REDISCOVERING RADBURN

Professor Carenza LewisDr Ian Waites

Back to back houses in Leeds 1947 © Leeds Library and Information Service

Clem Rutter, Rochester, Kent. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46178673

Staithes(Yorks) in

C19th

Pinterest

Providence Place, London, 1909 (London Metropolitan Archives)

Radburn, New Jersey: a 20th century ‘Utopia’?

In 1928, work began on a ‘garden city’ at Radburn, New Jersey, the brainchild of Clarence Stein and Henry Wright.

Aims:

• Nurture communities by providing open communal spaces, community centres, play areas and shops

• Separate pedestrians from cars by facing frontages onto pedestrian paths

Radburn-type layouts became the ‘go-to’ plan across post-war Britain

• 1961 - “…the Radburn system provides ‘open spaces which people can really use … [making] … life safer for the pedestrian and car parking and garaging easier’ (Blachnicki and Browne 1961, 323).

• 1964 – calls for ‘the logical extension of the Radburn principle … to apply it to bigger areas and units’ (Spurrier 1964, 355).

• By 1979 – the layout of a new local authority housing scheme at East Hanningfield, Essex described a ‘conventional and well-tried … variant of Radburn planning’. (Architectural Review, March 1979)

‘the persuasive power of architects who believed in the coming Utopia when everyone would live in cheap, prefabricated flat-roofed multiple dwellings – heaven on earth’ (Lynsey Hanley. 2007. Estates: An Intimate History, Granta, p.49)

‘… the desolation that is felt at the realisation of the maddest of all Utopian schemes, the open-planned housing complex, where streets are replaced by empty spaces from which towers arise, towers bearing neither the mark of a communal order, nor any visible record of the individual house … both community and the individual are abolished …’ (Roger Scruton, 1979)

‘… It became increasingly obvious during the 1970s that either something was very wrong with the people or something was terribly wrong with the new homes. Because, put simply, the British did not like the utopias into which they were being so unceremoniously decanted.’ (Nicholas Boys Smith. 2014. The 1970s. The decade when Britain’s housing utopia turned into a nightmare. http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2014/12/nicholas-boys-smith-the-1970s-the-decade-when-britains-housing-utopia-turned-into-a-nightmare.html

Criticisms of Radburn

Radburn in Lincolnshire - Middlefield Lane, Gainsborough

Middlefield Lane, Gainsborough - Development1880s

1950s

1970s

1980s

Middlefield Lane, Gainsborough in the 1960s

• Popplewell’s Row was one of several streets demolished in 1964 as part of an initiative described by the town’s MP, Marcus Kimball, as “the drive against the slums, to house people in decent homes” (Waites 2015, 264).

• This was to comprise some 380 homes, a parade of shops and a community centre, all built in just 21 months (Gainsborough Evening News, 9 July 1963).

• ‘I think it’s all rather wonderful. We have a good home, good friends, and we shall always be happy up here. The Council … have done a very good job.’ (Gainsborough Evening News, Tuesday 29 December 1964)

Middlefield Lane, Gainsborough – c. 1972

Middlefield Lane – Pedestrianised Radburn-type layout

‘Exploring Middlefield’s Utopias’ project aims

The project aimed to involve Middlefield Lane estate residents in archaeological excavation and oral history in order to:

– Develop social and cultural capital • Engage residents in university research • Enable residents to learn about the history of the estate• Develop transferrable skills

– Diversify understanding of social impact of community archaeology• Assess the impact of community archaeology on council estate residents• Assess the impact on estate school pupils• Assess the impact of the project on the estate community• Assess the impact of the project beyond the estate

– Advance understanding of the history of the estate• Reconstruct use of the site before the 1960s• Explore the use of space since the estate’s construction• Consider the role of Utopian ideas in understanding the estate’s history

Middlefield Lane – Community excavations

Middlefield Lane – What was discovered

Middlefield Lane – What was discovered

How has the activity affected your knowledge of and attitudes to the archaeology and history of the site, and archaeology and heritage more generally?

I know more about the archaeology and history of the estate

I feel more engaged with the archaeology and history of the estate

I will take more interest in archaeology and history of the estate in the future

I will take more interest in archaeology and history generally in the future

How has the activity helped you develop or improve different transferable skills?

Discussing your own and other people’s ideas

Completing an enquiry looking for new evidence

Using your imagination intelligently to come up with new ideas

Assessing how you and others approach set procedures

Working persistently hard over the two days

Being a good team member by completing own work and helping others

3

2 6

4

31

23

2

1

3

5

Distribution of medieval (12th -

early 16th century) pottery

Middlefield Lane – unknown site of a lost medieval farm?

Below average number

Above average number

100%+ above average

25

2 15

3

74

44

176

1

11

2

2

4 10

3

2

Distribution of all possible 17th

century pottery

Middlefield Lane – unknown site of a 17th century civil war encampment?

Below average number

Above average number

100%+ above average

Middlefield Lane – 20th century estate

Distribution of glass (fragment nos)

Distribution of plastic (fragment nos)

Radburn green

Private garden

School grounds

Road-side green

Below average number

Above average number

100%+ above average

*1

-- 1

2

*1

1-

43

1

1

1

1

- -

1

-

Radburn green

Private garden

School grounds

Road-side green

Below average number

Above average number

100%+ above average

Distribution of toys/child-related items (item nos)

Middlefield Lane – 20th century estate

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

Average numbers of child-related finds per test pit

Middlefield greens

Village gardens

The significance of the child-related finds

Test pits on Radburn greens produced c. 4 times as many child-related finds as similar-sized pits in village gardens, indicating the greens were intensively used for children’s play.

