The Good Place Guide

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The Good Place Guide - Urban Design in Britain and Ireland

John Billingham and Richard Cole, Batsford for the Urban Design Group

The publication of the Urban Design Group's long awaited Good Place Guide is now particularly timely, coming at a point when so much government, professional and media attention is being concentrated on our towns and cities and what constitutes a good place. The Guide has been in the making for several years, and is the result of an initiative in 1989 by John Worthington, the UDG's Chairman at the time, to get members to compile such a book by pooling their experience and knowledge. Cooperative projects of this kind are not always successful, but luckily this one is, and the authors are to be congratulated on their stamina in assembling a new urban design reference book which at such a reasonable price will make a very good stocking filler for Christmas!

The main body of the book has a compact format and logical arrangement (by broad UK region and then alphabetically by town/city), and makes a handy pocket reference, which can either be read or quickly flicked through. The introduction includes useful details of recent government design initiatives. Each regional section has an introduction giving the context and background of the places covered, and each of the 128 places is given a page of text description and a full page illustration. Thankfully the text is clear and readable, which will increase its accessibility to non-professionals, and all but a small number of illustrations are high quality.

The book concentrates on places which have been created or significantly changed over the last 50 years. During the 1990s necessary revitalisation of derelict industrial and other run down areas with funding from the Lottery, the Millennium Commission and the European Union coupled with new government advice on good design produced a number of good quality places (both new and refurbished) many of which feature in this Guide, along with new-build schemes. The continuing drive for better design in the public realm has been spurred on by the creation of both the Urban Design Alliance (of which the UDG is a significant member) and CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment), whose recent 'Streets of Shame' poll on Radio 4 indicated the voters' best as well as worst streets in Britain. The process of spreading the word continues, and the places in this guide are significant examples to inspire more good quality design. The authors believe 'it should be read by every planning committee member and in the glove box, saddle bag or back-pack of every built environment practitioner!' Let's hope it is, and I suggest the launching of the Urban Design Group's 'Good Place Guide(d) Tours' next year - to mark the UDG's 25th anniversary perhaps?