individual in a private capacity it is not improbable, indeed it
is very natural, that he will expect the general operations to
be carried out in accordance with his particular taste or fancy,
which, however, may happen to be far from practical or artistic,
and his scheme is likely to suffer accordingly. So too in the
case of an estate developed by a governing body consisting of men
who are not qualified for the task, the possibility of failure is
equally great. The best course is to employ an advisory architect
about whose qualifications there is no doubt, who should work
in conjunction with the surveyor from the outset. It may be
suggested, now that the movement is making considerable progress,
that the Royal Institute of British Architects should be asked to
suggest an architect in such cases. A greater variety, however,
in the plan and design of the houses might perhaps be secured
by employing more than one architect. A man’s ideas are liable
to run in a groove; and even if variation is introduced in
detail there is likely to be a similarity in general character.
Moreover, where two or more architects are engaged, a healthy
rivalry might result in the designing of houses which shall
fulfil all the conditions of convenience, compactness, and
economy. The respective work of the various architects might be
confined to particular streets, but a regular system of variation
should be avoided. Method should not be too obtrusive or the
arrangement too mechanical. The advisory architect must be
selected with judgment, for on him will devolve the working out
of the general road-scheme, and this will demand more talent than
the merely practical man possesses.
The caution already urged against doing anything on the estate
without mature consideration expressly applies to the cutting of
roads and the reservation of spaces. Given a map of our land, the
fancy is not usually slow in disposing of it; and it is only with
the progress of operations, when a number of unforeseen demands
make themselves disagreeably formidable, that it is seen how
wanton this ready fancy has been.
THE SELECTION OF CENTRES.—The first questions to be decided are
the number and positions of the centres, for it is to and from
these that the most convenient and accessible connections must
be planned, and the centres themselves should be reserved as the
sites of parks, principal buildings, shops and the like.
If the land is already entered by one or more turnpike roads
which may not be diverted, these should guide the cutting of the
new roads, and the chief centres of the village must be made
as accessible as possible from them. If an existing road only
approaches the land, and only one connection is deemed necessary,
the connection should be constructed to suit the village as a
whole, without partiality to any one extremity, always keeping
the centres in view. It is nearly always better to work to the
contour of the land, taking a gentle sweep in preference to a
straight line.
The site of the chief centre, not forgetting to keep in view its
general accessibility, should if possible be on the highest point
of the village, such a position giving prominence over the whole,
as well as a more imposing elevation and dignity to the principal
buildings which are to be erected thereon. The nature of the
buildings would depend altogether on the size of the scheme. In
the case of a garden city they would possibly include council
chambers, theatre, museum, library or other monumental buildings
of a like character, and as large spaces as possible should be
reserved around them for extensions and gardens. A great city, in
which it has been decided to build a cathedral, has found itself
before now in the dilemma of having no suitable site available,
and the monument of beauty has had to make the best of beggarly
and ugly neighbours. It is as well to profit by the errors of the
past, and the utmost should therefore be done to save a garden
city or model village from ever getting congested at its chief
centre.
The other centres should be places of distinct interest, such as
schools, railway station, or market-place, but secondary to the
chief one.
ROADS.—The buildings will not be sky-scrapers, and the roads,
therefore, will not, in order that they may be ventilated, have
to be set out in straight lines in order to be wind-swept,
intersecting at unpleasing right angles like a gridiron.
Though the main streets should be planned with some degree
of straightness for the convenience of getting to and from
important places, there is no reason why regularity should be
sought after for its own sake; at the same time an unnecessary
irregularity should be as much avoided. Where one straight road
unavoidably meets another at right angles, it is a good plan to
widen the point of intersection. This particularly applies to a
road taking a hill straight—that is, at its shortest length. A
pleasing perspective will be given by thus widening, and on the
triangular space formed might be erected a fountain or monument,
with or without a grass plot. As an alternative, if the ground is
too valuable to be so disposed of, the road might be terminated
by slightly curving it to the left or right, and the corner
remaining used for building upon. In the residential portion
of the village or garden city, roads running due east and west
should be avoided if possible. When this precaution has been
taken, much scheming to get the sun on the front as well as the
back of the house will be spared. As is well known, a kitchen
with a south aspect is unbearable in the heat of the summer.
Where the road unavoidably runs east and west, the gardens of
houses on the north side should occupy the front and not the back
of the plot.
Trees should be planted in all roads, and the chief roads should
be arranged on the boulevard plan, allowing the utmost freedom
to the pedestrian. A few spaces might be reserved for shelters,
and the site for a bandstand might be timely chosen. As much as
possible should be done to give breadth to all thoroughfares,
and to this end the building-line of the houses should be well
back from the road—thirty feet at least—the ample front-garden
giving a refreshing greenness to the prospect, besides a better
perspective to the houses. The width of roads should be from
forty to fifty feet, with paths of from eight to twelve feet, not
less.
Minor open spaces, such as playgrounds for young children, are
pleasant along the road side, but road-making is costly, and
economy in all probability will have to be studied; back land,
therefore, should be utilised for them at the bottom of garden
plots.
