Peter Hall (urbanist)

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Sir Peter Hall
Anthony Lester
Personal details
Born
Peter Geoffrey Hall

(1932-03-19)19 March 1932
World Cities ranking, urban planning history, city regions, enterprise zones

Sir Peter Geoffrey Hall

urbanist and geographer. He was the Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration at The Bartlett, University College London[1] and president of both the Town and Country Planning Association and the Regional Studies Association.[2] Hall was one of the most prolific and influential urbanists of the twentieth century.[3]

He was known internationally for his studies and writings on the economic, demographic, cultural and management issues that face cities around the globe. Hall was for many years a planning and regeneration adviser to successive UK governments. He was Special Adviser on Strategic Planning to the

enterprise zone
concept, adopted by countries worldwide to develop industry in disadvantaged areas.

Biography

Hall was born in

Blackpool Grammar School and then graduated from St Catharine's College, Cambridge, with a master's degree and Doctorate in Geography before starting his academic career in 1957 as lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London.[4]

Hall was married to Carla Wartenberg from 1962 to 1966, and Magdalena Mróz from 1967 until his death. He died in London on 30 July 2014 at the age of 82.[5] There are many obituaries to his career and impact.[6]

Academic work

In a 1977 address to the Royal Town Planning Institute, Hall put forth the idea of a "Freeport" within a city, a concept that would come to be known as an Enterprise Zone.[7] Enterprise Zones were to be open to immigration of capital and people, without taxes or bureaucracy, modeled after Hong Kong in the 1950s. In practice, Enterprise Zones became areas where taxes were waived and development highly subsidized.[7]

In his final years, Hall strongly perceived that British planners had fallen behind their European counterparts. His last book Good Cities: Better Lives and last book chapter "The Strange Death of British Planning: And How to Bring About a Miraculous Revival", both published in 2014, stress this point and seek to direct attention to planning examples from mainland Europe. His vision of clusters of existing towns and new garden cities to form new dynamic city regions in the north-west, the Midlands and the south-east of England won his team a commendation in the Wolfson Economics Prize competition in May 2014.[8]

Honours and awards

The Professor Sir Peter Hall Overground train
The Professor Sir Peter Hall Overground train

Hall was

Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for distinction in research in 2003; and the Balzan Prize for the Social and Cultural History of Cities since the Beginning of the 16th Century in 2005. He won the last award "for his unique contribution to the history of ideas about urban planning, his acute analysis of the physical, social and economic problems of modern cities and his powerful historical investigations into the cultural creativity of city life."[9] He also won the Regional Studies Prize for Overall Contribution to the Field of Regional Studies in 2008.[citation needed
]

Hall also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2002.[10]

On 30 April 2015, Transport for London dedicated a train in recognition of his contribution to London's transport infrastructure. The train, Number 378 204, is a five-carriage London Overground train.[11][12]

Publications

Books

Edited volumes

Book chapters

Pamphlets

References

  1. ^ a b Prof. Sir Peter Hall, Bartlett School of Planning
  2. ^ "Regional Studies Association". www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk. Regional Studies Association. Archived from the original on 18 February 2007. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  3. ^ Caves, R. W. (2004). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge. p. 329.
  4. ^ Interview in The Guardian, 2007
  5. ^ "RTPI, "RTPI pays tribute to Sir Peter Hall", 31 July 2014". Archived from the original on 4 February 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  6. ^ "Peter Hall Obituary in Environment and Planning A". Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  7. ^ .
  8. ^ Simon Wicks, "Peter Hall: Master Planner", The Planner, 08/09/2014
  9. ^ UCL News on Balzan Prize 2005
  10. ^ "Heriot--Watt University Edinburgh & Scottish Borders: Annual Review 2002". www1.hw.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  11. ^ "TfL names London Overground train in honour of Sir Peter Hall". The Bartlett. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  12. ^ Planning Magazine, "Diary", Issue 2014, 9 October 2015, p.32
  • Honorary Degree Orations, Loughborough University 2005
  • UCL News 2005,Thames Gateway Forum 2006 (Dr Jabed Rahman)

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by Chairman of the Fabian Society
1971 – 1972
Succeeded by
Anthony Lester