This proposal for congress consists of an examination of examples of civic design in Britain occurring within numerous large sized provincial settlements from about 1880 to 1914. The work will identify and explain the design and planning principles that appeared to govern civic design as well as investigating its features as it appeared in practice by analysing structural and technical design components, internal arrangements and the surroundings of public buildings erected at that time. In addition, this work provides both an opportunity to consider the influences upon the built environment during a time when a greater control of the urban environment was exercised by public authority and examine those civic schemes that were proposed yet not undertaken so as to highlight the possibilities of large-scale architectural design within British cities during the period when formative town planning emerged. Thus, the paper will present in a clear manner what civic design was understood to mean in terms of both its theory and practice. Many of the influences upon civic design both in terms of local and national practice will be noted and discussed, particularly matters such as the significance of the evolution of the system of local government, the growing expectation of public authorities to play a notable role in the process of urban improvement, the empire and foreign developments, particularly the American City Beautiful movement, in so doing highlighting how British cities were indeed design and planning entrepots. Finally given the nature of the paper it is also appropriate to consider the individuals applying civic design principles to the British urban form. The paper will establish therefore the professional breadth of civic designers, their career developments, their local or regional dominance and the significance of City Architects, i.e. professional designers employed by Corporations to deal with matters such as designing large-scale buildings or by planning new public spaces.
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