Postcard From Stevenage...

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30901, 6 November 1965, Page 5

Postcard From Stevenage...

by

MOLNAR

TN the past all planning was done by architects, but they did not know it. After the war architects were replaced by planners. These were clever young men, who knew everything, including what everybody should have. People only knew what they wanted. Planners were a great success. Their only fault was they could not read maps. So they were reinforced by geographers, who could. And this is the way things are at the moment. Planners have created many new towns. Stevenage is one of them. They were to drain off the surplus population of London. People love to live in new towns, and they never return to their former habitats. This was made sure by demolishing them immediately. In the old towns people lived in streets, squares. In new ones they live so many per acre. This is more scientific as it applies equally to sheep and cattle. Living units are two-storey, kitchen, lounge downstairs, bedrooms upstairs. The English always managed to live above themselves. From the crowd and noise of old

cities people escape into the peace and quiet of new housing.- To escape from the peace and quiet of new housing they build town centres. This corresponds roughly to the village square of old; the church is replaced by a clock tower and public lavatories. Town centres have Art. This can be of two kinds; a spiky statue, with or without water, or a rounded one in stone, whose main characteristic is climbability. Childrens playgrounds have the same embellishments, a felled tree with polished trunk, a poor man’s Henry Moore. Town centres have Nature. These are flowers in cement pots and thin trees, carefully house-broken so as not to interfere with pipes. Town centres have a supermarket, a youth club, a bowling centre, a cinema and a Chinese restaurant. Thus all human aspirations are catered for and they are the Beating Heart of the Community. New towns are like Canberra really. They haven't got Canberra's climate, which makes them worse, but then they have not politicians, which makes them better. Ultimately there is nothing wrong with new towns except that they're new.