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TOWN PLANNING
PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE

BY THE SAME AUTHOR
FORMAL GARDENS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY, Etc.

'LIIK CIIAMI'S LLV.SLE.S, I'.\KLS. FRO.M TIIK ARC I )K L'1;T< ULL

TOWN PLANNING

PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE

BY
H. INIGO TRIGGS, A.R.I. B.A.

WITH 173 ILLUSTRATIONS

METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.

LONDON

PREFACE
IT was not until the latter half of the last century
that the subject of town planning began to be
systematically studied. Originating in the far-
reaching schemes of Baron Haussmann for the im
provement of Paris, the movement gathered impetus
with the remodelling of many of the more important
cities of Europe consequent upon the demolition of
their fortifications. In England, until last year, when
Mr. John Burns introduced the Housing and Town
Planning Bill, any idea of a systematic treatment of
the subject was practically unknown outside aesthetic
coteries, and although such matters as public health
and restrictive building laws have for many years
received great attention, we have yet very much to
learn upon the subject of the laying out and develop
ment of town areas. The structure of our towns, the
development of our suburbs and the creation of en
tirely new districts have been with us nearly always
pure matters of chance. What was a village expands
to a town, which in its turn becomes a populous city
without any preparations being made for the great

TOWN PLANNING
change. As each difficulty arises it has been either
quite left to chance, or solved in the best manner of
which the circumstances of the moment permit, with
little thought for the requirements of succeeding
generations. We are beginning to see what the con
sequence of this state of affairs has been and to
gradually realise that a city is not, and ought not to
be, a chance aggregation of so many houses, any
more than a rational dwelling is a fortuitous collection
of bricks and mortar.
The technical literature dealing with town planning
is comparatively small and is almost entirely confined
to Germany and France. The most important illus
trated works are those of Dr. J. Stiibben, the distin
guished city architect of Cologne, and the late Camillo
Sitte of Vienna. The former treated the subject in an
exhaustive manner and has dealt with almost every
conceivable matter pertaining to city construction.
The latter, whose work "Der Stadtebau" is not so
comprehensive, has dealt with town planning more
from the aesthetic standpoint. The work, which was
first published in 1889, may almost be said to have
inaugurated a new era in the art of city building.
Another important German contribution to the litera
ture of the subject is the monthly publication Der
Stadtebau, founded in 1904 by Theodor Goecke and
Camillo Sitte. I desire fully to acknowledge my in
debtedness to these important works, which have been
vi

PREFACE
of great assistance to me in selecting many of my
examples for illustration. In France the interesting
pamphlets published by Eugene Hdnard entitled
"Etudes sur les Transformations de Paris" are full of
suggestion for meeting the traffic requirements of great
cities. The superb series of historical maps published
by the Paris Municipality offer an example, which
might well be followed in other large cities, of stimu
lating an interest in their growth and preserving
valuable records which might otherwise be lost. In
Belgium M. Ch. Buls has contributed several interest
ing pamphlets, and in America Mr. C. M. Robinson
has published two popular works, which, together with
the founding of clubs and societies for the beautifying
of cities throughout the States, has started a crusade
that promises to revolutionise city planning in the
future. In England the subject was first seriously con
sidered in the seventh International Congress of
Architects held in London in 1906, but with the
exception of works dealing with London improve
ments no general literature has yet appeared. The
professional architectural journals have done much to
enlighten public opinion. Foremost among these I
would specially mention The Builder, a journal which
for many years past has steadfastly upheld the best
traditions of English architecture, and to which I am
indebted for much valuable information.
vii

TOWN PLANNING
The present work is the outcome of several years
spent on the Continent and also of a tour made a
few years since when, as holder of the Godwin Bursary
of the Royal Institute of British Architects, I was
enabled closely to study the methods that have made
Paris, Berlin, Munich, and Vienna the beautiful cities
that they are. It is hoped that the result will be of
use, as a means of reference, not only to those who
are called on to act as advisers in projecting schemes
of civic improvement, but also to the members of
Town Councils, who have so great a responsibility in
determining what is to be the future of our cities'
development. I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to those
who by kindly lending plans and diagrams have been
of considerable help in the compilation of the work,
and especially to Mr. William Atkinson for the dia
grams relating to sunlight in streets, to Mr. Halsey
Ricardo for his suggested method of street widening,
to M. Eugene Henard of Paris for the valuable dia
grams of traffic movement, Mr. John S. Nettlefold,
Mr. Raymond Unwin, Mr. W. H. Lever, Mr. Norman
Shaw, Mr. W. A. Harvey, for the loan of drawings,
and to Mr. W. N. Twelvetrees for the interesting
drawings of the gyratory system of traffic supervision.
H. INIGO TRIGGS.

Vlll

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY •••... I
CHAPTER II
TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS . . • 5^
CHAPTER III
THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC . . . . 1 20
CHAPTER IV
TOWN EXPANSION . . . . . . 1 70
CHAPTER V
THE PLANNING OF STREETS . . . . • 213
CHAPTER VI
THE PLANNING OF SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES . . 271

IX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I. THE CHAMPS ELYSfiES, PARIS, FROM THE ARC DE l'ETOILE
Frontispiece
2. SOUTH KENSINGTON AS AT PRESENT LAID OUT . . 2^,
3. SOUTH KENSINGTON, SHOWING HOW THE BUILDINGS
MIGHT HAVE BEEN GROUPED . . -23
4. A SECTION OF THE MUNICIPAL PLAN OF PARIS SHOWING
PROJECTED NEW STREETS . . . • Z7
5 & 6. FRANKFORT, A SECTION OF THE PLAN BEFORE AND
AFTER REDISTRIBUTION . . . 42 & 43
7. PLAN OF ROMAN LONDON . . . . 61
8; PLAN OF ROMAN PARIS . . . . .62
9. A RESTORATION OF SELINUS . . . .66
10. ALEXANDRIA . . • ¦ • .68
II. THE FORUM AT POMPEII . . Facing page 72
12. PLAN OF POMPEII ... ,, 72
13. PLAN OF THE FORUM AT POMPEII . . • Th
14. MONTPAZIER . . . . . -78
15. WINCHELSEA . . . . . . 80
16. PLAN OF MAGDEBURG IN 1 632 . . . . 81
17. PLAN OF THE WATERWAYS OF AMSTERDAM . . 83
18, KARLSRUHE . . . . . .86

XI

TOWN PLANNING

FIG.
19. NEW ORLEANS .....
20. DIAGRAM OF RADIATING STREETS
21. DIAGRAM OF A TOWN PLANNED ON A RIVER
22. BOLOGNA .....
23. MANNHEIM .....
24. HENRICHEMONT ....
25. NEW YORK .....
26. WILLIAM PENN's PLAN OF PHILADELPHIA
27. THE QUARTIER DU SUD, ANTWERP
28. DALNY, THE SEAPORT TERMINAL OF THE TRANS-SIBERIAN
RAILROAD .....
29. SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN's PLAN FOR THE REBUILDING
OF LONDON AFTER THE GREAT FIRE
30. l'eNFANT's PLAN OF WASHINGTON
31. PLAN OF A PORTION OF WASHINGTON SHOWING PRO
POSED SITES FOR FUTURE PUBLIC BUILDINGS
32. SUGGESTED HEXAGONAL PLAN BY HERR R. M'QLLER
33. SUGGESTION OF MR. C. R. LAMB FOR DIVIDING A CITY
INTO GROUPS OF BUILDINGS .
34. PARIS IN 161 7, FROM THE MAP OF MATHIEU MERIAN
35. PARIS IN 1906, SHOWING THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
Facing page
36. PLAN SHOWING THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF BERLIN .
2,^. THEORETICAL PLAN OF THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF
BERLIN ......
38. PLAN SHOWING THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF MOSCOW
xii

PAGE 87
89
89
90
93
9596
99
101102103 107
III"3 117125 128 131
132 134

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PIG. PAGE
39. THEORETICAL PLAN OF THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF
MOSCOW . . . . . -135
40. PLAN SHOWING THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF PARIS . 1 36
41 . THEORETICAL PLAN OF THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF PARIS 1 37
42. PLAN SHOWING THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF LONDON 1 39
43. THEORETICAL PLAN OF THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF
LONDON . . , . . .141
44. CROSSWAYS WITH THREE ROADS, SHOWING COLLISION
POINTS ...... 144
45. CROSSWAYS WITH FOUR ROADS, SHOWING COLLISION
POINTS ...... 144
46. CROSSWAYS WITH FIVE ROADS, SHOWING COLLISION
POINTS ...... 145
47. CROSSWAYS WITH SIX ROADS, SHOWING COLLISION POINTS 1 45
48. DESIGN FOR A SUPERIMPOSED THOROUGHFARE BY M.
EUGfeNE HfiNARD . . • . -149
49. BIRd's-EYE VIEW OF M. EUGENE H^NARD's DESIGN . 1 53
50. TYPICAL CIRCUS. . • • • 15^
51. TYPICAL CIRCUS WITH GYRATORY REGULATION . ¦ ^ 57
52. OXFORD CIRCUS, LONDON . . -158
53. 'oxford circus with GYRATORY REGULATION . -159
54. PICCADILLY CIRCUS, LONDON . . • . 160
55. PICCADILLY CIRCUS WITH GYRATORY REGULATION . 1 62
56. PLAN AND SECTION SHOWING A TYPICAL CONNECTION
OF THE ILLINOIS TUNNEL COMPANY TO A WARE
HOUSE BUILDING, CHICAGO . • ¦ .165
xiii

TOWN PLANNING
FIG. PAGE
57. THE ZONE SY,STEM AT COLOGNE . • . 178
58. SUGGESTION FOR THE CREATION OF SUBURBAN CENTRES
ROUND MUNICH . . . . -179
59. ENLARGED PLANS OF TWO TYPICAL SUBURBAN CENTRES 1 83
60. PLAN OF A workmen's COLONY AT KNUROW, SHOWING
THE PARALLEL SYSTEM OF ALLEY- WAYS . -185
61. DETAIL PLAN OF ONE OF THE ALLEY- WAYS . . 187
62. THE KRUPP INDUSTRIAL COLONY, MARGARETENHOF . 1 88
63. THE "WALD UND WIESENGURTEL," VIENNA . . I9I
64. DESIGN BY MR. RAYMOND UNWIN FOR THE GROUPING
OF BUILDINGS IN A SUBURBAN ROAD . • '195
65. COTTAGE GROUPING ON THE BIRD's HILL ESTATE,
LETCHWORTH . . . . . I96
66. SUGGESTIONS FOR GROUPING CORNER BUILDINGS . I97
6'J. PLAN OF LETCHWORTH . , . Facing page 200
68. PLAN OF PORT SUNLIGHT . . ,, 202
69. BOURNVILLE TENANTS' ESTATE . . . 205
70. HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB .... 207
71. WARRINGTON GARDEN SUBURB . . . .211
72. SUGGESTION FOR DISGUISING CHANGE OF DIRECTION IN
A LONG STREET . . . . -215
73. PLAN OF HIGH STREET, OXFORD . . . 2l6
74. HIGH STREET, OXFORD . . . Facing page 2l6
75. RUE DE RIVOLI, PARIS . . . ,, 216
76. THE RING STRASSE, VIENNA . . ,, 2l8
yj. THE THAMES EMBANKMENT . . ,, 2l8
xiv

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
P'°- PAGE
78. THE ARNO EMBANKMENT, PISA , Facing page 2l8
79. FRANZ JOSEF QUAI, VIENNA . . ,, 218
80. STRADA dell' ABBONDANZA, POMPEII . ,, 218
81. THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE . . ,, 2l8
82. DIAGRAM OF STREET LEVELLING : (o) CHAMPS ELYSfiES ;
{b) VERSAILLES . . . . .22 1
83. DIAGRAM OF RELATIVE PROPORTION BETWEEN ROAD AND
FOOTWAY 1:3:1. . . . . 226
84. DIAGRAM OF RELATIVE PROPORTION BETWEEN ROAD AND
FOOTWAY 1:2:1. . . . . 226
85. DIAGRAM OF A 70-FOOT PLANTED ROAD . .227
86. DIAGRAM OF A 60-FOOT PLANTED ROAD . .227
%"]. A DOUBLE ROAD WITH SINGLE ROW OF TREES . 228
88. A DOUBLE ROAD WITH DOUBLE ROW OF TREES . 228
89. THE CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS . . . .229
90. THE AVENUE WAGRAM, PARIS . . . .229
91. STUBEL ALLEE, DRESDEN . . . -231
92, ADOLFS ALLEE, WIESBADEN . . . -231
93. RHEIN STRASSE, WIESBADEN . . . -231
94. WILHELM STRASSE, WIESBADEN . . .231
95. UNTER DEN LINDEN, BERLIN .... 233
96. BISMARCK STRASSE, CHARLOTTENBURG . . . 233
97. RING STRASSE, VIENNA .... 233
98. MAXIMILIAN STRASSE, MUNICH . Facing page 234
99. AVENUE DE BRETEUIL, PARIS . . „ 234
100. AVENUE DE l'oBSERVATOIRE, PARIS . . . 235
XV

TOWN PLANNING
FIG. PAGE
lOI. FOUNTAIN IN THE AVENUE DE l'obSERVATOIRE, PARIS
Facing page 236
102. M. HENARD's SCHEME FOR BOULEVARD A REDANS (pLAn) 237
103. M. HENARD's SCHEME FOR BOULEVARD A REDANS
(perspective view) . . . -239
104. suggestion for projecting the lower storeys and
setting back the upper storeys of buildings 244
105. diagrams representing the amount of sunlight
in a street running north and south . . 245
106. diagrams representing the amount of sunlight
in a street running east and west . . 247
107. diagrams representing the amount of sunlight
in a street running north-east and south
WEST . . . . . .249
108. METHOD OF OBTAINING THE LIGHT CURVES IN
PRECEDING DIAGRAMS . . . -252
109. FRIEDENS DENKMAL PLATZ, MUNICH . . -255
I 10. MR. NORMAN SHAW's DESIGN FOR REGENT STREET
Facing page 258
III. TERMINATION OF A STREET VISTA, PARIS ,, 260
112, RUE CASTIGLIONE, PARIS . ,_ 262
113. STREET ARCADE AT BOLOGNA . . ^^ 262
114. CONNECTING BRIDGE, GOVERNMENT OFFICES, WHITEHALL Facing page 264
115. GALLERIA VITTORIO EMANUELE, MILAN ,, 264
116. LA SIGNORIA, FLORENCE . . . • 2715
xvi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
F'G- PAGE
117. PIAZZA DEI SIGNORI, VERONA . . . -277
118. PIAZZA DEL DUOMO, RAVENNA, AND PIAZZA DEL DUOMO,
PISTOIA ...... 278
119. PLACE DE L'fiTOILE, PARIS . . . -283
120. PLACE DE LA NATION, PARIS . . . .286
121. PLACE DE LA RfiPUBLIQUE, PARIS . . . 287
122. HET PLEIN, THE HAGUE .... 288
123. DESIGN FOR AN OVAL TRAFFIC PLACE, PARTLY OCCU
PIED BY BUILDINGS .... 289
124. PIAZZA DEL POPOLO, ROME .... 29O
125. AM HOF MARKT, VIENNA . . Facing page 29O
126. HOHEN MARKT, VIENNA . . ,, 29O
127. RATHAUSPLATZ, VIENNA , , ,, 292
128. BAHNHOFPLATZ, HANOVER . . ,, 292
129. PLAN OF THE BAHNHOFPLATZ, HANOVER . . 292
130. MAXIMILIANPLATZ, VIENNA . . Facing page 292
131. KARLSPLATZ, MUNICH . . . ,, 292
132. PLAN OF THE KARLSPLATZ, MUNICH . . . 294
133. KONIGSPLATZ, BERLIN ..... 297
134. THE BISMARCK MONUMENT, KONIGSPLATZ, BERLIN
Facing page 298
135. THE SIEGES ALLEE, BERLIN . . ,, 298
136. PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, PARIS • ,, 298
137. PLACE VEND6mE, PARIS . • ,, 298
138. PLAN OF THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, PARIS
Facing page 298
xvii

PAGE

•

300

Facing page

302

>»

302

•

303

•

304

Facing page

304

M

304

•

305

.

308

TOWN PLANNING
FIG.
139. PIAZZA DI SAN MARCO, VENICE
140. PIAZZA DEL PLEBISCITO, NAPLES
141. PIAZZA DEL MUNICIPIO, NAPLES
142. PLACE VEND6mE, PARIS
143. AMALIEBORG PLATZ, COPENHAGEN
144. LUSTPLATZ, BERLIN
145. HOFBURGPLATZ, VIENNA
146. PLACE STANISLAUS, NANCY
147. MARIA THERESIENPLATZ, VIENNA
148. MARIA THERESIENPLATZ, VIENNA (pHOTOGRAPH)
Facing page 308
149. MARIA THERESIENPLATZ, VIENNA, A FOUNTAIN GROUP
Facing page 308
150. PLACE ROYALE, PARIS , . ,, 308
151. PLACE DES VICTOIRES, PARIS . . „ 308
152. PLAN OF THE ROYAL CRESCENT AND CIRCUS, BATH
Facing page 3 1 0
153. THE ROYAL CRESCENT, BATH . . ,,310
154. PLACE MALESHERBES, PARIS . . . -311
155. THE DUMAS MONUMENT, PARIS . Facing page 312
156. LUISENPLATZ, CHARLOTTENBURG . ,, 312
157. TREILLAGE SURROUNDING BEETHOVEN PLATZ, VIENNA
Facing page 3 1 4
158. PARISERPLATZ, BERLIN . . ,, 314
159. PALAIS ROYAL, PARIS. . . ,,314
160. JARDIN DE LA FONTAINE, nImES . ,, 314
xviii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
^¦°- PAGE
l6l. BELLE ALLIANCE PLATZ, BERLIN . Facing page 314
162. BELLE ALLIANCE PLATZ, BERLIN (pLAN) . ,, 314
163. ALTERNATIVE SUGGE.STIONS FOR THE TREATMENT OF
A FORECOURT PLACE . . . -315
164. PIAZZA DI S. PIETRO, ROME . . . -317
165. PLACE DE LA TRINITE, PARIS . . . -319
166. FORECOURT TO THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES . -320
167. FORECOURT TO THE PALACE OF CASERTA, NEAR NAPLES 32 1
168. SCHLOSSPLATZ, COBLENZ . . . -322
169. PLACE ST. AUGUSTIN, PARIS . . Facing page 322
170. PLACE ST. AUGUSTIN, PARIS (pLAn) . „ 322
171. PLACE DE l'opERA, PARIS . . . -324
172. GENSDARMENMARKT, BERLIN . . . -32 5
173. KONIGSPLATZ, MUNICH. .... 326

XIX

TOWN PLANNING
PAST, PRESENT, AND POSSIBLE

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
THERE is no solitude, so philosophers have told
us, like that of a great city, and in spite of the
old saying, that " God made the country and
man made the town," from which we are to deduce
that the country is divine in comparison with the
town, there is a craving in the minds of the vast
majority of mankind for the architectural effects that
cities afford. It is an established fact, and one that
all past history of the human race confirms, that men
prefer city life to country life ; hence the great im
portance to the well-being of mankind that city life
be carried on under proper housing conditions, with
a view to securing surroundings the most favourable
to health. It has been pointed out that the one book
in the Bible which, of all others, presents us with a
picture of the mystical beauty of the life hereafter,
dwells, not so much upon the beauty of the heavenly

TOWN PLANNING
country as on that of the heavenly city. This seems
less strange, perhaps, when we reflect that to an Oriental
mind, accustomed, as it would be, to the squalor of a
city, the contrasting idea of clean, well-paved streets
would appeal with added force. Aristotle defined a
city as " a place where men live a common life for a
noble end." How can we accomplish this end unless
we make our cities so attractive and so beautiful as
to diffuse a beneficent influence over our homes and
our entire life ? Whatever touches the city touches
civilisation itself. It is in the ancient city that civili
sation first found its nest ; it is in the modern city
that civilisation has attained its highest expression.
" When nomadic Greeks," says Professor Will, " pro
ceeding on the lines of organic national evolution,
massed families into clans or phratries, clans into
tribes, and tribes into states, the result of this final
s-ggregation was the famous city-states of antiquity —
^gina, Corinth, Sparta, Athens. And in these com
munities it was, on the ragged coasts of Hellas, that
art, eloquence, poetry, philosophy, reached an eminence
that, in some respects, has never yet been surpassed.
Proofs of the favoured position of. the city's-man may
be found embedded in the very warp and woof of
language. The ' polished ' man lives in the polis, the
city; the 'urbane' gentleman is from the urbs ; the
' civil ' man is the civis, the citizen, the city-dweller ;
and from the same root comes the word 'civilisation'
itself." When the city societies of ancient Greece fell, it

INTRODUCTORY
was that they might give place to another civilisation
whose centre and soul was a city — the Eternal City —
Rome. Freeman, in an eloquent passage, has declared
in substance that it was the vast reservoir into which
were gathered all the streams of antiquity, and the
inexhaustible fountain from which flowed forth the
rivers of modern national life. The City on the Tiber
was the mighty heart from which, and back again to
which, with tireless diastole and systole, pulsed the
life-blood of the ancient world. Rome, in the imagina
tion of the time, was endowed with a charmed life ; it
was an object of worship ; and with its fall, civilisation
itself was believed to have perished, to be revived only
with the establishment of the Heavenly City, St.
Augustine's "City of God."
In ancient and mediaeval days, cities were in every
sense of the word harbours of refuge ; once within
their strongly guarded walls the traveller found himself
in comfort and comparatively safe from danger.
In the United States, at the close of the Civil
War, only about 3 per cent, of the population lived
in what might be called cities ; and the metropolis,
Philadelphia, was a town of about forty thousand in
habitants. In fact, in the modern sense, America had
no cities at that time. The great bulk of the people
lived in little villages or on solitary farms. To-day.
nearly a third of the population of the United States
is found" in cities of over eight thousand inhabitants,
10 per cent, live in the four cities of New York,
Chicago, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia, and the
3

TOWN PLANNING
relative preponderance of the cities is steadily in
creasing. In Europe this proportion is yet more
striking. To-day about three-fourths of the people
of Scotland are townspeople, as against one-fourth at
the opening of the present century. In England and
Wales the urban population is 77 per cent, of the
whole, whereas some fifty years ago it was only just
over 50 per cent. In France the town population is
about one-third ; in Germany, fully two-fifths, and in
all these countries, as well as in every other European
State, the population in towns is increasing much more
rapidly than in rural districts. These simple facts are
exceedingly significant. They show that the modern
trend of life is distinctly urban.
In England, how little has been done to render
our towns beautiful ! They are regarded only as
necessary places for business ; they are mostly ugly ;
efforts are rarely made to render them attractive,
unless it be by an occasional avenue or laid out open
¦ space. Our provincial towns, especially in the North,
are top often places that men are apt to pass through
with a sigh, places to be hurried away from without
any feeling of regret. Unless by the action of some
public-spirited individual, it is indeed rare that any
efforts are made by the authorities systematically to
render them attractive by sculpture or plantations.
Parks and open spaces we have in plenty, probably a
larger proportion than any other country, but how
rarely does it seem to occur to the authorities that
the laying out demands a much higher aesthetic
4

INTRODUCTORY
expression than it usually receives at the hands of the
average nursery gardener 1
Everybody desires to live in a clean and beautiful
town, and if the authorities can provide such sur
roundings, they not only benefit the inhabitants, but
also attract new residents from other places. The
rateable value is quickly increased as the town
extends, and at the same time the rates are kept at
a lower level. Visitors to the town covet the privilege
of being residents, and the municipality soon gets a
good name. Trade is attracted by the increase of
population and by the more amenable conditions of
life. In a word, the more agreeable the town is
made, the greater is the probability of its becoming
a self-contained borough, possessing every means of
satisfying the moral, intellectual, and physical demands
of its inhabitants, whose artistic needs should be more
insisted upon, particularly when financial questions
are likely to exercise an undue influence.
The efforts of municipalities should not be
confined to matters of hygiene only, but should be
directed towards providing everything possible to
relieve the dull monotony of the town by preserving
spots of beauty, by providing not only wider streets,
but better open squares and places, with more
sculpture and fountains and more tree-planting.
Hitherto there seems to have been a settled
pessimism on the part of the authorities upon the
subject of the general aspect of our towns. This is,
no doubt, partly due to the fact that councillors,
5

TOWN PLANNING
elected only for a very short period, too often refrain
from initiating works of improvement, knowing that
in all probability their successors in office will reverse
their designs. It is also partly due to the fact that
questions of finance enter too largely into the con
sideration of city improvements. In these matters
we are too apt to adopt the " penny wise and pound
foolish policy," the reason usually given for the small
and mean spirit with which our public improvements
are carried out being that it is necessary to wait for
times of prosperity (which rarely come) before changes
can be made, and when several alternative schemes
are brought forward for consideration, it does not often
happen that any but the cheapest course is adopted.
It by no means follows that the cheapest scheme
is the best, but, on the contrary, it often happens that
the scheme which pays best in the long run is that
which is far-sighted and conceived upon the broadest
and most comprehensive lines. This is well evidenced
by the great schemes for the improvement of Paris
during the last few generations. Almost all such
schemes are remunerative, both in the commercial
sense and, much more so, in their general advantage
to the city.
The enormous rate at which we are building all
over the country should cause every thinking man
to pause and consider whether the haphazard systems
of town planning have not been followed long enough
in this country, and if it is not time that we should
take a lesson from Germany and France and America
6

INTRODUCTORY
in initiating speedy reform. From one end of Great
Britain to the other, with the exception of a few
cities such as Edinburgh, there is hardly a single
really good example of town planning.
The speculative builder is not often a man to worry
about the monotony of his rows of houses : as a
business man he looks only to a quick return for
his money, and when he has succeeded in satisfying
the authorities as to his drainage scheme, and the
general widths of his streets, he troubles little about
their planning and is entirely regardless of any future
city extensions or the connecting up of adjoining
areas. The idea that he is not to be checked and
should be allowed to add street upon street to our
suburbs without any control has so long prevailed,
that such legislation as we may hope shortly to see
effected will probably be regarded as an unjust inter
ference with the liberty of the subject. In our suburbs
the speculative builder is indeed " monarch of all he
surveys." Down go beautiful groups of trees, pleasant
groves, and old historic houses, to make way for row
upon row of "genteel residences." The trees are
ruthlessly cut down and their places occupied by
pavements, planted with lamp-posts and laid out as
"Parks," "Groves," "Avenues," "Gardens." It has
been humorously suggested that in our future dic
tionaries corrections might be made somewhat as
follows : —
" Park," a district closely covered with houses
but without either grass or trees.
7

TOWN PLANNING
"Grove," a street of shops with plenty of flaring
gas-lights. " Garden," a collection of houses without a scrap
of ground attached to them.
" Avenue," two rows of houses opposite each
other with lamp-posts planted at intervals.
It is true that some County and Borough
Councils are becoming more sensible of the value of
artistic influences and of their importance in trade and
commerce, and we have just reason to feel sanguine
that the old state of affairs is passing away. After
all, it matters not so much where we stand as in
what direction we are moving. Although public
opinion is not yet ripe for legislation regulating the
artistic standard of buildings, a great advance will
have been made if the Town Planning Bill now before
Parliament should pass into law, and when it has
been proved possible to regulate legally the extension
of cities, we shall already be several stages in advance
of our present condition.
Mr. John Belcher, R.A., recently speaking upon
this subject, said ' : " If legislation is necessary on sani
tary matters, that the public may be protected from
insidious poisons conveyed through the senses of
smell and taste and touch, may it not be equally im
portant to protect the sight? Environment insensibly
influences the development of all forms of life, and it
cannot be doubted that the squalid conditions, horrid
1 Address to the Royal Institute of British Architects, November 7,
1904.

INTRODUCTORY
forms, inharmonious colours, and injurious sights
amongst which such a large proportion of our urban
population spend" their lives, contribute their quota
to the sum total of degenerate moral tendencies, of
which recurring acts of crime are the inevitable out
come. Even the untrained have sensibilities to be
shocked and blunted, and if the effect of a gloomy
and monotonous environment be bad, what shall we
say or think about the cumulative moral effect of
those wildernesses of mean streets and horrid build
ings by which our great cities are disfigured? There
must be no concession to what is bad or even mean
in architecture if a healthy and manly condition of
the people is to be maintained. This aspect of the
functions of good architecture should be considered
by the authorities who watch over the needs of the
community. "And may it not be that many who do not live
in mean streets are yet suffering, perhaps uncon
sciously, from the conditions by which they are sur
rounded in the public thoroughfares, their senses
assailed by a multitude of petty annoyances amounting
in the aggregate to a heavy burden from which
they would fain escape?"
In any city improvement it is important that the
public who are to contribute the cost should be con
vinced that such improvement is not only pleasing to
the eye, but also attains some practical end ; and
when this is so, it generally pays up contentedly,
with the belief that good value has been obtained

TOWN PLANNING
for the money. There is undoubtedly a growing
interest in architecture on the part of the public,
which is shown in a variety of ways. Within the
past quarter of a century things have considerably
changed. Then, little restraint was put on those
who ruthlessly spoiled our finest old buildings by
so called "restoration," but nowadays, thanks to the
power of the Press and the greater general interest
in architecture, a more discriminating taste for the
best modern work is making its influence felt in the
demand for a distinctly higher standard. With the
increased enlightenment on the part of Town Councils,
our cities ought to become what the majority of
citizens desire them to be, and what our architects
are quite competent to make them.
Although our great Universities, which should
lead the way in educating the public in matters of
art, have preferred to consider these things sub
servient to arch;5eology, technical education has stepped
in and largely helped to promote an appreciation of
aesthetic beauty. The attitude of the Universities
towards the teaching of architecture, " the mother of
all the arts," has rarely been encouraging in the
past ; they might do much to promote a better under
standing of a subject of which even the educated
people in this country have little or no knowledge
at all, and, by creating a discriminating taste on the
part of the public, enable them to approve what is
excellent and reject what is inferior. As a con
sequence it is lamentable to find in so many educated
lO

INTRODUCTORY
Englishmen a stolid indifference to architecture, com
bined with a feeling that they are fitted by nature to
act as critics, a vis iiiertice very difficult for the
architect to strive against. In the eighteenth century
the education of a gentleman was not considered com
plete unless he had acquired some knowledge of the
rudiments of architecture. " Every man," said John
Ruskin, "has at some time of his life personal
interest in architecture. He has influence on the
design of some public building, or he has to buy
or build his own house. It signifies less whether
the knowledge of other arts be general or not : men
may live without buying pictures or statues, but in
architecture all must in some way commit themselves :
they must do mischief and waste their money if they
do not know how to turn it to account. And it is
assuredly intended that all of us should have know
ledge in matters with which we are daily concerned."
The first step to be taken in dealing with city
improvements is to endeavour to obtain more con
tinuity of idea and effect in joining together and
dealing with the important public centres ; they
should more often be linked up and treated as an
entire whole, instead of as a number of insignificant
units. Then, all our larger towns should formulate
schemes for bringing their suburban districts into
closer union with the centres ; much greater attention
should be devoted to suburban extension, and from
hygienic reasons every effort should be made to place
the buildings farther apart and to make the open
II

TOWN PLANNING
spaces more extensive the farther they are removed
from the civic centre.
Mr. Ernest George recently drew attention to
the extraordinary rate at which London is being re
built, especially in the central part.
"On what principle," he asks, "is this rebuilding
being done ? Is more forethought being expended than
in former centuries? Is the laying out of new streets
on large enough lines to free the constriction of
the ever-increasing traffic, to admit of abundance of
light and air to the overcrowded areas, and to
obtain Heaven's blessing of green leaves and trees
in our main thoroughfares ? Is any shelter from
rain and snow thought of for pedestrians? Are our
open spaces, bridges, and approaches to be properly
designed and laid out by our most capable men, or
left to the chance ideas of the subordinates of our
County Councils and other authorities ? The time
must come when the rebuilding of London for its
enormously increasing population must be proceeded
with in real earnest, not merely in the childish way
of pulling down at intervals a few squalid neighbour
hoods, and running new streets on chance lines
through the clearing, as being the cheapest method
of making a small improvement, and on designs ob
tained by ill-considered methods, with no definite in
tention of carrying them out. Is new London to be
allowed to grow up with as little apparent design as a
vegetable — controlled by a thousand influences, some
hidden, some vainly directed ? Or is it to be on an
12

INTRODUCTORY
imperial, necessary, convenient, healthful, and tasteful
plan, properly thought out and laid down beforehand
by competent hands, and rebuilt under a wise control ?
If the latter, it is time energetic steps were taken to
arrange for it, and the best architects and engineers
asked to collaborate in the matter. Our main
thoroughfares, narrow and choked with traffic, dan
gerous to life and limb, wanting in light and air,
are gradually being reconstructed on almost the old
lines, subject only to the improvements in construc
tion and to regulations as to heights insisted on by
the London Building Act. They are unhealthy by
overcrowding ; the wood paving alone, through in
sufficient cleansing of the dust impregnated with im
purities, is causing new diseases of eyes and throat."
It is not agreeable to reflect that London, the
largest city in the world, is in proportion the worst
provided with facilities for locomotion, that practi
cally none of its streets have been laid out upon a
definite plan, and that the great trunk roads com
municating with the outside country are often miser
ably bad, narrow, and crooked. Public attention was
drawn to this state of affairs when, in 1903, the
Royal Commission on London Traffic was estab
lished. For two years the Commission patiently in
vestigated almost every phase of the traffic problem,
and finally were unanimous in recommending the
establishment of an independent Board to whom all
matters connected with metropolitan traffic might be
referred, and upon whom ample powers should be
13

TOWN PLANNING
conferred, so that projects calculated to benefit the
population of the largest city in the world might be
approved, if found good, without the obstruction of
too interested landowners or the costly delay that in
variably attends Parliamentary sanction under existing
circumstances. An advance was made when in 1907 the Board
of Trade decided to constitute a temporary branch for
the purpose of dealing with the traffic of London
and other districts, so far as they are under the
control of the Board, the object being to ensure
that, pending the establishment of a Traffic Board, the
valuable evidence collected by the Royal Commission
should be kept up-to-date. But this branch does not,
of course, interest itself in either the aesthetic or the
practical part of the great subject of town planning.
Although the Board of Trade will doubtless be able
to deal advantageously with many matters affecting
the traffic problem, the new department cannot possibly
perform all the duties awaiting attention, and the
statement made in 1907 that the Board of Trade
will report to Parliament yearly on the needs of
London traffic seems simply an attempt on the part
of the Government to shelve all the great questions
that have been raised.
It is with a feeling of considerable apprehension
that we consider the future of Greater London after
the evidence of the London Traffic Commission. It
is sheer avoidance of inevitable responsibilities to
neglect the warnings that are before the eyes of every
14

INTRODUCTORY
thinking man in England, and unless some active
measures are soon taken one dreads to look forward
to the conditions of not only London, but of all our
large cities in the future.
Even though it may be impossible to-day to
effect any of the great changes deemed essential in
the Commission's Report in London or in Greater
London, there is still plenty of time for comprehensive
schemes to be laid down for the future development of
Greatest London — that is, the London of the Metro
politan Police Area, which practically covers the whole
of the ground lying within a fifteen-mile radius of
Charing Cross. Twenty years have passed since the
formation of the London County, which was brought
into existence in 1888, and which mostly lies within
the six-mile radius. The great feature of these twenty
years has been, not so much the filling up of Greater
London as the overflowing of the population into the
fields beyond, where, owing to a greater appreciation
of the value of space and pure air and the wonderful
improvement in the means of cheap and rapid transit,
the growth has been astounding. Willesden is a
notable case in point. When the boundaries of the
London County were drawn, Willesden was little more
than a small town ; now it has attained the propor
tions of some of our largest cities. i Surely no time
should, therefore, be lost in preparing most compre-
I In 1 801 the population numbered less than one thousand, in 1881
it had risen to twenty-seven thousand, and to-day the population
amounts to over one hundred and fifty thousand.
IS

TOWN PLANNING
hensive schemes for the joining up of Greatest
London ; it is sure to spread further yet, and there is
still room between the ten and fifteen mile radius to
absorb a gigantic population.
Many valuable lessons might be taken from the
great extension plans that have been prepared for
some of the German cities. In the case of Munich,
a few years ago, an important competition was held
between the leading engineers and architects, and
substantial prizes were awarded to the authors of the
premiated designs. A fine scheme was evolved to deal
with the probable developments of at least a century,
and this scheme is now being worked upon. Would
it not be possible and advisable for London and
every large provincial city to appoint Commissions and
institute similar competitions amongst experts, which
would certainly stimulate the public to take more interest
in the subject? Adequate prizes should be awarded to
the competitors, and a final selection having been made
from one or more of the schemes, the successful
competitor should be invited to elaborate his plan,
with a view to its being adopted in all future plans
of extension. The obstacle to this course being adopted is' the
difficulty under which we labour in this country of
compelling people to sell their property for public
improvements. As matters stand at present it is
generally necessary for public bodies to keep secret
their improvement schemes, in order to prevent
property from unduly increasing in value. Before any
i6

INTRODUCTORY
great advance in the planning of our towns can be
hoped for, the whole question of the expropriation of
property will have to be seriously considered, as
until municipalities are able to safeguard themselves
on this point, all extension plans must be simply
castles in the air if the legal means of carrying them
out are lacking, and if, as is often the case, a few
obstinate individuals have it in their power to prevent
an improvement scheme from being carried out. The
solution, perhaps, would be to take the valuation of
every property as being that set upon it by the owner
for taxation purposes, before the scheme is first
mooted, adding in the case of land compulsorily pur
chased a sum of, say, lo per cent, of the valuation.
But in any such scheme every effort should be made
to preserve, whenever possible, the existing boundaries
of property, and, where it is necessary to cut a road
through a number of small sites, to see that oblique
plots are avoided.
At the present time, the laying out of our cities
is left far too much in the hands of the city engineer
and surveyor to local authorities. There is, of
course, no reason why these officials should not carry
out improvement schemes if they are able to do so ;
they are often men of considerable capacity, their
calling demands the exercise of high skill and ability,
but they are too wrapped up in routine work and are
liable to get into official grooves, and having rarely had
the advantages of a properly informed architectural
education, they are hardly the best advisers in matters
c 17

TOWN PLANNING
of town planning and improvement, for the ultimate
success of which the best architectural skill is neces
sary. Moreover, there is probably no officer of public
or private service who is already called upon to
perform so many varied duties, and to know some
thing about the details of so many complex technical
problems, as the British municipal engineer.
By temperament, training, and actual experience
the average borough surveyor and engineer is apt to
be unsympathetic to the architect's point of view.
There is often a tendency for his idea of civic improve
ment to be one-sided and narrow. He attaches too
much importance to facts and leaves no room for
imagination. Official architecture almost invariably bears
its stamp upon it ; we see this in the case of the post-
office buildings of every large town, all designed on
one commonplace office pattern instead of being the
works of architectural interest and individuality which
they might be.
Now, whither do all these considerations lead us?
It must be evident to every thinking man who looks
around him and compares the lack of interest taken in
civic problems in our country with the way in which
the question of city planning is being handled in
America and Germany that some such control as these
countries have already adopted must be instituted in
the near future.
Let us briefly consider the state of London, which,
being the Metropolis, naturally comes first to our
thoughts. In the past London has suffered terribly
18

INTRODUCTORY
from the want of a broad view being taken of its
probable development and from the lack of definite
schemes being laid down for its beautifying and
improvement. If the vast possibilities created by the
Great Fire in 1666 had been taken advantage of, and
the plan which Sir Christopher Wren devised had been
acted upon, London would be counted to-day one of
the most beautiful cities in the world, and St. Paul's
Cathedral, instead of being hemmed in on all sides by
shop property, would have stood in the midst of a fine
oval place approached by a broad roadway from
Ludgate, instead of narrow Fleet Street with its dis
figuring iron railway bridge. Again, instead of the
miscellaneous collection of riverside warehouses, a
broad embankment would have bordered the river from
Blackfriars Bridge to the Tower. But the golden
opportunity then lost is hardly likely to return.
The rapidity with which not only London but all
our cities are increasing makes this question of their
extension one of the most serious and important
municipal problems of the day, and sooner or later
considerably increased powers will have to be given to
the Councils for the greater and more efficient control
of the laying out of new areas, the provision and
treatment of public places, the formation of new
thoroughfares, and, what is also of great importance,
a more effective control over the elevations of the
buildings themselves where they front on to important
thoroughfares. Had such a controlling power been
exercised in London, we should not have had be-
19

