The shadow of the lion; Demi-Paradise and Destiny

And with the shadow of the lawyer. Emerging from a memorable immovable Britain today faces the formidable task of defining the future and this is our story a story of truth for whom longer stands can tell a lie you know this is but an apparition of yesterday's. His profile turns. Listen to me. It's up. Tempo translation. Heard in London's Commons in Coventry in Oxford and rhythm

of a new revolution in Britain. Programmed three Demi paradise and destiny. On the Indiana University Radio. A documented essay about contemporary Britain. We present the shadow of the lion with William Kinzer as your net writer. If California for instance would as densely populated as Britain it would have a population now of about 160 million. Instead of that

20 21 million it got and this perhaps will convince Americans who are skeptical about planning of the critical need for effective planning in this country. A public intervention if you just let things rip would be a God awful mess all over the countryside. Yet to see this lesson plan. This is to admire the crazy quilt of green and well-groomed country expands. Him by his rose and spilling no time around the close quarter and compact villages. But it is limited you know this horizon the tranquil undisturbed Demetriou splendor. And there is cause for concern. You see it everywhere. The catalytic influence of the motor car the curious faceless transformation of tall office buildings. The angry effect of the overcrowded tenement despair the octopus reach of urban sprawl the ever multiplying ever moving population. The

rush for economic status. Yes. It's quite true. Demands of a modern age are threatening to quit. Shakespeare is demi Paris. What there are Britons who care about their country and for more than half a century organized interest has activated a movement that has evolved into the Town and Country Planning Association its present director Windham Thomas describes the early beginnings when the association was started in 1899. I did then called the God and said his association started to propagate the ideas of Ebenezer Howard who advocated the building of God in the cities. Well outside the big overcrowded industrial cities where people could live in decent conditions where industries could develop and expand and to which people could move in fact from the big cities which might then

be of we developed developed much superior standards because the densities and the congestion had been decreased. You have reached Mr. Thomas's office from a King Street entrance in the couple of garden district of London. You climbed wooden stairs to the second floor entering first a large room dominated by desks busy female clerks and cluttered piles of books and pamphlets. Windham Thomas is a very busy man organizing Study Groups research activities planning and producing publications conducting conferences throughout the country. And I know over the years of course the aims and activities of the association have broadened as a Town and Country Planning has become part of all social policy. Government and local government level in this country. We now concern ourselves with pretty well all aspects of land use. But our principle concern the basic consideration always with us is the improvement of the conditions of

life and work of the of the many millions of ordinary families in this country. You went to school. Is there more interest. No when planning and development to them ever before. Well if not then ever before because there was a tremendous growth of interest during and immediately after the war. The idea of building a better Britain became an immensely popular one and it's on the wave of this of that public and he was using that we introduced the comprehensive legislation which which we've been working ever since governmental interest on dates back to maintain the time when successive Acts of Parliament recognize the principle of the planned to use of lamb in the 20 years between the two world wars. Industrial change and a growing population bred conditions that broadly defined the dire necessity of effective legislation. The Town and Country Planning acts of 1932 became the basis of planning law for the next 15 years.

Of course local authorities often hesitated to exercise their powers for fear of becoming involved in financial liabilities beyond their means. Official committees began to look into the unregulated growth and spread of industry financial difficulties with regard to planning and development and the encroachment of urban expansion on British countryside and then came the war. Suddenly the land was invaded by military men by air bases on the camp's Motor Vehicles war industries and later even as the survival of Britain seemed in doubt. Optimism and pride would not permit the exclusion of the future in the daily pressure of plantains. Thus during and immediately after the war just as Wyndham Thomas told you building a better Britain became an obsession that saw a number of

bills introduced and passed by parliament. Pictured a rising multitude a modern enigma a population explosion that streams the bounds of urban centers the ceaseless social upheaval all the economically advanced countries and that is as true of America as any of them. I have a history and industrial history that largely consists of the story of the great and continuing and overlapping migrations. First of all from the countryside to the towns which were the nurseries of that country the industrial revolution. Secondly from the older industrial regions the first ones formed which were based upon primary products like coal and steel and the rest of it to the new growth regions of the 20th century. And finally the migration from the inner district of all big cities to their suburbs their peripheral districts their satellites and their dormitories.

