Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1945-1953 (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 with Press cutting: Exeter, Chichester, King’s Lynn, Kielder and Comb.
Exeter:
Exeter Phoenix publicity leaflet, 1945.
Express and Echo, 16.5.45.
Express and Echo, 28.12.45.
Express and Echo, 29.12.45.
Western Morning News, 29.12.45.
Western Morning News, 31.12.45.
Express and Echo, 31.12.45.
Express and Echo, 1.1.46.
Western Morning News, 1.1.46.
The Manchester Guardian, 2.1.46.
Express and Echo, 2.1.46.
Western Morning News, 2.1.46.
Express and Echo, 3.1.46.
Western Morning News, 3.1.46.
Express and Echo, 4.1.46.
Western Morning News, 4.1.46.
Devon and Exeter Gazette, 4.1.46.
Western Times, 4.1.46.
Western Morning News, 5.1.46.
Municipal Journal, 4.1.46.
The Builder, 4.1.46.
Express and Echo, 9.1.46.
Devon and Exeter Gazatte, 11.1.46.
Express and Echo, 11.1.46.
Bookseller, 21.2.46.
Scotsman, 25.2.46.
North Devon Journal and Herald, 28.2.46.
Wells Journal, 1.3.46.
Western Morning, 24.2.46.
The Builder, 1.3.46.
The Suveyor, 1.3.46.
Exmouth Journal, 2.3.46.
Daily telegraph, 2.3.46.
Sidmouth Observer, 6.3.46.
Bath chronicle and Herald, 6.3.46.
Sunderland Echo, 6.3.46.
Northern Echo, 6.3.46.
Daily Sketch, 7.3.46.
The Architect's Journal, 7.3.46.
Western Morning News, 12.3.46.
The Architect's Journal, 14.3.46.
Bristol observed, 16.3.46.
National Newsagent, 16.3.46.
Sphere, 16.3.46.
Oxford mail, 4.4.46.
The Architect and Building News, 5.4.46.
Express and Echo, 11.4.46.
New Statesman and Nation, 20.4.46.
Architectural Review, April 1946.
The Oxford Magazine, 9.5.46.
The Times, 4.5.46.
The Listener, 30.5.46.
Local Government and officials' Gazette, June 1946.
Geographical Journal, 1947.
Express and Echo, 24.9.47.
Express and Echo, 18.6.48.
Time and Tide, 10.7.48.
Municipal Journal, 11.3.49.
Architect's Journal, 10.11.49.
Express and Echo, 11.5.63
Town Planning Review, 1946.
Chichester:
Chichester Observer, 9.10.48.
West Sussex Gazette, 6.1.49.
Chichester Observer, 9.10.49.
West Sussex Gazette, 17.3.49.
The Times, 18.3.49.
Sussex Daily News, 18.3.49.
News Chronicle, 18.3.49.
Chichester Observer, 19.3.49.
Sussex Daily News, 19.3.49.
Manchester Journal, 23.3.49.
Architect's Journal, 24.3.49.
The Builder, 25.3.49.
The Times, 25.3.49.
Architectural Review, April 1949.
Chichester Quaterly, march 1949.
Chichester Observer, 26.3.49.
The Sphere, 9.4.49.
Oxford Times, 1.4.49.
Country Life, 1.4.49.
Architect and Building News, 15.4.49.
The Listener, June 1949.
Town Planning Institute Journal, June 1949.
Town Planning Review, July, 1949.
Official Architect, May 1949.
King's Lynn:
The Times, 22.12.48.
Country Life, 7.1.49.
World's Fair, 8.1.49.
Lynn News and Advertiser, 11.3.49.
The Architect's Journal, 30.12.48
Forestry Villages:
The Architect's Journal, 28.4.49.
Newcastle Journal, 20.7.54.