TOWN PLANNING
queathed to us such a medley of commonplace and
incongruous buildings as may be found in Shaftesbury
Avenue and Charing Cross Road. The architectural
opportunities which these streets afforded might have
had, under proper control, a magnificent result. Since
these streets were laid out it is gratifying to see that
things have somewhat changed and that the archi
tectural condition of our new streets is not wholly
unconsidered, for the London County Council has to
some extent realised the importance of exercising
control over the design of buildings fronting an
important thoroughfare. In the Kingsway, connect
ing Holborn with the Strand — an improvement
involving an expenditure of over five millions sterling
— the Council showed a desire to emulate the Regency
of a century ago by endeavouring to treat a great
public street with becoming architectural dignity.
Starting with the praiseworthy idea of one grand
architectural scheme for Kingsway and Ald-wych, they
invited architects to send in competitive designs, and
at the same time applied to the Royal Institute of
British Architects for advice whilst the scheme was
in the early stages of development. The advice was,
of course, most readily given, but was not acted upon,
for when the Council had their suspicions aroused
that some difficulty might be expected in letting the
building sites if tenants had to conform their buildings
to a general design, they allowed their scheme to collapse,
thereby setting a very bad example to other munici
palities. In this case, they had the power in their
20

INTRODUCTORY
hands to make a great architectural improvement, but
were unable to follow the sound advice of the Institute,
not apparently from want of will, but rather from want
of power and backing up, which might have been
supplied by a more recognised authority, such as a
Ministry of Art. As might have been expected, the
Finance Committee showed but little sympathy with
artistic ideals. Yet artistic treatment has a financial
value of its own, as owners of property are beginning
to find out ; for where the requirements of art are
listened to, property becomes more eagerly sought after
and its value increases accordingly.
London has rarely been fortunate in the situation
of its important public buildings, and it has too seldom
been realised that these should not only be beautiful
in themselves, but should be so placed that their
beauty can be properly seen from as many points of
view as possible. The fine pile of the Law Courts,
for example, is lost through the spectator's inability
to obtain a proper perspective view ; the Bank of
England, to the million who daily pass it, is nothing
but a wall, and the Marble Arch has, since its erection
in 1 85 1, failed to stir the faintest emotion. How
heterogeneous a composition is that formed by the
Wellington Monument, Hyde Park Corner and the
Wellington Arch, where the space is cut up into irregular
leg of mutton shapes and the Wellington Arch placed
upon the shoulder of a curve! Such an arrangement
of a site would incur ridicule in Paris, but it seems
quite to satisfy Londoners. What lessons might be
21

TOWN PLANNING
learnt of the value of vistas and axial lines from a study
of the plan of Paris ! The beautiful Opera House,
so placed that it forms an effective termination to the
vista of several important streets, or the wonderfully
commanding position of the Arc de I'Etoile, or the
vista from the Chambre des D^putds across the Seine
and Place de la Concorde to the superb portico of the
Madeleine !
In this country we seem to have no notion of
placing a building so that it should be axial to an
important thoroughfare. The approach to such a
building as the British Museum is miserably poor.
Compare, for instance, the position of our Law Courts
with such a well placed example of stately architecture
as the Paris Palais de Justice or that of Brussels ;
or the Covent Garden Theatre, facing sideways on
to a second-rate street, with the Paris Opera House
facing down the broad Avenue de I'Opdra ! Compare
the Marble Arch, designed with no reference to any
of the adjoining thoroughfares, with the Arc de
r6toile ! These are all mistakes of several generations
ago, but to come nearer our own time, what magnifi
cent opportunities have been lost in the planning of
South Kensington, where a whole modern estate of
important buildings has recently sprung up between
the Albert Hall and the Cromwell Road. What a
splendid opportunity has been missed here ! The site
was already cleared and there was no lack of funds.
The roads, as they stand, are of magnificent width,
and the buildings are of the most costly character,
22

_l

^

Ed

SClEMCEj

|^^^_ SCHOOL

¦

J

^SW^H NATL'RAL
W^^^^M HISTORV
H^^^^^ MUSEUM

CROPT^ELL RQM^

FIG. 2.— SOUTH KENSINGTON AS AT PRESENT FIG. 3.— SOUTH KENSINGTON AS THE BUILDINGS
LAID OUT MIGHT HAVE BEEN GROUPED

INTRODUCTORY
but instead of endeavouring to deal with the site as
a whole, it has been simply treated as a speculative
builder might be expected to treat a suburban building
estate. The buildings include the Albert Hall and
Memorial, the Natural History Museum, the Imperial
Institute, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, all
buildings of considerable importance, and there are
also other buildings, such as the two Colleges of
Science, the Royal College of Music and the City and
Guilds Institute, which, though smaller, might well
have been considered in one effective group. Compare
the position for one moment with the Maria Theresien
Platz in Vienna, where great museums have been
grouped around a central square, and see what a
magnificent place might have been created if a little
more foresight had been used, and the Natural History
Museum and Royal College of Science placed at right
angles to the Imperial Institute instead of running
parallel to it. Surely it is time we had some qualified
Commission to see that other great opportunities are
not missed in future, and although we can never have
the beautiful London that Sir Christopher Wren would
have given us, we may yet in time have a London of
which we may feel justly proud.
In the matter of public open places, London and,
indeed, nearly all English towns are better off than the
majority of great cities on the Continent ; but we have
signally failed to make the best use of them, and
when we see in Paris or Vienna how beautiful an
adjunct they may be, we are inclined to agree with
25

TOWN PLANNING
Disraeli, who said that the London squares reminded
him of a large family of dull children with Port
land Square and Portland Place for their respectable
parents. However, we may be thankful that we
possess them, and their dulness need not be an incurable
matter. The London square is essentially different from
either the French place, the German platz, or the
Italian piazza. Hitherto it has been regarded as
essentially a residential square, consisting of houses
built round a garden over which the residents have a
sort of prescriptive right. Lincoln's Inn Fields and
Covent Garden, both the work of Inigo Jones, were
the earliest of the London squares to be laid out.
They were followed by many other delightful squares,
the outcome of the building activity of the eighteenth
century. Many engravings exist which show that in
nearly every case these squares were laid out in a
formal manner, no doubt best suited to the surround
ing architecture, and where trees were planted, they
were placed in formal rows in accordance with the
gardening taste of the day. Substantial piers of
rubbed brick or stone with handsome lead terminals
or vases and a wrought iron railing of good design,
or even a painted wooden rail, gave a much more
refined aspect to the square than the badly designed
cast-iron railings that have taken their place nowa
days. An old view of Grosvenor Square shows the
central garden laid out with a small square lawn, in
the middle of which stands the statue of George I.
26

INTRODUCTORY
surrounded by flower beds arranged in an elaborate,
but formal, pattern.
The modern open space movement may be said
to have started in 1842 with Sir Edwin Chadwick's
report on the " Effect of Public Walks and Gardens on
the Health and Morals of the Lower Classes." He
strongly advocated the preservation as public open
spaces of disused burial grounds, and it was greatly
due to his reports that most of these graveyards were
closed in 1853 and the succeeding year, though another
twenty-two years elapsed before any of them were
converted into public gardens. In 1855, when the
Metropolitan Board of Works was formed "for the
purpose of carrying out any work for the improvement
of the Metropolis or public benefit of the inhabitants
thereof," with the exception of the parks, Kensington
Gardens, and Primrose Hill, there were no pleasure
grounds in London under the control of a public
authority. Now, in London alone, there are over one
hundred garden places open to the public.
In 1863 the Gardens in Towns Protection Act
was passed, which empowered the Metropolitan Board
of Works to provide for the proper maintenance of
such public gardens and open spaces "set apart for
the private use of residents in any square or other
public place which might become neglected." But
though this Act of 1863 was a distinct advance upon
the previous condition of things, it aimed at merely
preserving, in the event of private ownership proving
ineffectual to deal with private property. In 1866,
27

TOWN PLANNING
the Metropolitan Commons Act was passed, having
for its object the protection for the public of the
forests and commons around London. So far as it
went this was a most important piece of legislation ;
but a further Act, passed in 1873, greatly extended the
powers of the Metropolitan Board, authorising it to
purchase any saleable rights in commons, with a view
to preserving such places intact for the use and en
joyment of the public. It was not, however, until a
series of Acts known as the Open Spaces Acts, passed
at intervals between 1877 and 1890, became law, that
a really appreciable advance was made. These Acts,
in addition to that of 1906, have enabled the London
County Council to preserve existing open spaces, and
also to acquire parks and lesser areas, in conjunction
with the various Metropolitan Borough Councils in
whose jurisdiction they may be. In 1907 the con
trol of the London County Council extended over no
fewer than no parks, gardens, churchyards and open
spaces, having an aggregate area of nearly 5,000
acres. I
A great deal of credit for this improved state of
things belongs to such societies as the Commons Pre
servation Society, the Metropolitan Public Gardens
Association, and the open spaces branch of the Kyrle
Society, who have, by their labours and their example,
succeeded in stirring up such public authorities as
H.M. Office of Works, the London County Council,
I See " London Parks and Open Spaces," published by the London
County Council, 1906. 28

INTRODUCTORY
and the metropolitan vestries, as well as County
Councils and municipal bodies in the provinces.
It will thus be seen that in the provision of
open spaces for public enjoyment this country has
amply met the requirements for many years to
come. In the United States during the last fifteen or
twenty years the question of civic improvement has
created much interest and enthusiasm. A very whole
some form of city pride has developed that bids fair
to secure for American cities the first place in all
that makes for stateliness and convenience ; for the
Americans have shown themselves capable not only in
all questions of practical utility, but have of late years
shown signs of developing considerable skill in the
arts, and especially in that of architecture. Vast sums
of money have been expended, and it is encouraging
to note that much of the work has been planned by
skilled experts, who have shown foresight far in
advance of the requirements of the day. A number of
societies have been formed throughout the States,
whose object is to foster and encourage public interest
in civic improvements, and very much has been
written upon the subject.
Washington has adopted a most elaborate and
comprehensive plan, prepared by a commission of ex
perts, which will require many years for its completion
and an enormous expenditure. A report recently
published deals with the improvement and develop
ment of the city and suburbs by laying out the whole
29

TOWN PLANNING
upon a large and comprehensive scale. A small com
mittee of experts, consisting of two architects, a leading
sculptor, and a landscape gardener, was appointed to
prepare and submit a general plan for the development
of the city, and, at considerable private sacrifice, these
gentlemen devoted nearly a year of their time to
studying the question. A short tour of the principal
capitals of Europe was made and then a comprehen
sive plan was produced, fully illustrated by drawings
and models. The committee describe the realisation
of the scheme as a stupendous task, much greater
than any one generation can hope to accomplish, but
they add that the hearty and intelligent co-operation
with which the plans have been received by the officers
of the Government, the Committee of Congress, and
the public generally, makes it practically certain that
the development of the national capital will be
eventually prosecuted on the lines proposed. Many
stubborn attempts that have been made to erect
Government buildings on sites that would have inter
fered with the plan of the Commission have, for
tunately, been frustrated, chiefly owing to the influence
of President Roosevelt. The city of Washington
has been effectually rescued from a state of chaos
which threatened to obliterate the noble lines on which
it was originally planned. A further effect is that a
standard has been set which is not without influence
on municipal matters throughout the country. Wash
ington has become an object-lesson in efficient local
administration, and the policy which included the
30

INTRODUCTORY
special care of the capital among the highest affairs of
state has been justified by the result.
The case of New York is an extremely interesting
study in the replanning of great cities, and deserves
special consideration. New York was originally laid
out upon the absurd gridiron plan, all the streets, with
the exception of Broadway, being planned in rect
angular blocks with hardly any open squares or im
portant centres of distribution ; an idea, we regret to
say, which still finds favour in our own colonies.
With a view to remedying the mistakes of the past
and to making New York a more comely and con
venient place of business and residence, a movement
was initiated by a body of municipal reformers, which
after a short time was officially recognised, and cul
minated in the appointment of a City Improvement
Commission to deal with some of the more serious
problems arising from the inconvenient lay out. About
a year after its appointment the Commission made its
preliminary report, containing many very excellent
suggestions. The result of their labours was published in
a handsome volume, which failed to provoke any
popular interest, and there is little reason to suppose
that their recommendations will carry any authority
in whatever schemes for improvement the City of New
York may have to deal with. This failure was prin
cipally due to the obstacles engendered by the existing
legal constitution and financial condition of New York,
and also to the character of the Commission, who did
31

TOWN PLANNING
not carry with them the influential support of public
opinion, and who apparently felt there was little chance
of their recommendations being carried out.
At Cleveland, Ohio, a magnificent plan has been
devised for grouping the principal public buildings.
The city is singularly fortunate in that new public
buildings for the Government, the county, and the
municipality were required at the same time, making a
union of the various interests practicable as well as
desirable. Like Washington, the city is also fortunate
in that the railway companies are willing to work in
harmony with the general plan.
Great fires in cities, although they must be
regarded as grievous affiictions, have sometimes offered
peculiar opportunities for the correction of many faults
in the original designs of a city. Thus, Baltimore
has taken advantage of the opportunity presented by
the great fire to widen fifteen streets within the burnt
districts to the extent of about eight acres. Notwith
standing this reduction in the available building area
within the district, there has been a large increase in
the value of the remaining property. On the other
hand, in the case of San Francisco,, when in 1906
the most favourable opportunity presented itself and
the city was laid low by the flames, the authorities
quite failed to rise to the occasion. Strange to say,
for several years previous to the disaster a commis
sion had been engaged and much money had been
spent in elaborating plans for a really fine city. These
had actually been adopted by the municipal authorities
32

INTRODUCTORY
before the fire occurred, but owing to lack of confi
dence in the city's administration and a preponderating
feeling amongst the landowners that commercial con
siderations should take precedence over mere questions
of beauty, the advocates of the plan succeeded in
securing the adoption of hardly any of the measures
that would have made San Francisco one of the
finest cities in America.
To Paris belongs the honour of having been the
unrivalled leader of European cities in effectually
transforming the labyrinthine tangle of narrow mediaeval
streets into broad modern thoroughfares. Vienna and
Berlin have also accomplished magnificent results in
city-making, but Paris was the pioneer, and her
municipal authorities, acting under the guidance of
Baron Haussmann, were the first to conceive the ideas
of symmetry and spaciousness, of order and conveni
ence, that have made Paris the finest city in the
world. If we enquire into the causes that have produced
so fine a result, we see at once that it has been
brought about by strict building regulations, which
have taken into consideration other things beyond
hygiene and the public safety. The municipality have
always deemed it their duty to enhance the beauty of
the city, and the rights of individuals have been cur
tailed to this end. They have always lived ahead of
their time, and the result of this foresight, as of all
foresight in civic matters, has not only been an
increase in dignity and beauty, but, in the case of
D 33

TOWN PLANNING
Paris, an increase in material prosperity as well.
There is, moreover, both in France and Germany a
municipal spirit which at present does not exist in
England, and as long as this municipal spirit remains
undeveloped, we cannot look for any considerable
progress to be made, and the idea of leaving so much
to private endeavour prevents any wide view being
taken of civic improvement. In many of the munici
pal improvements that are carried out in Paris, the
plans have been prepared and decided upon many
years in advance. Thus when the Champs Elysees
was first laid out, the radiating avenues leading from
the Place de I'litoile were placed on the official maps,
and although it has taken many years to achieve,
every one of these avenues has at last been completed
with such modifications and improvements as condi
tions may have required from time to time.
The systematic method pursued in Paris is worthy
of close attention. In the first place, an official plan
is kept up of the whole city, and all schemes of con
templated improvements, involving in any way the
beauty of the city, whether it be in the laying out of
an important public street, or in drafting new building
regulations, or the situation of an important work of
art, are reported upon by special commissions of
experts at the call of the Prefecture of the Seine.
Artists, whether they be painters, sculptors, or archi
tects, consider it an honour to serve on these commis
sions and give the best of their ability to the public
service without remuneration. For instance, the Paris
34

INTRODUCTORY
building laws were revised in 1896 on the report of a
commission which consisted of the following official
persons : — Two municipal councillors, the chief of the
department which deals with building lines, the chief
engineer, the chief inspector and the honorary archi
tect to the town of Paris. In order that the com
mittee should not be composed of officials only, to
these seven were added the names of sixteen outside
architects of distinction, so as to ensure to the town
the best ability (which is not generally willing to
submit itself to the trammels of an official position), i
Such a commission, as may be imagined, carried suffi
cient weight to enable it to advise on other matters
beyond those immediately affecting the health and
safety of the public, and to impose a number of
aesthetic restrictions on buildings, with a certain know
ledge of the final effect to be produced. In street
improvements no secret is made of their direction
and extent, and proposed widenings and new streets
are clearly marked on the large scale maps issued by
the "Service du Plan de Paris," corresponding to the
English Ordnance map, even although it may be
twenty years before the changes can be carried out.
Owners of property cannot sell the land scheduled,
and must submit for approval plans of any alteration
they propose to make to their buildings. It thus
I Contrast this with the Royal Commission on London Traffic
which sat to enquire into the whole question of the future planning of
London's streets. In the personnel constituting this Commission the
architectural profession was entirely ignored, neither did any architect
appear before it to give expert opinion. 35

TOWN PLANNING
becomes impossible for any new building or costly
alteration to be erected or carried out upon land that
will be ultimately required. This state of affairs is
so far beyond what we have attained to or see
any prospect of attaining to in our large English
cities that we can only regard it with rather hopeless
envy. It has always been the custom to employ good men
on the public works in Paris. When Baron Hauss
mann first took over the direction of affairs in 1853, he
created a corps of public architects, recruited from the
foremost graduates of the ficole des Beaux Arts, and
in the list we find the names of some of the best men
of the day. The education which is given, both at the
Beaux Arts and the school attached to the D6partement
des Ponts et Chaussdes, results in turning out a most
useful type of official. The Departement des Ponts et
Chaussees is an institution dating from the time of
Louis XIII., when it was first organised in a rudi
mentary form. As is the case with other similar
organisations in France, there is not only a Govern
ment Department, but a school for the preliminary
training of future officials (an idea which might be
followed with great advantage in England and
America). Paris has, also, been fortunate in the fact that
the great Exhibitions held there from time to time
have always been the means of adding to the city
some new municipal feature of a permanent character,
so that after the Exhibition is cleared away the city
36

FIG. 4.— A SECTION OF THE MUNICIPAL PLAN OF PARIS SHOWING HOW FUTURE STREETS AND BRIDGES ARE FORESHADOWED ON
THE OFFICIAL PLAN,

INTRODUCTORY
has gained either some beautiful building, or a park
or an avenue. Thus, the lower end of the Champs
Elysees was developed at the close of the first great
Exhibition. The second and third Exhibitions produced
the Trocad^ro, and to some extent the development
of the Champ de Mars, and the last Exhibition of
1900 gave to the city the two art palaces and the
Pont Alexandre III.
In Italy many of the larger cities have a
" Commissione Edilizio," which has almost exactly the
same function as the Art Committee of the Paris
Municipal Council.
Nowhere has the subject of town planning
received more careful attention than in Germany,
where for many years the foremost architects of the
country have given much thought to the subject, and
where the State practically compels municipalities to
own land for public improvement and has issued in
structions that no opportunities should be missed by
them in getting land into their possession. In some
cases where towns are rapidly increasing the authori
ties have been required to prepare a building scheme
several years in advance, dealing with the areas likely
to be built over, and considerable powers have been
given them to acquire land for playgrounds and open
spaces, the provision of wide streets and boulevards,
&c. Moreover, where it is found that owing to the
irregular shape of areas or for other reasons it w^ould be
an advantage to deal with the areas as a whole, they
are authorised to combine a number of small plots
39

TOWN PLANNING
for the purpose of the building plans, and. after the
area has been laid out as a whole, the land can be
either expropriated or apportioned for building pur
poses between the owners of the original properties.
The city of Berlin since 1862 has had a system
of street planning which, when once fixed, is rigidly
followed until changed conditions make variations
necessary. A claim of an owner that his property is
depreciated in value does not meet with the considera
tion it would in this country, the general good of the
majority being the first thing kept in mind. Berlin,
unlike Paris, gives no power to its Council to regulate
the external appearance of buildings.
In Ulm wide streets of heavy construction are
developed only for main traffic ways, while narrow
streets of cheaper construction are used for all the
residential parts of the city. Ulm considers the land
policy to be at the root of the housing question. In
1904 it owned 60 per cent, of its area, while in 1906
it owned about 80 per cent. It is thus in a position
rigidly to control its improvements. The city is con
tinually buying land, and recently bought the old for
tification, thus bringing into use a large amount of
private land that was not before available. In order
that it might share the increased valuation it secured
a law giving to it a part of the increased value. The
city controls land speculation by reserving the right to
buy back all land within a hundred years at the
price at which it was sold. The scheme generally
followed to prevent overcrowding is to allow 20 per
40

FIG. 5.— A FRANKFORT BUILDING ESTATE, COMPRISING THIRTY-FIVE ACRES AND OWNED
BY FIFTY-FOUR OWNERS, BEFORE RE-ARRANGEMENT

FIG. 6. — THE SAME ESTATE AFTER RE-ARRANGEMENT

INTRODUCTORY
cent, only of a site in outlying districts to be covered
by buildings, 17 per cent, by the street, 13 per cent.
by the back gardens and 50 per cent, by the front
gardens. Mannheim follows the same general policy as
Ulm, but does not deal as extensively in land. To
prevent overcrowding it divides the town into three
zones, in the first of which 60 per cent, of the land
may be covered by buildings, space between build
ings is not required, and the buildings may be five
storeys high. In the second zone 50 per cent, of the
land may be covered, space is required between build
ings, except in main streets, and four storeys is the
limit. In the third, 40 per cent, of the land may be
covered, space is required between all houses, except
with a special permit, and three storeys is the limit.
Factories are restricted to special districts.
In Frankfort,! owing to the enormous develop
ment of traffic within recent years and to the in
crease in the size of the city and outlying districts,
the municipal authorities have felt it incumbent upon
them to prepare a comprehensive plan for future
extension, providing, as far as main highways
and tramway routes are concerned, for the future of
outlying suburbs and villages. The law governing
building operations gives power for the compulsory
readjustment of boundaries. Readjustments may be
' See " A Guide to Some of the Public Works of Frankfort on the
Maine," a quarto pamphlet published by the City Engineer's Department,
Frankfort, 1907, English edition. 45

TOWN PLANNING
undertaken either on the initiative of the authorities or
by the request of persons owning more than half the
total area of the land in question. In cases where
this excellent rule is applied to land not previously
built upon, the area required for streets and open
spaces is first deducted and the remainder is divided
among the owners, in building plots of suitable form,
as far as possible on the sites where their property
was formerly situated. Much of the land is owned
in long strips which are taken over by the muni
cipality, laid out, and redivided pro rata. As at
Mannheim, there are three districts, in the first of
which 75 per cent, of the land may be covered, and
the buildings may be five storeys high, but not over
65 feet. In the second, the buildings may be four
storeys high, but not higher than the width of the
street. In the third, two storeys is the limit, but not
higher than the width of the street. Factories are
not allowed in residential districts.
The wave of city improvement is making itself
felt in far distant quarters of the world, in Tokio, Rio
Janeiro and Buenos Aires, and even in the Transvaal
and Orange River Colony, where the most drastic
and up-to-date regulations are enforced in the public
interest in connection with the planning of any new
town. Having thus briefly reviewed the progress made
in America, France, and Germany, England may well
consider whether she is not behindhand in these
questions of town extension and its municipal con-
46

INTRODUCTORY
trol, and whether the time has not arrived for taking
active measures. We are too apt to wait until the
last moment before making our civic improvements,
and then be surprised because they are so costly.
These problems are largely a matter of time, and if
authorities would only look a few years in advance
it would be quite possible gradually to transform the
character of their towns without incurring any serious
expense. If they are unable to foresee the result of
their schemes for more than twenty years hence, they
ought not to be entrusted with the control of such
important affairs.
The motley collection of municipalities and coun
cils to which the local government of London and
Greater London is entrusted cannot possibly deal with
any comprehensive scheme for the whole of the area
involved, and, moreover, separate local authorities
are proverbially jealous of each other. It is most
important that some comprehensive plan of street and
road improvement should be drawn up. "It stands
to reason," says the Royal Commission on London
Traffic, "that any plans, however skilfully devised, which
aim at taking effect over a long period of time may
in some degree require modification in the light of
experience, or owing to changes of conditions : the
point is to secure that in future new streets shall be
constructed and improvements in old streets shall be
effected, not haphazard and piecemeal as hitherto, but
in relation to the general needs, and in pursuance
so far as possible of a fixed policy, which should be
47

\

TOWN PLANNING
followed with persistent effort over a great length of
time." London has become so vast that any complete
scheme for dealing with the suburbs as a whole will
take many years to carry out, but this is not the case
with the large cities and towns of the provinces,
which are, in many cases, just ripe for such im
provement schemes, and it is not too late for them
to recover from the effects of bad town planning of
the past. The chief objection that is usually raised to such
schemes is that they afford information which leads
to unhealthy land speculation and gives a fictitious
and inflated value to properties that would have to
be acquired for the proposed improvements. The ob
jection is certainly a very real one, and cannot be
disregarded, but steps can doubtless be taken to meet
it, and the objection should hardly be held to out
weigh the advantage which would certainly result in
the formation of comprehensive schemes of improve
ment. It should be possible to establish first a
Ministry of Fine Arts to deal with all the greater
and more national questions, and, secondly, to form
in the larger cities strong commissions capable of
dealing with all questions of improvement and future
development. Such a committee has recently been
created by President Roosevelt, as the direct outcome
of unceasing agitation on the part of the American In
stitute of Architects to bring about the appointment
of a body of experts to exercise control over the
48

INTRODUCTORY
design of public buildings, the location and erection
of public monuments, the laying out of open spaces,
street improvements, &c. The council is composed of
twenty-one architects, four painters, four sculptors and
one landscape architect. The President's order provides
that before any plans are formulated for any public
building or grounds, or for the location or erection
of any statues, the matter must be submitted to the
Council of Fine Arts and their advice followed,
unless for good and sufficient reasons the President
directs otherwise. The order directs " the heads of
executive departments, bureaus, and commissions to
govern themselves accordingly."
The idea of a permanent consultative body in
England to whom questions of public improvements
might be referred and questions of civic improvement
submitted, not necessarily for sanction, but for consulta
tion and advice, was strongly urged by Sir Aston
Webb in his Presidential Address to the Royal Insti
tute of British Architects in 1903. "The work," he
said, "could hardly be entrusted to any single indivi
dual, but there would surely be no difficulty in finding
men of skill, taste, and authority enough, and with
patriotism enough, to fdrm such a Commission as that
established in New York, and on the same terms,
if asked to do so by his Majesty's Government." It
has also been suggested that the First Commissioner
of Works should act as a Minister of Fine Arts —
possessing the necessary despotic powers to see the
right proposals adopted — and this idea has found a
E 49

TOWN PLANNING
powerful advocate in the Earl of Plymouth, who, it
will be remembered, held the office of First Com
missioner of Works and Public Buildings in the late
Government, and whose views upon the question are
worth quoting. In an article to the Tribune, January,
1906, he writes : —
" There is, no doubt, much to be said for the
sweeping change that would be brought about by
the creation of a Minister of Fine Arts, the most
important, perhaps, being the co-ordination of matters,
generally of an artistic character, which are now
controlled by various departments, under one head.
But before this were done, the most careful con
sideration would have to be given to the powers with
which this new Minister and his department were to
be invested ; and to transfer the control of matters
hitherto successfully performed by various bodies to
a new and untried department could not be done
hurriedly or with a light heart.
" Seeing, therefore, little prospect of such a Minister
being appointed in the near future, I think that much
good might be done, or, to put it conversely, much
harm might be averted, by proceeding on the lines
suggested by Sir Aston Webb and by establishing
some permanent advisory committee to which, in the
first place, the Government might refer matters touch
ing the creation or improvement of public buildings
and national monuments under their control.
"If such a committee were properly constituted,
its authority would very soon be recognised, and it
so

INTRODUCTORY
might then be possible to give it wider influence and
to deal, without unduly trespassing on the individual
rights of private persons, with other than Government
buildings — at least in certain defined positions where
the style and character of an elevation were considered
of supreme importance."
A Bill passed by the Connecticut Legislature in
1907 established such a permanent Commission on the
City Plan for the city of Hartford, and conferred upon
it very broad powers. The Commission is composed
of "the Mayor, who shall be its presiding officer,
the president of the Board of Street Commissioners,
the president of the Board of Park Commissioners,
the City Engineer, two citizens, neither of whom
shall hold any other office in said city government,
one member of the Board of Aldermen, and one
member of the Common Council," the two latter
being appointed by their respective Boards and
the two " citizens " by the Mayor. It is required
that " all questions concerning the location of any
public building, esplanade, street, square, or park
shall be referred to the Commission " by the Common
Council for "consideration and report before final
action is taken on such location." Other matters
"may" be referred to the Commission, the Council
may delegate to it such powers as the Council deems
necessary, and the city, acting through the Commission,
may condemn and take any amount of property within
its boundaries. Such land as is not needed for the
improvements, after they have been completed, the city
51

TOWN PLANNING
may re-sell, "with or without reservations concerning
future use and occupation of such real estate so as to
protect public works and improvements and their en
virons, and to preserve the view, appearance, light,
air, and usefulness of such public works." The
Commissioners serve without pay, but their expenses
are to be defrayed and they may employ expert
advice. Experience shows that in England municipal
bodies are often only too anxious to do the right and
proper thing as soon as they have ascertained what
that may be, and this being so, it seems strange
indeed that they should be so reluctant to make use
of the advice of those artists, architects, and sculptors
amongst their citizens, who naturally take great pride
in their immediate surroundings. Artists, as a rule,
are not the sort of men who are willing to face the
ordeal of an election campaign, which is, perhaps, not
altogether an unmixed joy, and it is not likely that
they would be sufficiently popular with the general
public to be elected as municipal councillors, but
they might be co-opted on to these bodies. They
could so often be of assistance in indicating the best
method of procedure in questions of taste, and act as
intermediaries between the Council on the one hand
and the artists employed on the other.
The medical and legal professions have never
shown themselves behindhand in offering their services
without fee when matters of public benefit have been
in question, and there can be no doubt that the
52

INTRODUCTORY
foremost artists in all branches of art in this country
would readily give their services if called upon to
do so. It is most important that everywhere a local interest
in the larger aspects of street architecture should be
stimulated, and this can best be done by the formation
of committees in all our leading cities, such as that
we have already referred to at Hartford. Such com
mittees should, in the first place, be not too large,
and their duties would be to help to instruct public
opinion and arouse its interest, and, also, to guide
municipalities in suggesting the lines upon which
improvements should be planned. With regard to
London, the suggestion has been made that such a
scheme for the expansion and advancement of im
provements might be prepared by the Royal Institute
of British Architects, working with the co-operation
of kindred Societies, such as the Royal Academy, the
Society of Arts, &c. Sir Aston Webb said recently,
" I believe it would be possible, with the hearty co
operation of members of these societies, to produce
a scheme which would compel attention and ensure, at
any rate, that the alterations and expansion of London
in the future shall proceed on some definite and re
cognised scheme." The expenses of such schemes are
not heavy, being chiefly laid out in the draughtsman's
fees and printing, «&c., as all the artists and architects
work gratuitously until the scheme is carried into
execution. The interest in tracing out the development of
S3

TOWN PLANNING
a city's plan is surely one that it would be well to
foster. A complete collection, for example, of the
plans of any large city would be of the greatest in
terest to the citizens, and of quite sufficient importance
to be undertaken by the civic authorities.
In London, the London Topographical Society
has done excellent work in tracing out and preserv
ing as far as possible the past history of this largest
city in the world, by illustrating old remains of his
toric buildings about to be destroyed, and by the
publication of interesting and rare maps and drawings.
But it is hardly to our credit that such work should
be left to private societies, and much more might be
done if the authorities would combine to bring under
one roof the valuable material stored away in the Grace
collection at the British Museum, the Guildhall
Library, and elsewhere. These collections are at
present too scattered, and to be of great interest they
should be brought together in one central Topographi
cal Museum, controlled by the civic authorities. In
the Rathaus at Vienna large galleries are devoted to
the illustration of the evolution of the city from the
Middle Ages to the present day. The National
Museum at Munich and the Carnavalet Museum at
Paris have most interesting topographical collections,
and set an example which should be followed in every
important city.
It would also be of interest if the authorities
would publish portfolios of the rarer maps and plans
showing the cities' development, and as a model,
54

INTRODUCTORY
nothing could be finer than the magnificent atlas of
reproductions of the Plans of Paris which has been
published by the Municipality, and which constitutes
a most valuable record of progress from the earliest
Roman times to the present day.

55

CHAPTER II
TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
BEFORE considering the various types of
ancient and modern cities, it will be interest
ing to endeavour to distinguish clearly the
causes which have determined their origin and growth.
In the majority of cases, a city owes its origin and
success to accidents of place and commercial require
ment. With perhaps few exceptions, its foundation
has really been quite accidental, and the selection of
the earliest sites is generally found to be due to the
necessity of establishing either a military or a trading
post. It follows, therefore, that these cities have been
placed either in localities that were primarily well
suited for defence, or on the natural highways of
commerce, whether inland on streams, on the shores
of a lake, or on the coast line. They have generally
been preceded by military roads or common tracks,
and their development has been along the lines of
least natural resistance, at distances apart regulated
principally for convenience' sake at the space of a
56

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
day's march. From the very earliest times, and even
in countries where the population was extremely small
and scattered, it has been customary for several tribes
to share a common trysting-place where they held
their councils, bartered goods in common markets,
and met together for the observance of religious rites
at regular intervals.
Although the trade . carried on at these meeting-
places was generally the first and most powerful
motive to their institution, the love of social inter
course and the necessity for combination against a
common foe added further strong incentives. More
over, the sites of great cities have often been indi
cated by some nascent industry. A vein of metal or
perhaps a mine, a bed of flint for cutting or polishing
weapons, or a layer of clay useful in the making of
household utensils, have all been attractions to draw
mankind together, and if at the same time the site
chosen happened to be well placed by nature for trade
routes, it at once possessed all the elementary require
ments necessary for the formation of a town.
Other strong influences that fixed a centre of
population were those of religion and of war. The
action of a volcano emitting clouds of fire and smoke,
of a mighty underground river issuing from a cave in
the bowels of the earth, a peculiar natural formation
of mountain or rock, strange sounds proceeding
from unusual natural causes — these and similar
phenomena were easily sufficient to arouse in man
kind the fear of the unknown and the terror of
57

TOWN PLANNING
mystery. Religion consecrates the spot, temples arise
above it, the faithful make pilgrimages, and we have
in time a Mecca or a Jerusalem. But probably the
greatest of all influences is that of war and the need
for defence against a common foe. There are still
vast regions in Africa and Asia where every village is
strongly fortified with breastwork and palisade ; even
in Europe, especially in the South, modern civilisation
has not yet swept away all vestige of fortifications
erected to keep out the barbarians of the African
coast, and we find that nearly every group of dwell
ings round the northern coasts of the Mediterranean
has its fortified walls and watch-towers. An island
separated from the mainland by a narrow channel of
deep water, like Ortygia, afforded an admirable site for
a maritime city, and impregnable precipitous positions,
like Taormina, from whence the defenders might hurl
great stones upon the assailants, formed a sort of
natural fortress that was much appreciated.
In an interesting article on the " Evolution of
Cities " ' the writer indicates the causes that generally
led to the development of cities. " Primitive man," he
says, "looked out the site; civilised man founded and
built the city. At the earliest beginnings of written
history among the Chaldaeans and the Egyptians, on
the borders of the Euphrates and the Nile, the city
had long existed, and it appears by that time to have
numbered its inhabitants by tens and hundreds of
I The Contemporary Review, February, 1895, "The Evolution of
Cities," by Elis6e Redus. 58

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
thousands. The cultivation of these river-valleys
required an immense amount of organised labour,
the draining of swamps, the deflecting of river beds,
the construction of embankments, the digging of
canals for irrigation ; and the completion of these
works necessitated the building of cities in the imme
diate neighbourhood of the stream, on an artificial
platform of beaten earth raised well above the level of
inundation." The unevenness of the land as well as
the poverty of the soil tends to repel population, and
prevents, or at least retards, the growth of cities, and
the natural tendency of towns, therefore, is to cluster
immediately outside the forbidden area of the moun
tain range, retaining only a few scattered hamlets, as
trading posts or halting-places, in the more sheltered
valleys. "Every torrent," says Elis6e Reclus, "has its
riverside town in the lowland, just where its bed
suddenly widens and it breaks into a multitude of
branches among the gravels. In the same way every
double, treble, or quadruple confluent of the valley has
its important town, so much the more considerable,
other things being equal, as the branches of the delta
carry a greater abundance of water. Take for instance,
from this point of view, the geography of the Pyrenees
and the Alps. Could any situation be more naturally
indicated than that of Saragossa, placed on the mid-
course of the Ebro, at the crossing of the double
valley of the Gallego and the Huerva? The city of
Toulouse, again, the metropolis of Southern France,
stands on a spot which a child might have pointed
59

TOWN PLANNING
out beforehand as a natural site, just where the river
becomes navigable below the confluence of the Upper
Garonne, the Ari^ge and the Hers. At the opposite
corners of Switzerland, Basle and Geneva stand at the
great cross-roads followed by the ancient migrations of
peoples ; and on the southern slope of the Alps every
valley without exception has its warden town at its
gates." A city built against a steep hillside can hardly fail
to be picturesque, especially if it rises from a river or
on the sea coast ; and even when owing to climate,
material, soil or other local cause, the charm of colour
may be absent, beauty at least of outline will not be
wanting. Such a city calls for an amphitheatrical
style of laying out, such as we see in Constantinople,
Trieste, and Genoa. Steep hillsides can influence the
division of a town more decidedly than a river.
Edinburgh and Salzburg are examples of this. Many
towns thus situated are divided into upper and lower
towns, as at Bergamo. Though to a certain extent they
may be inconvenient to traffic, hills add much to the
picturesqueness of a city, and, as in the case of Rome
and Paris, give it much of its character.
There are several reasons why river-banks should
be so generally chosen as town sites. The never
ceasing movement of the current, besides its value from
hygienic reasons, is a most important commercial asset
both as a motive force and for purposes of transport.
The sites of both London and Paris were de
termined by the advantages offered for fording the
60

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
Thames and the Seine. In the case of London it
was not possible to cross the river near the mouth
owing to its depth, but near where the Abbey of
Westminster now stands the river spread its course
over many miles of marshes, and when the tide went
out it became comparatively easy to cross on foot.
The early Britons established their Lake fort or Lyn-
dyn, on a hill rising about 60 feet above the sea level

FIG. 7

near the spot where now stands St. Paul's Cathedral.
To the east and west it was protected by two small
rivers, the Walbrook and the Fleet, and behind it the
marshes of Finsbury guarded against attack from the
north. In front, the broad lagoon of the Thames
estuary, with steep clay banks, served both as a high
way for commerce and also as a defence. On the
arrival of the Romans they found London a flourishing
trade centre. They fortified the hill on the east side
61

TOWN PLANNING
of the Walbrook and erected a walled citadel. Paris
first appears in history as a little cluster of huts upon
a group of islands in the Seine, near the point where
the waters of many branches converge in the main
stream; the land around was for the most part flat and
marshy. The position was probably chosen entirely
on account of its defensibility. The surrounding
country was not unprepossessing — a shallow basin with

FIG. 8

a quiet river winding through and surrounded by a
circle of low limestone hills. "The boatmen of the
Seine, Caesar's Parisii, found in the little group of
islands a safe and convenient entrepot, and during
the period of Roman domination developed an inter
esting organisation, the Nautce Parisiaci, which became
in the Middle Ages the Marchands de r Eau and in
the end the Municipality of Paris. They left their
symbolic ship on the civic seal. The cluster of islands
62

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
in the Seine was not only a convenient haven of
exchange, but also gave passage to the main Gallo-
Roman road, which came up from Orleans and went
on to Belgium and Britain." '
The site chosen for the capital of a state is to a
great extent factitious. The first and most important
point is that it should be as far as is practicable in
the centre of the state. Thus, Rome was splendidly
placed about midway of the vast Empire, stretching
from end to end of the Mediterranean and central
with the Italian peninsula. Paris, Berlin and London
are all well placed.
The early cities of the Egyptians, Assyrians,
Babylonians and Persians often enclosed an area of
immense extent, resembling a vast armed camp rather
than the modern' idea of a city. They were mostly
the creation of despots who collected the dwellings
of thousands of warriors round their own strongly
fortified castles. Succeeding rulers frequently founded
new strongholds on their succession, and the old cities,
owing to the universal use of undurable material, were
left to decay, and soon completely disappeared. As
to the ground-plan of these ancient cities very little
is known, and we must await further excavations
before it will be possible to trace more than their
principal temples and public buildings. The city of
Babylon, according to Herodotus, consisted of an
enormous square, the sides of which extended for
thirteen miles ; presumably this immense area was
^ "The Topographical Transformation of Paris," by Edward R. Smith.
63

TOWN PLANNING
chiefly composed of many detached groups of houses
or small towns, the intervening spaces being in
tended to afford shelter for the whole surrounding
population with their cattle in times of war, whilst
the size of the enclosure and the height of the walls
rendered a hostile blockade difficult. Herodotus tells
us that the streets were wide, and were lined with
houses of three and four storeys. They were laid
out in a rectangular form according to the points
of the compass ; the royal castle and the great
tower were planned upon high mounds, and upon
the slopes of these the famous hanging gardens
were laid out. The excavations that have laid
bare the foundations of Nineveh show that the
city had a circumference of about eight miles, the
ruins of the walls showing a height in some parts
of 50 feet. The recent excavations conducted by the
German Orient Society upon the site of Jericho show
that the city was planned upon a large oval mound,
360 metres long by 160 metres wide. The space was
walled in by a massive city wall, with towers projecting
at apparently irregular intervals. At the northern
end of the mound the citadel has been exposed ; it was
apparently in the form of a rectangle, with towers
situated on the angles ; the interior was found to be
a perfect warren of small houses, threaded, as are many
Eastern bazaars to-day, by a single thoroughfare, most
of the houses being reached by passing through those
of th-eir neighbours.
In the foundation of Greek cities Dr. Stiibben
64

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
distinguishes four distinct periods. In the first of
these the city was planned only as a place of refuge
against hostile attack ; in the second, its chief use is in
the development of trade ; in the third, the artistic
embellishment is the leading feature, and the fourth
period embraces the time of the decline.
The earliest Hellenic towns were established in
easily defensible positions upon mountain crests and
hill-tops. Many places in the interior of Greece and
the South of Italy and Sicily show how well such
sites were chosen. With advancing civilisation, the
demands of commerce could only be met by cities
planned in more accessible spots, in river valleys and
upon the sea coast. This was particularly the case
with the colonial cities founded on all the coasts of
the Mediterranean, and cities such as Syracuse, Girgenti
and Selinus all testify to the marvellous power of
colonisation possessed by the Greeks. History repeats
itself, and hence we find that though the cities of
the mother-country Athens and Corinth consisted of
a maze of narrow streets without plan, the colonial
pioneers determined in their own towns to promote
a more reasonable architectural plan, just as in
modern times the cities in America and Australia
have broken away from European examples.
The city of Selinus, in the South of Sicily, was
founded by the Dorians in 628 B.C., and is the earliest
regularly laid out city of which we have any trace.
A most fascinating restoration has been recently made
by M. Jean Hulet, a pensionnaire of the ficole des
F 65

TOWN PLANNING
Beaux Arts. In describing the plan, as laid bare
by these studies, M. Gustave Foug^res says that the
city, which occupied an entire peninsula, ea.sy of
defence on the land side and enclosed by two ports.

