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The shadow of the law. Emerging from a memorable defining. Moment. Listen. It's up tempo transition. To misconduct in company. With a new revolution Britain.
Programme for London and the 20th century. Indiana University Radio a documented essay about contemporary Britain. We present the shadow of the lion with William Kinzer as your net writer. How strange. London centuries old London a world capital hub of history. Patriarch of the past. Should this day be suffering from Growing
Pains. And yet it's true. And her problems paralleled the dilemma of the nation itself face to face encounter with the 20th century. A lively labyrinth of circles of angles a monument filled square. It's a metropolitan mix of medieval and modernity and of activity. Constant. Streams of traffic curious sightseers shows in cinemas and neon sign a place of pageantry and trivia for treatment. Big. Double decker buses like Bobbie the hum and hurry of the underground. This is London a city to be admired or dislike or tolerated. This is the magnet that attracts millions of people and the multiplication of many problems.
Down there they believe that any of them fight like none of the other don't find the problem. And also they're not like that not by people in the next game nothing. And I think London's losing you know what has been called. I mean it was Rasmussen who referred to London as unique city and I don't think that man was that it was a city of reasonably uniform uniform. I agree. I really do rather regret the way it's becoming a getting a jacket and with great respect because the American skyline. Look backward now it's 55 b c Julius Ceaser
has just invaded Britain. There where the river narrows is a small Celtic village. The river is easy to cross. So the Romans established a bridgehead they called the place Lum demi i'm in time. The prebuilt of Roman roads will converge on this place from the Channel ports to spam the River Thames and fan out to crisscross the country around a busy London Bridge them. The town will grow and prosper. Or. Now relive or not observe if you will. Gathering the horizon of mercantile empires and toothpick riggings along the tampers walk the dark dingy cobblestone streets know that along these narrow avenues death will accompany time as history records the black plague the
Great Fire of 16 66 the lonely treks to the tower for the fall of the axe. The fate of King and commoner alike and no two of life in London as it will be observed by Boswell and Dr. Johnson. And sooner will follow the gentle influence of the Victorian era. The grace and grandeur of a world power the great entity of economic and social significance the apex of an empire. Them. The wrath of modern war the rubble of broken dreams the age of uncertainty. Please don't misunderstand. It's an injustice to cover so much history in a glance. Yet we wish only to arrive at a contemporary seem to see and consider the London of today. It's the same city really. Yet somehow different. Caught
in the pride of 20th century technology commerce and culture in the he's of high rise buildings hip hugging you hamburgers and traffic. Only a little of the quaint quality called Old English remains me. Even Pakistani immigrants people the restaurants and shops of Piccadilly and London has become a busier brighter bloodier London. A fascinating place that breeds excitement and opportunity. So naturally they come from smoky mill towns of the north from the manufacturing centers of the Midlands Britons flock southward to see them to settle in this capital of fun and fortune. One of the failures of policy since the war was to insist anticipate the great growth of commercial employment that would take place in London Wyndham Thomas director of the Town and Country Planning Association. It took place during the 1950s especially the latter part of the 1950s. And we weren't ready for
it and we didn't have the controls ready to limit it or stop it. Now we have decided to stop it to control employment in lumber. The government issued strong measures to restrict office space. Every artist and a group planner with the Greater London Council exclaims one of the things that happens in London is that millions of people are times bought and backwards and forward every day and. One begins to wonder whether it wouldn't be more economic go move out to move industries out. So that the good producers are headed modest and long distance rather than the people shift to die at. A 200 mile run over there are a lot of good is probably a cheaper proposition overall than the daily shifting of I'm going to be able to remember the 5 o'clock rush.
The queue was crowded and it snaked out of the underground entrance and along the pavement of Oxford Street. A Bobby stood nearby. Finally. You slowly backs down the steps by the ticket window moving with a mass of secretaries and businessmen tourists. And shoppers at the bottom of the escalator you heard the squeak of a life and you joined the crush to squeeze in the subway car. The doors close. You were standing by a car. We were sandwiched between a bowler hat and gentleman reading the front page that Evening Standard and a mini skirted mob type who stared between strands of straight hair. You looked up and you saw. A car.
Cause if I had the feeling that the entire population of London is jammed into this train with you. Then walk out of London. Travel in comfort arrive refreshed. Better Days. L o be the location of 27 Chancery Lane London WC to telephone Holden 2 9 6 1. I had been set up by the government with the idea. That people with office businesses moving to another part of the country that. It's a difficult task persuading businesses to vacate an important center of commerce and international trade like London. London is the key to communication with both domestic and foreign markets and
it really isn't growth but unregulated growth that is of concern to London authorities has been declining 5 for 20 years. Sounds great John. What I did say but minister to the Council of the people. People move out to the minute they can transport facility. Ronald Burke is an economics consultant and he explains the current trend of London's commuting population. I bought from having a house in Mayfair. Nobody likes talking about it and you don't want to move in and you want to move to the greenbelt but you've got to be. You can't go too far. So let's make it a truck coming into town. So what has happened in the past 20 years is the people who've been paying for London have tended to move farther away so the services have moved with them so they enjoyed the services of London town.
