner of his generation. In 1946 he received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal - the highest honour awarded by the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

. In 1948 he became the first president of the newly formed group the International Union of Architects, 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 ...

, the highest architectural honour in America, making him one of the few architects who have won both the prestigious RIBA Gold Medal and

, alongside renowned names such as

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pionee ...

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...

Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British-Italian architect noted for his modernist and constructivist designs in high-tech architecture. He was the founder at Rogers Stirk Harbour + ...

, and

Norman Foster Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (born 1 June 1935) is an English architect. Closely associated with the development of high-tech architecture, Lord Foster is recognised as a key figure in British modernist architecture. Hi ...

Legacy

The Abercrombie Building at

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (OBU; formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. Th ...

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 certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

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. B ...

. In July 2023, a blue plaque was erected at a house in

Aston Upthorpe Aston Upthorpe is a village and civil parish about southeast of Didcot in South Oxfordshire. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The motion picture National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985 ...

, where he lived from 1945 to 1957. He was the architect of the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI) in

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

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, ...

, and uncle to

Michael Abercrombie Michael Abercrombie (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 Au ...

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. * Patrick Abercrombie, ''The Preservation of Rural England'', Hodder & Stoughton, 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