FIG. 9. — A RESTORATION OF SELINUS
was entirely fortified and "divided as to its length
by a great street running straight from north to south
and seven metres wide; and as to its width by seven
or eight transverse streets cutting the first at right
angles, and dividing the houses into nearly equal
blocks. It is the oldest example known of the
66

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
application to the lay-out of towns of the geometric
principles of the architect Hippodamus of Miletus,
a contemporary of Pericles and author of the plans
of the Piraeus, of Thurii, and of Rhodes. Hippodamus,
a follower of Pythagoras, was the Greek ' Haussmann '
of the fifth century B.C. Strongly imbued with the
idealistic spirit of his time, he desired to substitute
clear, reasoned, and scientific conceptions for the
caprices of chance. He dreamed of regular and geo
metric cities, preferring his theoretic plans to the
tortuous mazes gradually formed by force of time."
At Priene, in Asia Minor, the excavations have dis
closed a type of city built throughout according to
these principles.
The third and highest stage of development in
Greek cities was reached in the days of Pericles, who
completed the fortification of Athens and the Piraeus.
The Agora or market-place, surrounded by halls, occu
pied the centre of a rectangular network of streets,
theatres and temples forming the termination of their
vista. The temples were placed crosswise to the
direction of the streets, so that they presented a fine
facade to two streets. A similar arrangement is shown
in the Doric coast town of Knidos, nestling amongst
hilly ground and surrounded by fortified hills, on which
the temples of the protecting deities were raised. Here,
as at Taormina and Syracuse, the theatre was hewn
out of the solid rock in such a position that it afforded
a glorious view of the sea. The same type is also dis
tinctly shown in the inland town of Priene, in Asia
67

TOWN PLANNING
Minor, whose streets, planned upon the rectangular
system, forced their way through rocks at some places,
and at others had to be supported on massive buttresses.
The streets were not wide, only measuring from twelve
to sixteen feet, and, as befits a democratic community,
the blocks of buildings were comparatively small ; but

X. MILES

FIG. 10.— PLAN OF ANCIENT ALEXANDRIA
the Agora, as the central scene of public life, was very
spacious. Under the rule of Alexander the Great and his
immediate successors, the Diadochi, many new cities
were laid out. The greatest of these was Alexandria
Itself, founded about the year 323 b.c, from the
designs of Dinocrates, the foremost architect of
the day. Its fine harbour and other local recom-
68

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
mendations rendered it a convenient spot for the site
of a commercial city, and the commanding position
on the Mediterranean could not fail to strike a great
administrator. It promised to unite Europe, Arabia,
and India, to be the rival and successor of Tyre, and
to become the emporium of the world. Its plan con
sisted of a series of parallelograms ; all the streets were
at right angles to each other and two main thorough
fares bisected the city in opposite directions. According
to Strabo, these were over a hundred feet broad and
ornamented along their entire length by colonnades ; one
of these main streets, Canobic Street, is still in use,
although almost all vestiges of the ancient city have
long since disappeared. The city was divided into
sections, the principal of which were — (i) the Regia or
royal enclosure, walled in and occupying a fourth part
of the city, containing the royal palaces and public
buildings ; (2) the Rakotis, chiefly inhabited by
Egyptians ; (3) the Jews' quarter ; (4) the Nekropolis,
or city of the dead, to the extreme west of the city,
and (5) the Nikopolis, east of the Canobic Gate, which
was practically a suburb of Alexandria. The area of
the city, with its three suburbs, is said to have equalled
fifteen square miles.
The Romans, in laying out their cities, proved
themselves to be eminently shrewd and practical
engineers. They always well considered their site,
both on account of its adaptability from the military
point of view and also from the facilities afforded for
commerce, traffic, water supply, and drainage.
69 '

TOWN PLANNING
The model for all their new cities originated in the
castra, or camp, divided at right angles by streets lead
ing to the four gates. In the older towns, such as
Pompeii, that had been slowly developed, there is no
attempt to lay out the streets in a regular way. Pompeii
is an example of a city to which considerable addition
had been made from time to time. It is built in the
form of an irregular ellipse extending from east to
west ; the circumference of the walls amounts to 2,843
yards and there are eight city gates. Officially the
town was divided into nine regions by the four principal
streets connecting the gates : the Cardo (central axis)
and another parallel street not yet excavated, running
from north to south, and the Decumanus Major and
Decumanus Minor (major and minor transverse line),
running from east to west. Each region is subdivided
into insulcB, or blocks of houses, bounded by four streets.
The streets, bordered by pavements, are seldom above
25 feet in breadth and the narrower lanes only 14 feet.
The directions given by Vitruvius help us to form
some idea of the care and consideration which the
Romans applied to the laying out of their new cities.
Vitruvius is an eminently practical writer in all that he
suggests, and if a town had been laid out according
to his rules, it would certainly have fulfilled the most
exacting demands of hygiene and of commerce. " In
setting out the walls of a city," he says,' "the choice
of a healthy situation is of the first importance : it
should be on high ground, subject neither to fogs nor
I Book i., chapter iv., Joseph Gwilt's translation.
70

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
rains ; its aspects should be neither violently hot nor
intensely cold, but temperate in both respects. ... A
city on the seaside, exposed to south or west, will be
insalubrious ; for in summer mornings a city thus
placed would be hot, at noon it would be scorched.
A city also with a western aspect would even at sun
rise be warm, at noon hot, and in the evening of
a burning temperature." He mentions a curious
custom of the ancients, who, he says, always, after
sacrifice, carefully inspected the livers of those animals
" fed on the spot whereon the city was to be built, or
whereon a stative encampment was intended. If the
livers were diseased they tried others, in order to
ascertain whether accident or disease was the cause of
the imperfection : but if the greater part of the experi
ments proved, by the sound and healthy appearance
of the livers, that the water and food of the spot were
wholesome, they selected it for the garrison." Vitruvius
recognises that the dangers suggested by such experi
ments are liable to exaggeration, and goes on to say
that "when a city is built in a marshy situation near
the sea-coast, with a northern, north-eastern, or eastern
aspect, on a marsh whose level is higher than the
shore of the sea, the site is not altogether improper ;
for by means of sewers the waters may be discharged
into the sea ; and at those times, when violently agi
tated by storm, the sea swells and runs up the sewers,
it mixes with the water of the marsh, and prevents the
generation of marshy insects." As a proof of this
statement he instances the city of Salapia, in Apulia,
71

TOWN PLANNING
which was so placed that the inhabitants were continu
ally out of health. At length they applied to Marcus
Hostilius, asking him to select a more wholesome spot
for the city, whereupon he bought an estate in a
healthy place four miles from their old city and close
to the sea, and opening a communication between the
lake and the sea, he converted the former into an
excellent harbour for the city. With regard to the
difficulty of wind, Vitruvius says that streets are to be
so set out that when the winds blow from the prevailing
quarter their violence may be broken against the angles
of the different divisions of the city, and thus dissipated.
After these general remarks he deals with the positions
best suited to the most important public buildings. The
temples of the immortal gods should have such an aspect
that the statue in the cell may have its face towards
the west. But if the nature of the place does not permit
this, the temple is to be turned as much as possible
so that the greater part of the city may be seen from
it. If temples be built on the banks of a river they
should face the river, or if at a roadside they should
be so placed that those passing by may look towards
them. In Roman cities the public squares may be gene
rally divided into two classes, the Forum and the
Market, which were planned quite apart and had seldom
any connection with each other. Aristotle says that a
forum should only be used as a public meeting-place
and for the display of beautiful works of art, and that
all slaves, artisans, and labourers should be denied
72

lM<;. II. THE K(JkUM AT I'nMi'EII

Porta dg.l

I'M

'm

PORTA,[CARINA

PORT/- DI
NOCERA

FiF. 12. I'LAX OK roMl'KII SHOWING THOSE TORTlnXS THAT HAM-: l;r:i':\
ALREADY EXCA\'ATKD

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
access to it, whilst the market should be in another
part of the city, and of easy access to all the means of
transport both by sea and land.
In their colonial towns, and especially in their
military camps, the Romans always placed the Forum
at the point of intersection of the two principal axial
thoroughfares. The Forum at Timgad, a military
colony founded under Trajan in the North of Africa,

FIG. 13. — PLAN OF THE FORUM AT POMPEII

is an excellent example of the traditional type es
tablished in an entirely new colony. It is almost
square in plan, entered from the principal thorough
fare by an archway very much like the large bazaars
in Eastern cities. A large basilica occupies the
greater part of one side, and opposite are the curia and
a small temple. The Forum at Pompeii differs from
that of Timgad in several points. Pompeii was a city
remodelled by the Romans, and the Forum here be
longs more to the type of Rome itself. It is domi-
73

TOWN PLANNING
nated by the Temple of Jupiter on the north side,
the other sides being enclosed by colonnades.
In the social organisation of the Middle Ages
great changes were made in town planning. The
dwellers in the country, says Stiibben, were farmers
forming a class quite distinct from the citizens. The
country produced the raw material, and in the
town dwelt the citizens and merchants who manu
factured these raw materials and negotiated the ex
change of goods by import and export, the town
market being used for the mutual exchange of the
products. Most of the German towns have grown
gradually from such country communities and have
always remained small towns. No German town of
the Middle Ages probably numbered more than 25,000
inhabitants. The growth and development of the mediaeval
city was always very gradual ; the necessity for its
remodelling was generally brought about by violent
methods of war rather than by the peaceful natural
expansion of population. Utilitarian and ideal condi
tions of city building were developed side by side,
and improvements were more often brought about by
rulers having the ambition and the power to institute
a new order of things than by the demands of public
opinion. We find the direction of the streets in
variably governed by the primitive topographical dis
position of the different quarters of the city, and new
quarters added from time to time were planned without
any idea of further developing the old currents of traffic.
74

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
Mediaeval towns may be divided into several
classes. Some are of Roman origin, others consist
of a group of streets and houses clustered round the
walls of a castle or under the protection of some
wealthy and important monastery. In these cases we
generally find that no regular plan has been followed.
There is, however, still another class of towns which
were built from their foundations on a new site for
some specific object, and we often find that such towns
were laid out in a regular and symmetrical manner.
In cities that were of Roman origin, such as
Lincoln, Chester, Colchester, &c., considerable parts of
the older walls still remain ; in others they may be
distinctly traced, but in all these towns the plan seems
to have been the same ; a parallelogram with a gate
in the centre of each side and the principal streets
carried through in straight lines, as we have already
seen in the plan of Pompeii. The regularity of the
town ended in its main streets, and no attempt was
made to regulate the various quarters or districts, where
the houses were crowded together regardless of all
symmetry. In another class of mediaeval town the key to the
whole plan was the castle or fortress, with its church
and monastery in close proximity — a town essentially
planned for defence, its walls pierced with as few
points for egress as possible. The more important
buildings were collected towards the centre of the city
and the public spaces grouped round them, an inner
ring of broader streets enclosing the market space, from
75

TOWN PLANNING
whence the main thoroughfares radiated to the city
gates. In such a town, beyond a more or less direct
line being given to the main streets, no effort would
be made to lay out the city upon any regular system,
and each person built according to his convenience, or
as he gained permission. As far as possible the side
streets branched off from the thoroughfares at right
angles. The principal thoroughfares, old and new,
that formed the backbone of the town, often following
the lines of demolished walls, have left a distinct ring,
as at Antwerp and Paris. The principal streets were
about 24 feet wide, the lanes 18 feet, and the passages
6 feet. In larger towns the principal streets were
sometimes 30 feet in width. This ring line can be
distinctly traced in many towns. Nuremberg, for
example, planned upon both sides of the river, was
enlarged on several occasions. From a cluster of
houses round the imperial castle erected in the
eleventh century, the city extended beyond its first
encircling wall, until, towards the middle of the
thirteenth century, a new wall had to be built to
enclose all the settlements. In many cities we find
one ring added after another ; these are not always
distinctly expressed, but well defined examples may be
found in the plans of Coblenz, Cologne, Antwerp,
Vienna, and Paris.
" In the latter part of the Middle Ages," says
Stiibben, "when towns entered upon a period of
greater prosperity, the public places and streets were
beautified and transformed by the reconstruction of
76

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
churches, town halls, markets and guildhalls, while the
places were enlarged and adorned with fountains. A
feeling of opulence possessed the citizens, whose guilds
vied with each other in the artistic development of the
city, thus imparting an individuality which is the great
charm of the mediaeval city."
Some writers would have us believe that the
mediaeval mind strove after all irregularity to such
an extent that it deliberately chose to lay out
towns in as unconventional a manner as possible.
Although in the buildings themselves attempts were
rarely made to produce a symmetrical or regular effect,
where we find examples of cities entirely planned upon
a new site they are sometimes more regular and
symmetrical than the most modern towns.
In the thirteenth century no less than 50 towns
were founded by the English in Aquitaine and
Guienne within the same number of years, all of which
were laid out, wherever practicable, upon a definite
system, and formed an essential part of the wise and
farsighted policy of Edward I. He endowed them
with special privileges to encourage inhabitants to flock
to them, and in this he appears to have been very
successful. The inhabitants were all made free men,
exempt from the power and jurisdiction of the neigh
bouring barons and bishops, and their tenure was direct
from the crown. In 1298 Edward I. wrote from
Bordeaux to London, desiring the authorities to send
him four persons competent to lay out the plans of
towns. " The most able and clever, and those who
77

TOWN PLANNING
best know how to divide, order, and arrange a new
town in the manner that will be most beneficial to us
and to the merchants."
These towns were regular and symmetrical ; the
streets were wide, open, and straight, crossing each
other at right angles only ; between the principal
streets and also in parallel lines were narrow streets or
lanes corresponding to the modern mews and employed

aiOX?t3?i92.I€j?_

A. PRINCIPAL STKEpfs
B . LANES

FIG. 14

for the same purpose : by this means each plot of
ground for building was of a uniform size and shape,
a parallelogram with one end facing a principal street
and another a lane. In some towns each building
plot, or, when built upon, each house, was also divided
by a narrow passage or court, leading from the
principal street to the lane, serving as a watercourse
and surface drain. The principal streets were 24 feet
wide, the lanes 16 feet and the passages only 6 feet.

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
The chief advantages of these passages was that in
case of fire, each house being detached from its neigh
bours, the flames could be more easily extinguished.
Near the centre of the town was a large market
place, at one corner of which stood the church. The
principal streets were so planned that they ran in a
line with the four sides of the place, passing out from
each corner in a direct line to the town gates, so that
the traffic did not interfere with the central space.
The most perfect example of these English towns
of Edward I. is Montpazier, founded in 1284 in the
department of Dordogne, Aquitaine. Here the central
market-place is surrounded by arcades forming a sort
of covered way, and there are ten principal gates
to which the main thoroughfares lead ; Libourne,
Sauveterre, Monsegar, La Linde and Samite Foy were
all towns built by Edward I. upon the same regular
plan, the walls forming a parallelogram and having a
central market-place surrounded by arcades.
The best example in England of these mediaeval
towns laid out on a regular plan is Winchelsea, which
was founded by Edward I. on a new site in conse
quence of the encroachment of the sea having almost
destroyed the old town. Owing to the irregular form
of the ground to be built upon, a ridge of high land
between the river and the sea, the plan of the town is
not so symmetrical as the French examples. In 1277,
John Kirkeby, Bishop of Ely and Treasurer of
England, was sent by the King to make a report and
to lay out a new town. His plans were much more
79

TOWN PLANNING
grandiose than the result justified. They evidently
contemplated and prepared for a large and important
seaport town, though from circumstances that were not
foreseen this was never finished. The new town was
twice sacked in the early part of the fourteenth
century, before it was half finished, and appears never
to have recovered from these repeated misfortunes.
The distance from the Land Gate to the New Gate is

B rnm a«EAT hm.l
C 7-IAH*:ErT VUKCE
D STRAMD GATE
E FRVGRS WEi-l.
F rKVEW MOUSE,
G NEWGATt
H WINDMIH.
I TXE fiXyunD TOWER.
J LAND GATE
K THE CASTLE
L ST UECatARDS CHURCH

S5w^'

FIG. IS

nearly a mile. On the west side, where not protected
by the natural form of the ground, there is a very
deep ditch with a mound, but on the other side the
natural cliff was considered sufficient protection. i
Towns situated upon navigable rivers usually
expand in a direction parallel to the river, and the
I For other information on the mediaeval town in England see
Hudson Turner and Parker's "Domestic Architecture of the Middle
Ages." 80

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
principal thoroughfares run in the same direction, a
fact which is due no doubt to the land sloping towards
the river. We see examples of this in London, where
from the earliest times the Strand and other main
thoroughfares ran parallel to the Thames. Early
settlements often consist of a series of such parallel
streets joined at intervals by secondary streets, and

FIG. l6. — MAGDEBURG ON THE ELBE, AS EXISTING IN 1632

it is not until the river becomes spanned by a bridge
that the radial lines of thoroughfares begin to assert
themselves. As the town increases in importance,
fortifications become necessary, and a close ring of
walls is built in horseshoe form from one point on
the river to another, with strongly fortified towers
at both the points where the fortification joins the
river, as shown in the plan of Magdeburg (Fig. i6).
Such a form of city plan allowed of very little
G 81

TOWN PLANNING
expansion, for, the walls once having been solidly
built, it rarely happened that they were taken down
again, and it was not before a city had been reduced
by its enemies that any enlargement was seriously
considered. In course of years these fortifications became the
sites of "rings," as in the case of Vienna, and in
this manner towns often developed radially, the main
thoroughfares converging on a series of points indi
cated by the sites of the city gates, instead of in the
natural way, that is, parallel to the river. In such
instances the ring form has many disadvantages, as it
certainly does not conform to the traffic requirements
if the river is used to any great extent, and the better
arrangement, where the site is sufficiently level, is that
which was adopted at Amsterdam of transforming the
fortifications into a, ring of navigable canals. It is
rather extraordinary that such an opportunity of
immensely increasing the transport facilities which
a river affords should have so rarely been taken
advantage of. Both at Buda-Pesth and Bremen
schemes for such inland waterways were prepared, but
in neither case were they carried out. Breslau, on
the Oder, has a large navigable waterway surrounding
the city on the site of the old fortifications, which, if
the plans for its completion are eventually carried
out, will materially advance its prosperity.
Whenever the opportunity has occurred in modern
times of planning a new city upon the banks of a
navigable stream, we find the same tendency to develop
82

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
upon lines parallel to the stream, instead of away from
it, as, for example, at Chicago and New York.
As we have already shown, the rectangular type
of town plan was much used during the Middle Ages.

THE BUILDING BLOCKS ARE
OMITTED ON THIS SIDE OP PLAN
ONLV WATERWAYS ARE SHOWN

FIG. 17. — PLAN OF AMSTERDAM, SHOWING THE SYSTEM OF WATERWAYS

With the revival of classical styles it was found to be
better suited to the needs of the day, and the symmetry
of classical facades forced the town plan to greater
regularity. In the sixteenth century Italian towns
vied with one another in straightening and widening
their streets, in laying out their public places, and
83

TOWN PLANNING
in replacing the mediaeval alley by well-paved, broad
streets. Leon Batt. Alberti, in his writings, says that
although, for important streets, straight lines might
be more majestic, yet for streets of secondary impor
tance curved lines were to be preferred, both on
aesthetic and practical grounds ; but his advice was
apparently little heeded. Rome underwent a complete
rebuilding in the sixteenth century, and the Piazza
del Popolo, the Via Sistina, the Piazza di Spagna
and Trinita de' Monti, the Capitol, and Bernini's
forecourt to St. Peter's are all examples of town
planning in the "grand manner" dating from this and
the succeeding century.
From Italy the grand manner in city planning
spread to France, where, towards the end of the
sixteenth century, we find Bernard Palissy writing
a treatise on the laying out of a model city, in which
he advocates that every part should be planned
squarely and regularly.
When Europe once more settled down peacefully
after the Thirty Years' War, the founding of towns
became a favourite occupation among princes, and
mostly originated in connection with the building
of palaces. Amongst such may be mentioned Berlin,
Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Cassel, Diisseldorf and Coblenz.
A city laid out by Cardinal Richelieu was conceived
upon similar lines. In 1703 Peter the Great founded
St. Petersburg at the nearest point to the sea then
available in Russia. The city was laid out upon
a definite plan and completed within the space of a
84

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
few years, in spite of great difficulties of site and
climate. Cities laid out upon preconceived plans may be
broadly divided into three classes or types : —
I. The spider's-web, or radial system.
2. The rectangular, or chessboard.
3. A combination of the two classes.
The radiating is the type which has been most
generally followed in Europe, chiefly because it is
more adaptable where new quarters have to be added
to an old city. The second type, which is the more
ancient of the two, has been almost invariably chosen
in laying out cities in America and in new colonies
generally, where aesthetic requirements have rarely
been considered. It will not be difficult to show that,
both as affording greater traffic facilities and from
the aesthetic point of view, the radial has proved in
the past to be the better system ; and in the United
States there has recently been a tendency to recognise
the mistakes made in former days and, where possible,
to revert to the radial system, though this can now only
be achieved at vast expense unless there happen to be
many opportunities of utilising public open spaces. _^
^ jThe radiating type is exemplified by New Orleans
in America and Karlsruhe in Europe. Karlsruhe
(Fig. 18), the capital of the Grand Duchy of Baden,"'
owes its origin to the Margrave Charles William of
Baden Durlach, who transferred his residence hither
from Durlach in 1715. The streets radiating in the form
85

TOWN PLANNING
of a vast fan, form a central ring round the palace to
wards the south-west, south and south-east, the northern
half being occupied by the immense gardens and park
of the palace. At Karlsruhe the radial system has been
absurdly exaggerated and misapplied, the grave defect
being that the centre of the whole scheme is the royal
castle, which, of course, is not the centre of circulation ;

moreover, the streets are laid out in such a way that
the spectator can never escape from a view of the
'^central dome of the castle. The plan of New Orleans
(Fig. 19) owes its fan-like shape more to accident than
design. The old city at the bend of the river was
laid out by Bienville. As the city grew, the planta
tions above and below were gradually incorporated
under the name of Fauxbourgs. The boundary lines
86

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
of the plantations ran back from the river at right
angles, resulting in the peculiar fan-shaped effect in
the district west of the old city. The owner of each
of these plantations laid out imposing avenues down

NEW ORLEANS

FIG. 19

the centre, while the streets parallel to the river were
planned at right angles to them.
The fan-like system and the general arrangement
as exemplified at both Karlsruhe and New Orleans,
although less monotonous, do not seem to be any im
provement upon the chessboard system. In fact, when
87

TOWN PLANNING
these radiating streets become too multiplied, as at New
Orleans, the islands that are formed become thinner
and thinner, and their form of sharp sectors is neither
agreeable nor convenient. In the radiating system,
the principal lines of circulation, or arteries, meet at
certain points known as traffic places, corresponding
to the knots of a net. These points form centres
for the distribution of the movement of a city. In
old cities such points were frequently the market
places, and the most important one in a city was
often utilised for setting up a column, from whence
distances were measured, but in modern cities open
market-places are no longer required, and the exigencies
of circulation tend more and more to prohibit such a
centralisation of streets, and to form a series of traffic
places all connected by broad streets.
In cities laid out upon the radial system, the
radiating streets form as it were the skeleton of the
system. The plans of Rome and other ancient cities
indicate a well-marked system of such thoroughfares.
Next in importance to the radiating thoroughfares are
the annular rings or boulevards which are so marked a
feature in all continental cities, e.g., the Ring-Strasse at
Vienna or the Parisian boulevards. As a matter of
fact, these " annular " streets, instead of being an actual
ring, are made up of a series of short straight
thoroughfares connecting various points, where they
form intersections with the radiating thoroughfares.
Such radiating and annular thoroughfares divide the
city into wedge-shaped areas, which, in order that
88

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
they may be practically accessible, are again subdivided,
usually into rectangular blocks. Such a system fails
in that it does not provide an easy means of transit

in a transverse direction ; for example, if one wishes
to pass from point a to b (Fig. 20), it is necessary
to follow the streets in zigzag form, and it is in

FIG. 21

correcting this mistake that modern cities have been
obliged to devote so much of the money available
for street improvement. The only way to rectify
89

TOWN PLANNING

such a mistake is by the construction of cross
streets as at c—d and e—f. In the case of towns
planned upon a river bank, like London and Paris,
the radiating system seems to be the most natural
one to follow, as the bridges form focal points which
must govern the entire, plan (see Fig. 21).
The radiating system of planning is well exempli
fied in the city of Bologna, where two radiating centres

l./\^

lf\

^ \ J

BOLOGNA ~ ~

H

are placed on opposite sides of a central rectangle
forming the heart of the city.
At Amsterdam the radiating system has been
applied to the waterways, which have governed the
arrangement of the streets, and the city owes a great
deal of its prosperity to the way in which all parts are
kept in touch with the River Amstel by means of an
elaborate network of waterways. The principal canal,
known as the Singel Gracht, forms practically a half
90

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
circle surrounding the heart of the city, and the secon
dary canals penetrate into the city on all sides. The
whole street system follows the lines of the canals and
is dependent upon them.
The chessboard system of planning, on paper,
appears to have certain advantages, owing partly to the
fact that it involves a minimum of waste ground, and
partly to the economy of labour resulting from right-
angled construction. But it is the most unsatisfactory
of all forms of street arrangement, if the convenience
of the citizen be considered. It is a geometric axiom
that the distance of two sides of a right angle is
greater than the third, and, therefore, any system of
transit through streets of right-angled plan, north or
south, east or west, must necessarily increase the dis
tance to be travelled in cases of traffic wishing to
move diagonally ; and the course to be travelled
becomes very indirect, involving much waste of time.
The rectangular city is then not perfect without
diagonal streets, and diagonal streets waste the virtue
of rectangular formation. When topographical accident
breaks the network of streets in such a city, the streets
do not deviate by a single yard. At New York, for
example, opposite Ward's Island, several longitudinal
avenues are interrupted by a bend in the river bank,
continuing their direction on the other side as though a
landslip had partly wiped them out. The system has
only one merit, that of simplicity; it can only be applied
to absolutely new cities and cannot in any way help us
in dealing with street planning in old cities. Unsatis-
91

TOWN PLANNING
factory as the chessboard system is on level ground, on
hilly country it is still worse, for it often happens that
to get from point to point on about the same level, a
rise may have to be ascended and descended, in
addition to wasting one-third of the distance. Indeed,
so steep are many of the streets in the rectangular
cities of America and Australia that they are useless
for horse traffic, and those that have been rendered
usable have only been made so at enormous cost.
It seems strange that such a bad system as
the chessboard plan should have been so universally
adopted in American and our colonial cities, whether
on rivers, or the seaboard, on the hills or the plains.
One reason for this probably is that the early town
surveyors were usually men of small • experience and
little artistic instinct, to whom the paramount desire
would be the creation of easily surveyed plots. Thus,
we often find that colonial townships where the heat
is excessive are planned with such an orientation that
at mid-day, when the heat is greatest, it is almost
impossible to obtain shade.
The rectangular type of city has not often been
adopted in Europe. We find it suggested in the six
teenth century in Bernard Palissy's description of the
ideal city, and also in the city laid out by Cardinal
Richelieu. In the Low Countries, where the flat nature
of the site would lead us to think we might find
such plans, we hardly meet with any example except
at the Hague. The most conspicuous example is
at Turin, where the plan of the old Roman city,
92

FIG. 23

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
founded by the Emperor Augustus, formed a rect
angle 2,210 feet in length and 1,370 feet in breadth,
with eleven towers on each side. In 1706 the medi
aeval buildings of the city were cleared away, and in
1 80 1 the fortifications were demolished by the French
and the new city was laid out upon the ancient lines,
with rectangular blocks of houses known as Isole, long,
broad, straight streets and spacious squares.

FIG. 24. — HENRICHEMONT

At Mannheim, a city which within the last half
century has increased its population fivefold, the heart
of the city is enclosed within a "ring," and has been
divided into 136 equal squares on either side of one
principal avenue leading from the bridge across the
Neckar to the Grand Ducal palace. The streets are
distinguished according to the American system by
letters and numerals.
The plan of Henrichemont (Fig. 24) is a curious one.
95

TOWN PLANNING
It is contained within an exact square with a bastion at
each angle; diagonal streets connect the four corners
and also the centres of each of the sides, which coin
cide with the four principal entrances to the town.
The plan of New York consists of a vast collec
tion of over two thousand blocks, with streets so
narrow that none are wide enough for any building or
monument to be seen to advantage. When in 1807

FIG. 25

a Commission drew up the plan of the city, the only
irregular thoroughfare was Broadway. The great
commercial street had already too great an impor
tance to be molested, and so now it remains as the
only picturesque thoroughfare in the city. Some of
the streets in New York are over twelve miles long.
No attempt has been made to utilise the beauties of
the Hudson River, and every street terminates abruptly
at the waterside without any intervening quay or
96

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
promenade. The Commission of 1807 laid down —
tradition says with a mason's hand sieve — the familiar
chessboard plan. Broadway has developed into the
great business street of the city, and if it be true that
"the shopkeepers go where the travel is," the value
of the diagonal line for purposes of traffic is well
attested. In a review of the Commission's work, Mr.
F. L. Olmsted points out some of the faults of this
chessboard system of planning: — "Some two thousand
blocks were provided, each theoretically two hundred
feet wide, no more, no less ; and ever since, if a build
ing site is wanted, whether with a view to a church or
a blast furnace, an open house or a toy shop, there is,
of intention, no better place in one of these blocks than
in another. ... If a proposed cathedral, military
dep6t, great manufacturing enterprise, house of reli
gious seclusion or seat of learning needs a space of
ground more than sixty-six yards in extent from
north to south, the system forbids that it shall be
built in New York. . . . There is no place in New York
where a stately building can be looked up to from
base to turret, none where it can even be seen full
in the face and all at once taken in by the eye ; none
where it can be viewed in advantageous perspective.
. . . Such distinctive advantage of position as Rome
gives St. Peter's, London St. Paul's, New York under
her system gives to nothing."
The city of Philadelphia, like New York, is divided
into rectangular blocks, desperately monotonous.
The plan has been carried out as it was con-
H 97

TOWN PLANNING
ceived by William Penn, with straight streets and
rectangular blocks without curves or diagonal lines,
but unfortunately the open squares and parks which
he had planned at intervals were omitted. Two of
the streets which intersected the level tract of land
about the middle met in a big open space round
which were to be placed the more important public
buildings. Although there is little of art or science
about the plan, there is sufficient foresight to appre
ciate the importance of open spaces. Penn's plan
shows five such spaces, each half as large again as an
ordinary block, which works out at about one-thirtieth
of the total area of the plot. Had this proportion been
continued as the city increased beyond this district
and as the Consolidation Act of 1854 directed should
be done, there would now have been no less than
two hundred and eighty small parks within the city
plan, instead of the forty-five that actually exist.
The third system that has been often adopted in
own planning schemes is a combination of the radial
and rectangular systems. A good example may be
seen in the modern alterations to the plan of Antwerp
(Fig. 27), where a number of central focal points
either already existing or newly created at suitable
spots are connected with one another by means of
direct lines of streets. In this way a network of main
streets has been set up, with triangular and rect
angular building blocks between. The traffic is well
provided for by such a system, but it is important
to avoid turning it into all the streets, a defect
98

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FIG. 26. — WILLIAM penn's PLAN OF PHILADELPHIA
TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
which is likely to occur if the system is thoroughly
carried out. Other drawbacks are the creation of
many acute-angled corner sites, and the impossibility
of providing closed-in architectural squares. In cities
which have the good fortune to be intersected by a
river, like London, Paris, Vienna, Rome, and Florence,

FIG. 27. — THE " QUARTIER DU SUD," ANTWERP
we find a powerful motive for the use of radial plans,
namely, the bridges crossing the river, to which all
the main lines of traffic must converge.
An interesting example of this type of the com
bined radial and chessboard system may be seen in
the plan of Dalny (Fig. 28), the new city that is
being built as a seaport terminal for the Trans-
lOI

TOWN PLANNING
Siberian railroad. There are many diagonal arterial
thoroughfares. The crossing points of the different
systems of radials create a . number of local centres,

DALNY

A Church.
B. Catholic Church.
C. EnsllaliOiurch.
D. EttsUgti ChapcL

P. If&yom oriica.
a. Mayor's Home.
U.' Ottieer Employe'*
Qusrten

I Hold.
K. Rucoo-Cblneu Buk.
I- Town Club,

KEY TO THE MAP-
M, Tbestre F Judge's Offlcr.
N. PostftiKjTclt- Q. Tuwri Commltlee
KTspb TL Poller OCtLcer.
O. Prlv&te B^Dk. S. Pt\\ aU Baah.

T. Prirale BftDt
U. Auction Baa and
Exc bailee.
V UarkFt Hiil

W. Doyi Museum.
Y. Glrli' Museum.
Z. Small Church.

FIG. 28.— DALNY, THE SEAPORT TERMINAL OF THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD

the most important of which has been planned in
front of the railway station. In the heart of the
town a circular public space has been laid out,
with ten long straight streets converging upon it.

102

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
Built round this, with excellent effect, as may be
imagined, there are ten structures, each in its separate
block. The city is divided into various quarters, the
Administration Town on the north, with three broad
thoroughfares leading to the railway station ; the com
mercial quarters in the centre of the city, radiating
from one large rond-point round which are gathered

R 1 s^ E R.

XHA.MES

LONDOM

FIG. 29.— SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN'S PLAN FOR THE REBUILDING OF LONDON AFTER THE GREAT
FIRE, 1666

the important public buildings; the private residences
and parks, grouped together on the south-east, and the
Chinese quarters in a separate city on the south-west.
The combination of the radial and chessboard
systems is particularly adaptable to the addition of
new areas to old cities. The plan of Sir Christopher
Wren for the rebuilding of London after the great
fire of 1666 (Fig. 29), is an example of this com-
103

TOWN PLANNING
bination. Had Wren's plan been carried out it would
have rendered London superb among the cities of
the world. It was a supreme effort of genius far in
advance of the age, and is quite in accord with the
best principles of town planning to-day. The design
was accepted by the King, but the necessity of im
mediate rebuilding, difficulties of compensation, and
the want of money prevented the scheme being
carried out. Wren was handicapped by the lines of
the old streets that had not been burned, but he
utilised these as a basis of his scheme, which covered
an area extending along the Thames from Temple
Gardens in the west to the Tower in the east. The
main features of the plan going from west to east
were to be : (i) A rond-point from which eight streets
were to radiate, the eight to be connected with one
another at a suitable distance from the centre by cross
streets, together forming an octagon. The principal
streets were to be at least 90 feet wide, lesser streets
to be 60 feet. (2) A triangular space opening up a
fine vista of St. Paul's Cathedral. (3) The Royal
Exchange to be placed in an open space and sur
rounded by the Post Office, the Excise Office, the
Goldsmiths' Insurance Office and the Mint. Wren
intended this to be the commercial centre of the city
and would have made it the finest traffic place in
Europe, with ten radiating streets each 60 feet wide.
Three of these extended to the river-side, affording a
fine view of the Exchange from the river, which was
to be embanked with a spacious quay the whole way
104

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
from the Temple to the Tower, clear of all buildings
along the river side, while the Fleet ditch was to
be made into a canal 120 feet wide to be crossed
by high arched bridges. The sanction of Parliament
was obtained for this, but the leading merchants in
Thames Street defeated one scheme, and the Fleet
ditch itself settled the second. In front of London
Bridge was to be a large semicircular space with
radiating streets to readily diffuse the traffic. An
alternative plan for dealing with the space in front of
St. Paul's Cathedral exists in the collection at the
Soane Museum ; it shows the cathedral precincts, sur
rounded by columns somewhat after the manner of
Bernini's colonnade in front of St. Peter's, Rome.
Wren's plan is a wonderful example, showing the
use of broad straight streets as a means of linking up
a series of monumental buildings. There was an
ample provision of commanding sites for important
structures. The variety of perspective given by the
use of diagonal and of curved streets, and of open areas
with their changing points of view, has, so far, never
been bettered in any of the accepted plans of Paris,
Vienna, or Washington. It is melancholy to think
that this great scheme, like that of San Francisco in
recent years, was brushed aside by the haste of the
commercial interest to begin rebuilding and by the
unwillingness of the citizens to co-operate for the
common good.
The plan of Paris, as developed during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and finally
105

TOWN PLANNING
completed in the nineteenth century by Napoleon III.,
guided by the genius of Baron Haussmann, is another
example of the successful treatment of the radial
system. " Napoleon III.'s idea was primarily utili
tarian, and though he did not despise artistic con
siderations, he was unsympathetic towards them.
Questions of strategy always dominated questions of
traffic. Had he been left to himself, he would have
made Paris very like London or, worse still, like New
York or Chicago. But to the everlasting advantage of
all who love beautiful cities, there was placed in his
path precisely the man best qualified to supplement his
own good qualities — Georges-Eugene Haussmann. . . .
The great merit of Haussmann lies in the fact that he
was able and willing to grasp the entire problem which
confronted him. There was never any question of
expedient, of doing an imperfect task to tide over an
emergency. The proper and perfect solution of a
difficulty was sought and executed ; he perfectly
understood the plan of Paris as an organised unity,
the result of many centuries of growth. He accepted
gratefully what his predecessors left him, and all his
effort was really only the completion of their work."'
Haussmann was imbued with the great idea of the
necessity of opening up the old insanitary areas
and letting light into them, and here he was certainly
not wrong, but at the same time he would have done
^ "Baron Haussmann and the Tppographical Transformation of
Paris under Napoleon III.," Architectural Record, September, 1907.
Edward R. Smith. 106

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A. Equestrian statue of George Washington, voted in 1783 by the Continental
Congress. E. Grand fountains. G. Public walk and carriage-way to the
Capitol. H. Grand Avenue, 400 feet wide, 1 mile long (West Capitol Street).
I. President's Park. R. Cascade.

