Subfonds THS 21 - Town and countryside.

Identity area

Reference code

THS 21

Title

Town and countryside.

Date(s)

  • 1932-1934 (Creation)

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Subfonds

Extent and medium

1 notebook.

Context area

Name of creator

(1901 - 1978)

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.

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Notebook of Press cutting with the different reviews published of this book:

Passages from reviews and notices of the book: "Town and Countryside" and "The Future Development of South-West Lancashire"

Oxford University Press publicity leaflet for the book: Town and Countryside.

News Chronicle review, dated 18.11.32

The Observer review, dated 18.12.32.

Weekend review by John Dower, dated 10.12.32.

Times Literacy Supplement review, dated 15.12.32.

Morning Post review, 30.11.32.

The Times review, 16.12.32

Estate gazette review, 24.12.32.

The Star (London), dated 29.12.32.

Great Thoughts review, March 1933.

Leletworth Citizen, dated 30. 12. 32.

Country Life review, 31.12.32.

Broadcast, 2.1.33.

The Listener, 11.01.33.

CPRE. Journal, Dec. 1932.

Commons and Footpaths Society, January 1933.

The New English Weekly review, 12.01.33.

Welwyn Times, 05.01.33.

Southport Visitor, 18.02.33.

Manchester Evening Chronicle, 16.01.33.

National Trust Bulletin, Feb. 1933.

Dundee Evening Telegraph, 18.02.33.

Sunday Times, 12.02.33.

Town Planning Institute Journal, Dec.'32 and Feb.'33

Town and Country Planning Journal, Feb.'33.

Journal of Institution of A. and Country Engineers, 14.02.33.

RIBA Journal, 11.02.33.

Western Marl, 2.2.33.

Manchester Guardian, 6.3.33.

Architect and B. News, 19.02.33.

Middlesex Advertiser, Country Gazette, 10.07.36.

The New Statesman, 11.03.33.

Architects' Journal, 1933-1934

Land Agents Record, May 13.05.33.

Town Planning Review, May 1933.

The Nation (American), March 15, 33.

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