Now the south east of Britain with London is a dominant center. It is the biggest growth region of all all our regions are growing. London is growing disproportionately fast. Too many Britons the south especially London with its pulsating modern commercial air holds dreams of opportunity irresistible. And so it is that. Them with only 54 percent of Britains land area contains over 80 percent of the total population cognizant of this rapid overloading of certain areas of Britain. And the ultimate effect of such a population shift some older established a governmental commission investigated the result of their report opened the way to one of Britain's most unique experiments what it said in effect was that you couldn't go on building up London with a great sprawl you had to build satellite towns around it. So this new talent Act was passed in 1946 which

gave corporations pause to get on with building quickly. What this act does in effect is to cut away the red tape that normally goes with government development and it gives a very small corporation of about nine persons hard to acquire land upon to. Build. Two roads panel to go ahead with factories and houses and generally get on with everything that's required for a society of 80000 people or a hundred thousand people whatever size the town at the time to be talking with Stephen Holley. He's the general manager of one of the new towns. There are 20 new towns in Britain already established or under construction designed either to absorb the overflow of crowded urban areas or to rejuvenate underdeveloped districts all the way from London to Glasgow.

There are several new towns in Scotland and they're very dynamic. The light is very full and the kind of experiment that this is is a community of life which takes on all facets of occupation. The Reverend Wallace Shaw is American. He attended college in Scotland about 12 years ago and never discussed his girl. He returned to the States as a Presbyterian minister but decided to go back to Scotland to live. Today he is rector of St. Margaret's parish church in Berlin ruckus a new town. He speaks well of the life in a new town. In other words the family not only live here but the husband or wife or both work here. The children go to group here and they find their entertainment right here in Grand Isle self-contained community but it's a new term environment ideal in every way. Nearby in

Glasgow Ronald Nicol who chairs the Urban Planning at the University of Strathclyde admits there are shortcomings. Well one of the things that was given insufficient thought was how to effectively fight the needs of the second generation. No I would say there's very little social idealism about the new town of Wyndham Thomas director of Tolman Country Planning Association. We think that by building fairly modest sized new town this is what you can do is to create decent conditions for family life and efficient conditions for business enterprise. The new towns are very very successful in industrial and commercial towns. One of the first new terms in Scotland where the community of East Kilbride. It's well established now and quite successful according to Ronald Nichols the place is so successful from an industrial point of view that you almost have to hold it back because we believe socially it's wrong to try and introduce to introduce

more than about a thousand families and yet how is a new term started. What is required. How long does it take. And in North East England and across the River Tyne but quite near the teeming metropolis of Newcastle. The development of a new tone is in progress. It's a new town of Washington it's one new town that is rising from the roots of an established community and it embraces the historic family homestead of the forefathers of George Washington. Other new towns simply spring from open fields without basis or bias. You ask about this every new town is handicapped by its environment in a way whether they're 20 miles from a town or as we are six six miles from them.

Stephen Holly the general manager of the Washington Development Corporation explains the intent of providing every consideration to make any new tome as perfect m environment as possible. This of course includes a nice home with ample living space with landscaped and beauty of surroundings. It means accounting for two car family is the provision of adequate street car parks police is restricted to pedestrians. It means convenience shops cinemas parks public transport. It means employment. The development of industrial estates. The attracting of industry. It means innovating in the newest modes of modern living. Yet at the same time seeking not to alienate itself completely from the traditions of surrounding communities. How is this done. By creating a governing board made up of responsible leaders of the area by providing a professional taskforce that operates active departments in everything from architectural design to social development. How long will it

take. Stephen Holley estimates it will take about 15 years for the complete development of the new town of Washington and the future. I think it's also fair to say that any any planning. With the rapid change one has today could only be made for really relatively short periods you set yourself long term objectives on current trends up to the end of the century. But in effect you've got to be prepared to look at those plans and radically revise them and possibly fight against time. The fact remains Britain today is conscious of change and the shadow of that symbolic lie and lengthens with time showing a new shape a physical alteration inspired by considerations of the future or necessities from the past. Out of the east came fear to Coventry.

