Leslie Patrick Abercrombie: English town planner

Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (1879 – 1957), influential British town planner and architect, who is known for his postwar “The Greater London Plan”. He was knighted in 1945.

Born in Ashton-upon-Mersey, the son of a Manchester stockbroker, Abercrombie was one of nine children. He attended Uppingham School and become an apprenticed to architects in Manchester.

In 1907 he was offered a post as junior lecturer and studio instructor at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture, where later he became professor of civic design from 1915 to 1935. During those twenty years Abercrombie produced a multitude of studies and reports on many areas in England and Wales, and, during his Presidency of the Town Planning Institute, published The Preservation of Rural England (1926) which led to the formation of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE).

He then moved to University College, London, where he was professor of town planning from 1935 to 1946. He won the 1913 competition for replanning Dublin and wrote the standard prewar textbook Town and Country Planning (1933)

Abercrombie, in association with John Henry Forshaw (1895–1973), was appointed to prepare a plan for post-war rebuilding in the County of London, and was also given the task of planning the whole area around the County.

His first London plan was extended in 1944, with the help of a team of specialists, to The Greater London Plan, which was influential in planning the transport, population, distribution, industry, green belt, and other amenities of Greater London.

He prepared plans for other UK towns and regions including Edinburgh, Plymouth, Hull, Bath, Bristol, Sheffield, Bournemouth, and West Midlands.
Leslie Patrick Abercrombie: English town planner

College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge

College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge or St John’s College was founded in 1511 by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. The college is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.

Before that, a monastic community – the Hospital of St John – stood here. By the early 16th century, it had fallen into decay.

Saint John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and chaplain to Lady Margaret persuaded Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, to found a College on the site. Sadly, she died in 1509, before formal permission to establish St John’s was finally granted in 1511. The Charter, signed by the Executors of the Lady Margaret, is dated 9th April 1511; in this Robert Shorton is named as Master.

In November 1512 the Court of Chancery allowed Lady Margaret's executors to pay for the foundation of the college from her estates.

The College made an excellent start, and was soon full of earnest and successful students. It is sufficient to mention the names of Sir John Cheke, the famous Greek scholar; of Roger Ascham, the tutor of Queen Elizabeth; and, in another sphere, William Cecil, first Lord Burghley, to give an idea of the influence the College was spreading.
College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge