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In 1951 the building of a number of the New Towns was already underway and the Festival provided an opportunity to promote planning achievements, notably through exhibitions organised at towns like Harlow New Town. Meanwhile in East London the development of a representative 30 acre section of a new estate in Poplar, the Lansbury Estate, functioned as a 'Live Architecture Exhibition' and a prototype for the future, enabling the public to access the visions of planners and architects.

planning ahead

the mistakes of one hundred and fifty years of a 'free-for-all' philosophy and a policy of 'I'm alright Jack!' ('Guide to the Exhibition of Architecture, Town-Planning and Building Research')

The introduction to the 'Guide to the Exhibition of Architecture, Town-Planning and Building Research' stresses the 'dreadful legacy' of the previous aimlessness of urban development and the importance of a more coherent and well thought out 'plan for posterity'. Ideas and ideals were expressed in the lasting form of the Lansbury Estate itself, as well as in an accompanying exhibition focusing on architecture, town planning and building research. Within this exhibition, the Town Planning Pavilion emphasised that urban development plans were based upon assessments of the needs of people. These were largely drawn from the County of London Plan of 1943, which saw four main urban problems: traffic congestion; great areas of depressed housing, inadequate open spaces; and the intermingling of industry with housing. It was these problems that planning sought to redress.

creating neighbourhoods

On this ground, so recently a derelict and bomb-scarred wilderness, has arisen not a tangle of Jerry-built and pokey dwellings, but a new urban landscape in which the buildings are growing together as a community. ('Festival of Britain' guide book)

The traditional old Chrisp Street market with its gas lit stalls that seem to stretch for miles thronging with shoppers till late at night had sadly been replaced by a modern new market square, the stalls laid out in neat rows with electric lighting and a small arcade for inclement weather. (contributor Dave Garred, aged 23 in 1951) Why not contribute your memories?

The County of London Plan proposed that communities should be redeveloped in small, carefully constructed units know as 'neighbourhoods'. The Lansbury Estate was an example of one such neighbourhood. Catering for the whole community, houses, flats, churches, schools, an old people's home, a pedestrianised shopping centre and covered market place, pubs and open spaces were all carefully laid out and linked by footways. There was even a block of flats and a special garden with sheltered seats tailored specifically to the needs of older inhabitants who were not yet ready to move into the old people's home. Particular effort was paid to ensuring that the centre of the neighbourhood would be a focus for social life. The use of traditional materials such as London stock bricks and Welsh slates countered the modern architecture and layout, making the neighbourhood seem new, clean and fresh and yet in some ways reassuringly familiar.

The new Lansbury neighbourhood rising from the ruins of the blitz, a modern oasis set in a vast area of overcrowded streets. ('The Sphere', 2 June 1951)