But legally we're paid to another local authorities for Sussex or indeed covers you those who do reside in central London are either the very rich or the very poor. And as the swelling the ranks of the great middle class moved to the suburbs. Planners faced the problem of unchecked urban sprawl. Seoul London like other big cities of Britain has been encircled by what is called a green belt. Where building is severely restricted. You know the Greenbelt is not necessarily open Latin don't know her is a totally green. It's an irregular ring that varies in with up to eight miles and does occasionally embrace such development as farm houses hospitals even small villages. But London commuters often leap for all the greenbelt to settle in outlying towns and districts in the green belt the value
and the fact is stop until I'm driving by the loud out of pocket I have a question is posed by an official with the Greater London Council every Armistead. Many people think that the day of the Greenbelt is dead. However I think this is the only thing which I have thought and then you will sprawl of London and even there London is taken as an area beyond the green that is valuable in maintaining the command of several bands several miles wide all run on that value in keeping that from London. I mean the expansion of London created pressures for the already dated London administration it became the number one company comes or
did not cover all of London problems and otherwise to London. It's a wrench you know. Thus on the 1st of April 1965 the Greater London Council came into being them for the first time the filled London area some 600 square miles more than eight million people came under the jurisdiction of one administrative head instead of nine different authorities in principle. It is not only an enormous improvement on the road. I wouldn't call it them of government but the mid-level authorities would know the ground in Greater London. But it is really one of the few examples if not the only known in the world today. How tailored to
them of metropolitan government which is least capable of dealing with the major problems of the second half of the 20th century. The view of Professor William a Robson. He's professor emeritus of public administration at the London School of Economics and Political Science and quite a love story in London's administrative history. You ask him when did the officials of London really become concerned. They became active again. Nineteen fifty eight when the Royal Commission on local government in Greater London was appointed. I had been for the past 20 years. It was in 1958 that Professor Robson was mean to chair a special commission called the Greater London Group. Its function was to undertake research into the problems of the metropolitan region.
Nandan presents a much more serious problem. Partly because we've been far too much unregulated development in the center particularly during the post-war years when there was a tremendous demand for rebuilding some of the bomb damage sites. You understand. History repeat itself. Four in 16 66. The Greek fire provided you meet the opportunity for London to rebuild with an eye to the future and so Christy program developed a wonderful plan according to Professor Robson and unfortunately the narrow view of the shopkeepers and the merchants of that time prostrated the acceptance of Christopher Wren great plan for the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire. There we have all those narrow
alleyways and her closely built up street would characterize the old but didn't the Nazi raids of 1940 create a similar opportunity Kerry Armistead thinks not. I don't think the dam in London of a right to the death if I apply of the car that were damaged in the head there. They could lay around some pork and that certainly did provide an opportunity for something different to be done and then our part of London. But a family alive on our part. Yet out of this area emerged the Barbican scheme a development of officers dwellings of theatre the Guildhall School of Music a concert hall. This to Professor Robson's mind may be the first significant contribution to the London seem in this century.
I want central to be a place of is the light of convenience of tranquility of harmony a place where human beings will aggregate in very large numbers but won't be mother by a torrent of motor cars or you would have automobiles with all the noise and the danger and the smell of the smoke. Which country is that. Tarrant I would want the building which are devoted to public purposes other than me. I want you yeah I want the truck I want the government building I want the problem for pedestrians. I want the
parks and open spaces and gardens I want to see comes what we call cultural precinct places of enjoyment where you can have galleries for arctics they can have a cinema concert hall conference hall for national international meetings. I want a great variety of civilized purpose. Provided for in the end. And I wanted to die so there exists that and the challenge to create aesthetic values within a context of convenience. For this reason planners are taking a long hard look at such traditional sites as Piccadilly Circus and even Trafalgar Square. What about designing them. What is
the British reaction to things new revolutionary. You talk to Dennis lost him he's a well-known London architect. Mr. Latham designed to Britain's National Theatre and a number of other highly regarded architectural achievements. The only shark attack he tells you is now acknowledging the importance of an environment where we're coming are two of many interesting phenomenon in England where I believe England have an immense contribution to are quite special to me and that is that we are beginning to review. But I don't want to have our environment. We've got to go because we are saddled with a city. Charged with tradition blocked at the arteries in which you can't move because of the traffic jam. Wanting to preserve the power and yet having to live with the present and anticipate the future. We now are beginning to get a
vision of architecture which goes into a much wider field than the individual building individual buildings are still very much part of our job. But we're learning to think in a rather bigger dimension. And this includes the acceptance of modern concepts Thomas Laster tells us we have come to accept high buildings for instance which are alien to London. And a lot of them have not improved the landscape but the man in the street has come to accept high buildings for its London there's still brooded over buildings which lowered their heresy over such hell of the park says Buckingham Palace or Hyde Park. And you wonder about the erection of ultra modern buildings and next to beloved traditional landmarks. You ask any society at any given time
