THE PLANNING OF OPEN SPACES IN THE CITY 
By John W. Simpson 
A PAPER READ BEFORE TEIE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS 
IT may be stated, without fear of contradiction, 
that while such matters as public health, con¬ 
trol and acceleration of traffic, improvement of 
ground values, restrictive Building Acts, and the like, 
have been exhaustively treated (and that to the pub¬ 
lic advantage), the artistic side of city planning has 
been almost entirely neglected in England, and I do 
not suppose that our authorities even realise its ex¬ 
istence. The laying out of new streets and roads is 
nowadays looked upon as purely technical engineer¬ 
ing. It was not thus that the cities were created which 
are still the wonder and delight of the civilised world. 
The point of view of the artist is, therefore, that to 
which I invite your attention; and in doing so let me 
affirm our position by pointing out that art is a real 
and living force, demanding full recognition of all 
practical considerations which affect it. The finest 
art, then, is that which most completely and most 
beautifully solves the conditions of the problems 
presented to it. The leading canons of composition 
are common to all the arts, and chief among them is 
that which insists upon the subordination of parts in 
order to obtain vigour in the complete work. If your 
picture, your book, your drama, or your symphony, 
be throughout of equal force, the result is monotony. 
So with a city, we must husband our resources if we 
are to obtain an artistic whole. If we scatter indis¬ 
criminately the material which makes for beauty 
(and for our purpose this material is represented by 
' 1:1250 
FIG. I—NUREMBERG 
the public buildings and monuments) it will be 
swallowed up in the general mass and fail of its full 
effect. In this, as in many other matters of art, we 
have lost sight of that tradition from which all ad¬ 
vance must be made, and without which none is pos¬ 
sible. 
The Greeks in the Acropolis, the Romans in the 
Forum, gave us a model for all time of the way to con¬ 
centrate the forces at our disposal for the beautifying 
of a city. Contrast the effect of such spaces, enclosed 
by splendid edifices and adorned with countless mas¬ 
terpieces of plastic and architectural art, with the 
forlorn bronze figure stranded on its pedestal amid a 
tearing stream of traffic, which represents the mod¬ 
ern idea of a public monument. Its very costume 
strikes a jarring note in sucb surroundings, instead of 
recalling grateful memories of a personality; none 
may pause to study it but at his proper risk of life; 
and, with a disgusting contempt of his dignity, the 
guardians of a hero’s memorial have now discovered 
in it the incongruous site for a public convenience. 
The “place” of mediaeval and Renaissance times is 
the direct descendant of the antique Forum. I use 
the term “place” because our nearest English word 
“square” connotes quite other associations, and is 
inaccurate in its implied regularity. The ancient 
“place” was rarely either regular or square. 
It is curious to reflect how entirely the “place” is 
ignored in our modern city plans for extensions and 
improvements. The shapeless and congested space 
where many arteries of traffic meet is accepted with¬ 
out protest as its successor. Granted that the chang¬ 
ed conditions of public life render the “place” no 
longer necessary as a common centre of exchange and 
commerce, it may yet be well to examine our fathers’ 
works and sgve of the artistic heritage what may be 
adapted to our circumstances. We cannot assert 
that Eudgate Circus is more beautiful than the Sig- 
FIG. 3—PERUGIA 
I—Piazza del Viscovato. II—Piazza di 
S. Lorenzo. Ill—Piazza del Papa, 
a—Duomo. b—Palazzo Communale 
FIG. 4 —PADUA 
Piazza del Santo, a—Column, b—Statue 
of Gattemala 
