Nathaniel Lichfield
Encyclopedia
Nathaniel Lichfield was a British
urban and environmental planner who played a key role in the development of the 1960s new towns. His contributions extended over more than 60 years, continuing long after his retirement from University College London (UCL) in 1978. He was recognised by the Royal Town Planning Institute with a lifetime achievement award in 2004.
, in Bethnal Green
, East London.
Lichfield suffered from tuberculosis
and this forced him to leave school. Two years of recuperation were required before he took a job in a local estate agency where strenuous work that would aggravate his condition was unnecessary. He found the work intellectually unchallenging and left for a full-time job with Davidge and Partners, a town-planning consultancy. During this period he also took evening classes in estate management. He later studied for a BSc degree in the subject and subsequently received a fellowship at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
.
In the 1930s he became deeply involved with the socialist and anti-fascist movement in the East End. He participated in the Battle of Cable Street
against Oswald Mosley
's Blackshirts
in October 1936. Poor health however prevented him from joining the International Brigades
in the Spanish Civil War
and from undertaking military service in the WWII.
His pioneerings PhD thesis and subsequently the book based on it, The Economics of Planned Development (1956), was a study of the economic evaluation of planning projects. This formed the foundation for his subsequent work on social cost-benefit analysis. This breakthrough work came before the first applications of cost-benefit to transport planning in the late 1950s and early 1960s and therefore made him a leading presence in this field.
Lichfield was also involved in local government, working in municipal engineering and planning. From there he moved to central government and the Ministry of Town and Country Planning (From 1951 this was renamed the Ministry of Housing and Local Government
). Within the ministry Lichfield became a leading member of a small group that worked to accelerate the pace of change towards the findings of the Schuster report of 1950, which recommended transformation of planning education through inclusion of the social sciences of economics, geography and sociology. In the early 1950s he was also a founder-member of the Land Use Society, a discussion and dining club of civil servants, academics and private-sector developers. Later in 1965, he played a similar role in helping to launch the Regional Studies Association
, which promoted research in new disciplines and their application to planning practice.
In 1959-60 Lichfield took leave from the ministry to become a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley
. There he further developed some of the key ideas from his PhD to the form of the Planning Balance Sheet, which was later retitled Community Impact Evaluation.
In 1962 he founded the consultancy partnership, Nathaniel Lichfield Associates
(now Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners
(NLP - www.nlpplanning.com), which became an almost indispensable part of many professional planning teams in the period of British planning covering the construction of the second wave of new towns, including Milton Keynes
and Peterborough
, in the late 1960s.
In 1962 University of California offered him a full professorship in the College of Environmental Design. He received a rival offer from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania
. He chose however to return to work in Britain when Richard Llewelyn-Davies, the founder of the Bartlett School of Architecture and Design at University College London
offered him a Professorship there.
In 1966 he was also appointed to the new chair in the Economics of Environmental Planning at UCL.
Returning to Britain in his new position allowed him to pursue his research and teaching at UCL in parallel with the development of his specialist consultancy, Nathaniel Lichfield Associates. Together with other leading academics he played an important role in the planning of Milton Keynes. He was also involved the creation of the original masterplan for Peterborough new town, which was headed by the young master-planner Tom Hancock.
In the late 1960s and early 70s, Lichfield combined his parallel academic and professional responsibilities with a variety of public roles. He served as the president of the Royal Town Planning Institute
in 1966. He also served as:
In 1968 he was invited by Israel's Ministry of Housing and Development to advise on the countries approach to planning (within the 1948 borders). His week-long visit was managed by the minister's planning adviser, Dalia Kadury.
The following year, following the death of Lichfield's first wife, Rachel Goulden, he and Dalia were married.
In the 1990s he was a member of the Council of the Urban Villages Forum. There he helped to develop key ideas that proved influential, not only in Britain - to the development concept at Poundbury, in Dorset - but more widely in the United States, in the New Urbanist movement. He founded a new partnership, Lichfield Planning (www.lichfieldplanning.co.uk), with his wife Dalia in 1992.
In his later years he served on the following boards:
In 2002, aged 86, he received the DSc degree for his cumulative achievement from UCL.
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
urban and environmental planner who played a key role in the development of the 1960s new towns. His contributions extended over more than 60 years, continuing long after his retirement from University College London (UCL) in 1978. He was recognised by the Royal Town Planning Institute with a lifetime achievement award in 2004.
Biography
Nathaniel Lichfield was born to Jewish immigrants from Poland, Hyman Lichman and Fanny (née Grecht), in the East End of London. The family home was shared with relatives where no English was spoken. He suffered from poor eyesight forcing him to sit at the front bench at school and he was advised to avoid reading books. Despite this he ignored medical advice and at the age of 13 he won the top academic prize and the Victor Ludorum cup at the Raine's Foundation SchoolRaine's Foundation School
Raine's Foundation School is a Church of England Voluntary Aided school in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.Henry Raine, a very rich man who lived in Wapping, decided to create a school where poor children could get an education for free, so that they could go into skilled labour when they left....
, in Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...
, East London.
Lichfield suffered from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and this forced him to leave school. Two years of recuperation were required before he took a job in a local estate agency where strenuous work that would aggravate his condition was unnecessary. He found the work intellectually unchallenging and left for a full-time job with Davidge and Partners, a town-planning consultancy. During this period he also took evening classes in estate management. He later studied for a BSc degree in the subject and subsequently received a fellowship at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is an independent, representative professional body which regulates property professionals and surveyors in the United Kingdom and other sovereign nations....
.
In the 1930s he became deeply involved with the socialist and anti-fascist movement in the East End. He participated in the Battle of Cable Street
Battle of Cable Street
The Battle of Cable Street took place on Sunday 4 October 1936 in Cable Street in the East End of London. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, overseeing a march by the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, and anti-fascists, including local Jewish, socialist, anarchist,...
against Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
's Blackshirts
Blackshirts
The Blackshirts were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II...
in October 1936. Poor health however prevented him from joining the International Brigades
International Brigades
The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
and from undertaking military service in the WWII.
His pioneerings PhD thesis and subsequently the book based on it, The Economics of Planned Development (1956), was a study of the economic evaluation of planning projects. This formed the foundation for his subsequent work on social cost-benefit analysis. This breakthrough work came before the first applications of cost-benefit to transport planning in the late 1950s and early 1960s and therefore made him a leading presence in this field.
Lichfield was also involved in local government, working in municipal engineering and planning. From there he moved to central government and the Ministry of Town and Country Planning (From 1951 this was renamed the Ministry of Housing and Local Government
Ministry of Housing and Local Government
The Ministry of Housing and Local Government was a United Kingdom government department formed after the Second World War, covering the areas of housing and local government....
). Within the ministry Lichfield became a leading member of a small group that worked to accelerate the pace of change towards the findings of the Schuster report of 1950, which recommended transformation of planning education through inclusion of the social sciences of economics, geography and sociology. In the early 1950s he was also a founder-member of the Land Use Society, a discussion and dining club of civil servants, academics and private-sector developers. Later in 1965, he played a similar role in helping to launch the Regional Studies Association
Regional Studies Association
The Regional Studies Association is a major international learned society that is concerned with the analysis of regions and regional issues. Through its international membership, the RSA provides an authoritative voice of, and network for, academics, students, practitioners, policy makers and...
, which promoted research in new disciplines and their application to planning practice.
In 1959-60 Lichfield took leave from the ministry to become a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. There he further developed some of the key ideas from his PhD to the form of the Planning Balance Sheet, which was later retitled Community Impact Evaluation.
In 1962 he founded the consultancy partnership, Nathaniel Lichfield Associates
Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners
Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners is an independent British town planning consultancy originally founded in 1962 to provide specialist advice on all aspects of the planning process. Over more than four decades the practice has built up extensive planning and development experience...
(now Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners
Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners
Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners is an independent British town planning consultancy originally founded in 1962 to provide specialist advice on all aspects of the planning process. Over more than four decades the practice has built up extensive planning and development experience...
(NLP - www.nlpplanning.com), which became an almost indispensable part of many professional planning teams in the period of British planning covering the construction of the second wave of new towns, including Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
and Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
, in the late 1960s.
In 1962 University of California offered him a full professorship in the College of Environmental Design. He received a rival offer from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. He chose however to return to work in Britain when Richard Llewelyn-Davies, the founder of the Bartlett School of Architecture and Design at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
offered him a Professorship there.
In 1966 he was also appointed to the new chair in the Economics of Environmental Planning at UCL.
Returning to Britain in his new position allowed him to pursue his research and teaching at UCL in parallel with the development of his specialist consultancy, Nathaniel Lichfield Associates. Together with other leading academics he played an important role in the planning of Milton Keynes. He was also involved the creation of the original masterplan for Peterborough new town, which was headed by the young master-planner Tom Hancock.
In the late 1960s and early 70s, Lichfield combined his parallel academic and professional responsibilities with a variety of public roles. He served as the president of the Royal Town Planning Institute
Royal Town Planning Institute
The Royal Town Planning Institute is a body representing planning professionals in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1914.-Members:...
in 1966. He also served as:
- Chairman of the planning committee of the Social Science Research Council;
- A member of the Urban Motorways Committee; and,
- A member of the South East Economic Planning Council.
In 1968 he was invited by Israel's Ministry of Housing and Development to advise on the countries approach to planning (within the 1948 borders). His week-long visit was managed by the minister's planning adviser, Dalia Kadury.
The following year, following the death of Lichfield's first wife, Rachel Goulden, he and Dalia were married.
In the 1990s he was a member of the Council of the Urban Villages Forum. There he helped to develop key ideas that proved influential, not only in Britain - to the development concept at Poundbury, in Dorset - but more widely in the United States, in the New Urbanist movement. He founded a new partnership, Lichfield Planning (www.lichfieldplanning.co.uk), with his wife Dalia in 1992.
In his later years he served on the following boards:
- Council for National Academic Awards (as a member of its estate management, building economics and land-use board);
- Council of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations;
- National Economic Development Office (On the shopping capacity sub-committee).
In 2002, aged 86, he received the DSc degree for his cumulative achievement from UCL.
Works
- Lichfield, N.; Kettle, P. & Whitbread, N. (1975) - Evaluation in the Planning Process;
- Lichfield, N. (1996) - Community Impact Evaluation.
- 1976: with Alan Proudlove "Conservation and Traffic: A Case Study of YorkYorkYork is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
" York: essions Book Trust].(Review)