PLANNING DEPARTMENT: TOWN PLANNING

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: COL/PLD/TP
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: PLANNING DEPARTMENT: TOWN PLANNING
Date(s)	: 1935-1997
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 11.9 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Corporation of London

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The improvement of the streets, the location of trades, markets and common or open spaces and the regulation of buildings have always been within the purview of the Corporation of London and the Court of Commissioners of Sewers in particular. After the Great Fire an Act of Common Council of 1667 declared what streets were to be widened and to what proportions. Improvement Committees were appointed by the Common Council throughout the nineteenth century and the construction of Holborn Viaduct, King William Street, Cannon Street, Tower Bridge, Charterhouse Street, Princes Street, Moorgate, St Martins-le-Grand and numerous street widenings constituted a gradual replanning. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the City cooperated with the Metropolitan Board of Works and later with the London County Council in improvements such as the Victoria Embankment and Queen Victoria Street.

In 1932 the Corporation was constituted the authority in the City of London for implementing the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Acts. A town planning scheme was prepared but the outbreak of war in 1939 delayed the continuation of the plan. The extensive damage caused by enemy action during the Second World War facilitated more ambitious schemes, under the direction of the Improvements and Town Planning Committee who managed the Town Planning Department. The post-war plan aimed to improve office and warehouse buildings, improve traffic flows, preserve and improve sites of historic and architectural importance, provide more open space and pedestrian circulation and to improve car parking provision.

The Planning Department is now the Department of Planning and Transportation.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records relating to the Town Planning Department, Corporation of London, 1935-1997, including background studies prepared for the City of London Development Plan, on economic activity, population, housing, shopping, tourism, environmental quality, public utilities and services, St Paul's Heights, archaeology, catering facilities, recreation and leisure, social and community services, transport, walkways and pedestrians, 1976-1979; papers relating to the City of London Draft Local Plan, 1984, including written statements, proposals, maps and comments; papers relating to the City of London Local Plan, 1986-1989, including copies of the plan (including revised and updated versions), maps, statements of public consultation, lists of modifications, monitoring reports, enquiry into objections with statement and response to the recommendations of the enquiry; papers relating to the City of London Unitary Development Plan, 1991-1994, including draft of the plan, analysis of representations regarding the plan with the Corporation's response, statement of public consultation, report of enquiry into objections to the plan, statement of decisions on the enquiry's recommendations, lists of proposed modifications and final version of the plan, and City of London Monitoring Report 1986-1993: An Analysis of the policies and context of the City of London Local Plans, 1995.

Newspaper cuttings, 1935-1948, including articles on enquiries into London County Council and City of London Town Planning Schemes and the reconstruction of the city after the Second World War; papers relating to the County of London Scheme produced under the 1932 Town and Country Planning Act, 1935-1936, London Replanned: The Royal Academy Planning Committee's Interim Report, 1942; Road, rail and river in London: The Royal Academy Planning Committee's Second Report, 1944; observations on a report of the Improvements and Town Planning Committee with regard to post-war development in the City submitted by various organisations and circulated to the Committee, 1944; Administrative County of London Development Plan: First Review, London County Council, 1960; Greater London Development Plan, 1976, with supporting documents, drafts and reports, 1966-1973; papers relating to the Smithfield Local Development Plan, 1979-1989, including maps and surveys; Abercrombie's Plan for London 50 years on: A vision for the Future, the 2nd Annual Vision for London Lecture by Professor Peter Hall, 1994.

Schedules of development, containing details of developments in the City, such as changes of use, refurbishments and new buildings, 1984-1996.

Registers, including register of purchase notices, 1947-1957; register of acquisitions, 1949 - 1975; register of applications of owners for registration of name and address for service of subsequent notices relating to the Town and Country Planning Act, 1932, scheme, with particulars of property owned in the City of London shown on the Resolution map, 1930s; register of owners, arranged alphabetically by streets and premises, 1930s.

Papers relating to the environmental impact of London, including articles, reports, conference papers, surveys, statistical data and statements, 1970-1997.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

In sections according to catalogue.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright City of London

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Corporation of London Records Office

Allied Materials

Related material:

See also COL/CC/STS: Streets Committee. For plans, see COL/PL, the papers of the Public Health Department (COL/PHD), the papers of the Planning Department (COL/PLD), the papers of the Surveyor's Department (COL/SVD) and the papers of the Technical Services Department (COL/TSD).

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
February 2009