Some Reflections on the Geographical Description and Analysis of Townscapes

Author(s): A. E. Smailes
Source: Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers) , 1955, No. 21 (1955),
pp. 99-115
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of
British Geographers)

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/621275

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SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION
AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES

By A. E. SMAILES, M.A.
(Queen Mary College, University of London)

Introduction

THESE observations are prompted by a consciousness of the general inadequacy

of the treatment of towns in geographical writings, an inadequacy that seems to
characterize what is attempted as much as what is achieved. In broad regional
description reference to towns is usually confined to a consideration of position
and functions. Even detailed specific studies concerned with examination of the
geography of individual towns rarely give much attention to analysis of the urban
scene as a townscape, a tract of landscape distinct from its rural surroundings.
That the townscape is deserving of such anatomical attention by the geo-
grapher is not to be denied. Urban areas provide highly distinctive portions of
the earth's surface that are often individually as well as in aggregate of consider-
able extent. Moreover, for the majority of us they are the familiar settings of
our homes, workplaces, and social life, and the ambit of most of our circulation.
If, as we are often reminded, geography begins at home, we might well give more
attention to the urban scene.
Yet when we examine the geographer's essays in the field of urban morpho-
logy, it is soon apparent that there are influences at work which tend to deflect
him from his truly objective approach, and to distort the picture he presents.
In part these arise from uncritical acceptance of canons of balance in treatment
that belong to other established and naturally different approaches to the study
of towns, notably those of the economic historian and the architect. In part,
however, they show the geographer conditioned, perhaps unduly, by the mater-
ial he finds readily available, but which is not necessarily all or even indeed the
most important data he requires to study and present.
A common type of distortion in the geographical treatment of towns springs
from failure to give due recognition to the extent to which towns as we know
them are products of the quite recent past - the last two centuries or even the
last century. For many towns and for important categories of town this re-
presents the whole life-span. For others, including the majority of British and
European towns, with roots that extend much farther back in time, the olden
town is now only a small kernel embedded in a mass of modern accretions.1
Even this kernel, although its street pattern has been inherited more or less
intact from the remoter past, is usually, so far as its actual fabric is concerned, in
large measure the product of the replacements effected during this same modern
period. Only fossil towns, from which life has largely departed, preserve the old
fabric more intact. They have not been extensively invaded by the new organs
1 A. E. SMAILES, The geography of towns (1953), chaps. v and vi.

99

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100 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES

of townhood, and have escaped envelopment by modern accretion

Yet even in what are today regarded as quite modest towns th
usually dwarf the extent of the kernel, the nuclear area which f
before was the whole settlement. It is quite natural and readi
able that historical and aesthetic descriptions of towns should
attention to the earlier phases, but the geographer's criteria of s
different, and he ought not to follow a conventional literary
pattern in apportioning attention to successive phases of urban d
but should be guided by his own distinctive objectives. In a p
witty commentary on a series of B.B.C. talks in 1954 on the 'ana
countryside', Michael Robbins makes much the same point, plead
tion to the 'ugly bits' of the landscape, and arguing that the
requires this.2 Geographers would do well to remember that, wh
may or may not be, geography is certainly an anatomical study of
regions of the earth's surface, with emphasis on those featu
regions with their essential distinctiveness.
Some words of Professor Wooldridge about the neglect of the
logical past in geomorphology, which describes the historical geo
physical landscape, appear singularly applicable to a treatment of
does not pay proper attention to the past century, and are wort
our context: 'To elide, as we constantly tend to do, some sixty-fiv
of geological process, accountable to Tertiary time, is to im
antiquarian squint to our physiographic interpretations. .. It is a
the roots of some modern politico-social problem in minute and
of the manorial system, ignoring the immediately precedent stag
This tendency applies in marked degree in urban geography, where
squint seriously affects much work which otherwise has the merit of
mental in its approach.
In describing the physical landscape geomorphology was for a
by its dependence upon what the geologist had to offer and was
to attempt itself to fill the gaps of time which the geologist left
his interest. Similarly in urban geography we are prone to follow
preoccupied with urban origins and early development, or the ar
cerned with buildings of aesthetic value, few of which belo
century though fewer still are accorded recognition.
The geographer, however, cannot be justified in shutting his
palaeotechnic and neotechnic contributions to the physiogno
Their quantitative expression is often overwhelmingly importan
phases most of the extensive tracts that are now townscape have
by the transformation of what were previously parts of the rur
far as urban morphology is concerned with street patterns it is a
and proper to lay greater emphasis upon the earlier periods from
2 The Listener, October 28th, 1954, 713.
3S. W. WOOLDRIDGE, 'The upland plains of Britain', Advancement of Science

