It is interesting that the reading about the relationship
between town planning and public health was titled “A City in Good Shape”. It
somewhat gives a hint that public health is one of the most important aspects
that the planners need to consider when planning a city. When trying to follow
the stories of cities from nineteenth century to nowadays, it seems that the
process of the city planners and the governments tried to achieve the model of
a “good-shaped city” is the process of finding problems and solving problems,
but in a macro and long-term way. It was a remarkable development of the
changed in emphasis of the city planning. Planners used to have detailed
consideration about the commercial and economical aspects to city’s growth but
rarely to public health. As the importance of the public health rising through
all those different problems they were facing in the history of developments of
cities, “public health” become a word that binds up with urban planning.
Problems started to be found in earlier nineteenth century
when people realized that the headache was observed “in the lower and inner
apartments of house ... Surrounded on every side by lofty buildings, and narrow
entrance (Case 14)” (Hebbert, 1999,435). Health of Town Association explained
the importance of fresh air to people and saying that fresh air is even more
important than fresh food. Later on, in late nineteenth century, the knowledge
for sanitary pointed out that the concerned with water and sewage is as much
important as ventilation.
Fig. 1 “Perspective View of Bridgewater Crescent,
Piccadilly, Manchester ... With the adjacent Streets and
Buildings as proposed to be altered to admit the statues of
Francis...” (Source: Fairbairn, 1936, frontispiece; by kind permission of John
Rylands University Library)
When problems appeared, planners came up with various ways
to solve it. They introduced the concepts of “Open Street” which opens at both
ends to allow fresh air to pass through which was a significant development in
sanitarian. An interesting action which mentioned in Parliamentary
Papers (1845, 141) is that questionnaire was sent out in mid
nineteenth century asked people about their living environments and their
healthy conditions. It was surprising because it seemed that governments
started to care about the personal welfare of their citizens rather than focus
on benefit of economic development and etc. Sir Christopher Wren became a hero
of public health movement because his proposed “to straighten up the crooked
mediaeval street” after the Great fire of 1666 (It seems that there is a
movement of urban planning towards the “grid plan” at that time) and this
decision would cut the mortality rate of London by one-third in calculation
because this scheme could help to improve the ventilation as well as the
drainage system. At the same time, as mentioned in both lecture and reading,
the development of bath had developed the city in both healthy and elegant way.
The decision that local governments made to increase the expenditure on
infrastructure including drainage and sewerage and etc. had improved the life
expectancy for British citizens as recorded (Wohl, 1983, 329).
Fig 2. Green belt town (source: Sir Raymond Unwin’s lantern
slide of the plan; by kind permission of John
Rylands University Library)
Time pass by, the development of the city will never stop.
The debate on public health was no longer focus on those basic statistics on
mortality rate, they are then challenged more indicators on human welfare and
that was when the concepts of “garden city” and “green space” appeared in the
agenda of the city planners in twentieth century . The result of sacrificing
part of the limited and treasured area in urban space to creating park, gardens
and open space surprised lots of people. The natural vegetation contributed
more than fresh air to the cities at that time. They also control the density
of the city and formed protection against noise and vibration. However, as
mentioned earlier, those green space cannot been built in the air therefore the
urban renewal became a problem because the new plan of city challenged old
conventions. Trystan
Edward, mentioned in Hebbert’s reading, who champion the
street terrace was under lots of pressure because he challenges the
conventional corridor streets which were the symbol of old city.
World War II was a disaster but it somewhat provide an
opportunity for British to start from something new. They had a chance to
reconstruct the existing urban space. The planner create a brand new city with
more efficient infrastructures as well as green space. In addition, in 1941,
they speculate that “the public health of the future must be not only an
engineering science and a medical science; it must also be a social science”
which is a proactive thought for urban planning at that time. The “social
science” theory is absolutely true. The life, death and disease in city were
found closely linked to the social problems like racism, sexism, poverty,
unemployment and etc.
It is good to see that when cities became more developed,
the public health is not only a case for city planners who trying to solve the
problems by planning the city in physical way but also lots of health
organizations like National Health Service (NHS) and World Health Organizations
(WHO).
They either help the individuals or care about public health
in a more macro way. In addition, governments who care the public health then
were trying to use ways like sending family allowance, offering community
facilities like swimming pool, gym, theatre and etc. in order to improve the
welfare of people in both physical and psychological ways. When moving to the
third paradigm, as Hebbert’s reading said, the cities will emphasis even more
on “delivery system, financial and educational mechanics” and all this actions
are attempting to achieve the aim of lower mortality rate, higher life
expectancy and more welfare for people.
The urban history is so touching when we went through it
because although it took so long and so hard to transfer the urban area from
messy cities to a “good” city, but planners never gave up the aim that they
wanted to make city better and gave the citizens better lives. Their efforts
were so obvious and they showed that they cared about the individuals all the
time.
References
Michael Hebbert, ‘A City in Good Shape: Town Planning and
Public Health’ Town Planning
Review 70 (1999), pp. 433-453
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