T O W N S C A P E

T O W N S C A P E

Gordon Cullen is a British architect and urban designer; as a protagonist of the townscape movement, his most notable work was the book ‘Townscape: The Concise Townscape’ which was first published in 1961.

Almost 20 years after the publication of SRJ’s LT, which was published in the middle of World War 2. There is a distinct relationship between the two, where SRJ’s book overtly has the ambition of presenting London as a bastion for British ideals in opposition to Hitler.

Townscape was the new vessel for old picturesque ideas that were used with the intention of rebuilding post-war British cities. These ideas were solely focused on visual analysis and application concerning architecture and planning. Both S.R.J’s LT and the Townscape movement had the same agenda of preserving and restoring the nation’s cities, in this case, London. I will be using these ideas, specifically, Serial Vision, Concerning Place and Concerning Content as a means of analysing and understanding SRJ’s work in accordance with Townscape principles.

I N T R O D U C T I O N E N D - N O T E S

1 Waterhouse Fiona M. Email to Allaster Grant 10 August 2021

2 London Transport for London, Sydney R. Jones Biography, https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/people/item/19968273#ai-1243221237

3 Peter Ackroyd, (2000) London: The Biography, London : Chatto & Windus, p.4466-448

4 John Macarthur, The Picturesque. Architecture, disgust and other irregularities, Abingdon, Routledge, 2007,1-3, 9,13-16

5 Cambridge dictionary, The Picturesque, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/picturesque,

6 Uvedale Price, (1794) An Essay on the Picturesque as compared with The Sublime and The Beautiful and on the use of studying Pictures for the purpose of improving real landscape, J.Robson, London, p. 76-77.

7 J. Macarthur, The Picturesque. Architecture, disgust and other irregularities, Abingdon, Routledge, 2007, p. 19.

8 Camillo Sitte, The Birth of Modern City Planning, George R. Collins and Christiane Crasemann Collins, New York, Dover Publications, INC, 1986, p.159-160.

9 Ibid., p. 151

10 Gordon Cullen, Concise Townscape, Oxford, Arhitectural Press, 1961, p. 17

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C H A P T E R I P I C TU R E S

D R A W I N G I

D R A W I N G II

D R A W I N G III

C H A P T E R I P I C TU R E S

The picture is a word that has a great amount of power within the picturesque and its meaning emerges many times throughout S.R.J’s LT, not as a word, but in relation to the book’s agenda/narrative. As we have already discussed, pictures are in essence a repository of experiences communicated visually. They can be understood as 1. The pictures within this book that make up S.R.J’s illustrations and 2. The picture/agenda/narrative that S.R.J is trying to communicate.

It has been a practice of picturesque artists to communicate through drawing and prose. Artists such as William Gilpin and S.R.J worked in this way, its purpose served to create a picturesque picture using the tools of drawing and prose, in some cases inflating what was there in reality for the ideal picturesque image. It was all about the overall impression, even the descriptions were primarily concerned with the agenda of the book/author, which contributes to coup doeil where the entire book is concerned, as well as the individual pictures.11

The picturesque developed whilst artists toured and observed the country but also has value as a means of guiding one through the city/landscape. By recording and conveying the subject in a picturesque way, it adds value to the place being drawn. S.R.J uses these tools available to him in order to create a guide for his viewers, that they might perhaps locate themselves within the city and inhabit the places as the people shown in his drawings. This method adds to how desirable London is perceived within LT.12

The example right shows a sketch of “Old London Bridge”, illustrated in 1921 by S.R.J, accompanied by his description a number of pages before, he describes the development of the bridge throughout history referring to it as picturesque and with endearment, his intention to persuade the reader of the charm of London. The sketch is loosely drawn with the bridge at the centre of the page, and buildings in the background above, there is not a distinct hierarchy of importance in the picture but there is a rough quality, within the strokes and various hatch depths that give the drawing a picturesque quality.13

This mode of communication can be seen throughout LT and is very effective in providing context surrounding the particular drawing/place. This added depth in the form of commentary allows the reader to feel a sense of relatability with the subject in question and helps in creating a mental picture of the place

Figure 4: Old London Bridge by Sydney R. Jones, 1921.

that accompanies the illustrated drawing. The bridge in the foreground is not immediately discernible as the background appears to be the focus of the composition, the entire drawing has a level of unity that can be ascribed to clair-obscur that we will discuss later.

Within the picturesque, there are two important components to its success, the people and landscape /context. These are used in relation to each other and serve to contextualize the place being portrayed which ultimately suggests an overarching narrative/agenda, widely associated with the English landscape. In this case, the narrative/agenda is the triumph of London over its destruction, with London being a place that personifies England and Englishness by the way that it frames people’s daily activities.14

“…A place can be defined as being relational, historical and concerned with identity…”15

What is distinct about this is, if we consider what was spoken about before, a picture is a repository of a place and not merely an object, then considering the agenda of London Triumphant – to present London as a location to cherish and preserve, then we can begin to investigate how his work attempts to do this.

A concept of pictures within the picturesque focuses on how the picture as an entity conveys the place and this will in turn affect how realistic the picture will look. The author De Piles describes coup d’œil as an important component of this and that it should be the first thing one experiences when looking at a picturesque picture as if it is an object. As a translation from French to English,

its meaning is “a glance that takes in a comprehensive view.” 16 which suggests that it is in fact a phenomenon of realization, an experience that can be understood as what De Piles calls disposition, it is what we know today as composition and can be largely ascribed to clair-obscur. “This is the overall distribution of light and shade on the painting surface” 17 in order for the work to possess l’unite d’objet, “which is a unity of the painting as an object”. 18

Gombrich states that the aesthetic values of the landscape painting genre and the picturesque rose from the difference between figure and campo, or field. Having human figures in the foreground was of primary concern to the artist as they offered a contrast with the campo against what they were placed. Suggesting that this is formulaic and what Gombrich would define as being

a lesser skill than conveying a narrative. S.R.J drawings have the important components that have been described as people, and landscape, however what about them, if anything, is distinct enough for them to fulfil the role of what Gombrich describes as telling a story / an intellectual exercise?19

D R A W I N G I

Immediately when looking at the first drawing that introduces LT, Lower Regent Street from Piccadilly Circus, The drawing is appropriately framed by colonnades that look onto the street; as if the reader is commencing their journey by stepping out into the city. This creates a picturesque view physically and conceptually and can be seen as a signification of a starting point for London Triumphant. The street scene is made up of vehicle and pedestrian traffic, a typical sight while people travel along a street in central London. Within the arch of the colonnades, the skyline of the buildings in the distance gradually receded to the centre of the composition. The mass of this façade gives the study a sense of proportion and the details imply symmetry.

“Therefore, the coup dœil must lie in a visual order proper to the distribution of the painted surface and preceding any recognition of spatial depth.”20

This is contrasted by the people in the scene who are randomly indicated through gestural lines drawn on top of the already drawn context. Despite being a compound of the two elements that are considered formulaic when found on their own, the picture as an entity describes the place accurately, as a place with life and activity, qualities worthy of preservation. Especially when considering the time of the book’s publication and the effect the war may have had on these qualities of life and activity.

The way that figures are offset against campo within this drawing suggests a dynamic scene that could be seen within a picturesque setting and reflects the energy this busy street in London may have had proceeding the war years and therefore reminding the reader of the qualities of place that are at stake. The effect of coup d’œil is strengthened by the figures in the foreground and their framing by the colonnades above, as the eye is immediately guided to the darker tones of the drawing. The colonnades are a key component for creating unity within the drawing due to the composition, surrounding the figures and