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 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES 101

of the skeletal lay-out not only of the kernel but of the integ
'development' is inherited. Urban morphology, however, is
dimensional in scope. On the contrary, it is through the sp
which the third dimension assumes in the urban scene that much of its
distinctiveness and variety arise.
Furthermore, the geographer too often allows himself to be circumsc
by his favourite tools; accustomed as he is to dealing with two-dimen
abstractions of reality in the form of maps, he is all too often content wi
indirect approach to the study of towns which other people's maps a
Such pre-occupation with map analysis and documentary material leaves s
incomplete much otherwise admirable work that treats in detail the proc
urban growth in terms of enhancement of functions, population increase
development of the street pattern. The restricted scope of many studies
to arise from undue concern with town maps in place of towns, with the r
sentations as substitutes for reality itself, a pitfall that lies ever open for t
wary geographer. In urban geography the armchair student is all too
prepared to confine his treatment to what is conventionally portrayed on
maps, considered in relation to documentary records and statistics. Admi
old plans and successive editions of the Ordnance Survey large-scale
which often span the modern period of rapid extension of towns, pr
quite invaluable precise data for the study of growth phases; but it is a ser
limited conception of urban morphology that is satisfied with the appear
the town on maps at successive dates, leaving out of account the third di
sion. Yet just this is sometimes offered as a geographer's distinctive w
illustrating the growth that is reflected in successive census figures. In r
however, the town is not merely a street pattern, or disposition of filled an
spaces in two dimensions, but is first and foremost an arrangement of str
that rise from the ground in different shapes. Their vertical component is
real and apparent to the senses of beings of our stature. Some townscapes
homogeneous and simple, others heterogeneous and complex, but all
upon elevation as well as upon ground-plan for their essential character.
Clearly, the recognition of the phases of urban growth from map an
must be supplemented by field study. The geographer must devise and
techniques of urban survey appropriate to his aims. The data thus collecte
in turn provide the material for his special maps that depict the town, not
in terms of functional land use, but also of the building forms and mate
that contribute much both to the general appearance of the town and
distinctiveness of its several parts, the urban regions.
Although dreary monotony is the quality that we associate, not undes
vedly, with vast areas of'our modern townscapes, there are real geogr
differences to be taken account of by techniques of urban survey, differ
more relevant to geographical description than many minutiae of surface
acteristics that attract the attention of specialist colleagues in other branch
our subject. The analysis of their spatial associations within the townscap

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102 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES

their relation to the social geography of towns, as well as to stages of

growth, offers a field that has not yet been ploughed at all deeply. No less
our brethren who rely upon recognizing phenomena that are the obje
identification and study by other disciplines it behoves us as urban geogr
to equip ourselves with the appropriate basic knowledge for our particula
work. It is not sufficient to make do with a general, unspecialized geogra
training, believing that no more is necessary for the pursuit of urban geog
The significant culture phases that have contributed to the developm
the town and are clearly imprinted in its morphology need to be worked
with some precision, and with the help of knowledge available from the
of architecture, town planning, and economic and social history. As with
culture phases of prehistoric archaeology, their precise dating varies from
to area and from town to town, as different styles and materials were adop
different places at varying dates. The coming of the railway, usually at s
date between 1840 and 1870, has in a great many cases been especially signi
It launched towns upon a new period of quickened growth of populati
development of functions, while the railway tracks and station(s) act
important new formative elements whose importance can hardly be exagge
The tracks, through their control upon the location of factories, storage
gasworks, etc. and their cordoning of residential segments, and the station
directing the orientation of extensions of shopping and housing areas, as
powerful new influences in the morphology. All subsequent development
been articulated to them as well as to the old kernel, in relation to which
situation is highly significant.
Besides marking the appearance of a new and potent generator of
growth and functional development and of a major new influence sh
the physical extension and internal reorganization of the urban areas
coming of the railway also made available new materials that were to modi
even transform the appearance of many a townscape. There are usually n
differences between those parts of the urban fabric that survive from the
railway age, when limited transport facilities were responsible for much g
dependence upon local materials, and the later buildings of the railwa
The advent of the railway usually meant the immediate intrusion of cheap
produced bricks and slates. Nevertheless Welsh slates, already extensively
in coastal towns before the railways extended their availability, did not p
trate everywhere at once; and only in much more recent times have bric
tile production become concentrated to the degree that now obtains.4 The
way, however, was responsible for breaking down the dependence of
localities upon really local materials and led to the widespread diffusio
use of new materials which competed effectively because of their cheapn
fitness. The regions over which various distinctive materials have been spr

4 About thirty brickworks, using the Oxford Clay to produce Fletton type bricks, accou
one-third of the country's brick production, while half the roofing tiles are manufactured
Potteries from Coal Measure clays.

