Early 20th Century & the Modern Movement (1900–1945)

County of London Plan

1943 · United Kingdom · Western & Central Europe · Regional & polycentric planning · Planned by Abercrombie & Forshaw
Map of the inner ring road proposed in the Abercrombie & Forshaw County of London Plan (1943), as presented in the 1945 Ministry of Information film 'The Proud City'.
Map of the inner ring road proposed in the Abercrombie & Forshaw County of London Plan (1943), as presented in the 1945 Ministry of Information film 'The Proud City'. · Public domain (UK Crown copyright expired) · Ministry of Information film 'The Proud City' (1945), after Abercrombie & Forshaw, County of London Plan 1943

Core idea

Comprehensive land-use/transport for London

Why it matters

Set stage for green belt and postwar renewal

Description

A comprehensive plan for the London County Council area prepared by Patrick Abercrombie and J. H. Forshaw, published in 1943 while the city was still under bombardment. It analysed London as a community of identifiable neighbourhoods and proposed decongestion of the inner districts, a ring-and-radial road system, segregation of industry, density zoning, and a coordinated open-space network. Together with Abercrombie's Greater London Plan of 1944 it framed reconstruction policy, including planned overspill to new towns beyond a green belt.

Significance

The County of London Plan is a foundational document of postwar British planning, translating survey-based analysis into a persuasive public programme and setting the stage for the green belt, the New Towns Act and comprehensive redevelopment. Its neighbourhood and density doctrines shaped decades of London policy and were widely emulated and debated across the Commonwealth and Europe.

What shaped it

Plans it influenced

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.