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The history of man can be found in the history of his town.
In the past town builders were all dominated by one idea.
Religion filled the minds of one generation of town builders.
Others were obsessed by the idea of defence, some by the demands of trade.
The ruling passion was sometimes so urgent that everything had to be sacrificed to it,
as in the case of the early Britons who built their town on this hill.
Here's the site of the town, well above the valleys where danger might lurk.
It's protected by ramparts of earth, strengthened with timber and stone.
Inside these ramparts lived a community of 4,000 people.
Their town symbolised security.
But it was not secure against the better armaments of the invading Romans,
who believed in strong military power.
In this peaceful field once stood the great Roman town of Silchester.
Look at the map of the town.
It was planned with straight roads so the troops could man the defences quickly.
Here was the town centre.
Here the church.
Here the industrial quarter.
Here the houses with gardens that dwellers in England have always loved.
But the Romans withdrew from Britain and their towns decayed.
Then about the fifth century came the Angles and Saxons,
who settled among the Britons and became the English.
They built their family houses in little communities in valleys.
As they became Christian their towns were grouped around the church or the simple village cross.
To the English the ideal life was a plain democratic village life,
but their organisation was weak on the military side.
It was superseded by the feudal system brought in by the Normans.
Its symbol was the castle, its ideal the military life.
And so the Saxon village changed into the small feudal town planned round the castle, which gave protection.
The feudal town was surrounded by walls and could only be entered through well-guarded gates.
Everyone had to live inside the walls so as the population grew,
the buildings inside the town became terribly overcrowded,
with unhealthy narrow streets and dark alleyways.
The feudal town was the beginning of urban congestion.
Wait a minute, are you being quite fair?
Overcrowding didn't begin in our medieval towns, you know. They had embattlements and there was no room.
Our towns like this one here were not congested at first and many of them were well planned.
It wasn't our fault if the needs of defence prevented us from extending our towns.
Look at Winchelsea, planned by Edward I, with its pleasant open places and gardens.
Here is the excellent plan to which the town was built.
The wide, gracious streets he laid out 700 years ago still remain for you to enjoy in the present day.
That's true. The idea in the plan was all right as far as it went.
But it did not provide for growth.
When feudalism decayed and fortifications fell into ruins,
a great chance was lost to build a ring road round the towns on the site of the fortifications.
Instead houses were built outside the walls and the centre grew more crowded than ever.
Men neglected fortifications and were enthusiastic for commerce.
Their new towns were squeezed onto good trading sites, like Rye on a hill between marshes and river.
In these towns the houses took one another's light, and there was very little air.
But as there was no wheeled transport there still was plenty of room to get about.
As the ruling idea was trade, the towns now centred around the town hall or a similar building such as the market house.
As the woollen industry grew more valuable in England,
a town like Chipping Camden was grouped round its wool market which was the heart of the town.
With their profits from trade, the merchants of the 15th and 16th centuries built lovely churches,
and the church made a second and spiritual focal point for the town.
In the new towns and new parts of the old towns,
there were wider streets for wheeled traffic, which was becoming common.
The houses were built further apart. There were wide marketplaces.
The towns were the centre of life and were thronged with people.
Though the towns grew, those of two or three hundred years ago were still very small as seen by modern eyes.
The boundary between town and country was sharply marked,
but already all the tendencies we see today were beginning on a smaller scale.
Houses spread along the roads leading out of the town,
but still the countryside was almost always in view at the end of the street
and practically everyone lived within a stone's throw of trees and open spaces.
And if types of houses were jumbled together - the larger house beside the tiny cottage -
this perhaps was good, for there was no segregation of rich and poor in the town.
But 200 years ago, as commerce grew still further, a new idea took the place of trade in men's minds.
Haphazard comfort gave way to the idea of elegance and art.
You see this especially in the 18th century holiday town such as Bath and Cheltenham.
Yes, there may have been fine plans in my day, but they were only for the rich, not for ordinary town dwellers.
The town was no place for the masses to lead a good life,
but a place where a few could live a life of ease and luxury.
Look where the children, the servants and the poor relations were stowed away in these houses,
in the attics and basements.
It's all very well for you to praise our terraces and crescents.
You've forgotten the slums that grew up behind them.
Yes, that's fine. All the same, this idea of design was nearing perfection in the Regency period.
But about 120 years ago, elegance gave place to the greatest passion of modern times - to industry.
This was the age of the development of the machine, which gave the whole country a colossal expansion of wealth.
But a never-lifting lifting pall of smoke hung about the 18th-century industrial towns,
where furnaces and machines were housed.
And what about the men, women and children who tended these machines?
Where did they sleep when they left the factories?
Their houses as you see here were huddled together without plan or order.
What sort of life could people live in places like these? How could they live a healthy balanced life?
Yes, yes I know. Our Victorian towns were crowded and hideous.
But don't forget what we got after.
In these towns we were building up the industrial activity from which you are now reaping the benefits.
All classes of you.
