Local History

Drawings courtesy: David Roberts, The town of Cambridge as it ought to be reformed: the plan of Nicholas Hawksmoor interpreted in an essay by David Roberts, and a set of eight drawings by Gordon Cullen, Cambridge University Press 1955

The plans that never were

With Cambridge - and its surrounding villages - about to enter an era of change, it may come as a surprise to find that the city we find so iconic today could have had a very different makeover.

Hawksmoor's Piazza at Trinity Street

In the early 1700s Nicholas Hawksmoor, who had worked with Christopher Wren, the ubiquitous English architect of the modern times, devised his 'Plan for the town of Cambridge as it ought to be reformed'.

He was never asked to do it, he probably just thought it would be fun to try, but he was already working on plans for King's College.

Peter Carolin, former professor of architecture at Cambridge University, talks about Hawksmoor's potential plans with excitement.

"He was struck by the possibilities of re-ordering the centre of Cambridge and proposed a huge university civic forum opposite King's. There were two major gates to the city, one was on the Magdalene Street bridge and another was roughly where the University Arms Hotel is," says Peter.

People problem

He also wanted to run a couple of axis through the city, the first from the east end of King's Chapel down to the entrance of Christ's College and another from the gateway of Trinity to the gateway of Sidney Sussex. On top of that he wanted to open up Trinity Street and place obelisks at each end.

Hawksmoor's Forum at King's Parade

"Had that been built," adds Peter, "Cambridge would have knocked Oxford into a cocked hat, architecturally."

Peter points something else out, except this is actually happening: By 2021 the population of South Cambridgeshire will have grown by a third since the beginning of the century.

The problem with this is Cambridge has never been planned to sustain such growth, in fact it was planned with the complete opposite in mind. In 1950 William Holford released a report that looked to restrict the increase in the number of people living in Cambridge.

As you were

"Never before has a city's growth been restricted in this way. The consequences of that can be seen today in the tremendous traffic congestion that we have and the extraordinarily high house prices," Peter says.

Red areas are potential sites - Camb City Coun

Because Holford thought it was best not to expand the city, the population growth has shifted to villages in the area, meaning congestion from commuters built up to today's levels. Those plans have changed and Cambridge is looking forward with a new strategy, known as the Local Plan 2006.

"This new plan for expansion is an answer. So hopefully instead of the quality of life in the area gradually declining under all these pressures there will be some release from that," says Peter.

Green fingers

While visitors to Cambridge cite the historical beauty of the architecture as a highlight, those who live and toil in the city know that the natural elegance comes from the veins of commons and parks dotted around the urban area.

Peter calls these green fingers: "What the new plan strives to do is maintain these fingers, almost emphasise them, make them more accessible to the public. I think that's a very imaginative way of retaining the character of the city.

"For most of the public the green fingers are much more significant than the historic centre."

The 2006 plan, which is to span until 2016, looks to generate extra residential areas around this green belt land without interfering with it and looks to create 8,000 houses.

Drawings courtesy: David Roberts, The town of Cambridge as it ought to be reformed: the plan of Nicholas Hawksmoor interpreted in an essay by David Roberts, and a set of eight drawings by Gordon Cullen, Cambridge University Press 1955