The Evolution Of Industrial Cities' Planning In Modern Britain(1848-1940)

Britain is the first industrialized country and the pioneer in the modern urbanization process.Modern cities represented the brilliant achievement of the industrial civilization.Meanwhile they were flooded with "urban diseases",featured by unbearable environment,inadequate housing and deficient public space.Industrialcities are the new type of cities promoted by both industrialization and urbanization,among which Manchester,Birmingham and Leeds are most prosperous.Industrial cities embodied unique structural features due to their dominantly economic functions,which resulted in the most serious urban diseases in these cities.An epidemic plague attacked Britain in 1830s,which forced the central government to give upthe laissez-faire policy in urban administration and its intervention began with the first public health act in 1848.Local governments reacted positively and started the public health movement,therefore another obstacle in town planning,the local self-government,was overcome.This public health movement aimed at preventing and curing diseases by means of improving urban physical environment.Britain thus became the forefather of the modern town planning movement during which industrial cities were the most energetic participants.The first stage of modern town planning focused on public health,which lasted from 1848 to 1875.The experts on public health represented by Chadwick and Simon paid much effort to promote and enforce public health acts.These acts empowered the central government to intervene local governments,which means the former could compel the latter to carry out sanitary improvement.Having realized the seriousness of sanitary problems,local governments in industrial cities accepted the administrative guidance and financial support from the central government,applying the acts to launch planning movements.However,the planning practices in this period mainly dealt with the quality of streets and the sanitary condition of existing buildings in small scale.The newly planned public space was usually in the suburban area.In this sense,the building groups with improper layout couldn't be managed and problems caused by inadequate housing remained unsolved.The second stage of modern town planning focused on housing problems,which lasted from 1875 to 1909.A series of housing acts enlarged local governments'planning authority and they could control a whole residential district.Local governments and private building companies were also compelled to prepare detailed"improvement schemes" before their construction and they had the obligation to carry out the schemes.From then on,the development control in public health stage had evolved to the development planning in housing planning stage.Local governments in industrial cities began to clear slum areas and other building groups with improper layout extensively.Many new buildings were provided to rehouse those working class residents from slums.During the clearance and reconstruction process,the structural layout of building groups were paid much attention,therefore further sanitary problems and other negative influence caused by the improper layout could be avoided in the future.The third stage of modern town planning focused on comprehensive management,which lasted from 1875 to 1909.Newly issued town and country planning acts aimed to make up the deficiencies in overall arrangements of the last two stages.Local governments were empowered to control all kinds of land and distribute different districts reasonably according to their functions.Meanwhile,guided by planning theoriests represented by Howard,Unwin and Geddes,Britain's town planning acts and practices were beyond the scope of a single city.The appearance of garden cities,satellite cities and regional planning had expanded the contents of town planning to a great extent.Modern town planning has become one essential part of Britain's economic and social policies,which laid the foundation for Britain's contemporary town planning at a higher level after WWII.Town planning movement in modern Britain lasted nearly a century and its evolution demonstrated the feature of gradualness.The development and perfection of Britain's modern town planning were contributed by various factors among which the cooperation between the central and local governments was the key element.During this evolution process,planning theories had formed a scientific system,planning acts had become complete and administrative authorities at different levels had functioned more smoothly.Above all,the appearance of British cities,especially industrial cities,had improved dramatically.Even the overall urbanization process in Britain was pushed forward by modern town planning.However,as the preliminary phase of town planning,Britain' s modern town planning also took on unavoidable shortcomings,such as local governments were still in need of the compulsory power and financial support,the working mechanism of planning schemes lacked flexibility and adaptability and the planning practice was still at a local level.New urban problems are continuously posing new challenges to town planning,and town planning is constantly perfecting itself in the process of coping and solving these new challenges.