The Hoxton Chronicle. 038 - Town Planning
In the last posting (no 37) we examined the urban conditions that existed at the turn of the 20th century within a 4ha area centred on the Combined Electricity and Dust Destruction Undertaking on the northern side of Hoxton Market. We now explore how the area changed over the subsequent century.
By 2014 much had changed. Although the 19th-century street pattern largely endured the form of development within each urban block changed radically. The 19th and early 20th century maps show the land divided into many small building plots, now the grain of subdivision is much coarser. Three hundred building plots recorded in 1875 have now been reduced to just 75. Until the mid-20th century buildings filled the available building plot up to the back of the pavement, with small backyards or narrow gardens. Now gaps have emerged. Building frontages and streets are misaligned. On some plots, new building plans form abstract geometric shapes floating in large purposeless open spaces. There are fewer pubs. The theatre, the dust destructor works, the public laundry, baths and swimming pool have all gone. There are many missing buildings. It appears that the land has lost value, and the city become less intensely inhabited.
In this and the last two postings, we have explored the relationship between three forces that shape the form of cities. 1 Commercial enterprise to privately develop land in response to market demand. 2 Municipal agency to provide public services and shared infrastructure. 3 Civic governance setting standards to regulate the location and form of development.
Some of the changes seen in this map derive from changing public demand. For example, the decline in pub use and the redundancy of public bathhouses as these previously commercial enterprises and public services retreated into better-equipped and serviced homes. The impact of municipal agency is also evident in providing public housing and relocating the library. What is new is the effect of Town Planning.
The 1947 Town and Country Planning Act decisively shifted the balance of power between the three forces of urban change in favour of civic governance and Town Planning. Planners embarked on a programme of radical change backed by their considerable new legislative powers. The Eastend of London was a particular focus for this experiment in modernist command planning. Whereas 19th-century and early 20th-century city-making focussed on incremental problem solving, this new approach ignored economics and the practical issues of delivery in preference to untested and frequently naïve futuristic visions.
The planner’s vision required most of the Eastend to be entirely rebuilt. Strict functional zoning of activities was to be imposed, served by wide, fast and efficient roads. Commercial development was regarded with deep suspicion and was to be brought under planning authority control. High Streets were to be replaced with pedestrian precincts away from the efficient fast road network. The population density was to be significantly reduced with 500,000 people relocated out of the Eastend to distant suburbs and new towns. Open space was invested with the all-purpose power to provide improved health, social justice, happiness and well-being.
In Hoxton, apart from some churches, not a single building was to be retained.
The 1950s saw the beginnings of efforts to restrict coal burning to eliminate London’s lethal smog. The resultant loss of coal ash content in the locally collected rubbish reduced the generating capacity of the Dust Destructor. This, combined with pressure to move polluting activities away from residential areas led to its closure.
The Dust Destructor buildings were eventually saved and converted for use as the home of The Circus Training School. The motto E PULVERE LUX ET VIS (Out of the dust, light and power) is still inscribed on the walls above the entrance.
In 1962, following some war damage and a long period of neglect and decline, the street baths, washhouse and swimming pool were leased to National Car Parks on condition that the buildings were demolished and the site cleared.
The library continued in use into the late-1980s when it was replaced by a new public library on Hoxton Street. In the retained building The Courtyard Theatre occupies the basement with the upper floors used as rehearsal space and apartments. The library is the finest architectural feature of Pitfield Street and a reminder of the quality of the lost washhouse, laundry and swimming pool that originally formed part of the same building.
London has a long history of resisting autocratic city-making from all sides of politics. The 1947 vision soon came up against the hard realities of the living city frustrating its implementation despite the plan-making zeal of its authors.
In this small area of Hoxton, we can see the result of the 80-year battle between the effects of command planning and real London. In another 80 years, we will hopefully see the city repaired following this episode of wilful damage caused by inchoate Town Planning.