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“I started off on these town tours, some months ago, full of hope. I come back at the end of them sadly depressed”.
The unhappy conclusion arrived at by John Betjeman after a series of visits to a variety of towns in Southern England in the summer of 1937. Although irritated by many aspects of the architecture he found, his diatribe was reserved for the speculator/developer and the “little brick horrors poisoning England”. His reasoning being that developers rarely consider the surrounding neighbourhood and its character, decline to provide sufficient space for a family or provide an adequate garden, and are more inclined to spend the money on “superficial attractions”.
Another accusation levelled at developers is that they are “doing some good” by providing homes for people and giving something back to the community, true but let’s face it in the end its all down to profit and without that how many houses would be built? Should we be willing to sacrifice our landscape for inappropriate developments?
So how does this compare with the situation we find 75 years later? To my mind not much has changed in the intervening years. An opinion reinforced by the sight of a ‘modern’ style building with stone filled gabions to the driveway, semi-sunken front façade and oddly metallic asymmetrical roof sited midway along a row of red brick late Victorian detached houses. The impact on the street scene is incongruous and ruins any idea of rhythm along the road. The eye is drawn to this monstrosity and detracts from the street as a whole.
Betjeman’s argument was that “all people who spoil decent country should go to prison”. His reasoning being that littering the streets is punishable with a fine, whereas building inappropriately and littering the countryside with houses is not.
Betjeman’s answer to combat the problem of ugly buildings was to plant more trees, if everyone to plant a tree in their back garden then the balance would be retained. Any old tree will do, except for conifers – only suitable for Bournemouth apparently.
This is one idea that seems to have filtered through to the developer. However, it has now almost become mandatory to fill any available space with them regardless of location or site constraints.
So Betjeman’s rules for the developer are:
1. Employ a qualified architect.
2. Use local material, or similar coloured material in keeping with the local character.
3. Don’t try and be different from everyone else in the road, it makes the whole road uglier.
4. Don’t build low useless walls, plant a hedge instead.
Just remember and bear in mind Betjeman’s concluding statement; “leaves and trees and bushes have made England beautiful in the past,….there is no reason why new houses should be ugly…if you build plainly and fight against flashy rubbish you will leave England fit for your children to live in”.
Whether you agree with Betjeman or not his simple rules do seem to make sense, after all he was right about Slough.
Source – John Betjeman: Trains and Buttered Toast: Selected Radio Talks