FIG. 30. — SECTION OF l'eNFANT's MAP OF WASHINGTON (1791), SHOWING SITES
SELECTED FOR PRINCIPAL FEDERAL BUILDINGS

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
better not to have so completely destroyed the quaint
picturesqueness of old Paris.
The plan of the city of Washington (Fig. 30) is
another interesting study of the combination of the
chessboard and radiating systems. The original plan
was matured by the French engineer Pierre Charles
I'Enfant, acting under the intelligent judgment of
George Washington, after a careful consideration of
many European city plans. L'Enfant was called upon
to elaborate a partly existing chessboard plan, and in
the preparation of his scheme the positions of the
buildings and parks were mapped out on broad
and effective lines, so as to obtain harmony as well as
utility in grouping the whole scheme into one unit.
Washington must of course be regarded first of all as
the capital city, and the points from whence the
thoroughfares radiate, which, in most cities, would be
essentially for traffic purposes, have been planned more
with a view to the effective display of Government
buildings and monuments. Thus one of the principal
thoroughfares, that which unites the Capitol and the
White House, is the centre of a star, with sixteen
important streets converging.
"Prominent points," says Mr. Glenn Brown,'
"were selected for the principal buildings and monu
ments. Stretching from the site of the Capitol to the
site of a proposed monument, the broad reach of the
Mall was planned, and crossing at right angles to this
site was the axis of the Executive Mansion and park.
I Mr. Glenn Brown, " Historical Sketch of Washington."
109

TOWN PLANNING
Radiating streets from central points, with buildings
or monuments at the end of pleasing vistas, formed
another feature of special beauty. The fundamental
idea of the scheme was a dignified, formal, and
1 artistic approach and setting for these principal
1 architectural monuments. The plan does not appear
Uo have been copied from any existing city. The
radiating streets and vistas of modern Paris were all
devised under the two Napoleons, and L'Enfant's and
Washington's plan was drawn in 1791.
/ " The plan of the streets with their noble vistas
and the outlines of the park system were executed,
and the Capitol and Executive Mansion were built on
the sites selected. From this point in the develop
ment of the city of Washington to the present day the
idea of a general and harmonious scheme seems to
have been forgotten, and the landscape of each section
of the Mall has been treated as if it were an individual
park and had no bearing or effect upon the Capitol,
Monument, or Executive Mansion. Although these
parks may in one or two instances be beautiful in
themselves, the object and end of the original designer
has been ignored, and the country has lost the oppor
tunity of seeing one of the grandest architectural and
landscape effects which has ever been devised.
"The general design suggested buildings on the
north and south of the Mall, which was evidently
intended to be an open space with boulevards orna
mented with planting, sculpture, and objects of art,
similar to the grand openings in Versailles and
no

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND xMODERN TOWNS

Fontainebleau. Instead of following this grand
scheme as devised, the Government buildings in
Washington have been located wherever whim, fancy,
or local interest dictated at the time of their erection.
The effectiveness of vistas on the avenues has been
destroyed ; the utility, unity, and grandeur of massing
or grouping such structures has been ignored, parking

WASHINGTON. D.C.

IC- liC.^'i5PD^^-L-#j--L_j L

FIG. 31. — DIAGRAM OF A PORTION OF WASHINGTON SHOWING PROPOSED SITES FOR FUTURE
PUBLIC BUILDINGS
destroyed, and the building of noble structures scattered
without design or reason."
Wherever this plan has been deviated from during
the past century it has been found to be a mistake, and
recently a Commission formed by Congress, after a
careful survey of the entire question, practically advised
the return in its essential lines to the plan as first
developed by an engineer and a statesman, so that
III

TOWN PLANNING
after the lapse of over a century there seems to be
some probability that Washington may yet rival Paris
as the best laid out city in the world.
From time to time many ideal schemes for town
planning in an academical way have been suggested.
In nearly every case these are founded upon some
geometrical figure — a square or triangle or the favourite
hexagon. But such schemes, though they appear well
on paper, are almost impossible to carry out in reality,
because they could only be carried out on a level
plain, and they pay little or no regard to the natural
features that are generally the primary reason of a
city's location. At the same time such ideal plans
have their value. The most successful form that has
been yet devised is the hexagon, of which type we
illustrate two examples, both having certain points to
commend them. It is claimed for the hexagonal type
that it permits the development of the city to the
utmost that might be possible within many decades,
because, with the hexagon, the great advantage of the
diagonal line is secured and at the same time many
intervening spaces are provided that are so much in
demand in all city plans.
The design of Herr Rudolf Miiller of Vienna (Fig.
32), who recently published the result of his studies in
the Oesterreichische IVochenschrift fur den Oeffentlichen
Baudienst, shows much originality. In the course of
a descriptive article he says: "Should the blocks of
buildings be hexagonal on plan and bounded by streets,
these streets of regularly broken lines would effectually
1X2

FIG. 32

.-SUGGESTED HEXAGONAL PLAN BY HERR R. MULLER

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
prevent laying down the shortest line of communication
between any two points. Therefore the hexagonal units
must be so grouped that the streets may assume a
straight or at least a continuous direction. The figure
shows the severest type of plan, which admits of much
modification and variation in the size and shape of the
hexagons, without affecting the main principle. The
three straight thoroughfares, bounding the site and
crossing each other at angles of 60 degrees, also bound
triangular spaces, which transform each block into a
six-pointed star. The invisible lines joining the centres
of these triangular spaces form an invisible hexagon,
which is the basis of the whole plan. These triangular
spaces are invaluable as open spaces, and their central
points form suitable sites for tea-house, restaurant, or
monument, or even for three villas set back to back
so as to enclose a small triangular yard or area. The
hexagonal building site would be most advantageously
laid out if the street facades were continuous ; six
detached blocks, parallel to the sides of the hexagon,
could then be erected within the space enclosed, and
these in their turn would bound the inner enclosure,
laid out as a garden, whose centre would serve as a
site for museum, school, pleasure resort, &c., or six
villas could be built back to back so as to enclose a
hexagonal area. An entrance effected at each angle of
the outer hexagon would establish ready communica
tion between the main thoroughfares and the centre of
the hexagon. The street front of the hexagonal block
would measure about 100 metres, as this length equals
IIS

TOWN PLANNING
the usual distance between two fire hydrants and
between two inspection-chambers. The middle of the
street would be reduced to a minimum and fixed by
traffic alone, for the house frontage would have no
buildings opposite and would be disposed in short
lengths alternately right and left of the thoroughfares.
The main thoroughfares would run parallel to the long
axis of the blocks of buildings and measure about
20 metres in width. Fifteen metres would suffice for
the cross streets. The entire surface of the unit
would measure 41,250 square metres, or about 10
acres, which would subdivide as follows : 30 per
cent, buildings, 40 per cent, streets and areas, 30 per
cent, gardens."
The advantages, according to Herr Miiller, can be
summed up thus : (i) The hexagonal blocks have no
north facade when the long axis of the building, i.e.,
the main streets, run north and south, so that sunless
dwellings are excluded ; (2) all dwellings have one
garden front, the main blocks looking out on the
triangular gardens, the inner blocks on to the central
garden; (3) numerous suitable sites for public monu
ments and fountains are provided ; (4) the street vistas
would be charming, even with rectilinear streets, on
account of the alternate grouping of buildings and
trees ; (5) as every plot would include some building
of architectural importance, uniformly good rents would
be secured, added to which a greater density of build
ing would obtain than is possible in the rival method,
i.e., detached buildings ; (6) the water supply, drainage,
116

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
&c., would be laid down on the simplest, most easily
controlled plans and at the cheapest cost.
The plan of Mr. Charles R. Lamb (Fig. 33) is based
upon the idea that it is important to form a series of
centres about a city each of which may be devoted to
one specific object. "The tendency," he says, "of
different businesses to centralise in one locality has
been recognised for many years. This tendency is not
restricted merely to business, however. Theatres and

"mmmmw

-7^' — 7,
FIG- 33

all buildings for the recreation of the people gravitate
towards one quarter of the city. Educational institu
tions, hospitals, &c., each in turn are found gravitating
towards their fellows. This tendency suggests that in
the model city such areas should be located in zones
of learning, zones of pleasure, zones of medicine and
surgery, zones of business, &c. They in turn would
have from them radiating through the nearer territory
such buildings as would instinctively consort with the
idea presented by the zone. Thus each zone would
have not only its administrative buildings but also
117

TOWN PLANNING
buildings of habitation ; the minor businesses for local
distribution ; the schools to serve the children of the
zone, &c. In this way each zone, in its own group,
would be practically a city complete, self-supporting,
divided from its neighbouring zone or city by a small
park, and yet connected with it by the diagonal streets.
The power of extension of such a plan is infinite. The
danger of congestion by the excessive growth of cities
has been eliminated, or, at least, reduced to its mini
mum." In the illustration the central district is devoted
to administration, surrounded by centres of education,
medicine, banking, dry goods, publishing, and amuse
ment. But it is not in any geometrical pattern, or in
fact any " system " whatever, that we are likely to hit
upon the correct method of dealing with the traffic
requirements of cities in the future. If all the require
ments of traffic in the future are to be fulfilled, no
purely rectangular or radiating system is likely to be
of any great use. "Success in town planning," says
Stiibben, " is more likely to be attained by seeking out
the natural topographical conditions. A full considera
tion for the levels, roads, and boundaries must be the
basis upon which all schemes must rest, and these
considerations can only be left out of account if they
become antagonistic to the legitimate requirements
of traffic and town extension, or for economic or
aesthetic reasons. The closer a town plan adheres to
the natural conditions, the more original and attractive
it will be. The filling in of the secondary roads to the
Ii8

TYPES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TOWNS
main network of thoroughfares should be approximately
rectangular, because the rectangle is the most con
venient form of building block, and for the actual traffic
requirement the diagonal system can always be resorted
to. The radial form of arrangement is advisable for
important focal points ; town gateways, railway stations,
the approaches to bridges and similar situations.
Curved streets adapt themselves as a rule better to
hilly ground than straight ones ; for wide vistas, distant
perspectives, and grand monumental effects the straight
line asserts itself. The day has gone by for the un
qualified employment of definite systems ; henceforth
they should not play a ruling but a subsidiary rdle."
The individual .formation of streets and open
spaces — each fitly proportioned to its object — can give
to the modern town an interest quite as great as to
those of centuries ago. Open traffic places, closed
architectural places, streets varying in width as occasion
demands, street frontages advancing here and retiring
there, the effective placing of monumental buildings,
fountains and statues, well planned gardens and parks ;
all these are elements that the modern town planner
has ready to help him without resorting to any set plan.
The separate parts of a town should each be distinct.
The business and dwelling quarters, the manufacturing
and workmen's quarters, each should express its own
individuality as each differs considerably in its re
quirements. The fusion of all these components into
one united whole will represent our ideal city of the
future. 119

CHAPTER III
THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
THE first essential" to be considered in laying
out the streets of a city should be that they
conform readily to the requirements of the
principal currents of circulation.
Nothing is of more paramount importance to the
prosperity of a city than free circulation. The larger
the area the more imperative it is that there should
be ample facilities for the rapid circulation of traffic
throughout the whole system of its streets, and in all
schemes for street improvement, proper provision must
be made not only for local requirements, but also for
the through currents of traffic. It is these through
currents which scattered improvements so often fail to
benefit. In laying down, then, an ideal plan for town
improvement, there should first be drawn up a com
prehensive scheme, involving the production of two or
three maps showing what the principal lines of traffic
circulation have been at intervals of, say, every two
120

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
generations. A further plan might then be made
showing the congested streets as at present, and from
this information could be prepared the final scheme,
allowing adequate provision for through traffic from
point to point, it may be from the railway sta
tion to the docks, from one railway terminus to
another, or connecting the great markets. These main
arteries should be direct, broad, straight, and as far as
possible free from all steep gradients. At the focal
points there should be open traffic spaces, and from these,
other secondary streets should radiate. Although it is
inadvisable to attempt to manufacture the picturesque
element, which must be inherent in the site, and cannot
be artificially brought about, yet in the planning of
new parts or the alteration of existing parts of a city
some definite scenic effect should be striven after, with
streets having an architectural relation to each other,
either being focussed to some important centre, or
having their vista closed by some monumental
building. These focal points should be the deciding factors
in the positions and directions of the principal streets.
Thus in Paris the focal points which have decided the
plan were the Opera House, the Madeleine, the Troca-
dero, &c. The elementary idea of a small and simple
town — such a town as stands on cross roads in a rural
district — is to place at the meeting of the roads, the
market place, the town hall, the church, and any other
public buildings which represent corporate life. If a
town is of such a size that its public life can be
121

TOWN PLANNING
accommodated by four or five public buildings, and if
the functions of these public buildings are so limited
that their contiguity is a convenience, and not, by
reason of congestion of traffic, an inconvenience, then
such a collocation is in all ways admirable. In a large
city such focal points may be either places for the
distribution of traffic currents or perhaps an approach
to a railway station or a bridge, but unless they are
of large extent and very carefully planned it is usually
inconvenient to have a great company of public
buildings of different functions close together, nor is it
wise to allow a multiplicity of roads to converge on
the site of a public building or group of buildings, as
the amount of traffic that will then converge to one
point becomes a hindrance rather than an aid to
circulation. In an interesting essay on the circulation of traffic
in modern towns M. Eugene Henard ' lays stress on
the fact that a town's prosperity, being the result of
the efforts of its inhabitants in all branches of human
activity, depends enormously upon the facility with
which traffic is able to circulate, and consequently the
establishment of a rational system of circulation
becomes one of the most powerful factors of public
wealth. Circulation, says M. H6nard, in a general
sense being but the sum of individual circulation, it is
first of all important to define what individual circula
tion is. By the term we mean the double movement
I To whom I am much indebted for permission to make use of his
valuable research and the loan of diagrams.
122

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
of every inhabitant who sets out, be it on foot or on
wheels, to attain a determined goal, and who, having
attained this goal, returns to his home. At first sight,
this double movement appears to be identical in its
two phases. There is, however, a notable difference
between the going and the returning : the former is
nearly always more rapid, because in the majority of
cases it leads to a meeting of a certain number of
persons at a fixed hour ; the latter, on the contrary, is
slower, because it can be performed at leisure. By the
former several individuals converge towards a given
point — by the latter they disperse. As to the circulation
of carriages and merchandise, we must consider that as
a result of individual circulation, since the movements
correspond with those of a driver, a porter, or a
huckster. Since the advent of automobilism the Parisian
streets, like those of London, have proved too narrow.
Already streets, having a width of from 30 to 40 feet,
with a road space of 25 to 30 feet, often show a
congestion of traffic. In the more recently constructed
streets the width has therefore been increased to 65 to
70 feet, with a road space of 40 feet, which is con
sidered sufficient to allow the passage of five carriages
abreast or two rows of stationary vehicles along the
pavements with a double central circulation. The larger
avenues and boulevards of the Haussmann type are
nearly always 100 feet from house to house, with a
road space of 45 feet, but even these fine streets get
blocked when double tramways occupy the middle of
123

TOWN PLANNING
the boulevard, allowing only two vehicles to pass on
either side. The largest type of Parisian boulevard is
as much as 115 feet between the buildings, with a road
space of 55 feet ; this width permits seven lines of
traffic, moving or stationary. With the growth of
automobilism these dimensions will not be found too
excessive, for the modern tendency to economise time
means an increase of speed, to accommodate which
streets will eventually have to be provided with a road
space up to 65 feet.
As a study in the growth and development of a
city's traffic no better example could be chosen than
that of Paris, for no city has made greater efforts in
the past to tackle the difficulties involved, and this
at a time when none of the other great cities had
awakened to the necessity of changing their mediaeval
streets for something more suitable to modern needs.
The system of focal points, which is the principal
feature of the plan of Paris, has much to commend
it, but yet the overcrowding of Parisian streets is very
marked — a fault that does not lie, however, with the
system, but rather is the result of abnormal increase in
the density of the population within a very small area.
M. Henard has published an interesting plan (Fig. 35)
which shows the density of traffic at various points. It
is, of course, very difficult for such a plan to be made
by a private individual, but the idea is one that might
well be recommended to municipal authorities having
congested traffic areas to deal with. In the case of old
cities like Paris and London, the necessary thorough-
124

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
fares can only be cut through at vast expense, but if
a clear grasp of the traffic requirements is obtained
before, instead of after the improvements are made,
much of the money now wasted need never be spent,
and a series of such plans of a city made, say, every
ten years might be of the greatest assistance in
deciding what were the most urgent street widenings
and improvements.
To form an idea of the Paris which Haussmann
was called upon to develop we must go back to the
first half of the seventeenth century. The bird's-eye
map of Mathieu Marian affords a good idea of Paris
in 1615, when it was a very prosperous city and had
already carried out considerable improvements. The
houses extend well beyond the walls, and towards
the west the view indicates the new earthworks that
had been thrown out to protect the garden of
the Tuileries (seen at the bottom of the engraving).
The view, together with the small inset plan, clearly
shows that the principal lines of traffic circulation were
well established at this date. It is easy to distinguish
a double line extending right through the city from
north to south. Parallel to the Seine are the Rue
St. Honors and the quays bordering the river on either
bank. There are four principal market-places — the
Halles and the Place de Greve on the right bank and the
Place Maubert and the Carrefour St. Andr^ on the left.
These four places act as termini to four diagonal streets
passing through the city gates to the country beyond.
All the river traffic appears to be concentrated along
127

TOWN PLANNING
the right bank. The plan shows clearly the character
of the first network of traffic thoroughfares, a little
irregular in their lines perhaps, but nevertheless the
practical outcome of the city's needs.
Fig- 35 shows the traffic circulation of Paris
to-day. In the two centuries that have intervened we
find the city increased tenfold. The old thoroughfares
still exist, but side by side, in the Paris of to-day, we
find an enormous development of other and larger
thoroughfares. The plan shows clearly what are the
directions followed by the principal currents of traffic
(being founded only upon private research it does
not of course pretend to have the accuracy of the
work of a public department). The white streets
are those with normal circulation, the half black and
white have an active circulation, and those entirely
black have a crowded circulation. If we look closely
at this plan we can draw some useful conclusions.
The principal currents of circulation are shown to be
along the transverse lines from north to south and
east to west, constituting an immense cross, but this
circulation has not the same intensity along the entire
length of the lines ; the same applies to the inner ring
of boulevards from the Bastille to the Madeleine, where,
especially on the south side of the Seine, the circula
tion is much less than on the "Grands Boulevards"
to the north.
Another striking feature of the plan is the evidence
it affords that the lines of circulation which we have
already noticed in the plan of 1615 remain practically
128

Courants^Nord Quest

Courants Quest

CircuTatlOJt Normale
CiTOilaUaii-Acuva Circalation Intensive etixwa intensive.

CcFuranlB Surd

FIG. 35.— PARIS IN 1906. PLA

Courants 'Nord

CouPatrtg'FW

R.H Arch.

, Couranls Sud-Esi

<G THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION

mm

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
unchanged at the present time. The diagonal currents
have attempted on every side to force themselves
through the more crowded parts of the city ; thus to
the south-west the old Rue du Four has extended
itself by the Rue Lecourbe, the traffic of which is
doubled by the Rue \'augirard, and towards the north
west the old Rue Montmartre, having taken its traffic
as far as the Church of Notre Dame de Lorette,
allows it to continue along two streets that join at
that point. This north-west current is, and always has
been, very marked. The Rue du Temple and Vieille-du-
Temple have developed the north-east current, and the
lines have been continued by the Rue de Belleville and
the Rue Oberkampf. All this is proof that ancient
traffic currents are perpetuated in spite of the most
radical changes that may take place. Experience also
shows that where a new thoroughfare like the Boule
vard S6bastopol (on the north to south axial line) has
been laid out it has in no way diminished the
importance of the two older streets, Rue St. Denis
and Rue St. Martin, that run parallel with it on
either side, and that wherever the traffic in a
certain direction has proved to be persistent for a
long period, the provision of a new thoroughfare
tends considerably to consolidate the ancient traffic
direction. On the other hand, it is easy to find
examples of streets, not planned as the result of
a direct traffic demand, remaining but little used
from the day that they are opened. The old streets
that have already been mentioned and those which
K 129

TOWN PLANNING
have been planned to prolong them are obviously
too narrow and should be doubled. In order to com
pare the traffic lines of important cities, M. Henard
has drawn a series of plans which will suggest ideas
and introduce new elements into the problems for
which the study of a single city does not suffice.
The cities chosen for comparison are Berlin, Moscow,
Paris, and London, because they are all similarly
situated inland and upon the banks of rivers, and,
moreover, their extent, population, and political impor
tance all presuppose new analogous extension in years
to come. We have omitted maritime cities like St.
Petersburg or New York, because the conditions which
govern their plan are somewhat different.
In all these plans the principal lines of traffic,
public spaces, parks and gardens are shown, but for
the sake of clearness all other routes, including the lines
of railway, have been omitted. Berlin
The theoretical plan of Berlin shows the centre
of the city surrounded by almost concentric streets, the
principal being the Neue Friedrich Strasse and the
Dircksen Strasse, in the midst of which is the central
metropolitan station. This central area comprises a
large number of important buildings and is intersected
by the river Spree, surrounding an island which, as
in the case of Paris, was the site of the first primitive
settlement. From this centre the Unter den Linden,
bordered on either side with important public buildings,
130

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
extends as far as the Brandenburg Gate, a distance
of about 1,300 yards, whence the avenue extends
through the magnificent Tiergarten in a straight line
as far as the Forest of Spandau. The Tiergarten is
the breathing space of central Berlin ; beyond it on

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FIG. 36. — PLAN SHOWING THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF BERLIN
the west and south lies Charlottenburg, the residential
quarter of the city ; to the east is the city itself. The
principal thoroughfare passing from north to south is
the Friedrich Strasse, which crosses that from east
to west about midway in the Unter den Linden. On
its way through the Tiergarten, the Charlottenburger
131
TOWN PLANNING
Chaussee is crossed by the Sieges Allee; at each of
its extremities two streets radiate, the Heide Strasse
and Alt Moabit on the north, and the Tiergarten
and Potsdam Strasse on the south. The new quarters
of Berlin are rapidly developing westward.

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FIG. 37. — THEORETICAL PLAN OF THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF BERLIN
From this simplified network we may, by slightly
correcting the irregularities of the plan, draw a purely
theoretical scheme (Fig. 37), giving the general plan
of Berlin, and showing that the traffic of the city is
decentralised, but clearly symmetrical as regards its
principal axial lines.
From a dense centre or heart the Chaussee de
132
THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
Charlottenburg stretches westward straight as a die.
Around the heart is an inner ring, and an outer ring
or perimeter, whence fourteen streets radiate to the
suburbs. Examining this general arrangement, one
is not surprised at the rapid growth of Berlin, for this
splendid network of thoroughfares has contributed in
the most efficient manner towards the economic expan
sion of the capital.' Moscow
The circulation plan of Moscow (Fig. 38) is even
simpler than that of Berlin. Moscow is a semi-
oriental town that has had to contend with invasions
from Asiatic hordes, and could only maintain its exis
tence by surrounding itself, more than once, with per
manent fortifications. Like Paris, it has developed in
concentric rings of boulevards. In the centre, on the
banks of the Moskowa, stands the Kremlin, a military,
religious, and political citadel, enclosing within its walls
palaces, churches, convents, an arsenal, a court of
justice, and barracks. To the east of the Kremlin
stretches the old town. The heart of the city is
surrounded by large avenues, gardens, and squares,
and eleven thoroughfares radiate from this innermost
circle ; these are connected, at distances apart of
about one thousand yards, by two rings of boule
vards, the first consisting of a series of large boule-
I The population of Berlin in 1861 was 520,000; in 1871, 826,000;
in 1881, 1,500,000, and by 1900, including the adjacent suburbs, it had
risen to 2,500,000. 133

TOWN PLANNING
vards, divided by gates and monuments, the second
of the " Sadowaia," or Parkway, which, under various
names, surrounds the town in an almost perfect
circle. Beyond the "Sadowaia" the suburban areas
are more or less regularly developed. The theoretical
scheme of the plan of Moscow (Fig. 39) shows more

FIG. 38. — PLAN SHOWING THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF MOSCOW

clearly this regular arrangement formed by the three
concentric circles, with radiating thoroughfares con
verging towards the Kremlin, a "heart" trebly
defended, in which is summed up the unique
authority of the Czar, political, military, and religious.

1.34

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
Paris
The traffic circulation of Paris is shown on Figs.
40 and 41, from which it will be seen that the Seine
divides Paris into two parts. Of these the upper part,
which includes those districts planned on the convex

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FIG. 39.— THEORETICAL PLAN OF THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF MOSCOW
side of the river, consists of two-thirds of the city's
total area. Its plan is clear and well adapted for
circulation. The remaining third of Paris, enclosed by
the concave bank of the Seine, consists of a confused
collection of badly arranged thoroughfares. The two
principal lines of traffic east to west (Cours de Vincennes,
135
TOWN PLANNING
Rue de Rivoli, Avenue des Champs Elysees) and north
to south (Boulevard de S^bastopol, Boulevard St. Michel)
are clearly distinguishable ; these form the principal
radiating lines. Two secondary traffic lines radiate from
the Place du Chitelet (where the Rue de Rivoli crosses

FIG. 40.— PLAN SHOWING THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF PARIS
the Boulevard S6bastopol) in either direction along the
banks of the Seine, and another line (the Avenue de
rOp^ra) goes north-west to the inner ring of boulevards ;
other lines (Rue de Turbigo and Rue Montmartre),
though much smaller, have some importance as lines
of radiation. These radiating thoroughfares are joined
136

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
by the elliptical belt of the "Grands Boulevards"
and the Boulevard Saint Germain. The Place de la
Concorde and the Place de la Bastille are placed at
the extremities of the major axis. The Boulevards
Voltaire, Magenta, Haussmann and Rue Lafayette are

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FIG. 41. — THEORETICAL PLAN OF THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF PARIS
placed tangentially to the ellipse. The outer belt of
boulevards encloses the city at a distance of about a
mile and a quarter from the inner ring. The Place de
r:6toile and the Place de la Nation are at the west
and east extremities. On the right bank the line of
boulevards is continuous, but on the left bank it is
more broken and irregular. A third belt, having a
137
TOWN PLANNING
total length of over twenty miles, has been advocated
by M. Henard upon the site of the existing fortifi
cation. It is proposed that this belt shall include no
less than thirteen small interior parks. If this scheme
is carried out Paris will be unique in the possession
of three distinct belts of boulevards. Useful as these
belts are to circulation of traffic, it is a decided defect
that so many of the radiating thoroughfares stop short
at the exterior boulevard and do not penetrate into the
heart of the city, the area of which is too much cut
up by a labyrinth of small streets, having only the
Boulevard Sebastopol and the Avenue de I'Op^ra as
connecting thoroughfares. The two magnificent traffic
places, the Place de I'Etoile with its twelve radiating
thoroughfares and the Place de la Nation with ten, are
not placed in such positions that they can thoroughly
and effectively "diffuse the traffic currents. To obviate
these defects of traffic circulation M. H6nard has evolved
a clever scheme by which the heart of the city would
be further divided by two broad thoroughfares running
east and west, and, together with enlargements of exist
ing roads north and south, would enclose the heart of
the city within a square, from the four corners of
which four broad thoroughfares would radiate to the
suburbs beyond the outer line of fortifications.
London
Fig. 42 illustrates the principal lines of traffic
in London. These are much less defined than in either
138

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
of the cities we have considered, and at first sight
seem inextricable.
The plan shows a confused network of irregular
streets, presenting the appearance of ancient rural
highways along which houses have been built. How-

FIG. 42. — PLAN SHOWING THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF LONDON
ever, a closer examination reveals three great cross
roads, or rather three groups of crossroads, from
which radiate nearly all the streets and which form
the three apexes of an almost regular triangle — i.e.,
on the left bank, Trafalgar Square and the Bank,
and on the right St. George's Circus. Trafalgar
139

TOWN PLANNING
Square is connected with the Bank by the Strand,
Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill, Cannon Street, and Queen
Victoria Street, this line forming the base of the
triangle ; from the opposite apex, St. George's Circus,
five streets spread out in a fan, rejoining this base by
crossing the Thames by five great bridges — London
Bridge, Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo, and West
minster. From each of these three groups of cross
roads radiating streets intersect the town in every
direction. To the Trafalgar Square group are attached
Regent Street, leading to Regent's Park, Piccadilly to
Hyde Park, the Mall, forming the state avenue to
Buckingham Palace, Whitehall leading to the Houses
of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, &c. The great
commercial arteries radiate from the Bank, which, with
the Mansion House and Exchange, forms the centre of
financial operations. St. George's Circus disperses
southwards the third group or network of streets,
consisting of five principal thoroughfares which extend
through the industrial quarters of south London. The
ensemble of the plan seems to consist of twisted,
tangled streets, among which a straight street is a rare
exception, like a network of string with three principal
knots. But, gently pull these distended lines, straighten
them out in their right directions, and the plan
becomes clearer, and can be broadly interpreted by the
theoretical scheme in Fig. 43.
Every year for many years past a number of new
streets have been provided in London, giving a
temporary benefit, the effect of which seems to quickly
140

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
disappear. Important works like the Holborn Viaduct,
Queen Victoria Street, Victoria Embankment, Shaftes
bury Avenue, Charing Cross Road, Clerkenwell Road,
Rosebery Avenue, the Tower Bridge, the widening and
extension of Eastcheap to Tower Hill, have all done

FIG. 43.— THEORETICAL PLAN OF THE TRAFFIC CIRCULATION OF LONDON
something, but in spite of these and many other
improvements we still have the tremendous congestion
of traffic' The congestion of street traffic is principally due
I An idea of the enormous number and cost of these improvements
can be gathered from Mr. Percy J. Edwards's " History of London Street
Improvements, 1855-1897," published by the London County Council.
141

TOWN PLANNING
to the mixture of slow-going and quick-going traffic.
The varying speed of the different kinds of vehicles
is very marked and highly dangerous. The number
of fatal accidents in London in 1907 — the last year
for which official statistics are available — was 283, as
compared with 212 in 1906 and 172 in 1905, and the
number of accidents by which people were injured
was 16,772, as compared with 14,060 in 1906 and
11,688 in 1905.' This alarming increase in accidents
synchronises with the advent and increase of motor
traffic. A variety of vehicles moving in a variety of
directions at a variety of speeds renders it at many
important centres of traffic in London impossible for
anyone to calculate the chances of a safe crossing
save by the arithmetic of agility.
Addressing a meeting some few years since on
the subject of London traffic, the late Mr. Thomas
Blashill, architect to the London County Council, said
that with regard to moving vehicles, or such as
were supposed to be on the move, we had arrived
at a time when new conditions must enter into any
consideration of the future. A motor cab obstructs
little more than two-thirds of the length of cab and
horse, and so with the motor victoria and landau
and omnibus and tradesman's cart and van. When
these vehicles became so numerous as to dominate
the traffic, the speed of all vehicles using principal
streets would be fixed at a rate uniformly high, and
all slower vehicles would be turned into side streets.
' Daily Telegraph, March i6, 1909.
142

CONDEMNED

THREE-BRANCH CROSSWAY

FIG. 44
O 3 points of deviation from line of traffic
^ 3 points of junction with line of traffic
• 3 collision points

FOUR-BRANCH CROSSWAY
A

FIG. 45
O 4 points of deviation from line of traffic
(/) 4 points of junction with line of traffic
• i6 collision points

FIVE-BRANCH CROSSWAY

Fig. 46
O 5 points of deviation from line of traffic
0 5 points of junction with line of traffic
• 50 collision points

SIX-BRANCH CROSSWAY
A

FIG. 47
O 6 points of deviation from line of traffic
ij> 6 points of junction with line of traffic
• 120 collision points

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
There are very few roads which, except at crossings,
would be insufficient for their traffic were it not for
the mixture of slow with quick traffic. If every
vehicle were now decreased in length by one-third,
the capacity of every street would be practically
increased in nearly that proportion. There would be
no struggle to pass, as the need for one vehicle to
pass another was due to the difference in the pace
of horses and the difference in the weight of their
loads. With motor traction, light and heavy traffic,
subject to a few exceptional loads, would go at the
same rate and use the same track. In London we
are not concerned with streets of ample width, where
quick traffic could go its own pace, but with crowded
streets where even the quickest traffic went not faster
than an average of six miles an hour, and probably
not faster than four miles, while the slow traffic went
rather under three miles an hour.
One solution, then, of the traffic problem seems
to be to attempt to divide the varying speeds into
groups, by making provision for the separation of the
slow and quick traffic and strictly confining them to
distinct channels of progress, and to abolish the
present system of indiscriminate stopping by pro
viding a large number of compulsory halting places.
The first requirement would of course be applied to
all kinds of vehicular traffic. The second would
perhaps only be practicable with the motor omnibuses,
which would thereby be put on the same footing as
the electric tramways. In the chapter dealing with
147

TOWN PLANNING
streets we shall see that these are the methods being
everywhere followed in new streets in Germany and
France. But although the congestion of traffic in main
thoroughfares is largely caused by the mixture of
slow and fast draught and the narrowness of the
streets, that which forces itself most into prominence is
the obstruction caused by the continual stoppages at the
crossings of important thoroughfares.' Traffic is thus
compelled to proceed in a series of small groups, with
intervals between, when the roads are comparatively
clear. The effect of three, four, five, and six streets
meeting at one point is shown in Figs. 44 to 47. 2
Fig. 44 is a plan of the meeting of three streets,
from which it will be seen that there are six possible
routes for vehicles, AB, AC, BA, BC, and CA, CB.
There are three possible points of collision in these
trajectories, i.e., there are three points where, if two
vehicles approach at the same time, one must slow up
or stop in order to avoid collision. In Fig. 45 four
roads are shown meeting at one point, which allows of
twelve different traffic routes and produces 16 points of
collision. Fig. 46 shows the junction of five streets,
I In order to test the seriousness of this evil a report was made
to the London County Council of the loss of time and money at
one of the London crossings, at the junction of Wellington Street
and the Strand, and it was reported that during two days, from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m., no less than 6,341 vehicles out of a total of 19,724, or
about one-third, were held up, and that the lowest possible estimate
of the loss of time involved amounted to £7,\%o per annum.
^ From diagrams kindly lent by M. Eugene Henard.
148

UTHAI5^5J& // YA

FIG. 48.— PLAN OF A SUPERIMPOSED THOROUGHFARE BY M. EUGENE HENARD

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
which gives no fewer than 50 collision points ; and
again by the addition of one more street, as in
Fig. 47, we find a total of 120 actual collision points.
When we study large street crossings of four
ways, which are, of course, those most frequently
to be met with, one of the first ideas that naturally
will occur is that, as all the trouble is caused by two
currents of traffic meeting, why not superimpose one
above the other ? Such a system already exists at
the Holborn Viaduct, and a similar scheme was
suggested by Mr. Paul Waterhouse in dealing with
the point of juncture of the two great traffic avenues
which the Traffic Commission proposed should be
taken across London.
In such a scheme of superimposed thoroughfares
upon a level site a gradient of i in 30 is the steepest
which is admissible, the minimum safe headway for
a bridge is 16 feet, and the depth of girder required
would add another 2 feet 6 inches, so that the lower
roadways, supposing one road descended and the
other ascended, would have to be sloped for a distance
of about 100 yards on either side.
M. Eugene Henard > has published an interesting
study for such a contrivance in the heart of a great
city. Let us suppose that two important thorough
fares, each 130 feet in width, cross each other in the
midst of a thickly populated city. In order that there
shall be no encumbrance to the traffic, M. Henard
I "Etudes sur les Transformations de Paris," Fascicule 7, par
Eug. H6nard, Paris, 1906. 151

TOWN PLANNING
proposes that a height of at least 26 feet between the
two levels be allowed for, leaving a clear height of
about 23 feet. By allowing an easy gradient of
2^ per cent, both the upward and downward ramps
would have to be about 520 feet in length (Fig. 48).
In order to allow traffic to pass from one thoroughfare
to the other it would be necessary to connect them
by four curved roadways, which would be on the level
as shown in the bird's-eye view (Fig. 49).
In the case of thoroughfares crossing one another
in an oblique direction it would be possible to connect
them as shown by the small diagram (Fig. 48a) by
short roads AD and CB. In either case it is essential
to provide subsidiary stairways for pedestrians. One
advantage of this arrangement is that pedestrians from
either side of the two thoroughfares are not obliged
to cross any line of traffic.
The disadvantage of superimposed thoroughfares
is that they necessitate extensive alterations in the
adjoining buildings, adding considerably to the cost
of the improvement ; they force pedestrians who are
passing from the lower to the upper thoroughfares to
ascend flights of steps ; finally, they have the irrepar
able defect of not being a general solution, and are
inapplicable to crossways of five or six roads. So that
superimposed roadways can only be regarded as practical
solutions for cross thoroughfares where, as at Holborn
Viaduct, the topographical conditions are favourable.
A more practical solution of the problem of cross-
ways is supplied by the gyratory method of street
152

r?^

FIG. 49  bird's-eye VIEW OF M. EUGENE HENARD'S DESIGN FOR A SUPERIMPOSED THOROUGHFARE

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
crossings. In the sketches already given we have
traced all the collision points in the usual types of
crossways, and the plans clearly show that, whatever
the number of intersecting streets, all the points of
collision are contained within a circle forming the
centre part of the crossroads. Let us for a moment
see if it would not be possible to obviate these
collision points by placing obstacles in the centre.
At first sight the solution appears absurd, because
it would seem to impede the circulation itself by
simply displacing the collision points, but on closer
examination it will be seen that the placing of an
obstacle on the central danger area would force traffic
to go round the obstacle and thereby its course would
nearly follow concentric lines, forming tangents to the
circle. It only remains to avoid antagonistic move
ments, and in order to make the solution completely
satisfactory, to compel traffic always to turn in the
same direction and only to enter the congested area
tangentially and at an angle of not more than 45°.
In such a system all collision points disappear. The
solution is a good general one because it is indepen
dent of the number of intersecting thoroughfares.
The system of gyratory traffic regulation was
first proposed by Mr. Holroyd Smith some few years
ago, and its application to London's crowded traffic
places has been strongly advocated by Mr. W. N.
Twelvetrees ' : —
I Presidential Address to the Civic and Mechanical Engineers'
Society, October 3, 1907. 15s

TOWN PLANNING
" To illustrate the system of gyratory traffic move
ment, let us take the case of a junction such as that
shown in Fig. 50, where four streets converge upon
an area sufficient to permit continuous locomotion.
To avoid unnecessary complication, only one line of
traffic in each direction is considered in each street,
and the drivers of vehicles are assumed to take the
shortest cut to every possible destination. The result

Y
>  \ J'  '•  "  «(^ y>  >¦
<  (^ ¦>,  •'  <'  /* /  "
 K

FIG. 50. — TYPICAL CIRCUS

is sixteen points of conflict, leading to hopeless con
fusion, the only lines free from intersections being
those along the outside. A little reflection will show
that if vehicles were prevented from penetrating into
the central area, where conflict is so pronounced, and
were compelled to follow a circular line, there could
be no points of intersection. On the contrary, there
would be a gyratory procession, receiving and dis-
156

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
tributing traffic along tangential curves at each of the
foiir branches.
" Fig. 51 shows the same hypothetical junction
with gyratory traffic regulation, absolutely obviating
all points of conflict and reducing the number of
converging and diverging lines from twenty-four to
sixteen. At the centre of the junction is a circular
refuge, and at the mouth of each street a refuge,

FIG. 51. — TYPICAL CIRCUS WITH GYRATORY REGULATION
whose sides should be curved sufficiently to act as a
training wall, guiding the flow of traffic in the required
directions. " It must be admitted that a certain amount of
intersection must necessarily result from the establish
ment of concentric circles of gyratory movement. But
the difficulty is more apparent than real, because
drivers in the outer circle would very frequently desire
to break away tangentially at the same moment as
157

TOWN PLANNING
other drivers in the inner circle. Similarly it may
be assumed that arrivals and departures at the several
points would be fairly equally balanced, so that the
gaps formed in the line would facilitate the entry of
newly arriving vehicles. Any slight drawbacks that
might attend the adoption of the gyratory system
would certainly be more than counterbalanced by the

FIG. 52. — OXFORD CIRCUS, LONDON
avoidance of confusion, stoppages, and delays ; by the
additional safety assured to foot passengers, for whom
subways should be provided ; and by the far smaller
number of police officers required for the purposes of
regulation. " In London we have ready at hand several
spacious junctions where the gyratory system could
be applied very easily. One of these is Oxford Circus,
the present arrangement of which is given in Fig. 52.
158

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
On this plan are drawn curved and straight lines,
indicating the various directions for single files of
traffic. These lines give sixteen points of direct
conflict, but it will be seen that all these points come
within a relatively small area in the middle of the
circus. Outside the area of conflict there are no
points of intersection, and it is very evident that by