STREET ELEVATIONS.—In building a road of houses the expense would
of course be considerable if to get variety a different plan and
different details were employed for each house. Other methods
must be adopted. In the case of twenty houses it would be well
to get as many details, such as windows, doors, and door-frames,
the same (or, at any rate, half of one kind and half of another),
and monotony should be avoided by variation in the disposition
of these features. An extensive elevation may also be made
interesting by the treatment of a porch here, the addition of a
bay window there, and the use of rough-cast somewhere else. An
irregular building-line, where possible, is to be preferred.
In a block of three cottages a pleasing effect is gained by
projecting or recessing the middle one, or putting it with its
long axis parallel with the road, and so forming a forecourt in
front.
SERVICE OF NATURAL ADVANTAGES.—Whatever natural advantages the
land may possess, such as woods, pools, or streams (where they
are not included in a park), should border, or be seen from,
the road—that is if they merit the expense of road-making. Few
things are more picturesque than a stream at the roadside (as
at Tissington in Derbyshire), especially if spanned here and
there by small bridges (as at Bourton-on-the-Water), and by
their presence the road will be widened from house front to
house front. The water of a stream should never be utilised for
a manufacturing purpose where it afterwards flows through the
village, except for generating electric power or other clean
uses. If there is an avenue of old trees it should be secured for
one of the roads.
SHOPPING.—The chief shopping will be best placed just without and
surrounding the main centre, and that of less importance round
the minor centres.
FACTORIES.—Supposing that the _raison d’être_ of the village
or garden city be one or more industries in which many of the
inhabitants are employed, where, it will be asked, are the
factories to be placed? Without a definite example of land, it
is difficult to give a definite reply. Many things are essential
to such sites—for instance, the adjacency of a stream, river,
or railway—and if the manufacturer transfers his works to
the country, he will rightly choose the most convenient and
advantageous site for them that offers, and other arrangements
will have to be made in concert with him. Nevertheless, the
factory or factories should be as far as possible from the main
centre, that is on the village or city outskirts. The preferable
position would lie between the north-east and south-west, for
the prevalent south-west wind will then carry away the smoke in
summer, when the villagers indulge in outdoor life, while the
north and easterly winds of winter will carry it over the village
when they are indoors. Screens of trees should be planted between
the village and the factories as soon as possible.
PLOTS FOR HOUSES.—As to the treatment of the plots for houses:
should the road cut into the land it need not necessarily be
levelled, but taken as it is; the gables will thus present a
desirable variation of level, and the ridge line will be less
monotonous. An endeavour should be made, however, always to get
the plots not less than 18 ins. above the level of the crown
of the road, otherwise the drainage will be troublesome and
expensive.
As soon as the house is erected, it is well to set hedges of
thorn or beech, both along the roadside and between the houses.
Until these are grown, the ordinary iron hurdle, or light-railed
wooden fence, might serve.
It is advisable to arrange the building plots so that the houses
on either side of the road do not come exactly opposite each
other; the houses should be so arranged as to face the open space
opposite.
GARDENS.—At Bournville the average garden-space allowed each
house is 600 square yards, this being found to be about as much
as the average man can well attend to. (This means there will be
from eight to twelve cottages to the acre.) The laying out is
done prior to the tenant’s occupation of the house. A description
of the way the Bournville gardens are laid out is given, with a
plan, on page 23.
When the houses are placed at the end of the plot remote from
the road, any hard and fast lines in the style of the garden
should be avoided: apple and other fruit-trees, or an occasional
kitchen-garden, may be placed in a prominent position, for
even the trim flower-garden might be varied with advantage. A
preference has already been expressed for having the garden
adjacent to the house rather than the allotment garden at a
distance, but at the same time the latter plan may be sometimes
forced upon us. Undoubtedly the rivalry that is encouraged among
gardeners congregated together in allotment gardens is good and
healthy, but the inconvenience to the household of the distance
between home and garden would suggest the adoption of the former
whenever it is possible, and even where there is an allotment
there should still be a small plot adjacent to the house.
While endeavouring to get as much light and air space as possible
in the village, it will frequently be found necessary to erect
cottages in blocks of four, and sometimes of eight. In order to
give adequate garden-space, even to small houses, and not in long
thin strips, the frontage of the land will have to be broad; a
rule should be made, therefore, of spreading the houses laterally
by arranging the staircase of each house, not between the back
and front rooms, but between the houses. This will bring the
outside houses nearer to the extremity of the land, and will not
only give each garden the desired straightness and breadth, but
afford a greater breadth of view upon it from within.
In conclusion, it might be again stated that most of the remarks
under this head—which are mainly arranged from notes taken or
suggested during the planning and working out of the Bournville
Estate—are broad and suggestive rather than insistent, and it is
probable that the setting out of particular land will not admit
of the adoption of many of the principles here laid down.
BRADBURY, AGNEW & CO., LD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and adjacent to where they are discussed.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added,
when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
Pg 17: ‘necessiting’ replaced by ‘necessitating’.