Chapter III – part two: A large town

The first study-Allerton

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We first examined Allerton, a residential suburb having a population of 20,000 situated on the north-eastern outskirts of the city (Figure 138). It consists mainly of houses built between the wars in a collection of independent estates which together present little semblance of an overall plan. There are two secondary schools, a hospital, several small groups of shops, and a larger group of 32 shops in Street Lane. Two sizeable shopping centres on the periphery of the area, at Harrogate Road and Roundhay Road, help to serve the area. The area is more or less clearly defined by existing main roads which we have assumed will continue to serve as distributors, and falls into four environmental areas as shown.

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Although many of the houses were built without garages, the density and layout are such that there is generally space for one to be provided. Erection of garages is now in progress, and is likely to go on until there is provision for at least one car per family. The steady growth of car ownership is showing itself in a marked increase of traffic within the area. The most pronounced movements of traffic are eastwards and westwards to and from the radials, and then south towards the city centre. There are at present no clearly defined patterns of flow, and traffic filters at-will through the internal streets to the detriment of the environment. It also happens that the busiest internal road (Street Lane) passes straight through the busiest of the local shopping centres.

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In order that the traffic on the roads within the environmental areas does not build up beyond the environmental capacities, we have selected certain roads outside these areas to function as distributors. We have then interrupted the continuity of the access roads within the areas in order to canalise movement onto these distributors. This also limits the number of junctions on the distributors and improves their standard of perform-ance. Through movements of traffic across the area as a whole are either prevented by the physical stopping-up of streets at the points indicated, or made inconvenient for use by vehicles on longer journeys. Pedestrian and pedal cycle movements would be unimpeded by environmental boundaries.

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In the near future, one substantial physical alteration would be required to deal with the conflict of interests at the shopping centre on Street Lane. Here there is quite a substantial concentration of shops, so we looked for ways of closing Street Lane at this point to through traffic in order to bring about a safer environment. This could be done by a short length of new road as shown by the broken line, Figure 137. This would require some redevelopment to allow car parking facilities to be provided. It would also require the adaptation of the shopping centre for pedestrian movement only.