FIG. 53.— OXFORD CIRCUS WITH GYRATORY
REGULATION

describing a circle connecting the outermost traffic
lines we have at once an indication of the rational
course for vehicles desiring to pass from any street
to any other street.
" ^^S- 53 is a revised plan of Oxford Circus, show
ing the total abolition of conflicting points and the
reduction of converging and diverging lines resulting
from the gyratory regulation of vehicular traffic. Four
additional curves are here drawn to illustrate the
159

TOWN PLANNING
manner in which vehicles can pass directly from every
street to the next street on the left hand without the
necessity for entering the main stream of traffic moving
round the circus.
"As a typical example of the manner in which
open spaces have been created at immense cost, but
with comparatively little benefit, a plan of Piccadilly

FIG. 54. — PICCADILLY CIRCUS, LONDON

Circus in its present enlarged form is given in Fig. 54.
The additional area to the north actually doubles the
number of natural intersecting points in the original
circus, as demonstrated by the thirty points of direct
conflict. At the Quadrant end of Regent Street there
are eleven points of intersection, and at the end of
Shaftesbury Avenue there are fifteen similar inter
sections. Thus, in spite of the magnificent area
160

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
provided by recent street improvements, we have a total
of fifty-six points where traffic lines are in conflict.
"Although the increased space has failed in the
object of avoiding congestion at the most undesirable
points, it is interesting to find that the left-hand tri
angular refuge actually has the effect of compelling
some of the traffic lines to follow an approximately
circular course. This result confirms the principle

FIG. 55. — PICCADILLY CIRCUS WITH GYRATORY
REGULATION
already suggested, that the rational method of obviat
ing conflict is to place suitable obstructions upon areas
where confusion naturally tends to occur, and then to
make all vehicles pass around the obstacles so created.
" To deal with Piccadilly Circus in its present
form is not an altogether easy task. The existing
state of chaos might be reduced to order by establish
ing two systems of rotation, one in the new area and
M 161

TOWN PLANNING
the other in the original circus. Such a plan would
obviate the necessity for structural work other than the
modification of the two triangular refuges, the con
struction of a central plateau in the original circus, and
the addition of guide refuges at the mouths of the
various streets. But to make the best of this fine
space, the sides of the original circus require to be
opened out as suggested in Fig. 55. To do this we
should have to cut off a small slice from the Criterion
corner and to cut back the well-known drapery
establishment at the corner of Piccadilly and Regent
Street. Then the way would be clear for an egg-
shaped circuit, dispensing with all intersection of
traffic, and giving a splendid site for the joint station
of the Baker Street and Waterloo and the Piccadilly
tubular railways. The centre of Piccadilly Circus is an
ideal place for such a station, readily accessible from
every side by a system of radiating subways. The
neglect of this magnificent site is typical of the way
in which things are muddled in London simply for
want of a capable administrative body having power
to deal with all phases of the traffic problem."
Whilst these gyratory crossways are distinctly
favourable to vehicular traffic they are somewhat detri
mental to pedestrians, and where adopted on any large
scale, it would certainly be necessary to provide means
for pedestrians to cross by underground passages,
which might lead to a circular area open in the centre.
If no more than 8 feet in height only a few steps
would be necessary. 162

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
But perhaps a more practical means of relieving
congested traffic is by the planning of duplicate parallel
roadways connected with each other at intervals. It
often happens that a secondary street runs more or
less parallel to an important thoroughfare, and when
this is the case it may be a not very difficult matter to
connect the two by means of several crossroads and
arcades, and possibly at the same time widening the
smaller street here and there. The idea has been
successfully carried out in Paris, where the Boulevard
Sebastopol is thus relieved by the Rue St. Martin,
and might very well be imitated in London, where
many opportunities for putting it into practice will
occur. Another means that has been already adopted for
relieving the pressure of traffic is by a system of
underground freight subways to establish communica
tion for the transport of goods between docks, markets,
and railway termini and the warehouses and business
premises. By this means a very considerable propor
tion of the total goods traffic of a city could be
conducted without using the public streets. These
tubes should be sufficiently large to admit the ordinary
rolling stock used by railway companies, so that entire
wagon-loads of goods could be transferred to the
underground lines by means of lifts without tran
shipment at goods dep6ts.
In Chicago the Illinois Tunnel Company now own
and operate upwards of sixty miles of underground
freight tunnels in the business part of the city. The
163

TOWN PLANNING
idea was first suggested by the system of underground
tunnels in a coal mine, and the immense undertaking
is due to the initiative of Mr. A. G. Wheeler. The
tunnels are constructed under all the streets in what
is known as the "business" centre of Chicago. At
each street corner there are what are termed four-way
intersections ; these, with the sidings in front of busi
ness houses, are like sidings to a railroad. Most of
the sixty miles of tunnels are 6 feet wide and 7
feet 6 inches high, the roof forming an arch. The
main or trunk tunnels are 12 feet high and from
12 feet to 14 feet wide, thus allowing ample height
for a man to work in comfortably and space to
allow for the future growth of the system. The
authorities stipulated that the tunnels were to be
about 40 feet under ground, and this plan has been
followed, so that the tops of the tunnels are about
33 feet below the level of the street and thus
avoid cutting into the sewers, water and other pipes,
and at the same time leave ample room above the
tops of the tunnels for the construction of a sub
way system for the street car traffic of the city in
case it should ever be decided to construct such a
system. The Illinois Tunnel Company are prohibited
by their charter from ever carrying passengers through
their tunnels.
It is said that there is more freight hauled
through the streets of Chicago than in any other city
in America. New York hauls about 75,000 tons of
freight daily through its streets, Philadelphia and
164

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
Boston about 65,000 tons each, and Chicago 100,000
tons a day, and it is expected that the Company will
eventually haul about one-third of this enormous
amount. The Company makes the necessary shaft
connection between the tunnels and a warehouse, and

FIG. 56.— PLAN AND SECTION SHOWING A TYPICAL CONNECTION OF THE ILLINOIS TUNNEL COMPANY
TO A WAREHOUSE BUILDING
the equipment of such a shaft with lifts, &c., capable
of handling freight costs about ;^4>ooo- The tunnel
cars have a capacity of about three tons each, and
after being hauled to the foot of the lifts, they can
be elevated directly into the building to be served.
Thus in the big warehouse of Messrs. Marshall,
16s

TOWN PLANNING
Field & Co., on the west side of the river, the cars
are hoisted to any desired floor and unloaded. The
tunnel trains run into the basement of the building
and stop beside a long concrete platform which is the
height of the floor of the tunnel cars. At the back
of the concrete platform are the store elevators ; small
trucks on wheels are filled at the warehouse (which
has a similar connection), placed on each tunnel car,
unloaded on the platform of the retail store, antl then
elevated to any floor of the building, where they are
pushed by hand to the counter desired. For shipments
from the warehouses, empty cars are delivered and
returned to the tunnel loaded in the same manner.
Of course, direct communication between tunnel and
warehouse is not always possible, and to obviate this
the tunnels have central depots at various points
in the city. In some cases connections with ware
houses are made by lowering the basement of a
building 40 feet from the surface, or on a level with
the tunnels, which enables the cars to run in on the
level. Another important work of the tunnels is the
hauling away of rubbish and material from the excava
tions of new buildings. There is not a big building
that has been erected in Chicago since the system has
been in operation for which the tunnels have not been
used for hauling away the excavated material. A steel
chute is simply run up from the tunnel to the excava
tion about 3 feet in diameter. This chute is on an
angle of about 45°. The workmen bring their barrows
166

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
of material to the mouth of the chute and dump them ;
gravity carries the soil to the bottom, where it falls
into the waiting car. One car filled, another is moved
under the mouth of the chute, and when a train has
thus been made up, the electric locomotive hauls it
away. All this means a very considerable gain in time
for the contractors.
The largest customers of the Tunnel Company
are the postal authorities, who have entered into
contracts for the transport of mails, and the Company
is to-day doing a work which would otherwise employ
hundreds of mail carts on the streets. The tunnels are
connected with the goods termini of every railroad enter
ing the city, and each railroad has its own system
of freight houses, all of which are also connected.
Another source of large revenue to the Company
is the disposal of rubbish, ashes, excavation soil, and
all kinds of refuse which can be easily collected from
the basements of buildings and transported quickly to
the lake or to the outskirts of the city.
In London a step in the right direction has been
taken by the formation of the new thoroughfare from
Holborn to the Strand, where a tramway has been
constructed below the level of the roadway by means
of a tube, so that a large amount of traffic is diverted
from the road above. This is the first attempt
in England to deal with the congestion of traffic by
means of tunnels, but the principle might be applied
to tramway systems with great advantage where it is
necessary for them to pass through congested areas.
167

TOWN PLANNING
Under the garden of the Quirinal in Rome a
traffic tunnel has been constructed nearly a quarter of
a mile in length, providing for the traffic between
two parts of the city. It has a very good appearance,
being lined with glazed bricks and tiles and lighted
by electricity and gas.
According to the Royal Commission on London
Traffic the construction of tramway subways in
existing cities is a very costly business, amounting
in some specific localities to as much as a million
pounds per mile, and rarely lower than ;^30o,ooo, even
where more favourable conditions exist, so that where
the choice lies between subways and street widening
it will generally be found nearly as cheap to widen
the streets and lay tramways on the surface. In any
case the construction of such subways must be a
question of relative cost, with the additional considera
tion that travelling on the surface is always preferable
and a wide street always has an advantage.
In addition to these main subways, considerable
relief to street traffic could be afforded by the con
struction everywhere of subways for water, gas, and
other mains, similar to those which exist in many
of the streets of Paris. This would prevent the
continual obstruction caused by the roadways being
taken up. Such subways would contain the sewers
and drains, water and gas pipes, pipes for hydraulic
power, wires for electric lighting, telegraphs, and
telephones, and perhaps in time, mains for a public
supply of steam for heating and ventilating or driving
1 68

THE CIRCULATION OF TRAFFIC
machinery. Although it is hardly practicable for
such subways to be constructed through the present
congested areas, it is still quite possible to make
provision for them in laying out or replanning
thoroughfares that are to pass through the congested
areas of the future.
A third kind of subway is the underground
pedestrian passage that has been already adopted in
several congested points of London and Paris. Such
a system, however, has yet to be proved a success, and
probably will only be so in large traffic places. The
London Traffic Commissioners reported that, however
convenient they may be in theory, these subways do
not seem to be much used when provided, as apparently
the mere fact of having to go down a stair keeps the
majority of people on the surface. If inclined planes
could be provided instead of steps they would pro
bably be more used.

169

CHAPTER IV
TOWN EXPANSION
IT has been justly said that the greatest municipal
mistake of the nineteenth century was the treat
ment of, or rather the neglect to treat, the sub
urban areas that have arisen with such startling
rapidity round all the great cities. In this respect
no country has been more neglectful than England.
Whilst most of the great cities in Europe have made
serious efforts to deal in a comprehensive way with
the planning of their suburbs, London has stood still,
and except for occasionally appointing a commission
of inquiry has done practically nothing.
In the seventeenth century John Evelyn recom
mended that, in the rebuilding of London after the
Great Fire, the original city should be preserved by
allowing no suburbs to be started within a circuit of ten
miles. It was, of course, a Utopian idea, and with the
transport facilities of those days quite impossible of
achievement, but the principle might well be carried
I/O

TOWN EXPANSION
out where it is desired that a city should preserve its
old-world characteristics.'
Before the nineteenth century was half over the
surroundings of London were entirely spoiled, and the
once pleasant villages which had stood sentinel round
it for ages were reached and soon engulfed by the sea
of houses which now constitutes Greater London.
Although space for public parks was adequately pro
vided, it was not considered necessary in any way to
restrain the speculative builder from laying out street
after street of villa residences all on a dead level of
degrading ugliness. Other large cities have fared no
better. Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester and Birming
ham, all have allowed their suburban areas to fall a
prey to the speculative builder. New suburbs have
been created without method or plan and for the most
part without any expert supervision. Country lanes,
open fields, private parks, pleasure grounds and
gardens are everywhere giving place to rows of dreary
streets. Hedges, trees, and fields are ruthlessly
destroyed with the sole object of crowding the maxi
mum number of houses on to the minimum area of
land. All round our larger cities, and even in semi-
rural districts where land is cheap, the builder has
been allowed to run up long rows of barrack-like
structures, consisting of two walls covered with a roof
^ The idea has been carried out to a certain extent at Nuremberg,
which in spite of its great increase in population, now amounting to
over a quarter of a million, and of its being the most important
commercial and manufacturing town in Southern Germany, has retained
its mediaeval appearance, together with its old ring of fortification.
171

TOWN PLANNING
and divided at regular intervals into compartments
which are supposed to be, or at any rate are termed,
houses. It is true that we occasionally find some
group of detached or semi-detached villas that bears
trace of architectural design, but these are mere oases
in the rapidly growing desert.
The London suburbs are becoming a source of
considerable danger. Although the houses are smaller
and the population is spread over a much greater area
than in most continental cities, they are so closely
packed with unhealthy subjects, and their chimneys
emit so much smoke, that the atmosphere is becoming
denser and more impure every succeeding year, and
should a serious epidemic occur the spread of con
tagion to the great centre and again outwards seems
inevitable. Population is still increasing within the area of
Greater London, and according to the estimate of the
Metropolitan Water Board, by i960 the population will
have increased to the gigantic figure of i6i millions.
Let us hope that before we reach this point a reaction
will have set in against such overcrowding. London
is already too vast to live in or to manage, but in all
probability the difficulties engendered will to some
extent be solved, as other smaller towns arise and
take away many of the factories. Signs that these
difficulties may work their own cure can be seen in
the desire to form garden cities and to move factories
and workshops to country sites. The probable increase
in the number and speed of methods of locomotion is
172

TOWN EXPANSION
likely to encourage this tendency to decentralisa
tion. Although we fear it is too late for any general
scheme of suburban expansion upon a large scale to
be adopted in London, it is at any rate possible to
ensure each new locality being laid out with connect
ing thoroughfares, and if in the past the suburbs have
been planned without method, we may yet prevent
new evils from being added to the old. But it is
of paramount importance that the lesson of London
shall not be lost on our large provincial cities, who
may Avell take up the idea of laying out their belt
of suburbs on a comprehensive and well-considered
plan. In England much of the trouble has arisen from
the fact that there are far too many small houses, and
before we may hope for any great improvement in the
planning of suburbs, as far as the working classes are
concerned, it will be necessary to eliminate the old-
fashioned idea of the English artisan class, who still
insist on each small family having its own separate
building. As these small houses are invariably let off
into apartments, what appears on the surface to be a
good arrangement in reality leads to much overcrowd
ing. We would not, of course, advocate high blocks
of several storeys of flats, but, without going to this
extreme, a far more economical system of artisan
dwellings can be devised than the row upon row of
small squalid two-storied dwellings, with untidy and
unhealthy back yards. 173

TOWN PLANNING
The whole question of the expansion of suburbs
is a most serious one, and every large city should have
a powerful permanent committee to deal with all ques
tions of planning and extension as they may arise.
The members should be representative of many
different interests — of commerce, of hygiene, of traffic,
and last, but by no means least, of the aesthetic
aspect. They should together draw up a comprehen
sive plan in such a manner as to ensure that the
newly built districts do not further choke the city
instead of assisting its proper expansion. Much has
already been done in America by such committees,
who, although not holding any powers of compulsion,
have always succeeded in exciting public interest in
the question, and in stimulating a desire amongst
residents to make their town more beautiful, more
sanitary, and more fit for human beings to inhabit.
In Germany the idea that it is the duty of the
authorities to guide the development of the suburbs
is no new one. In 1876 Professor R. Baumeister, of
Karlsruhe, published a book on " Stadt Erweiterungen "
which is still regarded as a standard work on the
planning of suburbs. For the last quarter of a
century all large towns, and some of lesser size, have
prepared plans to regulate the development of their
suburbs. These town plans generally deal with the
whole of the land within the town boundary, no
matter to whom it belongs, and provide that all new
thoroughfares shall be laid out with due regard to
public convenience and hygiene, that there shall be
174

TOWN EXPANSION
sufficient planted open spaces, and that some parts of
the suburbs shall contain only detached and semi
detached houses. Everywhere we see the same far-
sighted policy of looking to the needs of the future,
or at least of the next twenty years, and anyone who
has watched the systematic development of most Ger
man towns during the last quarter of a century must
have been struck by the benefits accruing from the
far-sighted principles that have been observed.
It is generally regarded as essential to good
hygiene that buildings shall continuously diminish in
closeness the further they are from the centre, so that
fresh air may pass from the country into the interior
of the town.
At the present time the city of Berlin, like
London, is suffering from the want of a uniform
plan of extension, and is confronted by the difficult
problem of connecting the twenty-nine suburbs com
prising Greater Berlin which have grown round it
during the last twenty or thirty years, all of which
have varying bye-laws. An effort is being made to
arrange a voluntary agreement between the city and
the suburban communes by which uniform action in
matters of common concern may be secured. The
Association of Berlin Architects has drawn up a
scheme, which is now attracting much public atten
tion, for the systematic laying out, as part of one
plan, of an extensive area comprised within a radius
of fifteen miles from the centre of the city, and in
cluding at least a hundred townships of all kinds,
175

TOWN PLANNING
It is proposed to make due provision for a net
work of streets and thoroughfares of width proportion
ate to their purpose, running into the outskirts and
intersecting these in various directions, with special
ways for motorists, cyclists, and equestrians, for new
railway communications adjoining those already exist
ing, for special residential and industrial districts,
parks, recreation grounds, &c., and for sites to be
reserved for public buildings. It may be that so
ambitious a plan will not be carried out in its
entirety, but the fact that it has been prepared by
responsible men, and that it is the subject of serious
discussion, indicates the trend of public thought.'
The building regulations for the suburbs of Ber
lin, as they now exist, limit the height of the build
ings within reasonable bounds, and also the propor
tion of the site which may be covered. Different
heights and different degrees of closeness are allowed
in different districts. Thus in a few districts near
the centre five storeys are allowed ; in other large
districts only detached or semi-detached houses not
exceeding three storeys in height are permitted. On
the west side of the town, the side from which the
prevalent winds blow, a larger proportion of the area
is reserved for open building than elsewhere.
In the 1908 Report of the London Traffic branch
of the Board of Trade, Mr. W. H. Dawson has
collected valuable information with regard to the
I See Report of the London Traffic branch of the Board of Trade, 1908,
Appendix E. 176

TOWN EXPANSION
municipal ownership of land in Germany. " German
towns," he says, "are greatly assisted in dealing with
traffic and housing difficulties owing to the fact that
they generally own a considerable amount of land,
both within the municipal area and outside, suitable
for building purposes. This is an old tradition of
municipal life in Germany which cannot be attributed
to any special legislation, for it goes back to a
period long antecedent to the existing system of
communal government.
"Towns like Frankfort, Mannheim, Hanover, and
Strasburg own from one-third to one-half of the en
tire municipal area, and nearly all important cities are
possessed of a large and valuable real estate. As a
consequence of this land policy, a German municipal
authority generally has land of its own suitable for
public works which it desires to take in hand, and it
can determine, within certain limits, in what directions
the town shall extend ; by the steady increase in the
value of its estate it shares with private owners in the
material gain caused by municipal growth and de
velopment ; and it is able to some extent to check
land speculation."
The usual method in formulating town building
plans on a large scale is to divide the urban area
into building zones. Within the last few years the
system has been applied to Cologne, where the whole
city area is mapped out in zones, for each of which
special building regulations are made. In the centre
and business part of the city 25 per cent, of all
N 177

TOWN PLANNING
building land must be left free ; in the second
zone, immediately surrounding the central one, 35 per
cent, must be left free, but buildings may have
four storeys ; in the third zone, if the building is

FIG. 57.— THE ZONE SYSTEM AT COLOGNE
I. Theolderpartofthetown, where the buildings are highest and very close together. Ill Parts
° L 'it^A°^']l ^'^"'^ only lower buildings are permitted, with certain spaces between
each. II On these parts still lower buildings only are allowed, and greater space is
required between the buildings.
not more than 30 feet high, 35 per cent, only
need be free, if higher, 50 per cent. ; in the fourth
zone, which is the zone of villa residences, the build
ings may be detached, with about 33 feet between each,
with gardens in the front, and 50 per cent, of the site
178

OK-

Mnr- — -

^(

a-ci

f"^

-ni

XI

Ate
;«xir
<^N
--^
n
n^
yT/
Jke
iE2I
jlxp:
22
W4:sni
THE SHADED PORTION INDICATES
APPROXIMATELY., EXTENT OF
BUILDINGS WHEN SCHEME WA5
MADE IN IS93.
MUNICH EXTENSION
MILEJ.
FIG. 58. — SUGGESTION FOR THE CREATION OF A SERIES OF EIGHTEEN CIVIC CENTRES ROUND MUNICH
TOWN EXPANSION
must be left free. But this zone is not separate and
apart, like the wealthier villa suburbs of an English
city ; it is cut up into sections and so interspersed
between the second and the third zones that the
dwellers in the poorer districts are always within reach
of beautiful surroundings, and in touch with their
richer neighbours. A large part of the municipal
area of Cologne is as yet unbuilt upon, but for this
part the same plans and regulations have been made
and will come into force as soon as any building
operations begin. The principle of dividing towns into
zones is hardly likely to find favour in this country,
and there is a good deal to be said against it. A
more practical system appears to be that proposed by
Herr K. Henrici for the extension of Munich, con
sisting of a series of eighteen supplemental centres,
each with its little group of public buildings, church,
market hall, and Rathaus, round which the plan of
the neighbouring streets is designed. Figs. 58 and 59
show the general disposition of these centres, which
it was proposed to create as far as possible round
some existing building or centre of interest ; existing
villages were to remain undisturbed, and all the
centres were to be connected by a network of
thoroughfares. Compulsory expropriation of land for purposes of
town planning was recognised in Germany as early as
1845, when the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen passed a law
dealing with the subject. Probably the best system of
expropriation is that of Baden, where, a building plan
181

TOWN PLANNING
having been prepared and a redivision of the various
properties being considered necessary in the public in
terest, the whole of the properties to be redivided are
pooled, including such public roads as will become
superfluous by the rearrangement. Before 'the redistri
bution takes place, the land required for the new streets
and places is set apart and apportioned to the commune.
The rest of the area is divided amongst the various
owners in the proportions in which they were originally
interested. For every single piece of property which
before the pooling was suitable for building, one or
more building sites adjoining a street are to be returned
to the owner, as far as practicable in the same situation
as before.' It must be borne in mind that in Germany
land is generally held by a larger number of pro
prietors per acre than in this country.
The enormous progress made in German trade in
recent years has inaugurated a movement for the laying
out of workmen's colonies throughout the country.
Towns which up to the seventies lived in the quiet
comfort of agriculture have in many cases grown by
leaps and bounds into huge centres of industry. The
problem of adequately housing the workmen is regarded
as an urgent social necessity, and has in many cases
led to the formation of distinct little colonies known
as " Arbeiter-kolonien " in proximity to the factories.
Such colonies are not necessarily provided by the
employer ; indeed, it is worthy of note that in Germany
the idea of the employer providing house accommoda-
' See also Figs. 4 and 5, Chapter L
182

MARKT E m/TLt
N ' ' ' ' T  -r^

^<a'*ii'>!^i-ai'f;t^'U'&

^

O-O -CU^O-0^>CK>-0-00-0-CuD-0-C-'

FIG. 59.— MUNICH extension: ENLARGED PLANS OF TWO CIVIC CENTRES

TOWN EXPANSION
tion for the employee is not regarded with favour. It
is found by experience that workmen who occupy the
dwellings of their employers get into a condition of
economic dependence which is often felt to be a con
siderable disadvantage. AVhere it has been possible to

FIG. 60. — PLAN OF A WORKMEN'S COLONY AT KNUROW, DESIGNED BY HERR K. HENRICI, SHOWING
THE PARALLEL SYSTEM OF ALLEY-WAYS

provide for such colonies in planning new parts of a
city, they have generally been grouped together in a
position decided by transport facilities. In some cases
it is considered desirable to provide every family with
a separate house, but this idea is not regarded as an
essential feature of such colonies, and ample provision
18s

TOWN PLANNING
is made for blocks of flats which are especially adapted
for unmarried men.
In Germany the one-storied dwelling-house is not
necessarily considered to be healthier than a tenement
block, which with its extensive cellarage is often far
drier. The houses in these "Arbeiter-kolonien" are
generally planned in pairs or in rows, and as far as
possible grouped. The picturesque small domestic
architecture of the eighteenth century in which all old
German towns are so rich is the type usually chosen
for imitation. A considerable economy is effected in the laying
out of the secondary streets. These rarely exceed
1 6 feet, and, as in such colonies there is little
vehicular traffic, the footways need only be wide enough
to allow pedestrians to evade a vehicle when necessary.
In the main thoroughfares or those along which traffic
trains pass, the width is doubled or trebled, the police
regulations ' being sufiiciently elastic to allow of varying
widths. The result is a great saving of space and ex
pense in road-making and upkeep.
A good arrangement of the dwelling-houses is
that devised by Herr Henrici for the workmen's colony
at the Government coal-mines of Knurow (Fig. 60),
where a parallel system of alley-ways was planned.
Not being intended for the use of vehicles, they form
safe playgrounds for children, who are thus able to
play out of harm's way under the supervision of their
I In Germany the regulation of town planning is in the hands of
the police authorities. 186

TOWN EXPANSION
mothers. These ways are broadened out in the middle
into small spaces planted with trees, with perhaps a
drinking fountain and a few seats. The alleys are
about one hundred yards long, with ten to fourteen
houses on either side. Variety is given to each alley
by planting different kinds of trees and by varying the

FIG. 6l. — ENLARGED PLAN OF AN ALLEY-WAY

colouring of the paintwork. In a similar workmen's
colony on the estate of Prince Pless, detached and
semi-detached houses surround a circular playground
overlooked by the windows of all the kitchens, as it
is assumed that the mothers spend most of their time
in this part of the house, and are thus enabled to keep
supervision over their offspring.
In the plan of the Krupp industrial colony
187

TOWN PLANNING
" Margaretenhof " (Fig. 62), at Friedrich Alfred Hiitte,
all idea of regular arrangement of the streets has been
studiously avoided. It will be seen that each house
has its own small garden, in addition to which the

FIG. 62. — THE KRUPP INDUSTRIAL COLONY, MARGARETENHOF
central areas are divided into allotment gardens. The
schools, public baths, general stores, and recreation
room are all arranged round a central planted square.
The colony comprises about 350 houses, exclusive of
the quarters provided for single men.
The "Garden City" movement is already making

TOWN EXPANSION
good progress in Germany. A German Garden City
Association has been formed, and schemes are in
course of development in the neighbourhood of Frank
fort, Dresden, and other great cities.
France has so far not taken any legal measures
to direct the growth of suburbs ; and the improvement
of French towns, for want of such laws, has been
found to be so extremely costly that there is now a
group of Members of Parliament who are bringing
forward a Bill which will give similar powers of
planning new additions to towns that Germany and
other nations possess.
The suburban movement in Paris is unlike that
of Berlin and more in accord with London. At the
present time Paris is more densely populated than
London, owing to the greater general height of build
ings, but the flat system with no gardens appears to
be losing favour, and in consequence the people are
flocking to the suburbs, where the English villa style
of life is becoming popular. The development has
been late, for it is quite thirty years since the old
fortifications sufficed to contain the city. On every
line of railway leading to the capital a number of
suburban stations have sprung up within the last few
years, and for many miles outside the fortifications the
country has been cut up into building plots. Owing
to the splendid system of radiating thoroughfares the
opportunities for successfully linking the suburbs to
the city are much greater than in London.
About fifty years ago Vienna decided to move its
189

TOWN PLANNING
old ramparts and glacis and to construct the beautiful
circular boulevard known as the Ring-strasse, which
was subsequently embellished by a series of handsome
public buildings. It was, as the name implies, a belt,
and a large amount of the space given up was devoted
to gardens. The result has been to provide a ring
encircling the inner city, with magnificent streets 62
yards in breadth, having a total length of about two
miles. By this and many other improvements evolved
in the same scheme, Vienna has laid the foundation
of a system of town planning on farsighted lines that
will suffice for many generations to come and will
easily allow of extension as necessity arises. At the
present rate of increase it is estimated that the popu
lation of Vienna will have reached four millions by
the year 1950, and that by then the greater part of
the unoccupied land at present within the city boundary
will have been built over. In order, then, to make
ample provision for the future growth, and both to
regulate the expansion of the suburbs and to preserve
the charms of the landscape surroundings, a great
effort has been made to acquire a broad belt of land
known as the Wald und Wiesengurtel, at a cost of
about fifty million kronen, which sum it is proposed
to raise by means of a loan. Much of the land then
acquired will be available for building purposes, and
a splendid driving road will be provided through the
entire belt, with superb panoramic views of the city
and the Danube. This road will be joined to the
city by a series of connecting thoroughfares. By this
190

TOWN EXPANSION
farsighted policy Vienna will eventually become one
huge garden city, within well defined boundaries and
with ample means of communication between all parts
of the suburbs and the Ring-strasse.
The first essential for the improvement of a city's

DER WALD- LT4P WIESENGURTEL;
UND DIE H6HEMSTPA5SE ¦'-
DER
KK REICHSHAUPT u RES1DENZ5TADT
WIEN

A A-A THOROUQMFARes
COriDECTi.N-j V/fTM INNER ClT^

¦' WALD UND WIESENQURTEU
UMmM

DRIVlNq ROAD — ^

FIG. 63. — THE "WALD UND WIESENGURTEL," VIENNA, SHOWING THE THOROUGHFARES CONNECTING
WITH THE HEART OF THE CITY

suburbs is the provision of adequate wide lines of
thoroughfare to connect the centre with the open
country, since the development of tramways and motor
omnibuses is resulting in a continually increasing
proportion of the population being brought to their
daily work by these means, and of all the changes
191

TOWN PLANNING
that have taken place with regard to London traffic in
recent years, none is more remarkable than the
increased use of roads leading into the country.'
The increase is almost entirely attributable to the
growth of mechanical traffic, and is even more marked
in vehicles used for commercial purposes than it is
in motor cars of the ordinary type. Motor vans for
the delivery of goods have come into general use and
are now employed in considerable numbers by all
classes of trade. Moreover, this form of traffic will
undoubtedly increase as mechanical traction improves.
For this reason, and also on account of suburban
tramways, the main arteries of traffic within eight
or ten miles of every great city must be in the future
much wider and more numerous. On several occa
sions suggestions have been made for the construction
of roads specially reserved for motor vehicles. There
is much to be said in favour of such roads where
it is only a question of linking up two towns, but
any general system belongs too much to the future
to be considered here.
When once the great trunk lines of road com
munication are practically settled, the authorities are in
a better position to deal with each individual building
estate or colony of houses. Here, instead of aiming
at covering the whole suburban area with one vast
expanse of houses, it would be much finer if an attempt
were made as far as possible to define the area of the
various small communities. The importance of this
I See Report of the London Traffic branch of the Board of Trade.
192

TOWN EXPANSION
definition is one of the lessons that may be learnt from
a study of many beautiful old towns, where the
country often extends without a break to the walls.
Compare this with the unkempt fringe of derelict
houses and rubbish heaps that so frequently surround
our modern towns ! We cannot of course define the
boundary by means of fortified walls, but we can do
so by fine avenues, broken here and there by a belt
of reserved meadow land.
In dealing with individual building estates,
whether they be in the hands of a municipality or of
a private individual, the guiding principles should be
the same, and the first essential to obtaining a success
ful plan can only result from a close study of all the
possibilities of the site. It is hardly possible to do
this without preparing a contour plan, or better still a
small scale model, the contour line representing every
5 feet variation in level. Such a plan will readily
show the natural lines that the roads should follow,
both for convenience of traffic and for an easy system
of drainage. Next, it is advisable to locate as far as
possible the various focal points of the plan, e.g., the
railway station, the point of junction with the main
traffic artery leading to the city, and the business
centres. The last will afford opportunities for the
grouping of the church, municipal, and other public
buildings, so that by the congregation of several
important buildings some definite architectural centre
may be produced to which the life of the suburb will
naturally flow. An opportunity will often occur for
o 193

TOWN PLANNING
the judicious introduction of some formal gardening,
and in the treatment of such a central place very much
might be learned from a study of the market-places
and picturesque village greens with which our country
is so richly endowed. A survey should be made of all
the trees upon the area, that these may be retained
wherever possible. The cutting down of trees may
of course be necessary in some cases where they
stand in the way of necessary lines of roadway, but
every effort should be made to preserve them, for
anything that helps to relieve the newness of a
building estate during the early years of its develop
ment should be eagerly welcomed. It is pitiable to
see the way estates are so often entirely denuded
of their trees in order to obtain line upon line of
unbroken streets, when, often by simply setting back a
few houses here or slightly altering the direction of a
street there, they might so easily be preserved.
As to the direction of the roads, these may be
either straight or curved — there are just as many
situations where the one is required as the other ; it is
only essential that there be some definite reason for
the adoption of either. It may be as an approach to a
public building, a railway station or a church, or where
a vista of some interesting object is obtainable, that a
straight road is amply justified, but it should not be
too long, and where it is planned for the purpose of
traffic an occasional change of direction will add much
to its interest. On the other hand, where the road
way ascends a hillside or follows a direction dictated
194

TOWN EXPANSION

by some natural feature, such considerations will
always suggest the curved line.
Instead of long lines of houses all exactly alike,
very much may be done by gathering the houses into
groups, each having some definite architectural form
and arrangement, by setting some back a few feet from
the roadway and others further forward, or by
grouping them round a central green, which need

FIG. 64. — THE GROUPING OF HOUSES IN A SUBURBAN ROAD
not always be quite square, but, better still, triangular
or irregular. By all these means a more picturesque
and interesting appearance is given to the road. Such
a system of grouping is particularly useful in the case
of smaller houses, where the tendency to a monotonous
elevation is greater. We illustrate in Figs. 64 and 65
good examples of such grouping designed by Mr.
Raymond Unwin. In Fig. 64 is shown a triangular
open space, the houses opposite being set back so that
a view is obtained between them ; existing trees are
19s

TOWN PLANNING
carefully left, and the houses round the green
are planned slightly out of square with the road.
Fig. 65, which is a plan of the Bird's Hill Estate,

COTTnccS) onTnd
BIQD5 niLL CSTSTE.
LHTCrtWOGTri

FIG. 65. — COTTAGE GROUPING ON THE BIRD'S HILL ESTATE, LETCHWORTH

Letchworth, is a clever example of the grouping of
smaller cottages. In this case a children's sand-pit
has been arranged in one of the greens, and in
awkward parts of the site allotments and play-
196

TOWN EXPANSION
grounds have been formed, wise provisions to en
deavour to deter children from playing in the roads.
Every opportunity of a distant view has been taken
full advantage of. The treatment of the angle formed
by the junction of two roads will often provide

ii

60URNV1LLE TENANTS ESTATE

BOURNVILLE
TENANTS

FIG. 66. — SUGGESTIONS FOR GROUPING CORNER BUILDINGS

occasion for a picturesque architectural grouping. We
have shown several alternative ideas (Fig. 66) for
the treatment of such an angle ; in each case the
buildings have been set back to allow vehicles turning
the corner to have as wide a view as possible. This
is a most important point ; the mere splaying off" of a
197

TOWN PLANNING
yard or two of building, that so often has to suffice,
is altogether inadequate.
The making up of the roads, which in all estates
is usually such an expensive matter, might be done in
a far more economical way than at present. In poorer
districts a very considerable economy might be exercised,
and a far better result achieved, if instead of all the
secondary roads being macadamised right across, as
though they were highways, only a few yards of the
centre part was macadamised and the verges on either
side laid down in grass. If the children must play in
the roads, and it is impossible to prevent them doing
so, then grass must be better than mud. In these
secondary roads the traffic is generally very small, and
often in short roads, especially those abutting into
highways at either end, the requirements of the case
would be amply met if the merest track were laid
down. The cost of occasionally cutting the grass
would be considerably less than the sweeping of the
road, and the playground afforded for the children
would be a great boon.
One of the earliest experiments in suburban
planning in England was successfully carried out in
1 88 1 by a private syndicate at Bedford Park, near
London, where a picturesque little colony of middle-
class houses was established from the designs of
prominent architects, mainly under the direction of
Mr. Norman Shaw, R.A. Before the estate was laid
out the site consisted only of low-lying fields and
waste land, having an area of rather more than loo
198

TOWN EXPANSION
acres. The main roads diverge upon a point near
the railway station, and the church and parsonage, a
general store for the sale of every class of goods, a
club and an inn are grouped in close proximity.
Every old tree upon the estate was carefully preserved,
roads being diverted and houses set back in order to
avoid their removal. The houses are everywhere
cleverly grouped, with here and there a short terrace,
and the architecture is all of the character of seven
teenth-century English domestic work. The plots are
about 75 feet deep and have 50 feet frontage for a
pair of houses, and the houses are set back 15 or 20
feet from the roads, which are all lined with trees.
The town planning movement in England practi
cally began with the foundation of Port Sunlight,
near Birkenhead, some twenty years ago.' This was
followed by Bournville and similar towns. In 1900
the Garden City Association was started for the
purpose of testing the practicability of suggestions put
forward by Mr. Ebenezer Howard, the author of
"Garden Cities of To-morrow." So convinced were
the members of the Association that there were
great possibilities in the idea, that in 1902 the
Garden City Pioneer Company was formed. In 1903
the Company known as the "First Garden City,
Limited," was founded, with a capital of ;^300,ooo, the
dividend on the shares being limited to a cumulative
dividend of 5 per cent., all further profits to be devoted
I Port Sunlight was, of course, not the first workmen's colony to be
laid out in England. 199

TOWN PLANNING
to the benefit of the town and its inhabitants. As a
result of this co-operation the town of Letchworth was
begun, and has since continued to develop in a highly
satisfactory way, and the "Garden City" movement
shows every prospect of extending throughout the
country. A consideration of the economic side of
the movement hardly comes within the scope of the
present work, and, moreover, a very extensive literature
has already appeared on the subject.
At Letchworth the First Garden City Company
has taken a tract of agricultural land with only 400
inhabitants and created a town to contain eventually a
population of 32,000. The area of the town, including
roads and open spaces, amounts to about 1,300 acres,
and round this is an agricultural belt of about 2,500
acres. All the essentials of the town, from the factory
sites to the cottages and villas, have been planned from
the beginning, and are being carried out according to
that plan, with only such slight variations as may
prove necessary from time to time. The project is
still in its initial stages, but it has already proved the
great advantages which result to all classes by working
on a deliberate plan. Ample garden space is allowed
to every class of house ; spaces for parks and recrea
tion grounds have been reserved. Sites for public
buildings, such as schools and churches, have been
reserved in neighbourhoods that are certain to require
them. The factories have been placed in such a posi
tion that they have direct communication with the
railway and are not mixed up with the residential part
200

Fig. 67. PLAN OF THE GARDEN CITY AT LETCHWORTH

TOWN EXPANSION
of the town ; while round all this a belt of open land
has been reserved, so that the inhabitants will always
be within reach of the real country.
At the outset of the scheme the main lines of
sewers were laid down, and to a large extent guided
the planning of the town ; a complete plan of develop
ment was then drawn up, so that the town should
grow along harmoniously defined lines, with all its
different parts co-related and unified. The growth was
to be as natural and unforced as that of any ordinary
town, but it was to be previously planned and organ
ised. The very crux of the proposal put forward by
Ebenezer Howard was that absolute control of the land
on which the new town was to be built must be first
obtained, so as to administer it in the interests of the
whole community. To that end the number of even
the smallest houses allowed to be built at Letchworth
is twelve to the acre. Overcrowding, slums, and
insanitation are, therefore, practically impossible. Well
wooded parks, breezy commons, and abundant open
spaces ensure that the residents are not stinted in the
supply of fresh air and sunlight. Nearly two-thirds of
the land is to be permanently left as an agricultural
belt around the estate, on which small holdings, farms,
&c., will arise. A large part of the estate is planned
for factories and workshops, all easily accessible from
the railway, to which many of the plots are tangen
tially arranged to allow a separate line to be run into
each plot. The builders' yards are arranged all together
in one block ; the artisan population is placed on the
20 1

TOWN PLANNING
north, and at such a distance from the place of their
employment as to be convenient. The more expensive
sites are on the south and south-west. It is not in
tended that the garden city shall ever grow to a town
of a greater size than will accommodate 35,000 people,
and before this stage is reached development will stop,
as far as the city is concerned.
Port Sunlight, the English centre of the immense
soap industry of Messrs. Lever Brothers, was founded
by Mr. W. H. Lever about the year 1887 as a result
of a careful study of existing social conditions. "The
intention," says Mr. Lever, "was to build works and
village. The area covered by works and village now
amounts to about 230 acres, of which 140 are devoted
to the village. From the picturesque point of view
the site had little to commend it, consisting of flat
lands and several ravines, up which, to a greater or
less extent, the tide used to flow. These were partly
filled up and levelled to raise them above high-water
mark, and the land thus reclaimed was used as parks
and recreation grounds, so treated that it forms quite
the feature of the village. The roads have been so
planned that, whilst making direct and shortest ways to
important points, such as the railway station, the ferry,
the tramway terminus, and to the office and works,
they shall still form, wherever possible, curves and
sweeps following the lines of the ravines. Another
object aimed at in the laying out of the village has
been that none of the houses should have their backs
to the railway line. It is remarkable how little this is
202

TOWN EXPANSION
thought of in laying out building land adjoining rail
ways, and yet it is a very important feature, governing
the financial success of an estate, as houses backing on
to a line must be of less value.
"The general width of the roads has been fixed
at 40 feet — 8 yards roadway and 8 feet each for
footpaths. The widest road is 12 yards for roadway
and 12 feet for footpaths. In order to realise the
intention of leaving the ravines as parks and recreation
grounds, and at the same time not diverge from the
directness of the roads to adjacent local centres, the
ravines had to be spanned at several points by means
of banks of earth, with two exceptions, where bridges
have been built."
" The financial aspect of the village of Port Sunlight
is soon told. The capital it has taken to buy the 140
acres of land, build the cottages, houses, schools,
shops, institutions, clubs, &c., and including making
the roads, laying out the parks, &c., has been over
;^35o,ooo, upon which Messrs. Lever Bros, receive no
interest or return whatever, the rents being fixed at
such an amount as only to pay for rates, taxes,
repairs, and maintenance."
Another important, and in some ways more
interesting scheme, is the village of Bournville, near
Birmingham, the home of the great cocoa works of
Messrs. Cadbury Brothers. The present village was
founded by Mr. George Cadbury as a result of years
of practical experience and careful study of the housing
of the working classes, and in order to make a practical
203

TOWN PLANNING
experiment to relieve the terrible overcrowding existing
not only in great cities but often in the smallest
country villages. At the present time nearly i,ooo
houses have been built (the total population of the
village being about 4,000), and the founder has secured
the perpetuation of the scheme by making over the
land, consisting of about 400 acres, with the houses
already erected, to a board of trustees. These trustees
receive the whole of the revenues of the estate, which
are to be applied to maintaining it, or building new
houses, acquiring fresh land and generally extending
the schema. The total value of the property thus
handed over to the trustees was estimated at about
jCi8o,ooo. It will be seen that the scheme is capable
of almost endless development. The capitalist landlord
is eliminated, and as no personal gain accrues to
anyone, all the profits are at the disposal of the trust.
The scheme is not intended to benefit only the
workpeople of Messrs. Cadbury, but is open as far
as possible to all who wish to share in its advantages.
The average garden space allowed to each house is
about 600 square yards, and as far as possible no
dwelling will occupy more than one quarter of the
site on which it is erected : each garden is planted
with fruit trees, and the tenants are induced to grow
their own vegetables and fruit as a set off against the
rent, and at the same time to afford a means of
recreation, which in a town would be sought for in
more expensive and less healthful ways.
The factories being surrounded by higher ground,
204

TOWN EXPANSION

the beauty of the village does not suffer in the least
from their proximity; indeed, it is hard for the visitor
to realise that they are so near. Bournville in this
respect is an object-lesson, and shows that the presence
of a manufactory need not necessarily mean the dete
rioration of its surroundings. The roads are wide and

BOURNVILLE
TENANTS LTD.

