New Towns in the Novel: A Reflection on Social Realism

摘要

The proposal to establish New Towns as part of the post-war policy project in the UK seemed to be both very radical and visionary in its conception, not least as it was not included in the 1945 Labour Party manifesto (Timmins, 1996). What further amazed the world, if not perhaps domestic commentators, was the country's ability to fully realise this vision so many times and in so many places. The vision also had other forms of expression - expanded towns for smaller-scale, local-authority-led population dispersal and comprehensive development areas where New Town visions could be demonstrated as a means of solving more traditional urban problems. As a visionary element of the post-war package, New Towns were contemporary creations, although they had successful, market-led antecedents in the garden suburbs and metroland or in the Utopian communities ranging from factory villages to craft communities in the Cotswolds (Darley, 1978). New Towns also provided an opportunity to display the products of post-war reform in a complete setting - an early antecedent of lifestyle presentation. The Festival of Britain included the new neighbourhood of Lansbury in Poplar as part of the Live Architecture Exhibition using the work of Gibberd, who also designed Harlow New Town (Banham & Hillier, 1976).