Making an Irish Free State City – The Lecture of Patrick Abercrombie

Principal of the Cork School of Commerce, DJ Coakley, in his quest for a town plan for Cork in the 1920s, was inspired by the work and survey work of UK town planners Patrick Geddes and Patrick Abercrombie (continued from last week).

However, it was only in early 1922, that DJ was able to get Patrick Abercrombie to Cork to discuss in person a civic survey for Cork itself. In preparation for the visit, DJ Coakley worked with others, especially the technical education committees in Cork in creating a series of public lectures dealing in greater detail with the different aspects of town planning. The lectures were delivered under the auspices of the Cork Literary and Scientific Society and the Cork Incorporated Chamber of Commerce, and Shipping.

At a conference of the principal citizens, held at the Cork School of Art, in March 1922, the Cork Town Planning Association was formed, and subsequently Prof. Abercrombie, and Sydney Kelly were invited and agreed to act as special advisors to the Association. DJ Coakley, Principal of the Cork School of Commerce, became honorary secretary of the association.

On 31 May 1923, on the invitation of the Executive Committee of the Cork Town Planning Association, Prof. Abercrombie, Dept of Civic Design, University of Liverpool delivered an address to members and those interested in the subject of town planning as it applied to Cork.

The UK National Biography for Professor Patrick Abercrombie reveals an architect whose recurrent pre-occupation was with the human side of his profession – his concept of a town as primarily the setting for human life, rather than a mere pattern of roads and land uses. His work through his career strongly emphasised the need to preserve and underpin the traditional character of each locality. Abercrombie was also influenced personally as an architect by the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and by Baron Georges-Eugéne Haussmann (1809-1891) whose city planning of Paris he admired. Hence Patrick Abercrombie had an interest in creating wide boulevards and public squares, where the emphasis was on the public.

The Cork Examiner records that on 1 June 1923, Prof. Abercrombie, in rising to address the Cork meeting, said that at the invitation of the Cork Executive committee he was in Cork during the previous week discussing with local architects on the subject of a town plan for Cork. He was glad to note that there had already a great deal of valuable preliminary survey work had been done.

The first question Prof. Abercrombie presented was in the direction of ‘Is there a future for Cork?’. He detailed that all those with whom he had been in consultation since he came to Cork – “professional men, businessman and others”, were all convinced that there was a “bright future in store for Cork”. He pointed that the best proof of this was contained in the many schemes for development ongoing, such as the harbour reclamation developments in Tivoli.

Prof. Abercrombie’s second point called for town planning “to develop on right lines”. All unregulated future developments, he noted, would be a “source of additional expense and wasting energy in carrying on the business of the city”, and future improvements would be “made as costly as to be almost prohibitive”. He instanced several examples of manufacturing areas in England where the absence of this control and guidance in the past that had produced in his opinion as “deplorable results” and which were all the more serious as improvements could be “affected on enormous cost”. He emphasised the importance of “thinking and planning and building up of cities”.

Professor Abercrombie argued that there were important propositions to be faced in Cork such as new housing, a new cattle market, new traffic routes, building new public buildings such as City Hall, and creating new industrial areas. Instead of each of these been dealt with separately the whole problem, he asserted, was that they should be looked at as “one broad connection”.

The next question that Professor Abercrombie touched upon was the question of regional development. The question had be tackled as to whether Cork was to develop independent of adjoining areas, or whether the city would ultimately extend so as to join up with important areas which were “thought of as wholly unconnected”.

Another point raised by Prof. Abercrombie was that Cork was “lucky in many respects”. It had a number of very wide streets radiating from informing a natural centre for a city four or five times as large as the contemporary one. He noted that the time was opportune as much new building had to be undertaken due to the destruction by the Burning of Cork in 1920. He called for the keeping in mind the importance of an official central space, as well as a cultural Centre.

In his conclusions, Professor Abercrombie called for legislation and connection with town planning to be introduced into the Irish Free State. He recalled that English legislation only allowed for suburban planning and not city centre planning. He noted that in America, France, and other countries the scope of the legislation was on broader lines and town centres had a focus. His closing remarks was that the preparation of a town plan required time and should “not be rushed”.

In response to the professor’s address, audience participants such as John Callaghan Foley of the Cork Chamber of Commerce praised the work done on Cork’s civic survey to that point. He noted that the work being pursued was taking a long view, remaining positive and was “showing no pessimism”. The city was already deeply interested in the question of regional survey through the commissioning of important reports in the development of Cork Harbour by Mr Nicholson, from Seattle.

June Historical Walking Tours with Kieran: All tours free, 2 hours, no booking required.

Saturday 27 June: The Northern Ridge, St Patrick’s Hill to MacCurtain St; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill at 2pm (finishes on MacCurtain St).

Sunday 28 June: The Banks of the Lee, The Lee Fields and its Heritage, meet at the western end of the Lee Fields footpath, Ballincollig side, as it meets the farm fields at 6.30pm.

Monday 29 June: The Marina, meet at western end adjacent Shandon Boat Club, The Marina, City end carpark at 6.30pm.