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 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES 103

as to contribute to a wider degree of standardization await f

collection of the facts of distribution and their interpretatio
period, source areas, and routes of transmission is important and
for geographical research, but it is not research that can be comp
walls of university departments and libraries.
If the general criticism of the geographical treatment of town
put forward is accepted, it becomes necessary to consider wh
suggestions can be made concerning lines along which work in u
may most usefully be directed so as to redress the balance and e
tent of descriptive analysis of towns. To this end in the two
paper that follow it is proposed first to suggest the field observ
of special significance for townscape analysis and secondly to ur
ance of the comparative study of townscapes as an aspect of geog
that deserves far more attention than it has yet been given.

The Analysis of the Townscape by Urban Survey

The undertaking of urban surveys that distinguish details of
structure of buildings by use of fractional notation techniques in
field work as well as subsequent elaborate mapping and analys
central areas of towns the survey can be carried out only by usin
the scale of 1/2500, though the 1/10,560 scale may suffice to de
tracts of greater homogeneity. What can be achieved single-hande
by the recent study of St. Albans, published in these Transaction
results and surveys of large cities require the combined operatio
workers. The accumulation of such detailed studies of individual towns must
inevitably be a long process, and meantime comparative study of towns nee
not be condemned to mark time completely for lack of such comprehensiv
surveys of numerous and representative towns. It would seem rewarding at thi
stage to attempt to concentrate upon categories of information that can more
readily be assembled and made the basis of generalization. The features tha
invest towns with their personality are generally oft-repeated elements or simpl
associations of elements, together with a relatively few individually significant
structures. Undoubtedly recognition of the essential facts needs field work; bu
they are capable of recognition by rapid reconnaissance survey, and a laborious
building-by-building survey can be dispensed with. Indeed, in very detailed
urban surveys it is all too easy to end by failing to see the town for its buildings
It is not really necessary to depend upon a detailed field survey, carried out by
use of a fractional notation that includes details about building material, to
arrive at a valid generalization about the materials that often give a uniform
tone to the town as a whole or elsewhere distinguish clearly between its variou
5 A. J. HUNT, 'The techniques and value of urban land-use survey', Indian Geographical Society
Silver Jubilee Souvenir and N. Subrahmanyam Memorial Volume (1952), 106-13.
6 H. S. THURSTON, 'The urban regions of St. Albans', Transactions and Papers, 1953, No. 19,
Institute of British Geographers (1953), 107-21.
H

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104 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES

parts. A map drawn by plotting the details of the relevant digits c

labour the obvious generalization that rapid reconnaissance would
and at the same time qualify it by noting a few exceptions, and might
pretentious and pedantic.
Apart from such quality of tone and the character imparted by
features of its site, the townscape depends for its distinctiveness and va
the balance between spaces and structures, and upon the varied textur
present. A few basic forms are especially responsible for the differen
acter of the modern development of the fabric of towns, which in urba
presents the major practical problem of area coverage. These form
terrace, the villa and the block, each of which, typically multiplied over
townscape, produces a distinctive texture in relief which may be
respectively as ribbing, studding or clumping. Each form has pre
antecedents, the block represented in antiquity by the Roman insu
both terrace and villa flowered in Georgian times as residences of the g
town or suburb respectively. As especially widespread and characterist
tures of our towns, however, they pertain to distinctive phases an
modern development. Here they are associated with other elements th
acterize these phases and zones; and the contrasts are further heightene
addition of tone differences to those of texture, since some at least of t
ences in materials also correspond broadly with these. Thus slate
especially characteristic of the terrace and of the period before 1914,
roofing of later villa development, while modern blocks often use the
ium, concrete. Other differences in tone which depend upon the d
development, the relationship between green vegetation-covered surfa
hard mineral-constructed surfaces (whether buildings or paved g
correspond with these basic texture patterns.
The Georgian prototypes of terrace housing, represented in the ear
sions of our olden towns before the railway age, still give a peculiar q
urbanity and dignity to these parts of the townscape, even when their
are somewhat in decay. Losing this earlier architectural distinction, th
was adopted as the general form for mass-housing in the palaeotechni
urban expansion that followed. The earliest tracts of factory hous
decayed, have been largely cleared and replaced, but extensive are
obsolescent Victorian housing, especially of the period towards the en
century when building was controlled and considerably standardized b
legislation, persist as serried ranks of terraces that consist usuall
storeyed dwellings built of brick and slate. Except for a few larger op
such as sites of derelict industry and parks and cemeteries, which may
been on the outskirts but have since been enveloped by the growing t
exposed ground surface is reduced to narrow strips of roadway
street, and the heavily encumbered areas of tiny backyards. These dis
pit the new raised surface formed by the ridged roof-tops, bristling with d
chimneys. This roof surface in bas-relief is punctuated at intervals by

