PLANNING DEPARTMENT: ARCHITECT

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: COL/PLD/AR
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: PLANNING DEPARTMENT: ARCHITECT
Date(s)	: 1979-1992
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 0.11 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Corporation of London

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The improvement of the streets, the location of trades, markets and common or open spaces and the regulation of buildings have always been within the purview of the Corporation of London and the Court of Commissioners of Sewers in particular. After the Great Fire an Act of Common Council of 1667 declared what streets were to be widened and to what proportions. Improvement Committees were appointed by the Common Council throughout the nineteenth century and the construction of Holborn Viaduct, King William Street, Cannon Street, Tower Bridge, Charterhouse Street, Princes Street, Moorgate, St Martins-le-Grand and numerous street widenings constituted a gradual replanning. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the City cooperated with the Metropolitan Board of Works and later with the London County Council in improvements such as the Victoria Embankment and Queen Victoria Street.

In 1932 the Corporation was constituted the authority in the City of London for implementing the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Acts. A town planning scheme was prepared but the outbreak of war in 1939 delayed the continuation of the plan. The extensive damage caused by enemy action during the Second World War facilitated more ambitious schemes, under the direction of the Improvements and Town Planning Committee who managed the Town Planning Department. The post-war plan aimed to improve office and warehouse buildings, improve traffic flows, preserve and improve sites of historic and architectural importance, provide more open space and pedestrian circulation and to improve car parking provision.

The Planning Department is now the Department of Planning and Transportation.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records relating to the Architect of the Planning Department, Corporation of London, 1979-1992, comprising a 1981 article on Sir Horace Jones, City Architect from 1864-1887; brochure and catalogue to accompany exhibition City Changes: Architecture in the City of London 1985-1995, held at the Royal Exchange, 1992 and notes on primary sources for the study of the urban development and architecture of London, 1979.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

In sections according to catalogue.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright City of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Corporation of London Records Office

Allied Materials

Related material:

For records of the Corporation of London relating to building construction and improvements work, see COL/CC/BBB: Blackfriars Bridge (Building) Committee, COL/CC/BBR: Blackfriars Bridge (Repairing) Committee, COL/CC/BRC: Barbican Centre Committee, COL/CC/CLSB: City of London School Building Committee, COL/CC/CRE: Central Criminal Court (Extension) Committee, COL/CC/GHI: Guildhall Improvement Committee, COL/CC/GHY: Guildhall Yard East Building Committee, COL/CC/IMP: Improvements Committee (Corporation), COL/CC/LBI: London Bridge Improvements Committee, COL/CC/MRI: Markets Improvement Committee, COL/CC/SGC: Special (Guildhall Reconstruction) Committee, COL/CC/WAC: Works Advisory Committee, COL/CHD/IM: Chamberlain's Department: Improvements, COL/MH/MSH: The Mansion House, COL/PL: Plans, the papers of the Planning Department (COL/PLD), the papers of the Surveyor's Department (COL/SVD) and the papers of the Technical Services Department (COL/TSD).

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
February 2009