The better clothes, the more varied food, the thousand-and-one conveniences and luxuries
which you now regard as commonplace.
And you can't say more against the towns and times than the Victorians said themselves.
What is more, we made a big start with putting things right.
We widened streets, we built artisan homes - ugly maybe, but sanitary.
We put up the first working-class flats.
Yes it's true, we must admit that in these times they laid the foundations of the country's prosperity.
But their tremendous progress outran their powers of control.
As more and more people were needed to work in the factories and industries,
more and more streets were built without plan or order.
Not that town dwellers of the last hundred years had no pride in their towns. They had.
They built many fine buildings. The town builders performed marvellous engineering feats.
They built wonderful bridges.
They raised great town halls to encourage a sense of citizenship.
To help people get about the towns they showed great enterprise with bus and tram services.
But business, the predominating idea in men's minds, produced tall office buildings in the very heart of the town.
Factories stood beside office buildings and workshops next to houses.
Dwellers in these big towns were completely divorced from the countryside.
They were enveloped in bricks and mortar.
Dominated by the idea of factories and commerce, the old towns as well as the new grew into monstrosities.
The ancient marketplace was no longer the centre of anything.
Flats and houses 50 years ago were built haphazard round no centre at all.
How could people live a good life in towns where everything was muddled?
But never forget that men came together in these towns to work, earn their livings.
But the very evil produced its remedy. So came the first real attempts at modern town planning.
Port Sunlight, where outside the worker's door was open space, greenery,
safe playgrounds for children, recreation for adults.
Bournville, emphasising the need of trees and flowers to give beauty,
of good schools.
The charm of gardens to family homes.
Ebenezer Howard, the pioneer of garden cities, built Letchworth with tree-lined roads and a town centre.
The first complete new town where people could live as well as work in pleasant surroundings.
The first town laid in a green belt, planned for unlimited growth.
And soon after it, Welwyn, another planned town.
Also a complete community, with factories, offices and every kind of public building.
Here the greatest care was taken both for architecture and for the preservation of natural beauty.
But this development was interrupted by the war of 1914-1918.
When the soldiers returned, they brought back a dream of home.
This led to an onslaught on the slums as a prelude to new building.
But once more men concentrated chiefly on only one good and important thing - on housing - and forgot many others.
Housing on new estates was often not related to factory building,
or to the creation of good communities.
Vast numbers of houses were built in the suburbs of existing towns and so new problems were created.
Long distances from shops and from town centres, long distances of houses from work.
As a result, workers had to make long and tiring journeys to and from the centre.
[music plays]
And the town centres got even more crowded.
Trying to escape from the towns, men built further still from the centre.
So there was ribbon development - long lines of houses along the new main roads leading out of the towns.
And the town builders forgot security. They didn't think about another war and bombing from the air.
[planes droning]
[explosion]
[planes droning]
Well, we know all about it now.
It has cleared parts of the old towns' forest,
and has given a new impetus to plan the towns of the future.
But it's not enough to clear the ruins and to house people.
As we plan, we should remember the town dwellers must have work, but they need space and amenities as well.
We see now that if we're to build good towns we need to have not one ruling idea,
but balanced ideas.
In planning the town, we must take account of the nature of the site.
Good communications are essential, railways and roads.
Industries should be grouped close together.
But people want to live near their work, so the placing of residential areas must be wisely planned.
Shopping centres should well placed in order to save labour.
There must be churches, schools, inns and public buildings.
We must remember that people need to be near open country.
Space must be provided for air fields.
Already we've made a start in Britain.
Planned towns have been built where roads have been made pleasant by tree-lined borders.
Where houses stand close to the open country with plenty of light and air.
Houses which are a pleasure to parents and children alike.
Shelters have been made where groups of neighbours can meet and talk, where the outlook is bright and cheerful.
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There are playgrounds for the children to play in safety.
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Blocks of flats, not barracks, have been erected in pleasant surroundings, in the middle of parks and gardens.
The designers of these towns did not forget the shops are necessary,
and are much more convenient when placed close to the houses.
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Factories are situated not too far from the workers' homes, thus avoiding the waste of time spent in travelling.
and the factories are modern and designed to fit in with a general scheme.
Theatres,
cinemas,
and cheerful inns,
with restaurants where friends can meet to pass the time of day.
While there are swimming pools for the more energetic.
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Transport between neighbouring towns and villages has not been forgotten.
Good bus services, pleasant stations with frequent trains,
modern roads for motoring, and country lanes with good services for cyclists.
Churches,
modern schools with plenty of light, space and air.
First-class hospitals.
And civic centres away from the crowded heart of the town,
so that citizens can take a real interest in their own affairs.
This has already begun in Britain.
To make it general will take time but it is well worth working and waiting for.
But we mustn't concentrate on one single thing in town building and forget the rest as they did in the past.
We must remember all these things:
Industry, homes and the community.
Beauty efficiency, good living and safety.
Plan for these and make these islands once again the happiest community in the world.
[music plays]