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 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES 105

more massive buildings in brick or sometimes stone - chu

hospitals, and a few other public buildings, and the multi-st
whose chimneys, form the chief salients in these monotonous t
scape. Such is the picture familiar to the railway passenge
traverse the inner integuments of many of our towns along elev
railway track.
In contradistinction to the ribbing so characteristic of these
housing, villadom preserves much more of the ground surfa
buildings. Here buildings stud the area, and are in varying degr
with tree and shrub vegetation, which lines the thoroughfares
about the garden curtilages. Although, compared with the terrac
an altogether more open type of urban development, which oft
attempts to preserve or create an illusion of country in the town
variations both in the density of buildings over the area and in
of vegetation. Thus the starkness of some municipal housing es
with the bosky aspect of other tracts of suburbia. But, whatev
and appearance, dwellings are much less intermingled with struc
with non-residential functions. Industry, for example, is ch
segregated from housing and is accommodated in spacious lay-o
ground used for storage, transport and even amenity, with con
surfaces in strips and blocks.
To describe villa suburbia, as is usual, in terms of dreary
characterless aspect, and therewith to dismiss it, fails to do ana
very considerable and significant differences, the existence of w
in part been suggested and illustrated. Like the terrace, the vill
down through the social scale as a housing form. The terra
residence of the well-to-do bourgeois in the pre-railway age, ga
villa later, when the practicable range of residence from the to
been extended. The prosperous tradesmen and professional cl
as the town centres became increasingly specialized upon comm
and they created in suburbia their imitations of the countr
gentry. From the time when such fringes of suburban villas gre
skirts of the Victorian town and round suburban railway statio
have in turn sought to emulate these desirable residences. After
of building caused by the First World War, villa housing became
assumed by the urban sprawl of the age of motor transport. Spe
catering for owner-occupiers, have covered great areas with a r
or semi-detached dwellings, that often conform to the shibb
houses to the acre and keep down the density by liberal prov
space. Finally, versions of the villa have been adopted for the c
in municipal estates. Over the period of its propagation the vill

7 Besides these symbols of palaeotechnic urbanism, an equally typical Victor

townscape and accompaniment of the railway is the gasworks, with its distincti
tures.

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 106 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES

changes in size, to adapt it to changing family needs and varied fi

in materials (in particular the widespread supersession of slate by
and in lay-out and style. Among these may be noted the use of th
variation from uniformly straight streets, the extended provision
garage space between houses, and the virtually complete chan
windows after sash windows had reigned for two centuries. Mean
has assumed all manner of fancy dress, so delightfully caricatur
Lancaster in his representations of 'Stockbroker's Tudor', 'By-pas
and so forth.,
The third basic form, the block, develops the third dimension as an alternative
or additional means of extending floor-space and living-room. It thus makes its
appearance especially in the congested central areas of cities for commercial
premises that have replaced earlier buildings, and as a housing form for the re-
development of overcrowded inner areas.
Because of the distinctive urban texture which these three forms impart,
and their associations with other components of a varied townscape, we would
suggest that their use in reconnaissance survey offers a practicable and desirable
approach to establish the major characterization and differentiation of town-
scape. The results can profitably be supplemented in turn by comparison with
detailed census figures (by wards)9 and appropriate editions of the Ordnance
Survey maps, if the dates of the latter do in fact allow matching with the field
evidence. Some differences in texture are of course discernible from the study of
the large-scale map itself, though the latest edition is often sadly out of date:
still more can be appreciated from air photographs. But we would emphasize
that reality itself is capable of effective examination by rapid reconnaissance
survey, in the form of traverses that need not necessarily be made on foot, and
by recording from commanding viewpoints.

The distinctions so far emphasized apply mainly to the extensive integu-

mental areas that now envelop the old kernels of towns. The kernel is now
usually associated, though not necessarily co-extensive, with the specialized
business district, the commercial core, together perhaps with an enclave that
has in some way or other been preserved. These areas are especially complex
by reason of their long history of reorganization and replacement in accordance

8 From Pillar to Post (1938).

9 The lack of relationship between the boundaries of wards and other significant divisions of the
town seriously invalidates the use of the published census data. Variations in density from ward to
ward depend upon the interplay of several factors - the relative proportions of non-residential and
residential built-up tracts, as well as upon the density of occupation within the latter which in turn
varies according to the degree not only of packing upon the ground but also of vertical extension.
Conventional census data, moreover, give an indication merely of the occupation of the urban area
by night, but there can be no other logical reason for the geographer to concern himself only or even
primarily with nocturnal occupance. The census details can hardly be regarded in themselves of
much value to the geographer in his description of towns; it is as a supplement to, but not a substitute
for, a survey that distinguishes between different categories of land use and different textures of
housing that they can be useful.

