Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1932-1984 (Creation)
Level of description
Archive Collection
Extent and medium
4 linear metres aproximately
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Thomas Sharp was a key figure in town planning in the mid-twentieth century. The concepts he developed in his writings and plans have been of enduring significance and influence on thinking about planning and design for both practitioners and academics in the UK and beyond. He was a major influence on the development of ideas of townscape and the significance of his thinking on historic cities stands comparison with, for example, Camillo Sitte.
The mid-twentieth century was a period when public and professional interest in planning was at an all-time high. Sharp was a key figure in defining thinking about the forms that town and countryside should take; in reconciling existing and valued character with modernity, and; in making these arguments accessible. His book Town Planning (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1940) is the most widely-read ever on the subject and followed earlier influential polemical works. The plans he produced in the 1940s, primarily for historic cities such as Oxford, Exeter and Durham, were also hugely influential and are significant aesthetic artefacts in the history of plan-making, all the more remarkable for being produced in a period of austerity.
Interest in Sharp and his ideas has grown markedly in recent years with, for example, the rise of 'New Urbanism' in the USA and of the significance of design issues in UK planning. Furthermore, there is a new-wave of scholarly interest in the post-war reconstruction planning and architecture of the mid-twentieth century as a distinctive period in planning and design, particularly focused around reconstruction plans and their partial implementation.
Archival history
Rachel Sharp's sister gave the collection to the University and it was subsequently deposited in Robinson Library by John Pendlebury, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape. Recently acquire for the collection are copies of documents and original items from Patrick Horsbrugh.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The papers held at Newcastle are a substantial repository of the personal papers and plans of Sharp. The major part of the collection consists of papers collected from Sharp's Oxford house on his death by the now-retired Professor Brenikov of this University. The papers were subsequently put into storage. Their significance realised they were deposited with the University Library Special Collections. The principal elements of the collection are as follows:
Collectively these resources:
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Permanent
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Handlist deposited in Robinson Library
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
- City planning Great Britain History 20th century
- Architectural drawing 20th century
- Landscape
- Landscape architects
- Land use
- Regional planning
- City planning and re-development law
- Urban policy
- Urban renewal
- Civic improvement
- Civic centers
- Architecture, Georgian
- British literature
- Maps Roads
- Roads
- Correspondence
- Government correspondence
- International correspondence
- Legal correspondence
- Poetry
- Prose literature
- Urban Planning
- Literature
Place access points
Name access points
- Christ Church Meadow (Oxford, England) (Subject)
- Abercrombie, Sir Leslie Patrick, 1879-1957, Knight, architect, town planner (Subject)
- Betjeman, Sir John, 1906-1984, Knight, poet, writer on architecture, broadcaster (Subject)
- Holford, William Graham, 1907-1975, Baron Holford, architect (Subject)
- Trystan Edwards, Arthur, 1884 - 1973, architectural critic, town planner, amateur cartographer (Subject)
- Williams-Ellis, Sir Bertram Clough, 1883 - 1978, architect (Subject)
- Scott, Sir Leslie Frederic, 1869-1950, Judge, conservative politician, MP for Liverpool Exchange (Subject)
- Sharp, Thomas, 1901 - 1978, town planner (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Laura Fernandez, Project Archivist, Robinson Library