Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1945-1955 (Creation)
Level of description
Subfonds
Extent and medium
1 notebook.
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
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Notebook of Press cutting about Oxford and the book:
Oxford Mail, 19.3.45.
Oxford Mail, 20.3.45.
Oxford Times, 15.3.46.
The Times, 15.5.46.
Oxford Times, 19.7.46
Publicity leaflet for Oxford Replanned by Thomas Sharp.
The Times, 19.2.48.
Architects Journal, 19.2.48.
Daily Telegraph, 19.2.48.
News Chronicle, 19.2.48.
Daily Grapich, 19.2.48.
Daily Mail, 19.2.48.
Oxford magazine, 19.2.48.
Architects Journal, 19.2.48.
News Chronicle, 19.2.48.
Manchester Journal, 19.2.48.
Birmingham Gazette, 19.2.48.
Daily Mirror, 19.2.48.
The Start, 19.2.48.
Daily Herald, 19.2.48.
Oxford Mail, 19.2.48.
Oxford Times, 20.2.48.
Oxford Mail, 20.2.48.
Oxford Mail, 21.2.48.
Express and Echo, 21.2.48.
The Times Educational Supplement, 21.2.48.
Reading Mercury, 21.2.48.
Cambridge Daily News, 21.2.48.
Sunday Times, 22.2.48.
The Observer, 22.2.48.
Oxford Mail, 23.2.48.
The Times 24.2.48.
Oxford Mail, 26.2.48.
Birmingham Mail, 25.2.48.
The Isis, 25.2.48.
News Review, 26.2.48.
The Times, 26.2.48.
Oxford Mail, 26.2.48.
The Architect's Journal, 26.2.48.
The Builder, 27.2.48.
Oxford Times, 27.2.48.
Country Life, 27.2.48.
Estates Gazette, 28.2.48.
Time and Tide, 28.2.48.
Oxford Mail, 28.2.48.
The Cherwell, 1.3.48.
Municipal Engineering and Sanitary record, 5.3.48.
Sphere, 6.3.48.
The Illustrated London news, 6.3.48.
Oxford Mail, 4.3.48.
Christian World, 4.3.48.
Oxford Times, 5.3.48.
Municipal Journal, 5.3.48.
Oxford Mail, 5.3.48.
Local Government Record, 9.3.48.
Daily Worker, 11.3.48.
The Times, 9.3.48.
The Listener, 4.3.48.
Oxford Magazine, 11.3.48.
Oxford Mail, 11.3.48.
Surveyor, 12.3.48.
The Observer, 14.3.48.
Baptist Times, 11.3.48.
Architect's journal, 18.3.48.
Illustrated Carpenter and Builder, 26.3.48.
Architect and Building News, 26.3.48.
The Oxford Citizen, March 1948.
Official Architect, April 1948.
National builder, April 1948.
The Oxford Citizen, May 1948.
Queen, 26.5.48.
Official Architect, June 1948.
The Oxford citizen, June 1948.
Journal of the Town Planning Institute, May-June 1948.
The Financial Times, 31.8.48.
Oxford Times, 10.12.48.
The Oxford Magazine, 3.2.49.
Oxford Mail, 8.4.49.
Town Planning Review, April 1949
Oxford Special number, 1949.
Cambridge Daily News, 18.2.50.
Manchester Guardian, 4.3.50.
Oxford Times, 1950.
Britain Today, 1950.
Oxford Mail, 1955.