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 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES 107

with changing circumstances, and by reason of the intense com

a variety of users seeking central sites. The whole life-span of t
residues from various phases of its historic past, is epitomized i
and fabric; but the more vigorous the modern activity and pros
town the more likely is it that its fabric will have been recentl
residual features from the remoter past reduced to the sacrosan
mental. The generally piecemeal character of the continuous pro
tion and replacement, combined with high land-values, are re
heterogeneous assemblage of contiguous units with narrow fron
level there are facades, either continuous or only slightly interr
ways and alleys, but the individual buildings vary greatly in hei
continuous fagades present very irregular cornices. Long encroa
valuable ground space, and an archaic street system, mean that o
reduced to the place type and the precincts of public and monum
that exist in enclave areas. Dense packing within a restricted sit
bined with high and rugged architectural relief, vertical forms
surfaces being especially prominent. An extremely irregular
deeply dissected by narrow thoroughfares and surmounted by tow
for the kernel naturally presents the chief concentration of build
mental character or architectural pretension, such as churches,
and columnar monuments. These culminating points contribu
the individuality of the urban sky-line as a whole; further, thr
representation among them of particular architectural styles they
urban profile a generic association or the flavour of an architect
The heterogeneity which confronts detailed survey of the ker
nigh insuperable practical problems calls for a rather different ap
graphical description. The most significant distinctions to be
apart from locating individual buildings of special prominence a
quality, would seem to be the recognition of shopping fagades, a
functionally differentiated quarters, leaving to verbal descriptio
illustration the rest of the characterization of a highly individu
association of forms. It may be observed, however, that this
mixture of buildings of varied age and style and of multiple occu
way, in places and in some respects, to tracts of more homogene
Rebuilding of blitzed areas is introducing a quite new townscape
mercial cores and inner residential zones of some of our cities. T
towards greater homogeneity in the commercial areas, but great
buildings in inner residential neighbourhoods. Thus substantial p
shopping areas of Southampton, Exeter, Plymouth and other
cities are being built to integrated designs. Where, in other tow
by aerial bombardment, the heterogeneity has been allowed t
that is coming to consist of differently assorted mixtures of a var
individually stereotyped elements, the distinctive fronts of prem
to multiple concerns. Meantime reconstruction of inner resident

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108 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES

as Stepney and Poplar in the East End of London, is replacing

terrace slum property by groupings of individual buildings design
needs of various types of occupant, and precious ground-space is
while at the same time a high density of occupation is maintained
ing massive slab-like structures.
One may perhaps envisage a transformation of the urban scene
such as has been foreshadowed by Le Corbusier's designs for verti
posed for a new Paris, la ville radieuse, and exemplified by the c
his unitd d'habitation at Marseilles,'o or by the recent project of High
to accommodate eight thousand peopleabove a goodsyard. Whe
schemes are real portents of a foreseeable future, and despite th
skyscraper has, by American standards, scarcely appeared i
achievement of high density occupation by exploiting the third
already been responsible for the introduction of many massive cu
('point blocks') that are profoundly altering the townscape of th
our cities.
In comparison with both the prominent vertical features of old town kernels
and these modern additions, the remaining extensive integumental areas of the
palaeotechnic and neotechnic accretions are dominated by horizontal forms and
more accordant levels - the ribbed surfaces in bas-relief contributed by terrace
housing, fringed and interpenetrated in turn by newer suburban extensions
where the ground surface is studded with varying densities of squat villas and
bungalows. Here the townscape often merges indeterminately with the sur-
rounding rural landscape, wedges of which extend between the advancing ten-
tacles of the built-up area. The urban fringe is a no-man's land, in parts of
which rapid transformation is proceeding, but elsewhere much land remains in
'interim development', already abstracted from agricultural production, but
awaiting buildings. No longer countryside, it is not yet assimilated to be
truly town.
In the outer integuments of the urban area villa tracts are interrupted and
interpenetrated, but not thoroughly intermingled, with industrial belts where
modern factories are responsible for scale-like strips and blocks of continuous
roof surface. The individually significant architectural masses, such as factories,
schools and hospitals, are chiefly horizontal, but if there are in general fewer
vertical forms and accidents in the urban skyline here than in the older accre-
tions, the tendency towards horizontality is not entirely unrelieved. The massive
structures of electric power stations with their columnar chimneys and distinctive
cooling towers introduce new vertical forms which threaten sometimes to com-.
pete with the soaring dominance of older architectural features of venerable
repute that have long held undisputed command of the sky-line.
In our portrayal of towns as geographers it is important that we should
bear in mind the different ways in which the townscape makes its impact upon
10 LE CORBUSIER, The Marseilles block (1953).
11 P. HORSBURGH and S. KADLEIGH, High Paddington (1953).