FIG. 69. — THE BOURNVILLE TENANTS' ESTATE
in every case planted with trees, and as the country
is of an undulating character, many opportunities have
been afforded to give a charm and diversity to the
village. Another interesting housing plan upon a much
smaller scale has been recently inaugurated near
Bournville. A company has been formed to build, own,
205

TOWN PLANNING
and manage houses on the copartnership principle.
The society known as the Bournville Tenants, Limited,
has leased about twenty acres of land for a term of
99 years (renewable at the option of the society) ;
eighteen acres are leased for building purposes and
two acres are granted by the landlord rent-free for
the purpose of permanent open spaces and recreation
ground. The position of the estate is in every way
desirable. It stands high, commanding extensive views
over the beautiful country which surrounds it, and has
been laid out in such a way as to give the occupants
of each house a share in the distant views. The plan
(Fig. 69), by Mr. W. Alex Harvey, combines the
advantages of picturesque grouping of the cottages
with economy in road-making. To working men with
only a moderate weekly wage who find it almost
impossible to acquire a house of their own by other
means, this plan of acquiring and owning house
property has considerable advantages.
Port Sunlight and Bournville are recognised as the
pioneers of town planning, but these two communities,
excellent as they are and widespread as has been their
splendid influence, fail in some points to come up to
the standard that has since been attained. Both
places have been hampered by the inelastic bye-laws
of local authorities, and in consequence much money
has been wasted on completely macadamised roads,
when all the requirements might just as well have
been met by a narrower central roadspace with grass
verges on either side. 206

FIG. 70. — HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB

TOWN EXPANSION
Another very interesting experiment is now being
planned at Hampstead, where a model suburb is in
course of construction. The land on which the new
suburb has been created is immediately to the north
of Hampstead Heath, on the borders of the County of
London, and comprises about 320 acres. This land
was not built upon, because until recently there was
no demand for building land in that position, the
estate being severed from London by the high and
steep hill of Hampstead ; moreover, there was no direct
communication with London until a tube railway was
recently constructed. The property then, of course, in
creased in value, and, like other similar estates all round
London, was soon destined to become covered with small
houses ; but by philanthropic intervention the owners
were induced to give two options : an option on 80 acres
for a space to be preserved as an open space and added
to Hampstead Heath, and an option of purchasing
the remaining 240 acres to be laid out as a garden
suburb. Both those options were exercised. The 80
acres were vested in the London County Council, and
the 240 acres belong to the Hampstead Garden Suburb
Trust, Limited. In laying out the estate the directors
of the Company decided that not more than eight houses
should be built to the acre, on the average, throughout
the whole area, and also that the houses should be of
all sizes. The suburb is not intended to be occupied
solely by rich people or solely by the artisan class, but
while a considerable area should be devoted to artisan
dwellings, a part of the estate should be occupied by
p 209

TOWN PLANNING
houses of from ^^30 to ;^5o a year, and in addition to
those there will be some quite large houses. The
roads are architecturally laid out, being planned with
due regard to the contours, and with a view to obtain
ing striking vistas, as well as good access between
all parts of the estate, and easy gradients. An effort
has also been made so to arrange the houses that each
one shall have something pleasant to look at, and in
several parts of the estate agreeable effects of colour
have been produced by the combination of houses of
different materials. It is also intended to arrange for
a central place, round which the more important public
buildings will be grouped.

210

\SSkKRINGTON GARDEN
SUBURBS UMTIED ::
GRAPPENIIALL ESTATE "

IlTIl 1.1111 f . r T 1 T •  ^

FIG. 71.— WARRINGTON GARDEN SUBURBS, PLAN OF THE GRAPPENHALL ESTATE, MESSRS. A. AND J. SOUTAR, ARCHITECTS

CHAPTER V
THE PLANNING OF STREETS
THE first idea that probably occurs to anybody
who is engaged in laying out streets is the
desirability to get from one point to another
as rapidly as possible, and to do this by making the
direction of the street as near as possible a " bee-line."
The idea of planning streets in straight lines is of the
greatest antiquity, and we find the very earliest city
plans of Egypt invariably following the rectangular
system, as far as the main lines of traffic are concerned ;
Greek and Roman cities also favoured the system, but
during the Middle Ages, with certain exception already
noticed, there appears to have been a deliberate attempt
to avoid a straight line. With the Renaissance of the
fifteenth century the idea of regular streets was again
revived, and we find that in those few examples of cities
which were planned as an entire scheme the streets
were invariably kept in as straight lines as possible.
Much may be said both for and against planning
straight streets and uniform buildings. Let us first
213

TOWN PLANNING
consider some of their merits. A fine straight road is
certainly advisable whenever stately and official require
ments demand a dignified approach, as, for example to a
palace, a great public building, or to a railway station ;
but the street must not be too long, and where a
uniform treatment of the architecture is adopted, every
effort must be made to keep the treatment well within
bounds. The long, straight, interminable approaches
that the city planners of the eighteenth century so
dearly loved to lay out should hardly be perpetuated
in this age. Where the focal point is elevated and
the slope leading up to it of sufficiently easy gradient,
as at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris or the Capitol
at Washington, a straight approach is eminently suit
able, but generally speaking, a street whose direction
does not change for mile after mile cannot but be
fatiguing, even though the country traversed be of
the greatest interest and beauty. By its unalterable
. straightness it contrasts with nature, and does not take
note of the irregularities of the land ; it is so uniform
that we have only one desire — to reach its extremity.
Where a straight street has to pursue its course for a
considerable distance it is often advisable to make a
break in the line of axis (see Fig. 72), either by means
" of a square or open space, or even by the planting of
groups of trees, which afford welcome relief and may
be introduced with admirable effect without sufficiently
breaking the line of route to interfere seriously with
traffic : the curves should be made easy and any
sharp change of direction strictly avoided. It is, how-
214

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
ever, by no means easy to impress this idea upon
the authorities, to whom the absolutely straight line
often seems to be the only solution in the formation
of new streets.

FIG. 72. — SUGGESTION FOR DISGUISING CHANGE OF
DIRECTION IN A LONG STREET

A point that is sometimes urged in favour of straight
streets is that a more workable site is thus obtained, and
on this account landowners are often afraid to create
an irregular site, but this view will certainly not be held
by the majority of architects, who, on the contrary, will
215

TOWN PLANNING
rather welcome the opportunity of showing their talent,
for such sites offer most interesting problems, and he
would be a poor architect indeed who did not take keen
interest in endeavouring to solve them.
How often we see much money wasted in buying
some expensive piece of property to straighten a street,
when the effect would perhaps have been improved had
a cheaper piece of land on the opposite side been ac
quired ! It is in the decision of this kind of point that

A1.L3AIMT3 c

PLAN OF HIGH STREET OXFORD SHOWINC IRR£CJJLAR. DISPOSITION Of PUBLIC BUILOinqSX

FIG. 73

expert advice might so frequently be called in with great
advantage to a city both from the financial and the
artistic point of view.
There is no doubt that the curved or winding street
has a more picturesque effect than one that is straight.
The Grand Canal at Venice is a good instance of the
beauty of a winding highway, and although so many of
the buildings upon either bank are classic and formal,
they do not seem to lose anything from the winding
nature of the canal. Indeed, classic architecture is often
improved by being set upon a curve; witness, for
216

Fig. 74- HIGH STREET, O.XFORD

Fig. 75. RUE DE RIVOLI, PARIS

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
example, the new buildings in Regent Street and the
fine classic blocks of Whitehall.
A comparison of a straight street with regular
uniform buildings and a curved one may be made by
seeing side by side the High Street at Oxford and the
Rue de Rivoli at Paris. In the former, the vista con
stantly varies as we walk down the street — tower and
spire and other features of beauty come into view one
after another and form picturesque groups that have
a beauty and charm which it does not need an artist
to appreciate. In the Rue de Rivoli we can hardly fail
to soon tire of the monotony of hundreds of arches all
exactly alike in their detail, and more value would have
been given to the architectual effect if the long line had
been occasionally broken up by recessed blocks of
buildings or groups of trees.
Curved streets separate themselves into two classes.
Firstly, the monumental or conscious and deliberate
effort, designed either on account of the exigencies
of the situation, as in the case of Regent Street, or
as a means of giving enhanced eff"ect to some important
feature in the city plan ; and secondly, the accidental
or picturesque curve arising from the juxtaposition of
irregular sites, and which it is so often the misplaced
endeavour of municipalities to correct.
The curve in street planning is not to be avoided,
but rather gladly accepted, when the conditions of the
site suggest it, as, for example, upon sloping land, or
when by adopting a curved line expense may be saved
in the cost of levelling. The gentle curvature in the
217

TOWN PLANNING
lines of old streets, offering fresh pictures to the eye
at every step, is often that which gives them consider
able charm, and if any alteration has to be made it is
by no means advisable that all windings should be
destroyed. In new streets, a slight curvation of the
axis line will produce the happiest effects, and where
this is done the concave line of frontage is most valu
able in improving the appearance of the street, and
should be broken as little as possible. The convex
side is less disturbed by openings into it than the
concave, but at the same time it is not so well adapted
for important facades, as the field of vision is very
limited in that direction.
When a river winding through a town is enclosed
on either side by embankments, the sweep of masonry
lining the banks may be a very fine architectural
feature, as most of those will agree who have seen
the Thames Embankment from Westminster Bridge
or admired the Arno at Pisa or the Tiber at Rome.
Compare the fine sweep of the Arno Embankment
at Pisa with the ugly angles on Franz Josefs Quai
at Vienna. How much more restful to the eye is the
former graceful curve than the latter series of straight
lines so nearly forming a segment !
Architects of all ages have in some way or another
felt the value of curved lines in their buildings, and
have generally hailed with pleasure any opportunity
afforded them of bringing them into their designs. The
Coliseum, the apse of a Gothic cathedral, Bernini's
Colonnade at St. Peter's, the Albert Hall, or the Place
2X8

.I.X'>TJ\.MXV!IIVM SMIWMIL MILL

.l.'.'l M M ,1 S V .-III Xl iI.L.iMMKT Mill.
;iXI'IXVlI.I Mi> .L.iMIIi MILL ;>X1A\()IIS AXXMLV ^-IS^N' M .I>MX]>I MILL o:':-!

7S. -I UK ,\RXii emiiaxkmi;xt. lisa

Vii

•RAXZ Id.SKT- (IT'AI. \TLXX-\

Fig. 8i. THE GRAND G.VNAL, A'lOXR'i;

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
de I'Etoile in Paris — all these are examples of the in
dividuality and distinction which the curved line gives.
The character of a curved street is entirely different
from that of a straight one : the sides disappearing from
view round a corner provoke a sense of mystery and
curiosity to discover what is beyond. Look at the view
of the Strada dell' Abbondanza at Pompeii and note how
the lines of curb disappear in a graceful bend. In
England the value of curved lines has been more
generally appreciated than on the Continent or in
America, and we find the principal streets of English
towns much more often following curved than straight
lines. In the West End of London are many streets
which, although composed of houses of similar and
commonplace design, receive added dignity from their
unbroken curved lines of cornice. There is the well-
known example of Regent Street and the more recently
constructed approach to Kingsway, where the effect is
very striking. Fine examples of curved streets may
be seen in the Piazza Castello surrounding the castle
at Milan, the Ring-strasse in Nuremberg, the Place Meir
in Antwerp, the Hansaring in Cologne, and the Maxi-
milian-strasse in Augsburg.
Sometimes streets have been planned in the form
of a double curve, and although such a form should
only be used where necessitated by the nature of the
locality, it has the advantage of considerably minimis
ing the general defect of curved streets, viz., the decrease
of architectural effect on the convex side.
The grading of a street, or the rise and fall in its
219

TOWN PLANNING
levels, must be considered from two distinct points of
view — one, the practical point of view, taking into con
sideration questions of gradient for drainage, traffic,
and the varying levels of the buildings on either side,
the other the aesthetic point of view.
Traffic requirements naturally demand that all
streets should be as flat as possible; according to
Stiibben, the law in Germany limits the gradient of
public streets to i in 50, and wherever practicable it is
suggested that in secondary streets of considerable
length a grade of i in 40 should be aimed at. Where
the land is level, such gradients should only be applied
under very exceptional circumstances. The French
Administration des Ponts et Chaussees admits the
limit of I in 33 for the inclination of a route royale
and I in 20 for a chemin vicinal de grande cofnmumca-
tion.^ It is inadvisable to lay asphalt on a greater
ascent than i in 70. In hilly towns gradients of i in 25
or I in 20 sometimes cannot be avoided even in main
streets, whilst in side streets gradients as steep as i in 10
have sometimes to be tolerated. When steeper inclines
have to be dealt with, stairs or footways should be
provided. For drainage purposes a fall of i in 200
or I in 400, according to the nature of the road surface,
must be considered as the least admissible for the
street gutters.
' As a comparison it will be interesting to note the following
examples of streets in London, taken from the Dictionary of the
Architectural Publication Society : St. James Street, i in 27 ; Haymarket
I in 22 ; Ludgate Hill, i in 25 ; approach to Waterloo Bridge, i in 31.
Telford estimated the limit of a hill for a stage coach at i in 32.
220

THE PLANNING OF STREETS

The best form of street levelling is the concave,
or that which passes from the horizontal to a greater
rise; when the "head" of the street rises it imparts
a more stately appearance, and the perspective effect
is finer. Magnificent examples of such streets are to
be seen in the Avenue des Champs Elysees, Paris, or
the Via Nazionale in Rome. The former is a striking
example of masterly town planning. The summit of
the Champs Elysees is crowned by the Arc de
Triomphe, which forms the focal point of a splendid

ASt- (>Et"Rl6)yEF«6 ¦

AVENUE DES CHAM P5 ELYSEES PARIS

miM^

THE APPRO/V:h to VERSAILLES

FIG. 82. — STREET LEVELLING, SHOWING THE EFFECT OF PLACING A MONUMENTAL BUILDING ON,
AND OFF, THE CROWN OF A RISE
system of radiating avenues ; the vista from the Place
de la Concorde, when lit up by hundreds of lamps
in the evening, is unrivalled by any roadway in
Europe (see Fig. i). Concave levelling may also be
very successfully applied to open spaces whenever they
lead up to some important feature, as in the case of
St. Peter's, Rome. A fine opportunity for a similar
treatment was lost at Versailles owing to the fafade of
the Palace being placed too far from the crest of the
rising ground. Compared with the concave form, the
uniform ascent of a road in a straight line is dull and
uninteresting. 221

TOWN PLANNING
When the levelling of a street is convex — that is
to say, when the eye can only follow the surface of
the street as far as the crest of the rise — the eff"ect is
most unpleasant. In several American cities this is to
be seen where street after street in towns planned on
the chessboard system terminates abruptly on the skyline
and descends beyond, so that the houses beyond the
summit appear to be sinking into the earth, and only
the upper parts of figures and vehicles are visible, just
as at sea the masts of a ship become visible before
the hull. Such streets, then, should be avoided where
a monumental eff"ect is desired, or if they cannot be
avoided, an improvement may be made either by
turning the direction of the street or dividing it in
two at the summit of the rising ground.
The width of streets must depend first of all
on the claims of the traffic to be accommodated, and
until the amount of this traffic is known, and allowance
made for the probable future increase, it is useless for
authorities to lay down hard and fast rules to apply to
all new streets. In the case of a gradient, for example,
where all horse-drawn traffic will proceed at walking
pace, whilst mechanical traffic will go much faster, it
would not be right to apply the same rules as in the
case of a road orf the level. In main thoroughfares
the width desirable may be 150 feet or more, whilst
in by streets the width may sometimes be reduced to
25 feet. All intermediate widths depend on the circum
stances of each case. One of the worst features of
English cities is the miserable narrowness of the majority
222

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
of the streets, and as traffic increases it becomes more
and more apparent that the minimum width hitherto
considered sufficient by the authorities will have to
be enormously increased. The provisions as to the
width of streets made by the London Building Act are
already inadequate for present requirements. Shaftes
bury Avenue and other important London streets laid
out within the last few years have proved too narrow for
the traffic, and the footways are so narrow that the
trees planted there will never have sufficient room to
grow. The inadequate width of main arterial streets
means a considerable annual loss to the community,
and it has been proved more than once that the
prosperity of a city depends enormously on the facilities
afforded for the free circulation of traffic. Napoleon
foresaw this when in 1807 he passed the " Loi d'Aligne-
ment," the action of which has been of so great a benefit
to Paris. Realising the inadequacy of width of the London
streets, the Traffic Commission in their report advise
that new or widened streets should be laid out accord
ing to the following standard of width from house to
house, and that they should be divided into five
classes. Feet.
Main avenues ... ... ... 140
First-class arterial streets ... 100
Second-class streets ... ... 80
Third-class streets ... ... 60
Fourth-class streets ... 40 or 50
223

TOWN PLANNING

The width in each case includes footways on either
side, and no street should be less than 40 feet wide.
This standard of width is intended to be applied within
London, and also in the suburbs.'
Such provision for traffic is a great advance on
the requirements of the London Building Act of 1894,
which put the average width for a carriage way "in
the public interest " at 40 feet clear or 20 feet from the
centre of the roadway to the nearest external wall, and
further laid down that nothing could authorise the
Council to require a greater width than 60 feet. Such
inadequate provision and want of foresight have resulted
in large areas with mean roadways being laid out in
I The following table is a comparison of the widths of important
streets in Europe with those of London : —

Avenue des Champs Elysees, Paris
Reeperbahn, Hamburg
Unter den Linden, Berlin ...
Ring-strasse, Vienna
Belle Alliance Strasse, Berlin
Andrassy Strasse, Buda Pesth
Avenue Henri Martin, Paris
Potsdamer Strasse and Friedrich Wilhelm
Strasse, Berlin ...
Avenue de I'Op^ra and Parisian Boulevards
Whitehall 
Victoria Embankment
Holborn Viaduct
Regent Street Quadrant ...
PiccadillyQueen Victoria Street
Oxford Street
Cheapside Princes Street and George Street, Edinburgh
224

Feet.
... 230
... 210
... 190
... 185
... 160
... 145
... 130
... no
... 98
1 20-145 1 20
... 90
... 85
... 75
... 70
... 64
... 60
... 100

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
the suburbs, many of which are destined to become
important arterial thoroughfares and in consequence
will eventually have to be widened at considerable
outlay. In a business thoroughfare each pavement should
be wide enough to take three streams of traffic and the
road wide enough to take four, which would give a
total width from building to building of at least
55 feet.' This would allow of the traffic being divided
into fast and slow, the middle of the road being de
voted to two streams of quick traffic, going opposite
ways, and on each side one stream of slow-moving
traffic. Similarly, with the foot traffic, the slow should
be nearer the shop windows, the rapid nearer the
roadway. In the code of model bye-laws issued by the
Local Government Board, the minimum width being
fixed at 36 feet has produced miles of streets through
out England insufficient for modern traffic, especially
where such streets happen to act as main arteries con
necting adjoining districts. Many of our provincial
towns have wisely decided to increase these widths, but
the whole question is one on which new legislation is
badly wanted. Streets once formed are permanent, and
future widening operations can only be carried out at
considerable expense, and the provision of adequately
wide streets for future generations is of infinitely more
I The normal width of a wagon loaded is 7 feet 6 inches, or with
a safety margin say 8 feet; thus a double carriage way cannot be less
than 16 feet and the four carriage roadway 32 feet.
Q 225

TOWN PLANNING
importance than the immediate convenience of building
owners. An objection frequently raised by authorities
to the provision of an increased width of roadway to
meet the probable future traffic requirements is the
extra expense entailed for construction and upkeep. But
this objection may be met either by providing broad grass
verges on one or both sides of the road, or, where the
increased width is unlikely to be required for a number
of years, by widening the footways, and only paving
say one-third, the rest remaining grass or gravel. This

FIG. 83. — STREET PROPORTION
OF I : 3 I

FIG. 84. — STREET PROPORTION
OF I : 2 : I

has been done in several important boulevards of Paris.
Either of these expedients is much cheaper than pur
chasing property for street widening.
We have not hitherto devoted much attention in
England to the consideration of what might be called
the cross-section of streets, of the proportion to be
borne between the roadway and footpath, and also of
the best and most effective positions for the planting
of trees. Much of the beauty of the larger thorough
fares on the Continent, which are thoroughfares in
every sense of the word, is due to the amount of care
226

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
that has been taken in proportioning and dividing up
the various classes of traffic. In Germany especially
this has been the case, and Herr Stiibben gives the
following as being the proportions usually adopted.
For the smaller ordinary streets with heavy traffic the
proportion is 1:3:1; with a lighter carriage traffic it
is considered preferable to restrict the carriage way to
one-half of the street width, making the proportion
1:2:1, an arrangement which reduces the cost of

FIG. 85. — STREET PLANTED WITH DOUBLE FIG. 86. — STREET PLANTED WITH SINGLE
ROW OF TREES ROW OF TREES ON SUNNY SIDE

construction and is more pleasing in appearance (see
Figs. 83 and 84). If we accepted these proportions in
England we should get far wider footways than we
have hitherto considered sufficient. For example, in a
street 60 feet wide from building to building, or what
the Traffic Commission would call a third class street,
the footways would be 12 and 15 feet wide respectively.
In a street planted with trees the width should
not be less than 70 feet, and in this case a good
proportion would be 17 feet to each footway and
36 feet to the road (Fig. 85). If it is desired to intro
duce trees in streets narrower than 70 feet, they might
227

TOWN PLANNING
be planted on one side only, preferably the sunny side
(Fig. 86) — the unsymmetrical arrangement is immaterial
— or they might be planted in the centre of the street,
an arrangement which is frequently adopted in France,
and which, besides dividing the traffic, is convenient
for getting into tram-cars or cabs. Where it is
possible to obtain a width of 90 feet, two rows of
trees and a central promenade might be formed, but
where the centre planted footway is narrow the trees
should be only upon one side.

FIG. 87. — DOUBLE ROADWAY WITH SINGLE FIG. 88. — DOUBLE ROADWAY WITH DOUBLE
ROW OF TREES ROW OF TREES

A treatment that is frequently to be met with in
French cities is known as the contre alUe. This
consists of a separate strip of gravel added to the
footway and planted with trees : the footway, asphalted
or paved, is divided by a slightly raised curbstone
with gutter. The finest example of this type of street
is the Champs Elysdes (Figs, i and 89), with a total
width varying from 230 to 260 feet, of which about
1 14 feet is devoted to the centre roadway and 58 feet
6 inches to each contre allee. The Avenue Wagram,
Paris, in Fig. 90, is a smaller example of this type,
228

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
with a central roadway of 46 feet and double row
of trees. This brings us to a consideration of the more
ornamental planted streets that add so much to the
beauty of continental cities. In streets so treated it
should not be deemed essential to produce a sym
metrical effect ; indeed, there are many positions where

1 li
i

-2600"

CHAMPS ELYSEES

i-i— IS'O-  1-

-44 O- -
— Ill o- -

-i  Z8 0--|-Lt

AVENUE V*>CRAM

FIGS. 89 AND 90. — THE CHAMPS ELYSEES AND AVENUE WAGRAM, PARIS

this would be decidedly wrong. If, for instance,
one side of a street is occupied by houses, whilst the
other side is bordered by a park, the trees might be
planted only on the park side and an extra width
given to the pavement in front of the houses. Figs.
91 to 100 are a few typical examples of continental
planted streets. The Sttibel Allee, Dresden, is 136 feet
wide, with a central garden space of 31 feet, double
central promenade and two footways. The Adolfs
229

TOWN PLANNING
Allee, Wiesbaden, has a central roadway reserved for
motor and tram traffic, with two side roads next the
buildings for slow vehicular traffic, and central
promenades, one for equestrians and the other for
pedestrians. The Rhein Strasse and Wilhelm Strasse
in the same city show similar arrangements. Unter
den Linden, Berlin, one of the finest examples in
Europe, is about 190 feet in width, with a broad
central promenade roadway 42 feet wide, with two
side roads 49 feet wide. The Bismarck Strasse at
Charlottenburg, in addition to three roadways, has ac
commodation for a double surface tram-line and double
underground railway. The Ring-strasse, Vienna, has
a central roadway nearly 50 feet wide, and two smaller
roads 20 feet wide, with double avenue of trees.
The "boulevard" or "boulvert" originally meant
a bank of earth with a terraced top, and the idea of
converting these fortifications into thoroughfares origin
ated in Paris as early as 1536, when, increasing popu
lation having rendered it essential to enlarge the city,
the boulevards between the Porte St. Honor6 and the
Porte St. Antoine were laid out. In the eighteenth cen
tury the idea became popular in other large French cities,
and in the next century Vienna, Hamburg, Munich,
Leipzig, Hanover, Breslau, Prague, and many other
cities, demolished their fortifications and laid out the
"ring" streets on the model of those planned round
the inner city of Paris. The constant change in the
direction, continually opening up fine vistas and pro
ducing grand perspective effects, their breadth and
230

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VEHICULAR TRAkMWAYS B^UE5^RI^W PROMENADE

 107 ¦ 5' 
WILHELM-STRASSE , WIESBADEN.

FIGS. 91, 92, 93, 94. — GERMAN COMBINATION STREETS

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
spaciousness, all combine to give these streets a
grandiose and magnificent effect. They are the result
of special circumstances, and would be impossible
in England or in America. An ingenious suggestion,
known as the boulevard h redans, has been made by

i

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QENERAL VEHKTLES [PscpPiAOf! CA-RRIAGE DRIVE 'WHEW* QENERAl VEHCUES

-f 111 -*  3? <¦
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UNTER DEN LINDEN , BERLIN

RAILWAY

BISMARK STRASSE CKARLOTTENBURq

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RINQ-STRASSE VlENWk

Sidewalk 20 O- —

29' S"  •,  uo

i

FIGS. 95, 96, 97.^COMBINATION STREETS IN BERLIN AND VIENNA

M. Eugene Henard for dealing with the present forti
fications of Paris, which since the Franco-Prussian
War have been useless. M. Henard proposes to
lay out the outer fortifications, a total distance of
about 20 miles, with a scheme of boulevards and small
parks, the central roadway being 60 feet wide and the
233

TOWN PLANNING
footpaths each 30 feet, the building blocks to be alter
nately set back, forming a series of small private
gardens each planted with its group of trees. Both
from the hygienic and the aesthetic point of view the
system has much to commend it, as the internal courts
are largely done away with, and in some plans they
might be almost entirely dispensed with, and although
there is a loss of 12 per cent, of the amount of land
covered by building (as shown in Fig. 102), the total
surface of building having a direct frontage on to the
road is increased by 62 per cent. Fig. 103 shows the
perspective effect of such a street. The trams are of
course relegated to subways beneath, and a good effect
would certainly be produced by the grouping of different
varieties of trees at intervals. Although, as we have
pointed out, boulevards in the true sense of the word can
never be constructed in England, the idea of alternately
projecting and recessing blocks of buildings is worthy
of consideration. The next point to consider is the relationjthat
should exist between the height of buildings and
the width of the street. To have buildings camed~to
a height much greater than the width of the street
spoils the proportions more than anything, and, more
over, it is sad to think of the amount of money fre
quently wasted in ornamenting the upper part of
facades in narrow streets where such decoration can
never properly be seen.
In England the tendency has always been to
prevent the erection of high buildings. In London,
234

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SIDE OF CEXTRAL R< lADWAV, WITH TWO SURSIDIARV ROADWAWS

UV. -^ trl'-'lC'^-'-'KU

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FIG. 100. — AVENUE DE L'OBSERVATOIRE, PARIS

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FIG. 102. — PLAN OF A BOULEVARD A REDANS

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
according to the Building Act of 1894, there is the
absurd anomaly that in a street 49 feet 6 inches wide the
buildings have to be the same height as the width
of the street, whereas if the street be over 50 feet it
may be lined with buildings of 80 feet in height. This

FIG. I03.^A BOULEVARD .A REDANS (PERSPECTIVE VIEW)

is, of course, an absurd regulation, and one which has
given rise to much inconvenience. In framing bye-
laws dealing with the height of buildings it is essential
to consider the relative width of the street on which they
abut, and this is the line upon which most town regu
lations on the Continent have been framed. Thus in
239

TOWN PLANNING
Karlsruhe we find the height fixed at one and a quarter
times the width of the street, in Rome at one and a
half times. In some cities the proportion varies in
different districts. In Berlin the height of the front wall
may be equal to the width of the street, with a maxi
mum of about 72 feet. If buildings are set back from
the building line, then the height may be increased
by the amount set back, but must not exceed 72 feet.
In Paris the limiting height of all buildings is propor
tioned to the width of the street, but in addition,
the roof has to be contained within the circumference
of a circle of given radius.
In the United States the law varies in different
cities, and in some cases there appears to be no limit
of height and no ratio to the width of street. In
Boston the height of buildings may be two and a half
times the width of the street, with a maximum height
of 125 feet. In New York houses other than mercan
tile and public buildings may be 150 feet in height in
streets exceeding 79 feet wide, or about twice the width
of the street ; while in streets 79 feet wide and under
the height may be up to 125 feet.
In a paper dealing with this subject ' read before
the Royal Institute of British Architects, Mr. James S.
Gibson suggested that when streets are increased
beyond a width of 60 feet the heights may be also in
creased beyond the width of the street without detri
ment to its architectural aspect, and proposed the
I See the Journal of the Royal Institute of British A rchitects, December
24, 1904. 240

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
following schedule of maximum heights for the central
part of London : —

Width of Street.

Ratio of Height
of Buildings to
Width of Street.

Approximate Lowest
Buildings.

Approximate Highest
Buildings.

40 to 60 feet

I -OOO

40 feet

60 feet

60 to 80 feet

I-I2S

67 feet

90 feet

80 to 100 feet

1-250

100 feet

125 feet

For streets outside the central area and within
a three-mile radius the heights should be equal to the
widths of the streets, whilst outside the three-mile
radius the heights should be less than the widths of
the streets, with a maximum height of 75 of the
width for streets of 100 feet wide. Such rules would
have the good effect of producing variety in the
heights of the buildings.
From the aesthetic point of view high buildings
seem to be less suited to a broad thoroughfare than
to a narrow one, and here the aesthetic idea is
opposed to that of hygiene.
As to the length of street, Herr Stiibben points
out that from a traffic point of view a street should
be continued for as long as possible in a straight line,
but from a hygienic point of view a long straight
street, particularly when it happens to be laid out in
the direction of the prevailing wind, can become very
unpleasant on account of driving dust. From the
R 241

TOWN PLANNING
aesthetic point of view a short street is preferable to a
long one, and as in the case of buildings, certain pro
portions are known to be agreeable, so in the case of
fine streets the length should bear a certain propor
tion to the breadth. The Linden in Berlin and the
Hohenzollern-ring in Cologne, both well proportioned
streets, have a proportion of 50 to 1,000 and 36 to
700 metres respectively. The general proportion of
I to 25 may be considered as being a good one.
Streets of a monumental character should not be laid
out in one continuous length for more than three-
quarters of a mile, as beyond this the eye is unable
to distinguish the focal point in which such streets
should generally terminate.
The necessity for ventilating streets, from which
the houses on either side draw to a large extent their
supply, of fresh air, must be obvious, for not only do
the houses draw their air from the streets, but most
of the inhabitants take their exercise there. The
decomposition of horse manure, the refuse pails, bad
smells arising from sewer ventilation directly into the
streets, are all pollutions of the atmosphere for which
ample and efficient ventilation should be provided.
Moreover, the increasing use of motors and all kinds
of machinery has a vitiating effect on the atmosphere ;
the effect of motor traffic in stirring up germ-laden dust
is becoming a serious matter. It may be that in years
to come we shall be obliged to return to the custom
of the ancients and construct our houses with their
windows away from the streets, like those at Pompeii.
242

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
Dangers from inadequate ventilation arise also from
the enclosed spaces formed by the houses in four
streets backing into a kind of internal square, generally
very badly ventilated. The only entrance to such spaces
is often by an archway, in which case there can be
no through current of air or cross-ventilation. The
importance of the Avind sweeping down the street is
most appreciated during foggy weather, when there is
little air stirring. Public squares are generally speaking
well ventilated, because, there being almost invariably a
street at each corner, and sometimes two, every oppor
tunity is given for cross-draughts. The ventilation of
streets may be much improved by an irregularity in
the heights of the buildings ; when one building is
carried up much higher than those surrounding it, the
wind striking against it is diverted and carried down
to the ground. High buildings might therefore well
be encouraged within reason and in selected positions.
A suggestion has been made by Mr. Halsey
Ricardo ' that streets might be constructed as shown
in the diagram (Fig. 104), that is to say, with the
ground-floor walls of shops set back to enable gazers
to view the goods from the outside, sheltered by the
projecting first floor, which stands out beyond the
frontage line a bow-window's width. The third floor
resumes the frontage line, and the flat set-back is used
as skylight, to increase the lighting of the top show
room. Above come residential quarters, each floor with
a wide terrace, which would add to their attractiveness
I See The Builder, December i, 1900.
243

TOWN PLANNING
and so compensate for the loss of area in the two
top floors. Comparing this section with that showing
streets as at present planned in conformity with the
London Building Act, it is evident that the air in the
streets would be more easily changed, and the dotted

FIG. 104.— SUGGESTION BY MR. HALSEY RICARDO FOR PROJECTING THE LOWER STOREYS AND
SETTING BACK THE UPPER STOREYS OF BUILDINGS

lines show that the sunlight would penetrate further
into the ground-floor showrooms. The suggestion
might be of value in the case of street widening,
especially in old towns, as it would permit of an added
width of perhaps eight to ten feet to the street without
the cost of entirely rebuilding. Thus new buildings
could be so set back for say twenty years, which
244

¦Du. 31

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3 teu' Cl.l^«

^Wb21-5c^ 33

->1aid3 31-5bpla2-

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Juoe 31

June 3k
FIG. 105. — STREET ILLUMINATION

Diagrams representing the cross-section of a street running north and south. In the left-hand
column the height of the buildings is equal to the width of the street ; in the central column
one and one-half times the width of the street : and in the right-hand column twice the width
of the street.

6 AM ^ rM

Dec 31

Karfi 2i-5©pt 31-

June 3)

Marsh ii- £ept 22

JtiOe 31
FIG. 106. — STREET ILLUMINATION

March 21- Sepl 3."

Diagrams representing the cross-section of a street running east and west, looking west. The
height of the buildings bears the same relation to the width of the street as in the preceding
diagram.