• The number of child-related finds from Middlefield Lane provide tangible evidence to support verbal claims that the Radburn greens were used by children for play and socialization: • “where I lived was like this [gesturing at a Radburn Green]… ”…we used to

have so much fun – we’d be out of the house at nine o’clock in the morning, we’d be shouted back in for our lunch. You just played and you got on with it” (Pool 2016a, 00:40-44); BBC 2017, 00:12-20).

• “…when I was young I used to live on Priory Close [one of the Radburn ‘greens’]… you’d go out and you’d be out ‘til seven, eight, o’clock with your dollies…” (Pool 2016a, 01:44-48)

Gendered use of space on Middlefield Lane?

CORS (91 finds from 398 test pits)

Male gendered % Female gendered % Non-gendered %

Middlefield (20 finds from 20 test pits)

Male gendered % Female gendered % Non-gendered %

Middlefield (20 finds from 20 test pits)

Male gendered % Female gendered % Non-gendered %

CORS (91 finds from 398 test pits)

Male gendered % Female gendered % Non-gendered %

Gendered use of space on Middlefield Lane?

Outcomes

• Built social and cultural capital • Engaged residents in university research • Generated an inspiring shared community experience • Developed transferrable skills• Connected residents with the history of their estate

• Diversified understanding of social impact of community archaeology• Analysed the impact of participation on estate residents• Recorded the impact of the project on the estate community• Explored the future potential of the project beyond the estate

• Advanced understanding of the history of the estate• Reconstructed the use of the site before the 1960s• Explored the reality of C20th life on the estate• Advanced understanding of the value of Radburn plans

Stirling Prize 2019Goldsmith Street, Norwich by Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley

Concluding thoughts …• Archaeological excavation can tell us something new about the use made

of space on 20th century housing estates, and may have considerable potential…

• Finds from Middlefield Lane challenges the view that the design of UK Radburn estates was inappropriate to post-war residents’ needs.

• The value of Radburn estates should be more widely celebrated:• They are an important part of UK twentieth century social history• They have their own heritage – tangible and intangible

• Finds and interviews raise the question of which comes first – the amenity loss of outdoor communal play space, or the cultural change away from outdoor communal play?

• Do awards such as the 2019 Stirling Prize 2019 to ‘modest masterpiece’ Goldsmith Street, Norwich represent the rehabilitation of Radburn?

• The future - what do you, as planners, think the future holds and what would you like to know more about from our ongoing research?...

ReferencesBBC Radio 3. 2018. Free Thinking. 15 November June 2018.

BBC Radio 4. 2017. “Dunkirk Spirit” Making History, 27 June 2017.

Cowman, K. 2017. “Play streets: women, children and the problem of urban traffic”, 1930 – 1970. Social History, 42 (2), 233-256.

Lewis, C. and Waites, I. 2019. “New light on an old problem: Child-related archaeological finds and the impact of the ‘Radburn’ council estate plan.” forthcoming in Journal of Contemporary Archaeology.

Parker, N. and Lewis, C., 2016. Archaeological test pit excavations at Middlefield Lane, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire in 2016. Archive report by Archaeological Project Services and University of Lincoln.

Pool, S. 2016a. Middlefield Dig Hole 1. Edited rushes of film by University of Lincoln.

Pool, S. 2016b. Middlefield Dig Hole 2. Edited rushes of film by University of Lincoln.

Waites, I. 2018. ‘One Big Playground for Kids’: A Contextual Appraisal of some 1970s Photographs of Children Hanging Out on a Post-Second-World-War British Council Estate, Childhood in the Past, 11:2, 114-128.

Waites, I. 2015. “Middlefield: The Development of a Provincial Post-World War Two Council Estate in Lincolnshire 1960-1965.” Midland History 40 (2), 264-285.

Waites, I. 2015. 'Utopias! Experiments in perfection', Paper read to the 2015 Conference of the University of Hertfordshire's Social Science, Arts and Humanities Research Institute (SSAHRI) 12 November 2015, SpirellaBallroom, Letchworth Garden City. Available online at www.academia.edu/21911448/A_paradise_what_an_idea_The_postwar_council_estate_and_Utopia (accessed 14/1/2020)

“The excavations at Middlefield Lane were the first research-driven archaeological excavations targeting a later twentieth century council estate with no known archaeological remains.

They show how finds from such excavations can enrich the heritage of twentieth century housing estates by reconstructing long-term histories, a possible lost medieval settlement and military encampment and 20 generations of agricultural labourers.

Of particular significance, the test pit excavations at Middlefield Lane have provided tangible new archaeological evidence showing how the key features of the ‘Radburn-type’ estate, its pedestrianized greens, were used by its later twentieth century residents, most notably its children, providing a material manifestation of anecdotal recollections by residents.

Excavated finds have shown that children did use the Radburn greens for play, and may even have used these spaces preferentially above other spaces available to them.

This shows that local authorities provided effectively for an important aspect of children’s nurture as they grew up within local post-war council estates – safe, communal, outdoor play space.

This adds substantive new evidential weight to arguments that the ideals of the 1960s estate planners were appropriate for contemporary social needs (Waites 2018), and in doing so undermines suggestions that the subsequent decline of such estates can be ascribed to inherent weaknesses in their original design.”

(Lewis and Waites 2019)