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 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES 109

our senses. A recent important contribution to the aesthetic stu

Professor Sidney Williams2 contains a valuable summary of five
perception, different ways in which the distinctiveness of the t
several parts are registered. The panorama, the sky-line or prof
the urban space or place, and the experience in motion (e.g. the co
rhythmic variation and monotony experienced in traversing the
elements of description deserving attention, though not equal at
the geographer as he attempts to capture and express the essenc
and the nature of its internal diversity. The first two have
significance for the geographer in characterizing the town as
experience is external, a fact which suggests that they are pe
important type of pictorial illustration for urban studies. The la
essentially to the experience of the town from within and as such
capable of being conveyed by pictures. The vista is somewhat int
nature, but usually provides only a limited and partial repres
town. It is a particular feature that rarely possesses representat
The panorama and sky-line present aspects of the urban ensemb
diversity of the human contribution is associated with the physic
worth noting how, in the case of innumerable towns sited alongs
- ports, seaside resorts, and riverbank towns - the existence of
gives special opportunities for experiencing the town in the for
As is widely and appropriately recognized in the selections o
illustrate a variety of books on towns, the distinctiveness of
individual or as a representative of a type finds special expressio
front. It may be added that this depends not only upon the pro
fagade and its skyline, but also upon features of site or structure
from it, such as wharves, piers, gantries or bridges.
Figure 1 is a generalized representation of a typical British c
medium size (60,000 to 70,000 inhabitants), a characteristic g
gredients that have been described above. It may serve to illustr
morphological map that has here been envisaged, though on
good deal more elaboration of detail might be shown than is her
noteworthy, too, that any translation of the general into the par
is here essayed, necessitates relating the man-made components
ensemble to the conditions of a physical site; and while thes
recognition of recurrent, much favoured types of setting, each
unique in disposition.
The nature both of the pre-urban nucleus and of the site of t
here depicted are common enough to be regarded as typical. T
town is attached to a castle, built on a bluff of higher ground fro
plain of a river. It commanded the crossing and was provided wi
flank defence on one side by the valley of a tributary stream. T
proaching the town converge upon the positions of its former ga
12 S. H. WILLIAMS, 'Urban aesthetics', Town Planning Review, 25 (1954), 9

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110 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES

upon the market-place in the centre, with the cathedral nearby. Th

outside the walls were naturally extensions in the immediate vic
gates. From this kernel, the modern town, growing in impor
acquisition of some manufacturing industry and especially with

KERNEL and early extensions-

heterogeneous buildings & BLOCKS
V(Shopping facades accentuated)
W Warehouse
P Professional quarters
A Administrative
Tracts dominated by

TERRACE-RIBBING (se..,,)
Ilotments Cemetery VILLA-STUDDING (cHE a-rOsT
F Old village nucleus
Salient individual structures
shown include fact ories(F) with

with prominent towers

tood F
tl prominent.chimneys
F Park and churches(t)

_ ] -: . : .
WorksWorks

MILE

FIGURE 1-Generalized m

of its service funct

evenly. The railways,
growth and in shapin
flanks the old city, a
outside one of the ol
tracks and the othe
characteristically site
of terraces is spread
larger scale similar
the kernel on the ot
Later villa housing
along main roads and

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 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES 111

developed estates on the outskirts. In the process some nearb

been absorbed. In particular a village on the opposite side of t
is now embedded in an extensive residential suburb sprawling alo
that diverge from the bridgehead. But, in close proximity to th
liability to river flooding has preserved the open character of th
floor. Within the kernel, shopping fagades have developed
streets and have also extended somewhat beyond its limits. In th
of the shopping area the position of the railway station has clear
important influence.

The Comparative Study of Townscapes

There is a place for presentation of the facts concerning the
as the lay-out of individual towns. Yet, however important such
descriptions may be, the strongest appeal of the study of urban
the geographer's attention and interest must surely lie in the scop
generalization, for the recognition among townscapes of recurre
of important constituent elements that may afford a basis for th
types. Elucidation of the complexes of features pertaining to
related aspects of setting, function, form and tone is the key to
significant and satisfactory generic classification and terminolog
Functional classification of towns, which is perhaps commone
ally stopped short at the assignment of individuals to categories
may be observed that in such classification the attempt to pig
example has sometimes been strained by the adoption of very arb
In fact the essential character of many towns is multi-functional,
they cannot be fitted at all clearly into categories based upon sin
functions. Granted, however, that certain clear-cut functio
recognizable and that intimate relations exist between function a
far can the characterizations be extended to associate with the func
certain features of disposition and structure that go together? I
study of representatives of well-defined types can lead to su
characterization, our geographical terms will gain greatly in con
if, on the other hand, such an association cannot be established,
tional or other label cannot be used to imply other characteristic
sion must needs be drawn that recognition of the type has only
tion. For geography must maintain its primary focus of atte
spatial association of phenomena rather than upon systematizatio
individual attributes, including consideration of their distributio
As they are expressed in townscapes, function and phase are
are inseparable. The townscape reflects function in phase, and ce
logical types are not difficult to recognize and appraise. The
'county' towns, so often grouped about a pre-urban nucleus of c
monastic church, and developed in modern times as service c

