Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1950-1954 (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
Volume of Press cutting: St Andrews, Design in Town and Village, Stockport, Minehead, Cambridge.
St Andrews:
The Scotsman, 08.04.50.
The Scotsman, 12.04.50.
The Citizen, 08.04.50.
The Citizen, 15.04.50.
The Citizen, 15.04.50.
Dundee Courier, 15.04.50.
The Scotsman, 18.04.50.
The Citizen, 22.04.50.
The Citizen, 29.04.50.
Courier & Advertiser, 24.05.50.
Courier & Advertiser, 07.06.50.
St. Andrews Citizen, 22.04.50.
The Scotsman, 26.09.51.
Design in Town and Village:
The Times, 29.01.53.
The Times, 31.01.53.
Manchester Guardian, 29.01.53.
News Chronicle, 29.01.53.
Express & Star, 28.01.53.
Daily Herald, 29.01.53.
Evening Chronicle, 29.01.53.
Daily Scketch, 29.01.53.
Evening Chronicle, 29.01.53.
Evening News, 02.02.53.
Time and Tide, 31.01.53.
Economist, 31.01.53.
Glasgow Herald, 29.01.53.
Yorkshire post, 29.01.53.
Northern Despatch, 28.01.53.
Oxford Mail, 28.01.53.
Yorkshire Evening News, 28.01.53.
Northern Despatch, 28.01.53.
The Northern Whig, 29.01.53.
Irish News, 29.01.53.
Halifax Daily Courier & Guardian, 28.01.53.
Liverpool Evening Express, 29.01.53.
The Morning Advertiser, 03.01.53.
North Western Evening Mail, 28.01.53.
Birmingham Post, 29.01.53.
Architect and Building News, 08.01.53.
The Municipal Journal, 30.01.53.
The Builder, 30.01.53.
Surveyor, 31.01.53.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 28.01.53.
Newcastle Journal, 29.01.53.
Country Life, 06.02.53.
Picture Post, 14.02.53.
Architects' Journal, 26.02.53.
Architects' Journal, 05.02.53.
Estates Gazette, 31.01.53.
Northern Echo, 29.01.53.
Eastern Daily Press, 29.01.53.
South Wales Echo & Evening Express, 28.01.53.
Builder, 06.02.53.
The Spectator, 13.03.53.
Building, March 1953.
Journal of the Town Planning Institute, April 1953.
The Master Builder, April 1953.
The Times, 07.07.64.
Stockport:
Stockport Express, 09.03.50.
Stockport Advertiser, 10.03.50.
Stockport Express, 09.03.50.
Stockport Advertiser, 10.03.50.
Stockport Express, 16.03.50.
Stockport Express, 28.03.50.
Evening Chronicle, 29.06.50.
Manchester Evening News, 20.06.50.
The Times, 29.06.50.
The Manchester Guardian, 29.06.50.
Stockport Advertiser, 30.03.50.
Surveyor, 21.07.50.
Architect's Journal, 07.09.50.
Architect and Building News, 10.12.50.
Minehead:
West Somerset Free Press, 13.05.50.
West Somerset Free Press, 20.05.50.
West Somerset Free Press, 24.05.50.
Architect & Building news, 14.07.50.
Architect's Journal, 24.08.50.
West Somerset Free Press, 26.08.50.
Municipal Engineeering & Sanitary Record, 07.12.50.
Town & Country Planning, August 1950.
Cambridge:
The Architect's Journal, 12.08.54.
Architectural Review, September, 1951.