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JUT» 31-
107. — STREET ILLUMINATION
Diagrams representing the cross-section of a street running south-east and north-west, looking
north-west, or of a street running north-east and south-west, looking south-west. The height
of the buildings bears the same relation to the width of the street as in the two preceding
diagrams.
THE PLANNING OF STREETS
should be a considerable economy in the payment of
compensation. The orientation of buildings and streets with
regard to sunlight has hitherto not received such atten
tion as the subject merits. According to the reports
of the International Congresses of Tuberculosis and
Hygiene held a few years ago in Paris, the importance
of placing buildings so that their facades should
receive the rays of the sun for as long a time as
possible was strongly urged. To obtain this result it
is obvious that we ought to orientate the streets,
determine their width and fix the height of the houses,
so that the access of the sun's rays should be assured.
In America research upon this subject has been
made by Mr. William Atkinson, by whose courtesy I
am able to give a brief resume of the work as far as
orientation of streets is concerned. He points out that
in the study of streets there are two matters to be con
sidered, sunlight and skylight. The direction of the
street affects the sunlight particularly ; the height of
the buildings upon it affects both the sunlight and
the skylight. Skylight comes from all directions -of the
heavens ; sunlight from only one direction.
The distribution of sunlight in streets running
(i) north and south, (2) east and west, (3) south-east
and north-west, respectively, for the four typical periods
of the year is shown in Figs. 105, 106, 107. The amount
of sunlight in the street is represented by means of curves,
the method of obtaining which for a street running
south-east and north-west is shown in Fig. 108,
251

TOWN PLANNING
representing the cross-section of a street : the dotted
lines show the direction of the sun's rays at nine
a.m. and eight hours later at five p.m. The point (at
dun •

^ -die .Ei"i: 

FIG. io8
Diagram illustrating the method of obtaining the light curves
of the three preceding diagrams. Street running south
east and north-west, looking north-west.

the intersection) comes into sunlight at nine o'clock
and into shadow at five o'clock. In other words it
has been in sunlight for eight hours. If we connect
a series of such points we shall have our curve, in
this case the eight-hour curve. The curve is a con-
252

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
venient Avay of representing the amount of sunlight.
It enables us to present in a single diagram a result
obtained from a great number of separate diagrams.
Now in the first place it will be seen that the
street running east and west is the very worst of all
in winter (Fig. io6). Notice the direction of the sun's
rays at noon. They penetrate a very small distance
down into the street. In summer, when the sun is
more nearly overhead, the street gets a great deal more
sunlight. It is a street of extremes — cold in winter, hot
in summer. The diagonal street is very much better
off. The north and south street receives in winter
the greatest amount of sunlight ; at other times of
the year the diagonal street is nearly equal to it. In
a system of streets running at right angles to each
other, the best method is to lay out the diagonals south
east-north-west and south-west-north-east. In most
American cities the streets are laid out north and
south, east and west.
Where the buildings are high in proportion to the
width of the street, the light at noon comes only a
short distance down from the top. Where the
buildings are equal in height to the width of the
street, on the average day of the year, at the time of the
equinoxes, in a street running east and west the sun's
rays will fall upon the ground surface at about the
edge of the sidewalk. Of course, as the latitude varies
the diagrams will vary, those shown in Figs. 105-107
being all drawn for the latitude of Boston (42° 21' N.).
In England, although in summer the days are very
253

TOWN PLANNING
much longer, the sun travels very much nearer the
horizon. Although it may not often be possible to follow
the rational method of laying out streets which Mr.
Atkinson advocates, much benefit would be secured if
more attention were devoted to determining the
direction of streets in new areas, and to see that they
were laid down as much as possible in such direction
that a purely northern aspect is avoided, which is the
case where roads run east and west. Where, however,
this cannot be prevented, in suburban districts con
sisting of small houses, it should not be difficult to
plan the houses on the south side of the road so that
the principal living rooms face south and the kitchen,
&c., face north. At present we frequently see the
houses on both sides of the road erected on identical
plans, and we can recall a case in which a really fine
open view is overlooked by nothing better than a long
series of kitchen and scullery windows, for want of a
little imagination on the part of the builder.
The connecting of various levels in streets, either
by means of stairways, or ramps, or combinations of
both, often affords opportunities for adding interest to a
town, and should be not only useful but also orna
mental features. How they can be made such may
be seen in the hillside towns of Italy and Spain ;
the well-known Spanish stairway in Rome, connect
ing by means of 125 steps the Piazza di Spagna
with the higher level of the Via Sistina above, is a
particularly good example. The ramps connecting the
254

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
Piazza del Popolo with the Pincian Hill, or those upon
either side of the Friedens Denkmal at Munich
(Fig. 109), are examples of a pleasing treatment of
roadways ; in both these cases the ramp is partly
disguised by judicious tree planting. In the case of
ramps to bridges, those planned as a continuation to
the bridge line are much to be preferred, but where

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BRIDGE
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FIG. 109. — FRIEDENS DENKMAL PLATZ, MUNICH
this is impossible on account of the height, a double
ramp generally affords more scope for treatment than
a single one ; but this question is one belonging more
to the subject of bridges, which we do not propose to
include in the scope of the present work.
Let us now turn our attention to the architectural
treatment of the street itself, of the buildings which
line it, and on which its architectural character depends.
255
TOWN PLANNING
In this country the interests and rights of the indi
vidual are so jealously guarded that improvements are
always most difficult to effect, and street architecture
has hitherto been allowed to take care of itself too much.
Street architecture is social architecture, and ought
surely to conform to those rules of convention by
which all society is governed. It should not be
possible for any one freeholder to erect some vulgar
monstrosity as an advertisement, when by such build
ing he entirely destroys the artistic harmony of the
street. There is an ever-growing need for a cultured
and wide censorship, as liberal as possible, that will
prevent the erection of the hideous and purposeless
buildings that so often disgrace our streets. There
is as yet no sufficient standard of public taste to
entrust such censorship in the hands of public officials,
but with such a number of societies devoted to the
encouragement of the fine arts existing throughout
the kingdom, there should be no difficulty in obtain
ing expert assistance to form committees of advice.
"The subject," says Professor Beresford Pite, "is one
of great difficulty and complexity, and unless the
control is in the first place wisely directed in the true
interest of successful architecture by highly competent
hands, and in the second is so entirely firm by
enactment and covenant that it cannot be broken away
from, the experiment will not be successful."
The first question with regard to street archi
tecture which we have to ask ourselves is. How far is it
desirable to insist upon architectural uniformity and
256

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
symmetry and to call upon owners to conform to any
general style of building ? The question is one on
which there will be endless differences of opinion and in
regard to which it is not easy to formulate any principle
that will equally suit all classes. Style in architecture
is largely a matter of fashion ; thus a century ago it
was generally accepted that a street should form a
design as a whole, and we had in London such
examples as Regent Street, the Adelphi, and many
other streets. As the nineteenth century progressed,
the Gothic Revival movement led the sympathies of
architects and artists to favour a more picturesque
treatment. Now we have for some few years shown
a marked tendency to return to classic forms. " It
must not be imagined," says Professor Reilly, "that
there is no scope for the picturesque in civic archi
tecture. The very supposition is absurd. The real
fact is that the picturesque is properly inherent in the
site and cannot be artificially brought about. It would,
for instance, be impossible for Edinburgh with its
rock to be anything but picturesque. But on a plain
the right treatment of plan is a broad symmetrical
balancing of effects."
There are some positions, as, for example, a street
leading to an important architectural termination, a
circus or a geometrically laid out curve, where a great
deal is to be said in favour of the uniform treatment
of the whole in subordination to one design. The
sweep of a curve seen against the skyline, should be
unbroken, save by small details such as chimneys, and
s 257

TOWN PLANNING
in this case a symmetrical treatment of the street
fa9ade is the only one likely to be successful. The
beauty of a circus or quadrant depends entirely upon
the surrounding buildings being kept at one uniform
height. If it is not so treated the best quality, the
continuity of the curved line, is lost. Again, when a
street is of more than average width, is not very long,
and is to be occupied entirely by buildings of one
class, a uniform design gives a dignity which no other
treatment can impart. Where it is decided to adopt
such a uniform scheme in a street of business build
ings, the objection that is generally made is that here
and there an elevation may be provided which is
unsuitable to the requirements of the tenant ; but this
is a difficulty that would occur whenever the property
was vacated, and yet buildings are not pulled down to
suit each successive tenant, and in these days of short
leases such consideration should not be allowed much
weight, when the question is one of spoiling a scheme
that depends entirely upon the continuity of its archi
tecture. To preserve a symmetrical effect it is of
course not essential that each building should be an
exact repetition of its neighbour, for this always pro
duces a dull and uninteresting effect, but rather, an
effort should be made to obtain a symmetrical arrange
ment by blocks of similar design, and monotony in
detail should be avoided by minor variations in the
elevations without destroying the design.
One very practical objection to regularity in large
schemes of street architecture is much in evidence in
258

UMRORM

RRAX. liRSIO.V IMIR TIIR i,iU.U )R.\XT. KLGR
ORM.\X SM.VW, R..\.

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
the wealthier parts of London, where we find rows of
uniform houses painted different colours according to
each individual owner's fancy, thus destroying all
harmonious effect.
With the exceptions we have indicated, the pictur
esque variety of architecture that characterises our
modern streets should not be discouraged. In what
may be termed ordinary streets, which do not demand
a grandiose effect, an irregular is often preferable
to a regular treatment, and is more expressive of
the needs of the street, especially if it be a business
one. Again, where a street is comparatively narrow,
the architectural treatment as a complete design can
hardly be a success, as it can never be seen as a whole.
In positions dominated by some ancient Gothic build
ing a straight uniform treatment would be quite out
of character. Given that in certain prominent positions it is
desired to obtain a fine monumental effect by means
of a more or less uniform treatment, what means
should be taken to ensure an efficient control of the archi
tecture? Why is it that Paris has that grandiose air
which makes it seem a city so much more in the full
sense of the word than London ? It is true she has
a great advantage in being surrounded by magnificent
quarries of fine white limestone underlying the soil
for miles in every direction. But this alone would
not prevent her fine squares and streets being spoiled,
if it were not that a street supervision is exercised
wherever the importance of the position demands it.
259

TOWN PLANNING
The buildings of many of the principal streets and
squares are under a servitude, that is, an official
control to which all private owners must submit,
and which is well known to the buyer when he
purchases the property.' If we are able to control
the height of buildings and width of roads and the
construction of drains, it should be possible for the
most important streets and squares of our great
towns to be scheduled and officially controlled in
some such way, by a committee of experts (as in
America), to whom all questions of taste could be
referred. To some extent the London County Council are
alive to the importance of official control, and in regard to
the architectural features of Kingsway their Improvements
Committee in 1900 advised that "measures should be
taken to insure harmony, though not perhaps similarity
of design, in the architectural treatment of the buildings
to be placed upon the frontages of the new crescent
and on the northern side of the Strand, and perhaps in
the main thoroughfare itself." This was a step in the
right direction, and had the Council's powers been greater,
a more comprehensive treatment would have been the
result. But unfortunately the Council had not sufficient
backing up from public opinion to carry through their
I The following places amongst others are under the protection of
servitudes : the Place Vendome dating from the time of Louis XIV., the
Place des Vosges from 1605, the Place des Victoires from 1691, the Rue
Royal from 1757 ; and for the Rue de Rivoli, the Rue Castiglione, and
the Place du Palais Royal the servitude was fixed by consular decrees of
Vend6miaire 17 and Floreal i, Year X.
260

^ t-.

Fii;. III. TKRMIN.VTIOiV To A STRRKT \ISTA, RARIS

'if

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
good intentions, and they let slip the opportunity for a
stately and symmetrical design in Aldwych and Kingsway;
and although their intentions at the first — by instituting
a competition for designs — were excellent, they failed in
several important points, principally in imagining that
amongst the eight designs they obtained from prominent
architects it would be possible to combine parts of each
into one whole. It would have been infinitely better to
have selected one of the eight designs and adhered to
it entirely. But the whole proceeding shows that the
Council agree with the principle of exercising an official
control when advisable, and let us hope the comparative
failure of Kingsway will not deter either London or
provincial towns when the next great opportunity
occurs. It has been the custom in Paris for some years past
to institute competitions and award prizes to those
architects who design the best street facades during the
year. The idea is a good one, and attracts much public
attention each year. When a new street is to be opened
up, definite encouragement to good building is offered
by awarding prizes to the best designs for buildings
about to be erected in it. Paris not only gives a prize
to the architect, but grants a remission of part of the
street tax, that is, of the rates, to the owner of the
building. No such direct encouragement to build
beautifully has ever been proposed, as far as we are aware,
in England, nor would it be much use unless we accepted
the system of trusting the awards to juries of experts.
Another idea which we might very well adopt from
261

TOWN PLANNING
our neighbours across the Channel is the practice of in
scribing the architect's name on a building. The practice
is now becoming general in Germany, Belgium, and
France ; the position chosen is close to the ground, and
easily legible without in any way having the appearance
of an advertisement. Although there might perhaps be
some who, if the practice became general, would seek
to utilise the opportunity for advertising purposes, they
would certainly take care not to do so unless their work
were of good quality, and the public would have an
opportunity of knowing who were the designers of the
best buildings in our streets ; and perhaps it would not
be too Utopian to hope that in time there would
actually be a demand on the part of the general
public to have the name of the author of a design as
easily available as is the case with a painting or a
piece of sculpture.
There is ample scope for a more reasonable type
of shop-front to be introduced into this country,
and the recent rebuilding of the Regent Street
Quadrant has given a certain prominence to the
question as to how far architecture should be
made subordinate to modern requirements in the
matter of show-windows. It is manifestly im
possible to obtain a fine architectural effect in a shop-
front where a shopkeeper demands that floor after
floor of superstructure building should apparently be
supported by nothing more solid than a sheet of plate
glass. Of course, every one knows that they rest on
strong steel columns and girders hidden away some-
262

Fii:. 112. KRT I A- 1 n ii.h im:, |'aki>. siiowRNO TIIR, sTki;i:r .\i;c,\iii:s

Fio. 113. STRRRl \R< VI >R AT i;oRO(,\.\

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
where in the background, but we cannot afford to have
our best streets marred in this way, and the Office of
Woods and Forests have set an excellent example in
Regent Street by insisting that the architectural effect
of a magnificent street should not be entirely ignored.
There are signs that a great improvement in the treat
ment of shop-fronts is taking place, and that there is
a strong tendency to replace the shop-front of the last
half-century, with its sham construction and immense
sheets of plate glass, by something better designed and
carried out with greater architectural taste. In the best
German examples of shop-fronts we find more impor
tance attached to the emphasis of vertical uprights, and
perhaps for drapery establishments and the like this
method is the best. In places where it is not advisable
to employ an arched form, the method is often adopted
of recessing the actual front or the central part of it,
and leaving a vestibule with show-cases on either side.
This is an architectural effect capable of great variety
of treatment, and is much to be commended. It should
also be possible to decorate the steel girder of a shop-
front in such a way that it would not be necessary to
box it up with a sham cornice of wood or stone.
The street arcade is a feature with many merits
both as regards architectural effect and convenience to
the public, and much may be said in its favour, both
from the point of view of the shopkeeper and also as
affording fine scope for architectural effect. It is especi
ally to be found in cities where it is desirable to
afford plenty of shade. At Bologna, for example, there
263

TOWN PLANNING
are several miles of such streets or arcades, and they
are to be met with in nearly every town in Italy. It
is worth considering whether the street arcade might
not be more adopted than it is in the planning of streets
and towns of the future, especially where the land is
increasing enormously in value. If, for example, in the
case of widening a street in England which runs east
and west (and where the south side gets no direct sun
in consequence), instead of purchasing land at great
expense upon both sides of the road, it might some
times be possible to confine the purchase to the south
side, and then only to the ground-floor premises sup
porting the floors above, by constructing an arcade, thus
adding to the width of the roadway by the width of a
footpath ; the saving in expense would be enormous,
and in the event of buildings being reconstructed at a
later date they could then be compulsorily set back.
Within the last few years the arcade has been tried
once again in London at the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly.
A rare example is to be found in the " Rows " at Chester,
where two rows of shops with an open arcade in front
are placed one above the other with admirable effect.
The system of arcades is said to be objectionable on
account of making the shops dark. But in the Rue Cas
tiglione and adjoining streets in Paris (Fig. 112) this
is not the case to such an extent as to cause any real
inconvenience, for the arches are kept at such a height
that they do not shut out all direct sunlight.
Where a street has a certain monumental effect,
depending upon the continuation of the style of architec-
264

Rig. ii;, (,.\RRKRIA \RRroRR\ lARXXUIX.i:, MIR,\X

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
ture from one block of buildings to another, the use of
archways or colonnades might be more general than it
is. The rental value to a towm would be an important
consideration where land was of value. The only ob
jection to colonnades is that they partially impede a
thorough ventilation of the street, but from an aesthetic
point of view they have much to commend them. We
find them used with splendid effect at Verona, where,
in the Piazza dei Signori (Fig. 1 1 7) finely proportioned
arches are thrown across two of the streets entering
the place and serve to enclose the square. There are
several fine examples in London of such a treatment,
notably at Somerset House, where the river front joins
on to King's College, and another excellent example
is to be seen in the new Government buildings at White
hall (Fig. 114).
It is curious that in England so little use has
hitherto been made of the covered street. There does not
exist a single good example. The Burlington Arcade,
London, which is perhaps the best, is insignificant when
compared with such fine examples as the Galleria
Vittorio Emanuele in Milan or that at Naples. Such
covered passages in the midst of large towns are
particularly suitable for many kinds of trades, but it
is essential that they should be planned in the direct
line of a pedestrian traffic route. They should be
broad (that at Milan, for example, is 50 feet in
width) and airy, taking in the first and second
floors of the buildings on either side, and also well
ventilated. Among the more important covered passages
265

TOWN PLANNING
on the Continent are the Kaiser-passage in Berlin,
planned in a broken line 25 feet broad and 400 feet
long, and the Galleria Mazzini at Genoa, 35 feet broad
and 600 feet long.
Both in Great Britain and the United States, streets
and open spaces are less furnished with trees than on
the Continent, and foreign visitors to London are often
struck by the curious anomaly that whilst our parks
have received so much attention and care, hardly any
of the important streets of London, with the exception
of the Thames Embankment, are planted with trees.
Paris, Berlin, and V^ienna, on the other hand, do all that
is possible to introduce a fresh greenery into their streets,
and in the former city there are no less than 80,000
trees. This lack of trees in the streets is more curious
in a country like England, where, on account of climate,
cultivation is so easy, and where private individuals
spend so much thought and money on their gardens.
It is obvious that both from a hygienic and aesthetic
point of view great benefits accrue where tree planting
in streets is carried out on a systematic plan, without
overcrowding, and by keeping the trees within reason
able bounds.
As trees breathe not only by their leaves, but
also by their roots, it follows that it is difficult for a
tree to be in a healthy condition in positions where the
ground is hard, and for this reason they thrive better
when placed in the middle of the street rather than on
the sidewalks ; it is better still to provide a narrow strip
of grass, as is invariably done in the finest streets in
266

THE PLANNING OF STREETS
French and German cities. Another reason why trees
should be planted in the middle of the street rather
than at the curbs is to shade the street without inter
fering with the light and air of the adjacent houses
and obstructing their view. At the same time they
may be of service in dividing the traffic. Of course, a
greater \\idth of roadway is needed to make the system
practicable, but it has the one great advantage of allow
ing a larger amount of sunshine to penetrate to the
houses, and the cost is lessened by having fewer trees,
whilst the appearance of the street is quite as good.
That trees are not in the way on a broad business street,
and with care may be made to thrive there, is shown by
the tree-planted boulevards of Paris and Marseilles.
An important point which is sometimes rather over
looked is. What is to be the future of the forest trees
planted on the verge of so many of the footways ?
These may be delightful whilst of reasonable height, but
when allowed to grow as they list they easily become
a nuisance. Even the attraction of green boughs is a
doubtful gain to the inhabitants of any thoroughfare if
air and sunshine are shut out from their windows for
half the year. W^e appear to be too much afraid of
pruning them and keeping their growth within reasonable
bounds, and in this respect we might well follow the
lead of some towns on the Continent, where trees are
not allowed to grow more than about 30 feet high, and
are then generally cut in quite a formal way. Another
mistake often made in England is that the trees are
planted too closely together, and are not sufficiently
267

TOWN PLANNING
grouped. Where they are planted equidistantly they
should never be less than 30 feet for birch and small
growing trees and 35 to 40 feet for the larger
kinds. It would be far better if, instead of planting
trees in long rows on the sidewalk, they were
irregularly grouped at intervals, and where possible
kept entirely subservient to the architectural features
of the street. Where it is desirable to accentuate
the position of an important building, trees may well
be omitted from its front, or if allowed should be
kept quite low, not to impede a view of the building
from the opposite side of the street. Sometimes,
instead of being planted on the sidewalk itself, they
might be planted in the gardens of adjoining owners ;
it would not be a serious matter to run the risk of
these trees being occasionally cut down, and if a
few owners objected to having trees in their gardens,
so much the better, as instead of the monotony of
a long row we should get the more pleasing effect
of irregular groups.
Before deciding what trees to plant it is best
to make a close inspection of all existing trees in
the neighbourhood, and those in a flourishing state
suitable for roads should be noted and planted. The
following list, together with the soils most congenial
to their growth, is suggested by Mr. Francis Smythe.
The first on the list, the plane, is undoubtedly the
finest tree for road planting where the subsoil and
other conditions are suited to its growth.
268

THE PLANNING OF STREETS

Plane occidental

.. London

Heavy soil

„ maple leaved

• • )i . .

))

Maple 

. . Norway

Any soil

Sycamore

,,

J)

Oak 

.. Turkey

))

))

English

Heavy soil

Poplar

.. Canadian

Any soil

))

Ontario

»

M

Balsam
Heavy soil
))
.. Black Italian ..
Any soil
))
Lombardy
>j
Elm
.. Camperdown ...
Heavy soil
)j
Scotch or Wycb
»
Lime
European
Light soil
)>
.. Crimean
3»
»
Red-twigged ..
J)
Birch
.. Common
Any soil
>>
.. Silver ...
»
Ash
.. Common
))
Willow
„
Moist soil
jj
.. White
»
J>
.. Huntingdon ..
n
Trees for manufacturing or smoky districts :
planes, Norway maple, sycamore, poplars, ash. Trees
for cold, exposed positions : all the trees mentioned
except planes and limes. Trees for seaside : syca
more, Norway maple, Turkey oak, Camperdown elm,
grey poplar, white willow, common ash. Trees for chalk
soils : Norway maple, sycamore, poplars, birch, ash.
Generally speaking, when gardens are planned at
the sides of streets or at their junctions, the best
effects are obtained by very simple means. Their
plan should only be laid out on the most formal
lines. We find the mistake continually being made
of introducing little sinuous paths and beds with
269
TOWN PLANNING
injudicious and trifling garden ornament, which tend
to destroy the dignity of a street, and certainly do
not add to its beauty. The best effects are produced
on strictly formal lines, with unbroken grass spaces
and stately avenues of trees. The more general
introduction of flowers would be a great advantage
to our streets, if positions could be found for them
where they could not easily be plucked. They would,
of course, suffer a great deal from the dust, and
would often need renewing. In Paris baskets of flowers
are sometimes attached to the electric light and other
standards at about fifteen feet from the ground. Those
who have noticed the gorgeous effect of the flower-
sellers' baskets grouped round the base of the fountain
at Piccadilly Circus, or on the steps of the Piazza
di Spagna, in Rome, will admit that the charm of such
a beautiful colour effect is worth striving after.

270

CHAPTER VI
THE PLANNING OF SQUARES AND OPEN
SPACES
IN the early days of every ancient city the place
of public resort was the market-place. In Greek
cities this place was known as the Agora and in
Roman cities as the Forum, but from the various
accounts given by ancient writers of the purposes for
which they were used it does not appear that they
differed very considerably either in their intention or
their form. The early types were open, and often tra
versed by streets, as, for example, the public place of
Elis, mentioned by Pausanias, who says that it was
quadrangular and was called a hippodrome because
used for horse races. The later types were confined
within continuous porticos. The Agora was the place
in which public assemblies were held, as well as a
market for the sale of goods ; in this respect it re
sembled the market-places of English country towns ;
and the situation of the Town Hall recalls the use of
a portion of the portico for the purpose of a tribunal,
271

TOWN PLANNING
as at Megalopolis and Athens. Aristotle deprecates this
dual use of the Agora, which, he says, should only be
used as the public meeting-place and for the display
of beautiful works of art, and to which all slaves,
artisans, and labourers should be denied access, whilst
the market should be in another part of the city and
of easy access to all the means of transport, both by
sea and land. According to Vitruvius the Greek Agora
was generally square, with a spacious and double colon
nade ornamenting it, the columns placed at narrow
intervals, and above, a gallery for walking, with bal
conies and more shops, the letting of which formed a
source of public revenue. He says that the Roman
Forum differed from that of the Greeks, inasmuch as,
until the erection of amphitheatres, exhibitions of gladi
ators were held there.
As towns grew into cities it became necessary to
make provision for a number of public places, and this
led to their being divided into two classes. The prin
cipal class of fora, the fora civilia or judicaria, became
great assemblages of public buildings dedicated to
religion, law, and justice, as those of Julius, Augustus,
Nero, and Trajan at Rome ; while the other class, the
fora venalia, still continued to be markets ; thus the
forum boarium was the market for cattle, the olitorium
for vegetables, the piscarium for fish, the coquinium
for ready cooked vegetables, &c.
The principal remains of Roman fora are those at
Rome itself, at Pompeii, and at Timgad and other
colonial towns that have been excavated in North Africa.
272

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
The best preserved is that at Pompeii (Figs, ii and 13),
which is in such a condition that there is no doubt
about the use of the various buildings and monuments
that surround it. It is oblong in shape, about 175 by
50 yards, dominated on the north side by the temple
of Jupiter, the other sides being enclosed by colon
nades. The area in the centre was open to vehicles,
though it was not paved in the same manner as the
streets, but was covered with large regular slabs of
marble. Numerous statues were erected round the
sides, and twenty-two bases for these statues are still
preserved, five of which bear inscriptions dedicated to
officials of high rank. Remains of iron gates were
found at several of the entrances, from which it may
be inferred that the Forum was only open during fixed
hours. The recesses may still be seen in which the
public measures stood ; five of them have sliding
bottoms for grain, and four were fitted with tubes for
oil and wine.
In their colonial towns, and especially in their
military camps, the Romans always placed the Forum
at the intersection of the two principal axial thorough
fares, the cardo maximus, running from north to south,
and the decumanus maximus, running from east to
west. The Forum at Timgad, a military colony founded
under Trajan, is an excellent example of the tradi
tional type established in an entirely new colony. It
is almost square in plan, entered from the principal
thoroughfare by an archway, and resembles an Eastern
meidan, or bazaar, like those to be found at Cairo and
T 273

TOWN PLANNING
Constantinople. A large basilica occupies the greater
part of one side and opposite are the curia and a small
temple. In the South of Europe, and especially in
Italy, public places still conform to the type of the
ancient Forum. They have kept their place in public
life, and their natural relations with the buildings that
surround them are still easily discernible. Then, as
now, there was a tendency to concentrate the important
public edifices, and to ornament the centre of the com
mon life with fountains, monuments, and statues which
in the Middle Ages and the days of the Renaissance
were the joy of every city. Here the circulation of
traffic was the most intense, public files were celebrated,
representations and official ceremonies took place, and
laws were enacted.
The "place" of mediaeval and Renaissance times
is the direct descendant of the ancient Forum. We
use the word "place" because it gives a more accurate
idea than the word "square," which in its implied
regularity is rather inaccurate, especially as the
mediaeval place was neither regular nor square. But,
in spite of their apparently aimless irregularity, if
we carefully examine* the plans of some of these
mediaeval places we shall find that they were often
constructed upon definite principles. They generally
owed their shape to the position of some public
building, and were planned to give the greatest effect
to it. In Italy it may have been a church, and in
Northern Europe it would have been more probably
a town hall, but in either case it was the raison
274

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
detre of the place, and it was not until the seven
teenth century that a place was deliberately planned,
either as a forecourt to a building or for the better
distribution of traffic. When we find the building
standing quite free and unattached, it is rarely
planned symmetrically or upon any axial line, but is
rather placed at one side, or angularly, thereby often
gaining in picturesque eff"ect. We frequently find a

FIG. Il6. — LA SIGNORIA, FLORENCE

tendency to create oblong places rather than square.
The oblong form is especially valuable where the
principal building occupies the shorter end, as by this
means a proper perspective is afforded. Sitte divides
these mediaeval places into three great types. First,
the Cathedral place, dominated by some great church
with its campanile, baptistry, or episcopal palace.
Secondly, the Signoria, or place for the reigning prince,
forming a sort of courtyard to the palace ; here
would be perhaps a loggia for the use of the guard
275

TOWN PLANNING
and a terrace for public enactments. Thirdly, the
market-place, an important feature which was rarely
missing in any city. This was the rendezvous of
the citizens, generally overlooked by the town hall and
guild-houses, and almost always decorated with a fine
fountain, of which such beautiful specimens are to be
found in nearly every old continental town. In the
North of Europe, except in the case of the parvis in
front of the church, the principal place facing the
town hall was also the principal market. In Brussels,
and also in Vienna, all the old places still preserve by
their name the remembrance of their original intention ;
thus there is the cattle market, the horse, wood, poultry,
swine, skin, and vegetable markets.
The custom which we find in most mediaeval cities
of placing buildings so that they are joined on one
or more sides to other buildings tended to produce
those groups of open places which give so much
charm to old towns.
The grouping of two or three places of unequal
size is frequently found in old cities. This has arisen
from a variety of causes : it may have been from a
desire to separate two places, each designed for a
different object — for example, the market-place from
the church place, as at Ypres ; or it may be that it
was advisable to divide them on account of the traffic
circulation. Sometimes we find as many as three
places thus joined together, in order to give greater
effect to the surrounding buildings, which are planned
so that each facade has its dominating edifice — for
276

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
example, the Piazza and the Piazzetta of St. Mark at
Venice (Fig. 139).
All will recollect the admirable effect of the com
bination of three places at Florence grouped round
the Signoria. Similar groups are to be found at
Brunswick, Lubeck, and Bremen. This grouping of
places is one of the main elements in the aesthetic

FIG. 117. — PIAZZA DEI. SIGNORI, VERONA, SHOWING EFFECT
OF ENCLOSING A PLACE

beauty of an old city, and in replanning new quarters
in an old city opportunities will arise occasionally
where such a treatment might be followed with advan
tage, and no opportunity thus presented should be
neglected. These mediaeval town places owe their harmonious
appearance partly to their being surrounded by an
unbroken frame of buildings, and partly to the careful
277

TOWN PLANNING
way in which the opening of side streets was contrived
by introducing them at the angles instead of the
centre of the place. The archway or colonnade is a
feature sometimes employed to continue the archi
tectural lines around the place, as at the Piazza dei
Signori, Verona (Fig. 117), where wide arches are thrown
across two of the streets entering on one side. Where

\

RiWTENNA
PIAZZA DELDWMO

PlgTOEAPIAaTA PEL DUOMO

FIG. 1X8. — PIAZZA DEL DUOMO, RAVENNA, AND PIAZZA DEL DUOMO, PISTOIA, WITH DIAGRAM
ILLUSTRATING THE PLAN BN BRAS DE TURBINE

it was essential to continue the direction of a street
across a place, an effort was made to plan it directly
opposite, and where three or four streets entered on
one side, each followed a different direction required
by the conditions of traffic. We find these instances
repeated so frequently that they may almost be con
sidered as the conscious or unconscious principles
governing the planning of mediaeval cities. A typical
instance is that of the Piazza del Duomo, at Ravenna,
278

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
which illustrates a remarkable feature of that type
of ancient place that Sitte designates bras de turbine.
The Grande Place at Brussels is another example; it
is nearly quadrangular, and the streets enter the
square in turbinal form.
"The notion of symmetry," says Sitte, "is pro
pagated nowadays with the rapidity of an epidemic.
It is familiar to those least cultivated, and every one
thinks himself called upon to contribute his opinion
upon such difficult questions as the planning of towns,
believing himself to have in his little finger the only
necessary criterion, i.e., symmetry. The word is Greek,
and yet one could easily prove that in antiquity it
had a meaning different from that of to-day. Pro
portion and symmetry are one and the same thing,
the only difference between the terms being that, in
architecture, proportion is simply an agreeable relation
ship to the eye, while symmetry is the same relation
ship expressed by numbers. This idea existed through
the Middle Ages."
Sitte and other writers have often insisted upon
the importance of preserving and even creating an
irregularity in public places, and although anything
like a studied irregularity is hardly likely to be a
success, much might be said against the modern folly
of always striving after a perfectly regular and
symmetrical effect in places, even where they are
surrounded by classic buildings. The Roman Forum
should teach us this. The irregularities of ancient
places (more noticeable on paper than in reality), pro-
279

TOWN PLANNING
ceed from their development and generally from
practical causes. The eye is always inclined to over
look the less apparent irregularities, and always fails to
estimate angles aright, though it readily appreciates the
correctness of regular forms.
It is very difficult to determine exactly the relation
ship which should exist between the size of a place
and that of the buildings which surround it ; it is, how
ever, unquestionable that too small a place fails to
give value to a monumental building, just as too large
a place reduces its apparent dimensions. It is a
mistake to think that the idea of size given to a build
ing by a place increases as the proportions of that
place are enlarged. Sitte recommends that the smallest
dimension of an enclosed place should be equal to the
height of the principal edifice erected there, and that
its maximum dimension should not exceed twice the
height ; but rules are of little value to settle the
relationship that should exist between the length and
breadth of a place, for it must not only look well on
paper, but also in reality.
In the modern town plan several types of public
places are to be met with. These may be broadly
divided into three classes : —
I. Traffic places.
T^ . 1 ( (a) Markets.
2. Business places- ;_( „ ,
I [b) Garage places.
3. Ornamental and architectural places.

280

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
Traffic places form by far the largest class. We
have already dealt with the smaller forms in consider
ing the subject of street crossings (Chapter III.). When
such crossings become enlarged, traffic places are
created with the object of absorbing the traffic coming
from various directions and distributing it into other
directions. In England this type of place has never
been seriously dealt with, and it has generally been
considered sufficient to place a few " islands " at those
points where pedestrian traffic seemed to demand them,
and the possibilities of treating traffic places as a means
of properly intercepting and distributing traffic currents
have not been fully realised.
The second class, which we have termed business
places, includes those various types of place whose
principal object is to facilitate the transaction of busi
ness, such as the market-place and the garage place
in front of railway stations or similar points.
Ornamental places include all those laid out solely
with the object of adding beauty to the surroundings
without any regard for considerations of traffic. We
do not, of course, mean to imply that a traffic place
may not be also a beautiful spot.
Architectural places include those which are
designed to set off the surrounding architecture to its
best advantage.
It frequently happens that the fulfilment of two or
more different purposes is attained by one public place,
as in the case of the Place de la Concorde, Paris, which
is both a traffic and an ornamental place, and also the
281

TOWN PLANNING
Parisian ronds-points, which, besides receiving and
distributing the traffic, are adorned with gardens,
monuments, and fountains. The Place de I'lStoile
(Fig. 119) is a combination of a traffic and an archi
tectural place.
The ideal form of town plan is the one in which
the smallest number of traffic places occur, and it
certainly does not add to the ease with which traffic
circulates if it is continually being obstructed by a
large number of streams converging to one point. But
as we cannot do away with such places and must
perforce regard them as a necessary evil, it only
remains to guard against the formation of useless
traffic areas resulting from the unnecessary meeting
of streets, and in planning such places to take the
greatest care first to estimate the volume and direction
of the traffic, and then to regulate it by the careful
disposition of the islands, whether they be the mere
oval-shaped refuge or the more ambitious garden or
monumental plot. For practical reasons it is desirable
that the various lines of traffic should not intersect one
another at one point, and where this is likely to be the
case this point should be chosen for a pavement or
grass plot. High monuments or any objects likely to
impede the drivers' view are to be avoided in such a
position. Spaces devoted to traffic as a rule lack the setting
of a proper architectural frame, but they can never
theless be made to present a more pleasing appearance
by so arranging the lines of the street that the eye
282

FIG. 119. — PLACE DE l'ETOILE, PARIS

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
travels over the intervening open space and rests on a
boundary wall.
A very favourite form of traffic place in modern
continental cities is the rond-poi7it or circus, upon which
the thoroughfares converge like the spokes of a wheel.
It has been much used where new quarters have to be
united to old ones by thoroughfares. These places have
reached their fullest development in Paris in such
examples as the Place de I'fitoile and the Place de la
Nation (Figs. 119 and 120), planned at the western
and eastern extremities of Paris. Both were laid out
as part of the scheme for dealing with the traffic of
Paris, and also for the necessity under the second
Empire of being able to survey properly the streets
against riots. The Place de I'fitoile has a total width
of 290 yards between the buildings, the central circular
roadway having a width of 30 yards. In the midst
of the place rises the magnificent Arc de Triomphe
erected by Napoleon in 1806; twelve important
thoroughfares, varying in width from the 90 feet wide
Avenue des Champs Elysees to the Avenue de J6na
only 45 feet wide. In addition to the footpath there is
a broad gravelled space planted with trees. The sur
rounding buildings are all of one uniform style of
architecture, which by a special ordinance of the city
can never be changed. An interesting feature of the
Place de I'Etoile is the outside ring of side streets de
signed to relieve the traffic and to give additional access
to the large blocks of buildings surrounding the place.
The Place de la Nation, though not so large, is in some
285

TOWN PLANNING
respects a more serviceable traffic place. It is 273 yards
from building to building, the central circular road being
about 80 feet in width ; ten important, and secondary,
thoroughfares converge to the central space, but all
tramway lines are restricted to the outer ring next the

FIG. 120.— PLACE DE LA NATION, PARIS

buildings. The place is plentifully planted with trees,
and in the centre stands Dalou's superb bronze group
representing the Triumph of the Republic. Where the
rond-point is of so large diameter as in these two cases
it is a convenient form for the traffic place, but where
the diameter is smaller, and insufficient to allow for the
secondary relieving street, the form can hardly be recom-
286

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
mended. The circular enclosing line then becomes in
convenient for buildings, vehicles moving to one point
interfere with each other, and pedestrian traffic has either
to cross the whole space between the moving vehicles
or must take a circuitous route on the footways around
the place, unless there be a central island and subsidiary
side ones.
It is often impossible to avoid four or five streets

FIG. 121. — PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE, PARIS

converging. Where this is the case, instead of directing
them towards a central point it is better to form an
oblong or an elliptical place, both of which forms are
preferable for dividing the circulation of traffic. All
secondary streets should be treated like the tributaries of
a river and made to pour their contents into the lines of
the principal current. The Place de la R^publique, Paris
(Fig. i2i), is a good example of an oblong traffic place;
287

TOWN PLANNING
it measures about 325 yards by 130 between the build
ings, with seven main thoroughfares entering, three at
one end, two at the other, and one at each of the long
sides. The whole of the centre of the place is occupied
by a broad promenade with a fine central monument, two
fountains, and double rows of trees.
A good example of an oval place is at the Hague, in

FIG. 122. — HET PLEIN AT THE HAGUE

a space known as the " Plein," planned in 1813, where
two important thoroughfares — Sophia Laan and Alexand
Straat — meet. A double tramway circulates through
the latter street, and the two lines diverge round a central
monument ; the entire oval is surrounded by a doublb
row of lime-trees and ample space is left for the circu
lation of traffic. Where it is essential to restrict the
area that can be devoted to such a place, the idea shown
288

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
in Fig. 123 might well be adopted. The design is
made for an oval traffic place entered by eight thorough
fares and occupying an area about two-thirds that t)f
the Place de la Nation ; the centre of the place is laid
out as a broad promenade wnth a double row of trees, and

-FIG. 123. — DESIGN FOR AN OVAL TRAFFIC PLACE PARTLY OCCUPIED BY BUII DINGS

monuments are placed at either end in such positions that
they form vistas for streets A, B, and F. Tramways
and omnibus routes would be restricted to the outer ring,
and the traffic circulating through the central place would
be divided into two streams. Any little inconvenience
that this would involve in setting down would be amply
u 289

TOWN PLANNING
compensated for by the increased speed due to the traffic
being kept in one direction. Ample space is provided
at those points where cross-currents occur, and islands
are placed for pedestrians and to help control the traffic
currents. Cab ranks are placed within easy hail under
neath the trees of the central island and well out of the
way of traffic. The central building blocks would be

FIG. 124. — PIAZZA DEL POPOLO, ROME

most valuable for shops, and would contribute con
siderably to the cost of the scheme, the two arcades
being particularly well placed for business on one of
the principal lines of traffic.
The half-circle is another suitable form for a traffic
place, particularly where traffic coming from one direction
has to be spread out, as at the principal entrances to
towns, railway stations, bridge approaches, &c. The
Piazza del Popolo, Rome (Fig. 124), is a good example of
290

Fui. 125. AM HOF MARKT

Fig. 126. HOHEN MARKT
TWO MARKET PLACES IN VIENNA

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
this treatment, with an additional charm due to the clever
handling of the surrounding architecture. Entering
"through the Porta del Popolo, we are on the short axis
of an elliptical place, the centre being occupied by an
obelisk with four running fountains, so placed as to ter
minate the vista from each of the three streets. Double
ramps encircle the place at either end, one leading to
the gardens of Monte Pincio ; a secondary distributing
place adjoins the piazza towards the city and connects
the three thoroughfares Via di Ripetta, Corso Umberto,
and the Via del Babuino. The two domed churches
between the three thoroughfares and the two classic
buildings on either side of the town gate give the place
a fine monumental character. The approach to the
Palace of Versailles (Fig. i66) is an example of a similar
treatment, though conceived upon a more grandiose scale.
The three broad avenues converge upon an immense
central place in front of the palace, from which it is
divided by a large forecourt projecting into the place.
The various kinds of places devoted to business or
pleasure, in which are included market-places, ex
changes, and places for public shows and festivals, form
a direct contrast to the places we have just been con
sidering in that all through-traffic, both vehicular and
pedestrian, is excluded. In the case of markets the
central part is entirely reserved for the exposition of
goods for sale. We have many old market-places still
left in this country, and very fine some of them are —
Norwich, for instance, and the Cambridge market-place
with its fountain at the side. In the larger towns of
291

TOWN PLANNING
England and on the Continent open markets have
gradually given place to closed ones, but in smaller
towns and in suburban areas the demand will still exist
and should certainly be encouraged, and town extension
schemes should therefore make ample provision for
such places, which, besides being a valuable municipal
asset, confer great benefits upon all classes. They should

FIG. 129. — PLAN OF THE BAHNHOFPLATZ, HANOVER

be planned as near as possible to centres of road and
railway or canal traffic, in close proximity to at least
one important thoroughfare, and carriages or tramways
must in no way cross the place. Plenty of trees should
be planted round the sides and in the centre, and every
effort made to render the place attractive as a promenade,
as well as a useful centre for shopping. It might also
be possible to lay out such a place so that, in addition
292

Fu:. 127. RATHAUSPLATZ, \ IKXNA

Fig. [28. BAHNHOFPLATZ, HANOVER

Fig. 130. M.\XIMILL\X l'I..\TZ, \H:X\.\, ATRI.\X(;ULAK GARDEN PL \CE

Fig. 131. KARLSPLATZ, MUNICH, SHOWING PROVISION FOR CABSTANDS

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
to being a market by day, it might be used for entertain
ment purposes in the evening, after the manner of some
of the small Spanish alamedas. The long stretch
of the Piazza Navona in Rome, adorned with three
magnificent fountains, used as a market by day, is
illuminated and rendered charmingly attractive as a
public dancing place by night.
The type of business place which on the Continent
is known as the garage place, generally planned in
front of railway stations, is almost unknown in this
country. We include amongst garage places those
planned in front of railway stations for the accommoda
tion of cabs, automobiles, omnibuses and trams. Here
the circulation must be carefully divided by islands
in well chosen positions, and ample provision should
be made for all kinds of standing traffic. Towards
the town an admirable site might be provided for a
monumental arch or some architectural composition
to mark the entrance, e.g., the Porta Umberto at
Milan. The railway termini have taken the place of the
old city gates, w^hich, as we may see from the many
examples still left to us, were prominent architectural
features. Is it not possible then for us to do as much
for our railway stations, and to ensure that the
places upon which they abut shall form artistic and
dignified entrances to our cities ? In America the
Railway Corporations are realising that it pays to
make station surroundings attractive, and many of the
large European cities, like Hanover, Turin, Basle, and
293

TOWN PLANNING
Milan, have laid out their garage places in a strik
ingly beautiful way, in order that the first impression
of strangers arriving by rail may be a favourable one.
At Genoa, besides the erection of a fine monument
to Columbus, the authorities have very successfully
planted the garage square with palms, flowers, and
shrubs. The Bahnhofplatz at Hanover (Figs. 128 and

FIG. 132. — KARLSPLATZ, MUNICH

129) is a model of its kind; the place is semicircular
in form and for the better circulation of traffic the central
part is laid out as a garden. Three large thoroughfares
converge to the outer part of the place and take the
traffic to either side of the station, the central road
way being reserved for cab stands and smaller vehi
cular traffic. As in most cities on the Continent, the
railway place is the principal starting place for the
entire tramway system of the town.
294

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
Another form of garage place which is badly
required in all our cities is a properly equipped place
for the hiring of vehicles. In planning city extensions
and improvements all provision for this kind of place
is invariably omitted, and for want of better arrange
ment, vehicles for public hire are placed in the centre
of roadways or allowed to block up the sides. A good
plan is that shown in Figs. 131 and 132 of the
Karlsplatz at Munich, where the cabs are arranged in
a kind of recess easily accessible from the footway.
Fig. 131 also shows some very well designed shelters
for passengers waiting for the trams.
Ornamental and architectural places include : —
{a) Those partly surrounded by buildings, but
in which the architectural element is not
paramount.
{b) Those entirely surrounded and enclosed by
buildings of a homogeneous and monu
mental character.
[c) Places laid out primarily for purposes of
ornamentation either as gardens or for the
erection of statues or memorials.
• {d) Places planned as forecourts to public build
ings.
ie) Places which are partly built upon.
{a) Places Partly Surrounded by Buildings
The Konigsplatz, Berlin (Fig. 133), the largest
example of an ornamental place in Europe, belongs to
this class. It is bounded on either side by the Parlia-
295

TOWN PLANNING
ment House and the new Royal Opera. A superb
approach road, the Sieges Allee or Avenue of Victory,
forms the axial line from the south. The central part
of the place is occupied by the Sieges Saule, and on
either side are colossal monuments to Bismarck and
Moltke (Fig. 134) ; both monuments gain considerably
from their fine architectural backgrounds, the Parlia
ment building and the new Royal Opera House. A
smaller garden place is added at the north end, with a
central a^¦enue terminating in a statue to Count Roon
and sunken gardens on either side. The planting on
the north and south has been admirably arranged both
to set off the monumental buildings and as a frame
work to the place, and although of such vast dimen
sions the colossal proportion of bott b:iiiding5 and
monuments has succeeded in preser,-i-:g" the general
scale. Next in size to the Konigsplatz ancn^si European
examples is the Rathausplatz off" the Franzensring in
\*ienna, but this place is more of the naiure of a small
park. In the centre an axial line is obtained by the
Allee leading from the Hofburg Theatre to the Rathaus,
lined with memorials to various benefactors of the
city. To right and left of the Rathaus are the L'ni-
\-ersitv and the Parliament buildine.
The Place de la Concorde, Paris (Figs. 136 and 138),
answers the dual purpose of an ornamental and traffic
place. It is planned at the crossing of two important
axial lines, north and south from the Madeleine to the
Chambre des Deputes, and east and west from the
296

SCALE ^

OF -6\KDS

FIG. 133. — KONIGSPLATZ, BERLIN

.. I u- THE r.isM.VRCi-; \ii ixlmex r, ki )xi(.si'L-\tz, I'.i-:kixx

F].;. 135. THE SIEGES ALLEE LEADING TO TJIE K(JNIGSI'L.\TZ, liERLIN

¦.:g&mm^

u^^itdiiiiim.