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112 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES

measure of specialized industry, belong to a distinct genus of to

contrast with the more purely modern manifestations of ninete
urbanization, such as industrial towns and resorts.
Among the last, as distinct from inland resorts which are of
seaside resort may be briefly typified by its essential ingredient
promenade lined with high hotels, the jutting pier with its pav
sustaining railway station behind. The shopping area is almo
medley of buildings developed in the intervening tract, in streets
to and behind the sea-front fagade or that lead to it from the s
features, inherited from their nineteenth-century development
our seaside resorts essentially alike. Differences between th
especially to the varied character of the coastline that they devel
social status and clientble, and the nature of the earlier nucleus,
or village, where there is one.
Elaboration of the classification and refinement of the charac
different types is a subject that merits further investigation by
parative analytical studies. It may be noted that among the v
seaside resort there is a well-represented association of phys
functional development, exemplified in Scarborough, Aberystwy
Hastings-St. Leonards. In its essential structure the type is n
Britain. Contrasts in size do not by any means entirely overshado
that the above-named British resorts have with Nice as well as w
Yet, however definite the common morphological features seaside
as a functional type, and however recognizable such a variant typ
the numerous seaside resorts which have grown in modern t
coasts of Britain offer a peculiarly British contribution to urba
highly expressive of the British way of life.
As distinct from or contained within morphological types of
be related to particular functions and phases, can we proceed
cognize regional types? Regional types of historic town that spr
discharge of similar functions in a particular cultural situation
some attention, and the subject has been illumined in particular
Fleure. The urban progeny of particular phases of active tow
readily definable territories are particularly clear examples. Suc
were the municipia which were the instruments of romanization
Empire, the medieval bastide towns of southern France, and the
of the eastward expansion of the German people in the Middle A
more cases the sharing of a common regional history has left a c
the similar townscapes of olden towns over certain areas. Witho
any very clear definition of the culture area concerned Prof
characterized a city type prevalent in northern France.-1 Recent
elaborate characterization of the old German town has been
13 H. J. FLEURE, 'The historic city in Western and Central Europe', Bulletin
Library, 20 (1936), 10.

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 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES 113

Karl Griiber.'4 In this skilfully illustrated work the idealized tow

typical Germanic city is depicted both in perspective and profile
phases of its evolution. Here again, however, the distribution of
epitomized is left somewhat vague; the culture area, the Deutschla
the type occurs is not defined. Moreover, studies of regional tow
tended to stop short in their purview at the onset of the period
urban growth, though not of genesis, in modern times. This can
justified by the argument that modern growth has merely tend
towns alike; it springs from the essentially archaeological and aes
referred to earlier. However appropriate to the study of tow
standpoints, this cannot be reconciled with the objectives of
The question that is thus posed to him is whether there are regi
modern town and others that represent a particular combination
kernel and modern accretions, each contributing its own distinc
the townscape, and by their geographical association emphasizing
It will have been evident that it is essentially the British town
respect of what are often peculiar national and insular manifest
ism, upon which attention has been focused in this paper. Differe
be noted in substituting illustrative material drawn from towns i
the world would be highly significant for urban geography. It i
over that a great many of the constituent features that give town
character are represented therein by culture forms that are coext
occurrence with the social and economic units of the modern world - the unified
and stable nation states; and certain national types are becomingly increasingly
standardized.
But within the larger frame of reference of distinctively British towns, to
what extent are we justified in using provincial designations such as East Ang-
lian, Northern, Midlands or even Scottish, Welsh and Irish as typifying some
essential character displayed by towns in these areas? Quite apart from clari-
fication of the qualities that may be evoked by such terms, the probing of this
subject is desirable, if only to assess the value or otherwise of regional epithets
which are already current, but used very loosely. The 'typical Midland town',
for example, is sometimes spoken of. The term appears to apply primarily to a
prominence of red brick construction, but whether it has any greater definable
content remains at present obscure. At best Midlands is a vague term, and as
applied to towns it may well be asked whether it signifies any distinctive type
roughly co-extensive with any other acceptable definition of the Midlands.
Here is but a particular example of the problems posed by the common use of
regional epithets in reference to man-made elements of the landscape. Among
these, towns are of major importance and the extent to which regional types may
be recognized and characterized has an obviously important application to
regional geography.