Full well no one is the city's wartime destruction. And people still remember the sound of an unseen enemy. The Bite of the evening chilled the broth befalling scream of fury. Concussion. And fire. Alderman George Hodgkinson was there. He remembers Coventry reduced to a state of NE on November the 14th. Nineteen forty. Coventry was reduced to a state of nature on November the 14th 1940 40 acres within the very heart of this historic city completely devastated. And when the damp mists of dawn brought the vague revelation of a new day the chaotic site of destruction brought tears to the faces of weary souls

who had survived the terrible night. Coventry had been destroyed but somehow the spirit lived Domme comment in fact had got accustomed to Knightley did it. And he's seen that the trial wrong looked well meaning it's what he did in fact up to the you know I adore the afternoon on November 14 1948. We had in fact two hundred and thirty four I had to tell you all is on our list in fact we were able to set our watches to the at the time of the O'Reilly about 7:15 Alderman Hutchinson is chairman of Coventry's Planning and Development Committee. He's been called the Blitz King the father of reconstruction for it was he who took the case for rebuilding Coventry straight to number 10 Downing Street and as you listen you look about two and you see where dust once marked the doom of the city. But where now

magically rises on modern transformation Britain's brightest look at tomorrow. Her precinct it's called a convenient cross shaped shopping plaza where the pedestrian is king. Automobiles are left at the edge of this modern center on a special rooftop lots and in Malta stored car parks. The shopper walks a short distance to find a host of elegant shops a hotel a circular cafe a unique shopping arcade all arranged in the landscape artistry on two levels featuring flowers and trees fountains and mosaic. And beyond the growing skyline of busy Coventry a

metropolitan mixture of the historic landmarks and the soaring to symmetry of modern buildings and they're dominating the scene the charred needle like spire of Coventry is a bombed out Cathedral beneath which the walls still stand. First of all that beautiful. And secondly we want to keep them as a place of healing of the shrine of reconciliation and not have they not on any in any sort of way a memorial to destruction. The proper Most of the Coventry Cathedral the Reverend Harold Williams points with pride to the old and to the new. For Coventry Cathedral is today a marriage of the past with an excitement about his future and its Leave it to be seen next to this gothic memory. There stands the new cathedral an ultra modern edifice that offers a striking contrast in architecture and attitude so typical of Coventry itself.

In the case of cover the destruction of this wonderful medieval city the destruction of the cathedral and the hangover created history always leaves in its wake brought Coventry City and community to a point where they had to make a decision and the decision was a very clear one either to reproduce the past or to heal the past and seek ways of renewal and this really had been an analogy of a great deal of constructive thinking throughout Britain as well as pointing the way to the only profitable progress available for Britain today. Now let me explain. Coventry was for the beautiful medieval city and they could very easily with not for the palace which is the sort of neurotic disease of Britain have tried to reproduce they didn't. They decided that that it planned the 20th and 21st centuries in this they did in architecture and town planning sort of way.