must have the courage of its convictions. I think we do. I run my own personal view when I've had a considerable spirit won't it was rather big but I've had some experience how the problem of putting out uncompromising new buildings next to Riyad of the buildings. I have the luxury flats which I mentioned to you in the beginning of a talk stand adjacent to an 18th century mansion in James's Park. The College of Physicians which I also mention to you is slap in the middle of Nashville's Stockard terrace the famous landmark in London. I can quote other examples and even other examples by other architects and my own view is that we do the greatest. Service to tradition not by trying to imitate something because we can no longer imitate it but by and by being conscious of the in the real the
quality. There are neighbors but not trying to imitate them in any way but being true to oneself or a rut of the past. What of the pressures to adapt to the needs of the future. What about the lessons. I do not believe that man can be happy in an expendable environment certain things are going to be fixed. He wants his past to monuments but equally well perhaps this isn't quite the moment for us to make monuments we want to keep the ones we got out of the past. But nevertheless we have to sometimes destroy areas of the city and recreate them. London. Is changing. Not only in appearance but in attitude as well. With the skyline askew punctuated by the Hilton. And the six hundred and twenty foot high post office tower. London has become a symbol of
transition as well as tradition. The town has a breeze and I'm concerned often uncertain ever about it. Charged with an excitement and exuberance of you. Whether offbeat fashions and Carnaby Street or the dapper dressed the county executive at the Stafford bar the face of London is filled with vitality of Rush a new beginning. Guards at Buckingham Palace streams to the temple of the Lennon and McCartney to. Shop windows litter with light and luxury the experts invade old and respected institutions while the theatre and the arts indulge in new wind daring feat. Yes the change is obvious affluence innovation even apathy. Have you reached the traditional certainties of Victorianism and in student stead a spirit that is sometimes rebellious
sometimes experimental sometimes extravagant. Cool cool cool. Since it was legalized in 1968 gambling has become an obsession in Great Britain and London has become the gaming capital of the world. Lords and Ladies film stars and fashion models frequent such plush casinos as the Claremont club Crockford's or the pair of shoes and London my life has noise and beyond. Amber flash rewards and Grimes in the smoke smelling grotto are so ho striptease have a shadowy figure some of us a blue movie
patronage in the dark corners of an Old Compton Street discotheques to a booming box office business. London is a little out wide open uninhibited city of Perm miscue was fun and yet it has a serious side too. London is the intellectual and cultural center of Great Britain. Festival Hall Albert Hall Covent Garden Sadler's Wells the National Theatre and the Tate Gallery all attest to a growing interest in the arts and here in London the fate of nations is often considered and sometimes decided here grieve problems and prudent issues concerning the country in the Commonwealth are brought into focus. In these delicate discussions emanate from two centers of interest for London is really two cities the City of Westminster and the City of London. One refers to the original square mile of London as the city.
It's tightly knit and introverted community of financial institutions including the Bank of England Westminster on the other hand is Whitehall the heart of government behind a grey Victorian facades. The ministries function in a bureaucratic vacuum of civil service and political protocol here are identifiable items. Number 10 Downing Street the Houses of Parliament. Here is Britain's identity. Whatever London New Britain will surely be. For its fear of influence is felt in all corners of the island. And even into other parts of the world in a way. Different from the days of the Empire. London is in touch with the 20th century and Britons look to London for the first sign of tomorrow.
From Indiana University Radio We have crews out here to London on the 20th century programme for in a special series of documented essays about contemporary Britain and titled The shadow of the lion. As written and produced by Luke Rowan BANNERMAN But never a who was William Kinzer production assistant was John Hopkins the engineer Bill Murphy program consultant Jeremy ward. This is John Demick speaking. The shadow of the lion has been a series made possible by an Indiana University faculty research grant. And this is a presentation of Indiana University Radio. This program was distributed by the national educational radio network.
Series
The shadow of the lion
Episode
London and the Twentieth Century
Producing Organization
Indiana University
WFIU (Radio station : Bloomington, Ind.)
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-736m4853
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Description
Series Description
For series info, see Item 3300. This prog.: London in the Twentieth Century. Britain's capital, its burgeoning size and influence; the attempts to regulate its growth and to plan its role in the great transition for the future.
Date
1968-01-01
Topics
Social Issues
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:29:21
Embed Code
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Credits
Producing Organization: Indiana University
Producing Organization: WFIU (Radio station : Bloomington, Ind.)
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 68-14-4 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:29:06
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Citations
Chicago: “The shadow of the lion; London and the Twentieth Century,” 1968-01-01, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-736m4853.
MLA: “The shadow of the lion; London and the Twentieth Century.” 1968-01-01. University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-736m4853>.
APA: The shadow of the lion; London and the Twentieth Century. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-736m4853