^i^Sae?

^:^»i(iii8»s^4<

ypu^wBjvI

-'¦ ¦¦•ftWIjfcTfWl

El.;. 131:,. I'LACi; DE I, A COXGdRDE, RARIS

Fk,. 137. PLACE A'KNDOMK, PARIS

FIG. 138. — PL.A.CE DE LA CONCORDE, PARIS

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
Tuileries to the Arc de Triomphe. Though smaller
in area than the largest Berlin and Vienna places, the
monumental effect is quite unrivalled in Europe. In
the middle of the eighteenth century the place was still
a waste piece of ground. After the peace of Aix-la-
Chapelle Louis X\\ allowed the municipality of Paris
to erect an equestrian statue to him. The place has
passed through many phases since this time : the statue
was destroyed during the Revolution, and in 1836 the
obelisk of Luxor and the two monumental fountains
were erected in the centre. The traffic requirement
forced Haussmann, to his great regret, to fill up the
sunken parterres. The place is bordered by a monu
mental balustrade with two large stone figures at each
of the four angles, representing the chief towns of
France, and twenty bronze rostral columns complete
the decoration. The densely planted trees on the sides
of the Tuileries and Champs Elysees take the place
of an enclosing frame. All gardens have been avoided,
as the place is looked upon as a public meeting place,
like Trafalgar Square.
{b) Places Entirely Surrounded by Buildings-
Public squares that are entirely surrounded and
enclosed by buildings are likened by Stiibben to the
salojts of a town, just as the streets may be com
pared with the passages, the traffic places with the
lobbies and halls, and the garden squares with the
living rooms, of a house. Such squares do not require
a long street vista to set them off properly ; it is better
299

TOWN PLANNING
that they should rely for their effect entirely upon their
own architecture, a suitable grouping of the buildings,
and a due sense of proportion between the height of
the buildings and width of the place. The surrounding
architecture, whether regular or irregular, should be
regarded as the frame to a picture, and the street

ECALEl

f°° OF YATJDS

FIG. 139. — PIAZZA DI SAN MARCO, VENICE

openings breaking into it should be as few as possible,
and where it is impossible to avoid a number of open
ings, some of these might well be bridged over, as at
Verona (Fig. 117). A regularity of form is by no
means essential, and, indeed, is often very difficult to
discern ; e.g., in St. Mark's Place at Venice (Fig. 139) we
see how deceptive such a plan may be when put on
300

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
paper, for to the majority of observers it would be
impossible to say that the length of the two shorter
ends was not identical. At the same time an irregularity
should not be purposely created ; it must originate from
the historical topography of the town or be founded
on local conditions, in which case it will frequently be
beautiful, harmonious, and picturesque. In a formally
laid out plan, the architecture should be formal and
grouped, though of course not necessarily of one
identical pattern. A geometrically laid out place,
enclosed within parallel lines, is an artificial and formal
creation, and to give it its full effect requires artificial
and formal buildings. Where such a place is not
designed on formal lines, and, as in the case of most of
the old market-places on the Continent, an irregular and
picturesque character dominates the site, the surrounding
buildings should themselves partake of that character.
But every enclosed place should belong definitely to
one type or the other, and any attempt to blend the
two can only end in failure. A slight variation in the
ground level of such a place is of no great moment, but
when there is a decided fall in the ground, the problem
is not easily solved, and it may be better to abandon
the idea of an entirely closed place altogether, and to
divide the space into two parts on two separate levels.
The artificial raising of the centre of the place that we
so frequently find is quite unnecessary and is not to be
recommended. The oblong form is that most generally used
for an architectural place, and the most usual propor-
301

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
tion between the long and short sides is one to three ;
when the place is unduly long it practically becomes
a street. The square form is also pleasing, especially
if the streets enter at the four corners. The triangular
form is not often used for an architectural place.
Circular places are generally too regular and geo
metrical to be pleasing, and the oval form is better both
from the point of view of circulation of traffic and also
as being more adapted to the display of monuments.
Two semicircles combined with straight sides give a
fine decorative effect.
Another important consideration is the harmonious
proportion between the dimensions of the place and
the height of the surrounding buildings. If the place
is too large for these buildings they lose much in
importance ; if too small it is impossible for the spec
tator easily to judge their architectural effect. Herr
Maertens" makes the following useful suggestions
regarding the sizes of places. When placed at a
distance equal to the height of the building the spec
tator is able to distinguish its detail within an angle
of 45°, the visual angle being 45°. When placed at a
distance equal to twice the height of the building the
spectator's view embraces the entire building, which he
sees within an angle of 27° ; when placed at a
distance equal to three times the height the spec
tator is unable to distinguish the detail, but sees
the contour of the building in its relation to neigh
bouring buildings within a visual angle of 18°; when
I "Der optische Maastab," Berlin, 1884.
302

Fig. 140. PIAZZA DEL' PLEBISCITO. NAPLES. A SEMICIRCULAR AKCIIITEC I UR,\L
PLACE

Fig. 141. PIAZZA DEL' .MUNICH'KJ, NAPLES

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
placed at a distance equal to four or five times the
height of the building the spectator only distinguishes
a picturesque silhouette.
The Place Vend6me, Paris, and Amalieborg Platz,
Copenhagen (Figs. 137, 142, 143), and Belgrave Square,
London, illustrate the effect of placing the four corner

FIG. 142. — PLACE VENDOME, PARIS

buildings at an angle of 45°. In the Place Vendome
the centres of the long sides are emphasised by slight
projections which serve to break up the monotony of
the skyline. The centre of the place is occupied by the
magnificent Colonne Vendome, an imitation of Trajan's
Column at Rome. A fault in the planning of this
square is the danger to pedestrians of having to cross
303

TOWN PLANNING
a wide area of roadway, unless they care to walk all
round the footways. This arrangement is inevitable
where the centre of such a square is occupied, as in
this case, by a monument. The same remark applies
to the Amalieborg Platz, where, however, the incon
venience is not so severe, on account of the smaller
amount of traffic. In both these examples the size of
the place has not been exaggerated and the relative

FIG. 143. — AMALIEBORG PLATZ, COPENHAGEN

proportion between the height of the buildings and the
area of the square is pleasing. The result of scattering
the buildings is shown in the case of the Konigsplatz,
Munich (Fig. 173), where the width of the place is
very much exaggerated and the three monumental
buildings would appear to better advantage if the width
had been lessened about two-thirds its present dimen
sion, and if at the same time a better frame had been
provided and the awkward-looking angles had been
304

Fig. 144 LUMPLAIZ, BERLIN

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T''^JlX^^^M\%A.%rlAu

i. n '<

Wi^/^^'/ -' ¦

Fig. 145. HOFBURG PLATZ, VIENNA

FIG. 146. — PLACE STANISLAUS, NANCY

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
filled in with architecture, or even treated like the Place
Stanislaus (Fig. 146). In the Lustplatz, Berlin (Fig.
144) where the surrounding buildings were scattered,
the necessary framing has been imparted by a double
row of high trees, and the vehicular traffic has been
diverted to either side, leaving the whole of the centre
part for gardens and promenade.
The Stanislaus Place at Nancy (Fig. 146) is a
particularly beautiful example of an architectural place.
The laying out of the city was inaugurated under the
rule of Stanislaus Leczinsky, whose architect, Emanuel
H6r6, showed in the treatment of the Place Stanislaus
an abihty not inferior to any of the great French
architects of the eighteenth century. He cleared the
waste space between the old and new town and
planned the place as the central point of the united
city. The work appears to have created considerable
interest at the time, and H6re has left a large volume
of engravings illustrating the design. The whole of
the principal side is occupied by the beautiful facade
of the Hotel de Ville ; the east and west sides are
bordered by palatial buildings of equal height, and on
the fourth side the buildings are lower, consisting of
small cafes kept down to a ground storey in order to
provide a foreground for a fine triumphal arch which
marks the entrance to the Place de la Carriere, some
300 yards long. Instead of the four angles of the
square being closed, the buildings have been stopped
short and gilt iron grilles and gateways are arranged
in conjunction with fountains. 307

TOWN PLANNING
The Maria Theresien Platz, Vienna (Figs. 147, 148
and 149), is largely laid out as a monumental garden
place, particularly suited to its purpose of rendering
the two Museums on either side free from dust and

BURG RING

II \]

^C^.

^^

FIG. 147. — MARIA THERESIEN PLATZ, VIENNA

noise. In the centre is the monument to Maria
Theresa, with well laid out parterres and fountains.
Gottfried Semper prepared a scheme for con
tinuing the place and including the Hofburg
buildings, which if ever carried out would make
308

1 V _-^^,^^'' .i^.
Fig. 148. M.VRIA THERESIENPLATZ, VIENNA

Fig. 149. MARIA THERESIENPLATZ, VIENNA. ONE OF THE FOUR FOUNTAIN GROUPS

Fig. 130. PLACE ROVAL, PARIS. FROM AN OLD ENGRAVING

z;^^^-

0

fig. ,51. PLACE DES VICTOIRES, PARIS. FROM AN OLD ENGRAVIN(;

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
this the largest and finest architectural place in the
world. The idea of an architectural square of uniform
buildings probably originated in Paris, where the Place
Royale (Fig. 150) was laid out by Henri IV. in the early
years of the seventeenth century. It is an exact square of
152 yards, and the surrounding architecture and arcades
still retain much of their original character. The Place
des Victoires, Paris (Fig. 151), laid out from Mansart's
designs in 1685, was another regularly laid out place ;
at intervals of every 10 feet or so Ionic pilasters sup
ported the cornice, and the vertical lines effectively
broke up the curved surface ; the angles of the streets
entering the circus had strongly marked rustications.
Unfortunately it has not preserved its architecture intact
to the present day, and has been completely spoiled in
consequence. The district appears to have fallen upon
evil times, with the result that the owners of the houses
have made no attempt to adhere to the original design.
This is, of course, the great danger in architectural
squares belonging to many different owners, unless,
as in the case of some of the more important Parisian
examples, an ordinance forbids owners to deviate from
one design. From France the idea of the Place Royale was soon
imitated in London, where, about 1620, a Commission
was appointed by the Crown to "plant and reduce to
uniformity Lincoln's Inn Fields as it shall be drawn by
way of map or ground plot by Inigo Jones." Like the
Place Royale, the square was surrounded by private
309

TOWN PLANNING
houses, forming one continuous facade, broken only in
the centre and at the angles by buildings rising slightly
above the rest. The centre of the square was laid out as
a garden and the streets were contrived to enter at the
four corners. A few years later the idea was imitated in
a grander form in the piazza of Covent Garden, where
an arcade was carried along the whole of the north
and east side ; the church completed the west side,
and the south was enclosed by trees. The idea, once
started, soon grew into favour, and towards the end
of the eighteenth century an increasing demand for
dwelling-houses of a more stately character resulted
in many large London estates being dealt with as a
whole. The usual plan was to form a large open
square, to plant trees and shrubs therein, and to design
the houses with a view to their architectural symmetry.
There is something very attractive about these great
London squares which makes them still favourite
residential quarters.
"~~ The Circus and Crescent at Bath (Figs. 152 and 153),
designed by John Wood the elder about the middle of
the eighteenth century, are both interesting examples
of architectural places. The intention of the architect
appears to have been to impress the spectator from a
near point of view as a distant view was impossible.
The diameter of the Circus from house to house is
about 320 feet and the major axis of the Crescent (an
ellipse on plan) 550 feet. The imposing effect of the
Crescent gains considerably from its situation. It
appears to the spectator almost suddenly, with a broad
sweep of lawn stretching in front of it from end to end.
310

Fig. 152. THE ROVAL CRESCENT AND (.IRC US. BATH

Fig. 153. THE ROVAL CRESCENT, BATH

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
(c) Places Laid Out for Purposes of
Ornamentation
A good example of an ornamental place is the
Place Malesherbes, Paris, formed by the junction of
the Boulevard Malesherbes and the Avenue de
Villiers, two thoroughfares each about a hundred feet

FIG. 154. — PLACE MALESHERBES, PARIS

broad, with double tramway lines. Gardens have been
arranged in the four triangular spaces adorned with
fine bronze figures representing the Genius of Music
by Bailly and the Grief of Orpheus by Verlet, and
at either end of the place are superb symbolical
groups, monuments to Dumas pere, designed by
Gustave Dord, and to Dumas fils, by Saint
Marceaux, and also to General Dumas. It has been
3"

TOWN PLANNING
proposed to rename the place " Place des Trois
Dumas," a worthy manner of honouring the trio of
great Frenchmen. The Luisen Platz at Charlottenburg
(Fig. 156) is another fine example of an ornamental
place ; it is planned to set off the royal palace to
better advantage, the principal feature being the
equestrian monument to the Emperor Frederick III.
erected by the town of Charlottenburg in 1905.
To make any attempt at landscape gardening in
a town square, bounded on all sides by solid blocks
of buildings, is hardly likely to be a success. The
treatment of such a square should be in an archi
tectural and formal manner. It is, in fact, an
evolution from the sidewalk. Any embellishment that
it may receive should be monumental in character,
such as stone terraces and steps, monuments and
statues arranged in harmony with the environing
buildings, and disposed in such a way that they will
not conflict with the usefulness of the place. If the
space is sufficient, a rectangular alignment of shade
trees could be introduced, with just sufficient amount
of turf at their base to protect the roots from too
hard a ground surface and also to soften the harsh
ness arising from an expanse of stone or asphalt
paving. But the introduction of turf or trees should
be completely subordinated to the architectural char
acter of the place, and should be so carefully arranged
that the walking space should remain practically
undisturbed. When we remember how country-loving a person
312

Fig. 155. THE DUMAS MONUMENT PLACE. MALESFIERBES, PARIS

Fig. 156. LUISENPLATZ, CHARLOTTENBURG

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
the average Englishman is, and that English private
gardens are undoubtedly the finest in the world, it is
certainly surprising that so little is done towards
making our public places more attractive by the
planting of trees, shrubs, and flowers. For nothing
does more to increase the charm of cities than the
bringing into them of as much of the country as is
compatible with the artificiality of a town. In London
squares as they now exist, nothing is more notice
able than the want of colour. We see them invariably
surrounded by a dense and forbidding mass of lilac,
and the principal object of their existence is to shut
out all view of their lawns from the gaze of the
passer-by. Even in those squares that have been
handed over to the public care, the tradition of
reserve is still kept up, and of colour and flowers
there are none. Of course, brilliant flowers will not
flourish under spreading trees, but there are plenty
of openings and spaces which a skilful gardener
could utilise. A much greater use might be made
of tubs of flowers or baskets suspended from street
standards, which can be so easily removed from time
to time. The effect of such in Paris gives consider
able charm to its streets during the summer months.
An idea well worth considering is shown in
Fig. 157, illustrating the treillage screen surrounding
the Beethoven Platz, Vienna. In this case treillage has
been used with remarkable effect to enclose the place
until the limes have had sufficient time to grow up ;
the treillage will then be removed, and the trees will
313

TOWN PLANNING
form a kind of green cloister round the place.
Fig. 158 shows a garden planned in the heart of
Berlin, always gay with flowers and verdure, and which
does not appear to suffer from being in a very dusty
position. The garden of the Palais Royal, Paris
(Fig. 159), originally laid out by Le N6tre, is a good
example of a more secluded garden, and might well
be imitated in the London squares. The Jardin de
la Fontaine, Nimes (Fig. 160), is an admirable example
of the treatment of water in a city garden, the lines
of its design being kept purely architectural. The
Belle Alliance Platz, Berlin (Figs. 161 and 162), is a
garden planned upon an important traffic route ; the
central walk is kept the full width of the thorough
fares, and vehicular traffic is relegated to the sides
of the place.
{d) Places Planned as Forecourts to Public
Buildings
Forecourt places are particularly valuable as a
means of exhibiting the architecture of an important
public building to its best advantage. It is inadvis
able that important buildings should be erected in
a line with the frontages of the other buildings in
the street, and if it is possible to set them back
somewhat, an air of greater importance is imparted,
and, at the same time, they gain considerably by
being seen in a more favourable perspective. In
France, the forecourt {cour d'honneur) is a very
favourite device, and few important public buildings
314

Fig. 157. TREILLAGE SURROUNDING BEETIiO\EN PLATZ, VIENNA

Fig. 158. PARISERPLATZ, BERLIN

Fig. 159. PALAIS ROYAL, JPARIS

Fig. 160. JARDIN DE LA P'ONTAINE, NLMES

Fig. i6i. BELLE ALLIANCE PLATZ, BERLIN

Fig. 162. BELLE ALLIANCE PL.ATZ AND BLUCHER PLATZ,
BERLIN

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
are planned without it. For such buildings as churches,
museums, or art galleries, a forecourt ensures greater
quietude and freedom from dust.
Fig. 163 shows three alternative suggestions for
treating such a forecourt place, viz., with wings
planned in the form of a quadrant ; set back square
with the street ; or by planning part of the place
on the opposite side of the road. This last arrange-

FIG. 163. — ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR THE TREATMENT OF A FORECOURT PLACE

ment has much to commend it, especially where there
may be a road entering the place. Generally speaking,
the depth of such a forecourt should be equal to
one and a half to twice the height of the building,
in order that its facade may be properly seen. The
finest and most monumental place of this kind in
the world is that which Bernini planned in front
of St. Peter's (Fig. 164). The place consists of three
parts — the Piazza Rusticucci, surrounded by hotels
and shops; the large oval piazza, 370 yards by 260;
315

TOWN PLANNING
and beyond that a forecourt with steps leading to
the principal entrance. The great piazza is enclosed
with an open double colonnade and the forecourt
with a closed loggia of grandiose proportion. The
ground level of the oval place falls slightly to the
centre, but beyond, it rises towards the entrance to
the cathedral. It was originally the intention of Sir Christopher
Wren to surround St. Paul's Cathedral by a colonnade
similar to Bernini's treatment of St. Peter's, and the
design which he made for this scheme is preserved
in the Soane Museum, London. The junction with
Fleet Street was well imagined, and had the funds
been forthcoming at the time, the appearance of St.
Paul's Cathedral would have been immensely improved
and its precincts rendered more secluded. At Naples,
the Piazza del Plebiscito (Fig. 140) is an example
of the enclosed colonnade treatment on a large scale,
but it suffers somewhat from the insignificance of
the central architectural feature, the Church of San
Francesco di Paolo.
Another example of a forecourt place, though
planned on a more humble scale, is the Place de la
Trinit6, Paris (Fig. 165). As in the case of the larger
example, it shows the good result of raising the monu
mental building well above the surrounding ground
level. In this case a double ramp encloses a small
oval garden and ascends to the porte cochere of the
church. The Eglise de la Trinity is built upon
one of the sides of the place ; the three other sides
316

FIG. 164. — PIAZZA DI S. PIETRO, ROME

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
are too much cut up by streets entering the place
at various anedes.
The immense courtyards in front of the palaces
of Versailles and Caserta are examples of approaches
planned upon a vast scale. The former consists of

FIG. 165. — PLACE DE LA TRINITE, PARIS

three separate courts — the inner courtyard, or Cour de
Marbre, enclosed by the wings of the palace ; the outer
courtyard, or Cour Royale; and the third fan-shape
courtyard, or Place dArmes, for great public reviews
and displays. The effect of the approach is marred by
the lowness of the palace buildings and the lack of an
319

TOWN PLANNING
imposing central feature (compare Charlottenburg Palace,
where a well proportioned dome dominates the court
yard), and also because the Place d'Armes rises con
siderably and obscures the base of the buildings. At
the palace of Caserta, near Naples, five broad road-

FIG. l65. — FORECOURT TO THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES

ways diverge upon an immense oval court, the two
axes of which are 360 and 230 yards respectively ;
it is thus probably the largest oval courtyard in
existence. The palace is set back, surrounding a second
oblong court. A very favourite device in eighteenth-
century palaces was to spread the approach place out
320

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
in the form of an immense fan and surround it with
dependencies, as at Nymphenburg, near Munich. A far
more architectural and dignified form is that of the
Schlossplatz at Coblenz (Fig. i68), where the palace
buildings surround three sides of an inner garden

FIG. 167. — FORECOURT TO THE PALACE OF CASERTA, NEAR NAPLES
courtyard, the central axial line amounting to over 300
yards. Many of the French eighteenth-century chdteaux,
planned like the Trianon upon a smaller scale, have
delightful forecourts that might well be imitated in
modern town planning schemes.

321

TOWN PLANNING
ie) Places which are Partly Built Upon
In the last group are gathered those places which
are partly built upon. These frequently occur in cities
where triangular and irregular sites have been created
by intersecting thoroughfares, and are suitable for the

W'W""'  'T'ffA \r^f OS

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FIG. l68. — SCHLOSSPLATZ, COBLENZ
erection of such buildings as churches, museums, and
picture galleries, whose character demands an important
open site on account of their architectural importance
and of the necessity of obtaining light on all sides.
Extremes of narrowness and width are to be avoided ;
an exaggerated width leads to a feeling of emptiness
which it is not easy to disguise by tree planting and
322

Fig. 169. PLACE ST. AUGUSTIN, PARIS

Fig. 170. PLACE ST. AUGUSTIN, PARIS

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
gardens. It is of course difficult for the designer of
the place to estimate the probable height of the build
ing to be erected, and the future can generally be left
to the sensible treatment of others, if the authorities
will only insist on the importance of recognising the
necessity of proportion between the width of the place
and the height of the adjoining buildings. This class
of place demands skilful treatment where it occurs in a
position terminating a vista and forming the meeting-
place of several traffic arteries. In this respect most of
the best examples are to be found in Paris, where the
importance of obtaining a series of imposing street vistas
has been better realised than in any other city. In
mediaeval cities, as we have already seen, the centre of
a public place was frequently made use of for important
buildings with a fine result. In the smaller English
towns we often find the market hall placed in the
middle of an open place, as at Abingdon and Peter
borough, with a very pleasing effect. In larger
examples the traffic requirements demand that the
buildings shall be set well back from the traffic
currents, and the many instances we find of the viola
tion of this rule result in great disturbance to the
traffic. The Church of St. Augustin, Paris (Figs. 169
and 170), at the termination of a vista along the Boule
vard Malesherbes, is a good example of the treatment
of a monumental building on a triangular site, the
position being rendered additionally attractive by the
close proximity of the Square de Laborde, which affords
a fine foreground to the building on the east side.
323

TOWN PLANNING
The Place de l'0p6ra and Place de la Madeleine, Paris,
and the Gensdarmen Markt, Berlin, are good examples
of ornamental places, though varying considerably in

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BOULEVARD DES 1

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CAPUCINES
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FIG. 171. — PLACE DE l'OPERA, PARIS

their character. The first (Fig. 171) is planned upon
a lozenge-shape site overlooking the Place de I'Op^ra
and terminating a superb vista from the Place du
324

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES
Theatre Franfais along the Avenue de I'Op^ra, among
the finest vistas in Europe. The entire scheme is
perhaps the greatest result of Haussmann's remodelling,
and architecturally one of the finest examples of town
planning in Europe. When monumental buildings are
planned with thoroughfares leading up to them, con
fusion often results by the creation of cross traffic
blocks. This defect has been obviated here by setting

FIG. 172. — GENSDARMEN MARKT, BERLIN

the Opera House well back and by enlarging the cross
roads at the other points of intersection.
The Place de la Madeleine is an oblong place at
the junction of two wide boulevards and the Rue
Royale; the imposing classic church occupies the
greater part of the place, but is. set back to allow suf
ficient space at the junction of the two traffic arteries.
The Gensdarmen Markt, Berlin (Fig. 172), is an
example of three buildings arranged upon a public
place. In this case the traffic is inconsiderable. The
Royal Theatre in the centre, with the French Church
325

TOWN PLANNING
and the New Church on either side, form an admirable
architectural group ; the beauty of the combined outline

UM

FIG. 173. — KONIGSPLATZ, MUNICH
is somewhat marred by the surrounding buildings
having been carried to too great a height.
The following sizes of the most important Euro
pean places, many of which are from dimensions
326

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES

given by Stiibben, form a useful table for comparative
purposes : —

Konigsplatz, Berlin
Rathaus Platz, Vienna
Place de la Concorde, Paris
Place de I'Etoile, Paris
Piazza di S. Pietro, Rome
Place des Nations, Paris
Gensdarmen Markt, Berlin
Piazza di Vittorio Emanuele,
Railway Place, Milan ...
Lustgarten, Berlin
Trafalgar Square, London
St. iNIark's Place, Venice

Yards.
248 X 496
216 X 432
238 X 389
298 circular
260 X 368
283 circular
168 X 368
Rome ... 179 X 341
216 X 227
19s X 248
158 X 168
63 and 98 X 190

327

INDEX

Abingdon, 323
.^gina, 2
Agora, 67, 271
Alberti, 84
Alexandria, 68
Amsterdam, 90
Antwerp, 76, 98
Aquitaine, English towns in, •J7
Arbeiter-kolonien, 182
Arcades, 266
Architects, Royal Institute of
British, 20, 49, 53
Architectural treatment of streets,
256
Aristotle, 72
Athens, 2, 67
Atkinson, 251
Australia, rectangular cities in, 92
Babylon, 63
Baden, 181
Baltimore, 32
Basle, 60, 293
Bath, 310

Baumeister, 174
Bedford Park, 198
Belcher, 8
Bergamo, 60
Berlin, 40, 63, 84 ; traffic circula
tion, 130; suburbs, 175; street
widths, 224 ; Unter den Linden,
230, 242 ; height of buildings,
240 ; Kaiser passage, 266 ; Ko
nigsplatz, 295, 327 ; Lustplatz,
307, 327 ; Gensdarmen Markt,
324, 327
Bienville, 86
Birmingham, 171
Blashill, 142
Bologna, 90, 263
Boston, 240
Boulevard a redans, 233
Boulevards, 230
Bournville, 203
Bras de turbine, 27g
Bremen, 82
Breslau, 230
Brooklyn, 3

329

TOWN PLANNING

Brown, Glenn, 109
Buda Pesth, 82, 224
Business places, 280
Cadbury, 204
Cairo, 273
Cambridge, 291
Caserta, 319
Cassel, 84
Chadwick, Sir Edwin, 27
Charlotttenburg, 230, 312, 320
Chessboard type of town, see
Rectangular
Chester, 75, 264
Chicago, 3, 83 ; freight tunnels,
163
City, see Town
Cleveland, 32
Coblenz, 76, 84, 321
Colchester, 75
Collision points, 148
Cologne, 76 ; zone system, 177, 242
Competitions for street architecture,
261
Compulsory sale of property, 16
Conclave levelling, 221
Constantinople, 60, 274
Contour plans, 193
Contre all^e, 228
Convex levelling, 222
Copenhagen, 303
Corinth, 2
Cross-section of streets, see Streets
Daln'y, 101
Dawson, 176
Dinocrates, 68

Disraeli, 26
Dresden, 229
Duplicate parallel streets, 163

Edinburgh, 60, 257
Edward I., 77
English towns, 4
Environment, 8
Evelyn, 170
Florence, ioi, 275
Foccll points, 121, 193
Forecourt places, 315
Forum, 72, 73, 271
Fougeres, 66
Frankfort, 45, 177
Freight tunnels, 163
Garage places, 280, 292
Garden cities, 188, 199
Geneva, 60
Genoa, 60, 266, 294
Geometrical plans, 1 1 2
George, 12
Germany, 16, 39; mediaeval towns
in, 74 ; expansion of suburbs,
174; municipal ownership of
land, 177 ; building zones, 177 ;
workmen's colonies, 182 ; garden
cities, 188
Gibson, 240
Girgenti, 65
Glasgow, 171
Grading, 219
Greek cities, 2

330

INDEX

Grouping public buildings, 22,
193 ; houses, 195 ; corner build
ings, 197
Gyratory street crossings, 155
Hague, the, 92, 288
Hamburg, 224, 230
Hampstead garden suburb, 209
Hanover, 177, 230, 293
Hartford, 51
Harvey, 206
Haussmann, 33, 36, 106
Henard, 122, 151
Henrichemont, 95
Henrici, 181
Herodotus, 63
Hexagonal plan, 1 1 2
Hippodamus of Miletus, 67
Howard, 199
Hulet, 65
Illinois Tunnel Company, 163
Italy, 39 ; Renaissance towns in,
83
Jericho, 64
Jerusalem, 58
Jones, Inigo, 26, 309
Karlsruhe, 84, 240
Kirkeby, 79
Knidos, 67
Knurow, 186
Kyrle Society, 28
La Linde, 79
Lamb, 1 17

Landscape gardening, 312
Leipzig, 230
L'Enfant, 109
Letchworth, 200
Levelling, 220, 254
Lever, 202
Libourne, 79
Lincoln, 75
Liverpool, 171
London, rate of growth, 12, 172;
building act, 13, 224, 239, 244;
greater London, 15, 18, 47;
Wren's plan for 19, 103 ; im
portant buildings in, 21 ; South
Kensington, 22 ; Lincoln's Inn
Fields, 26, 309 ; Covent
Garden, 26, 310; Grosvenor
Square, 26 ; Metropolitan
Board of Works, 27 ; site of, 60,
63 ; Strand, 81, IOI ; traffic,
138; Oxford Circus, 158;
Piccadilly Circus, 160 ; suburbs,
171 ; Regent Street, 216, 219,
257; Whitehall, 216; Thames
Embankment, 218 ; Kingsway,
20, 219, 260; street widths,
224 ; Adelphi, 257 ; Burlington
Arcade, 265 ; Thames Em
bankment, 266 ; Trafalgar
Square, 299 ; Belgrave Square,
303 ; St. Paul's Cathedral,
316; Topographical Society,
54
London County Council, 20, 28,
260
London Traffic Commission, 13, 14,
168

331

TOWN PLANNING

Maertens, 302
Magdeburg, 81
Mall at Washington, no
Manchester, 171
Mannheim, 45, 84, 95, 177
Margaretenhof, 188
Market-places, 72, 280, 291
Mecca, 58
Mediaeval towns, 74 et seq., 274
Mdrian, 127
Metropolitan Board of Works, 27
Metropolitan Public Gardens Asso
ciation, 28
Milan, 265
Ministry of Art, 21, 48, 50
Models of contours, 193
Monsegar, 79
Montpazier, 79
Moscow, 133
Motor traffic, 123, 142, 147, 192,
242
Miiller, 112
Munich, 16, 54; extension, 181,
230; Friedens Denkmal, 255,
294, 304
Nancy, 305, 307
Naples, 316
Napoleon III., 106
New Orleans, 85, 86
New York, 3, 31, 49, 83, 91, 96,
240
Nimes, 314
Nineveh, 64
Norwich, 291
Niiremberg, j6, 171
Nymphenburg, 321

Olmstead, 97
Ornamental places, 281, 311
Ortygia, 58
Overcrowding, 173
Oxford, 216
Palissy, 84, 92
Paris, 22, 23 ; Champs Elys6es,
34, 221, 224, 228; Ponts et
Chaussees, 36 ; Exhibition, 36 ;
Carnavalet Museum, 54 ; plans,
55 ; site, 60, 63 ; fortifications,
76, IOI, 105, 233 ; traffic focal
points, 121 ; traffic, 124, 135 ;
suburbs, 189 ; Arc de Triomphe,
214; Rue de Rivoli, 216, Av.
Henri Martin, 224; Av. de
rOp^ra, 224 ; boulevards, 224,
• 230 ; Av. Wagram, 228 ; Av.
de rObservatoire, 235 ; height
of buildings, 240, 259; servitudes,
260 ; R. Castiglione, 264 ; PI.
de la Concorde, 281, 296, 327;
ronds-points, 282 ; PL de
I'Etoile, 282, 327 ; PI. de la
Nation, 285, 327 ; PL de la
R^publique, 287 ; PL Venddme,
303 ; PL Royale, 309 ; PI. Male
sherbes, 311 ; Palais Royal, 314 ;
PL de la Trinity, 316; PL St.
Augustin, 323 ; PI. de I'Opdra,
324 ; PL de la Madeleine, 324
Pericles, 67
Peterborough, 323
Philadelphia, 3, 97
Piraeus, 67
Pisa, 218

332

INDEX

Pite, 256
Places, public, 25, 26, 27, 271 ;
ancient, 273 ; mediaeval, 274 ;
grouping of, 276 ; traffic places,
281 ; business places, 291 ; orna
mental places, 295 ; forecourts,
315 ; comparative sizes of, 327
Plymouth, Earl of, 50
Pompeii, 70, 73, 75, 219, 242,
272
Population, percentage of town-
dwellers in regard to total, 3
Port Sunlight, 199, 202
Prague, 230
Priene, 67
Radial plan, 85, 88
Ravenna, 278
Reclus, 58
Rectangular type of town, 83, 91,
213
Reilly, 257
Rhodes, 67
Ricardo, 243
Richelieu, 84, 92
Ring streets, 82, 95
Rivers, towns on, 60, 72, 89, loi ;
embankment, 218
Roads, see Streets
Rome, 60, 63, 84, IOI, 218; St.
Peter's, 221, 240, 315, 327;
Piazza di Spagna, 254 ; Piazza
del Popolo, 255, 272, 290;
Forum, 279 ; Piazza de Vittorio
Emanuele, 327
Rond-point, 103, 282
Roosevelt, 42

Salapia, 71
Salzburg, 60
Samite Foy, 79
San Francisco, 32, 105
Saragossa, 59
Sauveterre, 79
Selinus, 65
Shaw, 198
Shop fronts, 262
Sitte, 279
Smith, Holroyd, 156
Smythe, 268
Sparta, 2
Spider's web plan, see Radial
Squares, see Places
St. Petersburg, 84
Strabo, 69
Strasburg, 177
Streets, width of, 123, 203, 222,
223, 225, 227 ; accidents, 142 ;
crossings, 148 ; gyratory cross
ings, 155; parallel streets, 163;
secondary, 186; direction, 194,
215 ; making up, 198 ; for auto
mobiles, 192; straight, 84, 213;
curved, 219 ; grading, 219 ; con
vex and concave levelling, 221 ;
proportion of footway to road
way, 226 ; cross-sections, 226 ;
planting, 227 ; relation between
height of building and width of
street, 234 ; length of, 241 ; ven
tilation, 242 ; illumination and
orientation, 251 ; levelling, 254;
architectural treatment, 256 ;
competition for street archi
tecture, 261 ; shop fronts, 262 ;

333

TOWN PLANNING

f
arcades, 266 ; trees in, 266 ;
flowers in, 270
Stiibben, 64, 74, 76
Subways, freight, 163 ; for mains,
168 ; pedestrian, 169
Superimposed thoroughfares, 151
Syracuse, 58, 65, 67
Taormina, 58, 67
Thurii, 67
Thoroughfares, 192, 225
Timgad, 73, 272
Toulouse, 59
Town planning, 16, 17, 29, 33, 39,
46
Towns, types of, 56 ; foundation,
57 ; evolution, 58 ; river valley,
59, 80 ; hillside, 60 ; capital, 63 ;
military, 63 ; Greek, 65 ; Egyp
tian, 68 ; Roman, 70 ; mediaeval,
75 ; radial, 85 ; rectangular, 91 ;
combined radial and rectangular,
98; geometrical plans, 112; ex
pansion, 170, 174, 177, 182, 189,
190, 192, 195, 198
Traffic, 121; automobilism, 123,
130 et seq., 163
Traffic places, 280 et seq.
Trees, 266
Treillage, 313
Trieste, 60

Tunnels, see Subways
Turin, 92, 293
Twelvetrees, 156
Ulm, 40
United States, 29, 48, 85, 92
Unwin, 195
Venice, 216; St. Marks, 277, 300,
327
Verona, 265, 278, 300
Versailles, 221, 291, 319
Vienna, Maria Theresien Platz,
2Si 54, 308 ; ring streets, 82, loi,
230; suburbs, 189; Franz Josefs
Quai, 218,276,296; Beethoven
Platz, 313, 327
Vitruvius, 70, 272
Warrington garden suburb, 211
Washington, 29, 109, 214
Waterhouse, 151
Webb, Sir Aston, 49, 53
Wiesbaden, 230
Willesden, 15
Winchester, 79
Workmen's colonies, 182, 186
Wren, Sir Christopher, 19, 103,
316 ,
Ypres, 276

334

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