But lest one believe that bombs only create a new beginning for Coventry. Tom Clark Charles Barrett would remind you of earlier thinking on the subject of town planning. Indeed we had an architect on the planet who had been working on new ideas for rebuilding of the city center stage by stage of course as it would have had to have been in ordinary circumstances even before the Blitz who could. Their aim was simply to create as near as possible and ideal environment for a population that may be in 1071 reach three hundred and thirty thousand people. Today visitors come far and near to see this exceptional city come and see. It no doubt the sharp wind will get it in delegation to this country. Why oh energy and foresight are fashioning Graham designs for

futuristic living in centers like Coventry Birmingham Plymouth and to Manchester. The blight of Britain is still to be found in murky middle towns that dot the industrialized north. Most of Britain's towns industrial towns want it whatever land they just like you know like Cabot beaches those Topsy they just grow and they grow into a hell of a mess. Abandoned by the basic industry that gave them birth. Deserted by the youth who might have given them life these places are foundering in the wake of their obsolescence and their apathy. Seeking employment a better way of life or both. Inhabitants tend to migrate to any one of seven areas of opportunity in Britain. Centered in London Liverpool Birmingham Leeds Manchester Glasgow. Or Newcastle upon Tyne. Now these centers attract not only people but with them

a multiplicity of problems to cope with the growing complexity of local government planning and development. Newcastle upon Tyne learned from industry a professional manager and introduced the position of principal city officer with Tom Clark. Or what is called a city manager in the United States. It's not quite the same goal. A lot of the difference that a knife in the face with a manager the boss had I never bought to the extent that the Office of the happy to let me be the boss at work is Mame Frank carers. He was formerly an executive with a Ford Motor Company of Great Britain. His job now to analyze municipal problems and to coordinate efforts toward solving them. His background. I come here without the advantage and the disadvantage is that any other town would have a long period in the local government

a long history of a legal training and being wrapped up in minute committees and so on like that. I come here with the advantage is that the guy in the to do that bit. Yes to anyone who's been at it all along. I'm. Not the indefinite shade the problem is what you have to deal with than the decision taking the cost that the delays the intolerance of a friend keris is a vibrant dynamic individual and he views the challenge with any fish and oddity and a restless urgency that new problem you say that it happened on they got a remarkable change in the cost of the last to the last time on their mind and ready made to change with the time George Stephenson or whoever it was brought the railway up. Frank care or sick knowledge is fine examples of Victorian era in the end

about his city and he points to the ingenuity of an earlier age. But he also notes with emphasis the need for renewal that has been for so long postponed by Newcastle's historic cycle of depression and war because not any not any Nothing taught to CityCenter development as I said earlier on but it had an enormous stock of obsolete houses that just then. They don't come under the category of slums we should be out of a slump leverage program within about three years. And how they don't qualify by any means but they don't qualify I thought of how the people who did it end up moving into the 20th century. In Britain today there's a great deal of talk about the 20th and 21st centuries and some of it has seen reality. Progressive almost radical designs for development in

revolutionary structural and architectural achievements in concepts and concerns that point to some distant future. But Britons also worry about preserving their heritage. About ways to restrict within reason of course the evitable and often detrimental influences of our modern age. Nationally locally British planners must deal with problems that concern population redistribution. Regional Development housing and redeployment of labor. They talk about trends and use terms like conurbation over spilled urban sprawl. They zoom in and survey booed and rebuild. They ring their cities and towns with green belts a last desperate hope to complain. Urban expansion to preserve the gracious country air and scenery so vital to the beauty of Britain. Planning is

important to Britain not only as a necessity but as a matter of pride. The English have long enjoyed the symmetry of the landscape gardens the grandeur of nature and the artistry of map and out of this interest. Has emerged the new legal machinery and the professional know how. For Town and Country Planning. Equalled anywhere else in the world. From Indiana University Radio we have proof that a demi paradise and destiny program free in a special series of documented essays about contemporary Britain entitled The shadow of a lion. As written and produced by Leroy BANNERMAN The narrator was William Kinzer production assistant was John Hopkins the engineer Phil Murphy

program consultant Jeremy ward. This is John Dimmick speaking. But a shadow of the lion has been a series made possible by an Indiana University faculty research director and this is a presentation of the Indiana University Radio. The England. This program was distributed by the national educational radio network.