Origins
Hampstead Garden Suburb flats Photo David Mountain
Speaker - David Mountain
Planning historian Gordon Cherry’s 1974 book “The Evolution of British Town Planning” is a concise source on the first six decades of British planning, and also the only published history of the Royal Town Planning Institute. Cherry’s book tells the remarkable story of how, within 30 years between 1914-1945, an entirely new profession developed into maturity out of and in between a set of longstanding ‘parent’ professional bodies (architecture, civil engineering, surveying and the law.)
This talk revisits Cherry’s narrative of the history of the RTPI, as well as the first issues of the organisation’s journal. It explores two central tensions within the RTPI’s work and the planning profession: between planning’s definition around shared objectives versus unique knowledge and expertise, and between the Institute’s role as an association which regulates conduct and mediates competition, and over the contested desire for the Institute’s propaganda and campaigning role in relation to government, the media and the general public.
Dr David Mountain is Research Manager at the Royal Town Planning Institute. He commissions research to support the planning profession and policy development, administers competitive research grants, and oversees the annual RTPI Awards for Research Excellence. He leads the Institute’s work on planning history. David is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, where he completed his ESRC-funded PhD on the end of the post-war British new towns programme and the rise of urban regeneration in planning practice. His dissertation included a study of areas of continuity and change in the history of the Town and Country Planning Association’s principles.
Readings and resources:
Book (1981): Pioneers in British planning: Cherry, Gordon (ed.) Article (2024): Design, Science and Public Administration in “The Evolution of British Town Planning”
Link for open-access historical journals: https://www.rtpi.org.uk/about-the-rtpi/who-we-are/our-history/