The Changing Urban Landscape

The Case of London's High-Class Residential Fringe

Bibliographic Data

ID5287438
AuthorsJ W R Whitehand, Jeremy Whitehand (corresponding author)
Year1988
Volume154
Issue3
Pages351
Publication date1988-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7398 • E-ISSN: 1475-4959
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/634608
OpenAlexW2008038297
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited5

piecemeal townscape change within the lineaments of existing patterns of street blocks and plots. This type of change is examined over the post-war period within London's high-class residential fringe. In this area developers, estate agents, financial institutions and, depending on their circumstances, some property owners are profiting from the lucrative business of satisfying a high demand for housing within tight restraints on the availability of building land. Local authorities, with the support of local residents, are seeking to restrain development in the face of an increasingly laissez-faire attitude by central government. Rising house prices, delays in handling planning applications, and a relatively high incidence of appeals are indicative of the pressure on land. A landscape of trees and hedgerows concealing large houses is being chopped back to accommodate smaller, unambiguously urban dwelling types. Although architectural styles currently being employed are generally blending well with those existing, conflicting interests are rife and are having detrimental effects on the landscape. Crude restraint tactics being employed by local authorities need to be replaced by a more integrated view of townscape management. THE WAY IN WHICH the urban landscape changes is heavily constrained by the form in which an area has been initially developed. In areas where development takes the form of low-density detached houses, by far the most common form of upper-middle class housing in the United Kingdom, North America and Australia, there is scope for a great variety of changes within the lineaments of the existing pattern of street blocks and plots. Among these changes are plot subdivision to accommodate additional dwellings and minor access roads, and the redevelopment of a few plots at a time. This contrasts with areas developed for high-density housing, usually achieved by the use of terrace houses in small plots or flats, where change is usually confined to minor alterations to individual buildings or entails the comprehensive redevelopment of an extensive area. The piecemeal change characteristic of low-density areas has understandably attracted less attention than abrupt changes associated with slum clearance, major shopping centres, and the large-scale reshaping of rail and road systems. When it occurs, it is seldom a matter of serious concern to more than a score of families living in its immediate vicinity. Its cumulative effect, however, is considerable, although most local planning authorities (LPAs), preoccupied as they are with processing individual planning applications, have done little to monitor it. This paper examines changes to the urban landscape that have occurred in the post-war period in the high-class residential fringe of London. This part of South East England comprises by far the greatest area of low-density detached houses in the United Kingdom. It has been subject to especially high pressures for more intensive development, reflecting in particular a reduction in the average size of households and increases in incomes, population and employment opportunities (Damesick, 1986; Simmons, 1986; Hamnett, 1986). The extent of change

Class (philosophy · Creative class · Economic geography · Environmental planning · Geography · Political science · Urban landscape · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Urbanization and City Planning

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