Sixty years on from the London County Council: legacy, impact, learning
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Sixty years on from the London County Council: legacy, impact, learning
Locations: The London School of Architecture, Trinity Centre Dalston, Beechwood Rd, London E8 3DY and The London Archives, 40 Northampton Rd, London EC1R 0HB
Dates: Film screening event on the evening of Wednesday 26th March (The London Archives) and conference Thursday 27th and Friday 28th March, 09:30 – 18:00 (The London School of Architecture)
It has been said that a doctor can bury his mistakes but that an architect must live with the ones he makes. The Council with its continuing life, already spanning two generations, has had to live with the results of any errors made by itself or its servants. It knows the outcome of many experiments and knows full well what stands the test of time.
London County Council, Housing: a survey of the post war housing work of the LCC 1945-49, London, (1949) Foreword by Isaac Hayward Leader of the LCC.
The London County Council (LCC) was the municipal authority for the County of London between 1889 and 1965 when it was replaced by the Greater London Council (GLC). Although the LCC was the largest and most ambitious local authority in England and its impact on London’s built environment, politics, culture and history has been acknowledged as significant, this has been overlooked both in academia and by the wider public. Its reach was wide, covering all aspects of Londoners’ lives (such as schools, hospitals, art, infrastructure and housing), and the LCC’s legacy on the fabric of London is in evidence all around us.
The County of London covered what we now think of as inner London and was formed of land from the counties of Surrey, Kent and Middlesex, with boundaries and sprawl ever an issue. The LCC bordered other councils and had powers outside the county, for instance with the building of out-of-county estates such as Becontree. In 1957, the Herbert Commission was formed to discuss establishing a Greater London Council taking in a wider geographical area and this led to the 1963 London Government Act and the abolition of the LCC. William Eric Jackson’s book ‘Achievement: A Short History of the London County Council’ (1965) the first attempt to characterise the scope of what had been accomplished.
This conference marks sixty years since the LCC was disbanded, and aims to build on Andrew Saint’s collection of essays, Politics and the People of London: The London County Council, 1889-1965(1989) with the author noting the LCC’s contribution being ‘crucial to the growth of and development of modern London.’ This event will also act as a follow-up to the findings of the March 2002 ‘London County Council Architecture, 1945-1965’ conference hosted by the Twentieth Century Society (Andrew Saint and Elain Harwood) along with the Architectural Association. This provided the opportunity for staff and a wider audience to reminisce, but also reassess, the impact of the LCC nearly 40 years after its demise.
Sixty years on, we are in a social, cultural and political climate both removed from, and with similarities to, the LCC years.
Tickets are free for the film screening evening at the London Archives, and £25 for each day at London School of Architecture, to include refreshments and lunch.
Dr. Ruth Lang, Dr. Dawn Pereira and Dr. Rosamund Lily West, LCC 60 organisers.
Please contact LCC60yearson@gmail.com for any queries.
Conference Schedule
Thursday 27 March
• 9:30 Coffee/registration
• 9:45 Introductions/overview
• 10:00 SCARCITY: Chair: Tamsin Silvey
• 10:05 Claire Jamieson ‘Public architecture on trial’
• 10:25 Danielle Hewitt ‘The London County Council War Debris Service: tracing material movements and movements of war’
• 10:45 Colin Thom ‘The early LCC and building conservation in London’
• 11:05 Discussion
• 11:25 Howard Spencer, Rebecca Preston, Susan Skedd: introduction to the visual presentation
• 11:30 BREAK Howard Spencer, Rebecca Preston, Susan Skedd (Historic England) visual presentation: ‘‘Indication of Houses of Historical Interest’: The London County Council and the London Blue Plaques Scheme, 1901–65’
• 11:45 HOUSING Chair: Mike Althorpe
• 12:05 Ian Hunt ‘LCC Housing in its second phase: block dwellings and lodging houses by J.G. Stephenson and J.R. Stark’
• 12:25 Cathy Hawley ‘A Crisis in Housing The 1946 squatting movement and the London County Council’
• 12:45 Miles Glendinning ‘The Thirty Years War: The LCC and London’s conflictual post-war housing system’
• 13:05 Discussion
• 13:25 LUNCH
• 14:25 CARE: Chair: Dinah Bornat
• 14:30 Jessamy Carlson ‘Roots of responsibility’ the LCC ‘in loco parentis’ 1933-1964’
• 14:50 Sally Watson ‘”A place to play with other children”: The London County Council and 1950s experiments with play’
• 15:10 Katherine Hersee ‘The LCC’s programme of green space creation in post-war London’
• 15:30 Discussion
• 15:50 Jill Stewart: introduction to the visual presentation
• 15:55 BREAK Jill Stewart, visual presentation: ‘South Oxhey: A new post second world war out of county LCC estate’
• 16:10 PEOPLE: Chair Nabil Al-Kinani
• 16:15 Rosamund Lily West ‘The Browns and the Citizens: the use of the figure of the Londoner in the LCC’s wartime and post-war planning’
• 16:35 Rob Ellis and Ute Oswald ‘Asylum: Refugees and Mental Health. Belgian Refugees in London during World War I’
• 16:55 Tina Hodgkinson ‘Experiences of Children in the Care of the London County Council from 1930 to 1965’
• 17:15 Discussion
• 17:35 Wrap up
• 17:40 Wine
Friday 28 March
• 09:30 Coffee/registration
• 09:45 OUTSIDE LONDON Chair: tbc
• 09:50 Jade Hunter and Ellie Pritchard ‘From the East End to Essex: Afterlives of the Cockney Diaspora in Harold Hill and Harlow’
• 10:10 Lisa Brown ‘Yorkshire Modern – The Gregory Fellows at the Outdoor Sculpture Exhibitions 1950-1964’
• 10:30 Julian Williams ‘Tours of Our Estates’
• 10:50 Discussion
• 11:10 Harshada Deshpande: introduction to the visual presentation
• 11:15 BREAK Harshada Deshpande (title tbc)
• 11:30 PROCESS/IMPACT Chair: Jerry White
• 11:35 Natcha Ruamsanitwong ‘‘A very popular appointment’: Leslie Martin as LCC Chief Architect, 1953-1956’
• 11:55 Otto Saumarez Smith ‘Swedophilia in the London County Council Architects Department, Ethic or Aesthetic?’
• 12:15 Dawn Pereira ‘The Art Patronage Legacy of the London County Council; ‘Victoriana Has No Place Here Now’.
• 12:35 Jessica Kelly ‘Publicising Architects: the LCC, RIBA and the BBC’
• 12:55 Discussion
• 13:15 LUNCH
• 14:15 LEGACY + PRACTICE Chair: tbc
• 14:20 John Davis ‘With a Whimper: The End of the LCC, 1957-65’
• 14:40 Jill Stewart and Zoe Hendon ‘Learning through immersion: walking through Greenwich’s London County Council housing’
• 15:00 Nicola Stacey ‘A new life for LCC art’
• 15:20 Discussion
• 15:40 Ruth Crowley: introduction to the visual contribution
• 15:45 BREAK Ruth Crowley, ‘”Tower Gardens” the foremost housing achievement of the London County Council – A resident’s experience’
• 16:00 CONCLUDING REMARKS Chair: John Gold
• 16:20 Wine
• 17:10 END