UK Town Planning

Article Review # 146656

History > British

A critical review of Graham Cherry's "The Town Planning Movement and the Late Victorian City" and the first two chapters of Stephen Ward's "Planning and Urban Change".

1,014 words () | 2 sources | MLA | 2010 | United Kingdom

Published on: Jan 10, 2011

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how both Graham Cherry's "The Town Planning Movement and the Late Victorian City" and Stephen Ward's "Planning and Urban Change" examine and explain the social, economic and ideological conditions which gave rise to the town planning profession at the dawn of the 20th Century. The paper also discusses how both pieces manifestly succeed in fulfilling the purposes they were intended for by their author. Ward's neatly encapsulates the development of British town planning and explains its ontology and infancy in a manner which those who are not specialists in historical studies can learn from and engage with. In contrast, the paper shows how Cherry provides a good outline to similar effect for those who are more familiar with the period and the discipline of history.

From the Paper:

"The differences between the 2 pieces are clear in the styles in which Cherry and Ward choose to construct their discourses. Cherry's work is broadly thematic, eschewing a straight forward narrative style for one driven by categories . Cherry makes much use of statistics to support and elaborate upon his points, at times allowing them to almost speak for themselves . His outlook is clearly very much influenced by his background in the social science that is geography as opposed to the more "literary" style traditionally favoured by historians. Ward, on the other hand adopts a chronological almost narrative style and makes use of maps and contemporary photographic images to illustrate his text . Likewise, whilst he frequently cites his sources he seldom endnotes unlike Cherry . Ward's choice of style is clearly deliberate, his audience, whilst a specialist one, is not inherently concerned with the study of the origins of town planning in late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century Britain. As such he needs to engage their attention with an easy to follow chronological account which often focuses on personalities. "

Sample of Sources Used:

Cherry, Graham 'The Town Planning Movement and the Victorian City'. Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society, 2 Vol.4, (1979) pp. 306-319.
Ward, Stephen. Planning and Urban Change (Second Edition). London: Sage Publications, 2004.