14 Die Gestalt der deutschen Stadt (Miinchen, 1952).

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114 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES

Inasmuch as towns often derive a particular tone from the pr

their construction of certain building materials, which in their
regional, there is here a basis for the recognition of regional typ
regional variants of types. Towns, especially in the older parts, a
with materials drawn from the mineral resources of their neigh
they often in peculiar degree seem to belong to their physical set
must be admitted that this may be a matter of traditional associat
become familiar and accepted rather than one of necessary and ex
tic harmonies. Other differences that are related to function may
as regional since they derive from regional specialization of
Potteries towns have many features in common with other towns
inated by industry developing mainly during the palaeotechnic p
more in common with other Midland industrial towns; but ot
peculiar to the Potteries. It is not difficult in this case to see a hig
townscape related to the distinctive regional specialization of indu
contributed to the urban scene its peculiar and conspicuous form
like pottery ovens. The distinctive appearance of the towns
apparent both in moving through the streets and in viewing the s
distance. How definitely function and phase hang together is
here, for we are in fact concerned with residual forms. The mod
ovens that are replacing the old bottle-shaped type have no such
dividuality with which to invest the urban scene.
Again, 'Lancashire town' conjures up the picture of the c
facturing town that shares with its neighbours a common histor
development, and consists therefore of much the same ingredien
terrace dwellings, including some of back-to-back type, punc
massive forms of red brick mills with their prominent clock-tow
slender chimneys.
Elsewhere the regional character is a matter of a common orig
ment history that dates farther back. The towns of Ulster, so ad
scribed by Gilbert Camblin,1 provide noble examples of sev
eighteenth century town-planning and Georgian architecture, gr
tion to an open centre (the place that here goes by the name
whatever its particular shape). But not all Ulster towns have root
developed urban character, dating back into the eighteenth centur
be suggested that the affinities of Ballymena and Portadown
functional counterparts, the mill towns of south Lancashire
Riding rather than with the Ulster towns derived from the Plant
the eighteenth-century period of flowering of Irish town life. T
towns that acquired industrial accretions, such as Derry, Du
Lurgan, became distinctive as compared with others (by no mean
the northern counties), which have remained merely country ser
their eighteenth century aspect to a considerable degree fossilize
15 The town in Ulster (1951).

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 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF TOWNSCAPES 115

this composite character which has the regional flavour of U

from what on the one hand might be called the Irish town a
the British mill town.
In Wales, where the town is an exotic form, the native culture has intro-
duced into the townscape features, not exclusively urban, which now give it
what may perhaps be regarded as a distinctively Welsh character. The special
features that make a Welsh variant alike of country market-town and industrial
or mining town are the chapels, symbols of the sectarian Nonconformity that
is so prominent a feature of modern Welsh culture. Whether they enhance or
detract from the aesthetic quality of the Welsh townscape, certainly by their
number, size and prominence, the plethora of chapels, built in pretentious
pseudo-classical or pseudo-Gothic style, make a significant contribution to it.
In lesser but still noteworthy degree, the Nonconformist tradition, with which
the British way of life is so strongly imbued, is stamped upon the townscape in
other parts of Britain.
From this illustration of the importance that particular structures of
architectural prominence may assume for the characterization of the townscape
we may proceed to comment upon the significance of regional features of
architecture for the personality of both village and town. Noteworthy examples
are distinctive regional types of church, such as the 'Northamptonshire' type
built of limestone with tall, often broach spires, the 'Somerset' type with stone
towers of distinctive style, or the East Anglian type of flint structure, some-
times with round towers. Such phenomena have been seriously neglected by
geographers, although they have often concerned themselves with others which
contribute far less to regional distinctiveness. In a wider context than that of
specialized urban geography or even settlement geography attention to such
salient features of the landscape is called for. Until the geographical study of
settlement has been pursued with much more intensity than hitherto, it is
axiomatic that regional characterization in a country so long and intensely
settled as Britain will remain impoverished and out of focus, the essential
character and content of distinctive regions only imperfectly appreciated.
It is realized that many of the reflections that have here been expressed
amount only to tentative exploration of dimly-lit territory, and that a great many
questions have been posed, either explicitly or implicitly, without it having been
possible to offer definitive answers. The author believes, however, that much
potentially valuable work in urban geography is at present aimless or ill-directed,
and is stultified by lack of a clear conception of the objectives of geographers as
compared with other students of towns, and by a failure clearly to discern its
relation and potential contribution to the general corpus of geography. Decisive
advance from the present state of urban geography is so crucially dependent
upon posing the right questions that the author has ventured to put forward
these personal reflections in the hope that some at least of the problems to
which attention is drawn are the significant ones, and that their enunciation may
stimulate the desire and determination to seek and provide the answers.

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