THE HISTORY OF THE GREATER COUNCIL OF LONDON AND ITS ABOLITION
A film with TIM CATCPOLE, JOHN PARKER and BRUCE METHVEN
with: Lord PAUL BOTAENG, JOHN MCDONNELL, LEWIS HERBERT and MIKE TUFFREY
with: FLORIAN LEONHARD
C O V E R S T O R Y
John (Richard) Parker – London architect and town planner
Born 5 November 1933 in Sydenham, south-east London. In 1930s, one brother and one sister (four half-sisters born in 1940s and 1950s). Remembers Crystal Palace burning in 1936 lifted up by milkman father (who later worked for metropolitan water board). Mother was a cook. Remembers street party of George VI coronation in 1937. First church primary school in Lower Sydenham in 1937. Main hobbies reading (comics, books), soccer (Arsenal and Crystal Palace supporter), cycling (after World War II with a tandem). First time out of London with evacuation to Devon (Thurlestone 1940), after seeing blitz of London. Second evacuation to Bradford (1944). Roman Catholic school education. Remember street celebrations in Catford in 1945 at the end of the war.
Excelled in mathematics, art and design at school. Started algebra at the age of 10-11 years. At 1948 festival of Britain, art teacher at school (SE London Technical College) said that “I ought to be architect”. Military service 1952-54 land survey (Royal Artillery & Royal Engineers) stationed in Worcester, Egypt and Cyprus. Left as brother had blindness crisis, which helped solve.
Art School in New Cross (Goldsmith College), London painting and sketching, leading to a diploma. Evening school (Regent Street Polytechnic) for 5 years before following architecture course, where met Roger Waters and Nick Mason (later of Pink Floyd). Benefited from an study award from London County Council. Finished studies 1962.
Worked with London Country Council from 1962-65, then worked for Lambeth London Borough 1965-1970 where had contact with new Greater London Council (GLC). Then worked with the GLC from 1970-1986. Gained Winston Churchill Fellowship for researching urban planning practices which sowed seeds for PhD awarded 1977 at Regents Street Polytechnic.
At GLC, position of 15 years was as the planning architect for the central London area responsible for a multi-disciplinary team – notable projects being Piccadilly Circus, location of British Library, Regents Canal, Tower of London precinct with nearby St. Katherine’s Dock. Developed policy for controlling tall buildings in London and contributed to what has become the 2012 Mayoral London View Management Framework (LVMF). Involved in revising the 1944 Greater London Development Plan (GLDP), where PhD hypothesis on developing near/above London railway termini became part of the policy. Furthermore, densification of development through a design led approach and good growth have developed as policies and are now central to the current Mayoral London Plan formulated in 2021. At the GLC he was a more technical and policy person than politically involved. Welcomed many visitors from abroad whilst working at the GLC.
Following abolition of GLC in 1986, decided to create private practice employing former GLC staff (around 30 at high point). Notable achievements – advising Ethiopian government on master planning, and Chinese regional government on learning to work with the private sector.
Lived in Beckenham (Bromley London Borough) since 1965 where member of local civic society before entering carehome in Croydon 2023. Continues to draw, pilates, yoga, created a choir, avid Guardian reader.
The famous British development planner Tim Catchpole
Tim joined John Parker’s team at the GLC in 1975 having done a few years’ service at a London borough.
Worked with John on a number of major planning applications in the City of London including the
redevelopment of the Whitbread Brewery and the public inquiries into the redevelopment of Liverpool Street
Station, the Little Britain development and the Mansion House Square development.
In 1983 moved to the GLC Special Projects Team. Was in charge of a multi-disciplinary team producing
‘Thames-side Guidelines’, a document that covered all aspects of riverside development along the whole length
of London’s river including its function, access, activity, ecology and the form and scale of future development.
Also produced a report on the future of two sites on either side of the river which had been used for the
construction of the Thames Barrier.
Worked for the next three years in a left-over part of the GLC which became the London Research
Centre and led a project in partnership with John Parker’s Greater London Consultants on ‘London’s Skylines
and High Buildings’ for the London Planning Advisory Committee, the UK Department of the Environment and
English Heritage.
In 1989 joined Halcrow Fox and worked with them until 2014. Initially projects were in the UK and then (from
1995) almost entirely overseas – in altogether 34 countries. In the late 1990s these projects were primarily in
the tiger economies of Asia – in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Bangladesh – and were
mostly environmental assessments of major infrastructure works.
When the tiger economies crashed in 1998 the work moved to the Middle East and included projects in Dubai,
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen and Libya. The work was mostly master plans for urban expansion
and the role was invariably leader of the multi-disciplinary teams involved.
In 1999 won a project in Iran for the master planning of an oil and gas complex and led a large multi-disciplinary
team. Undertook numerous other such industrial projects that followed and led the multi-disciplinary teams –
in Brunei, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, China, Venezuela and Sarawak. After retirement in 2014 advised on two
industrial master plan projects in South Africa and Uganda, both with SMEC Engineering Consultants, Australia.
Since final retirement, has chaired the local civic society, the local concert series, the local branch of
the Lib Dem Party, the local branch of Probus, been church warden and stood as Councillor twice, albeit
not successfully. Married to Celia for 52 years – she had a career as a literary agent. Daughter is an
artist and son has taken over the literary agency and is married with two children.
T H E F A L L O F T H E G L C
“I will go down in history as the ‘Iron Lady’, I will implement the toughest economic model up to that time on the old continent, and I will target the top local government body for Greater London”.
Margaret Thatcher’s harsh and often inhumane policies will go down in history, will mark the lives of British citizens, and will find supporters for decades, especially after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the domino effect of the financial crisis, at least 20 years later.
The Greater London Council was founded in 1965, the year when John Parker began filming moments from his family life on super 8 film, or at least from that year onward, there are surviving film archives of John Parker’s family.
Margaret Thatcher will target the Council and systematically ignore the work it produced over 21 years. The Conservative Party and the ‘Iron Lady’ will suspend the operation of the Council, will lead thousands of workers to unemployment, and will overturn their condition from one day to the next.
Was it an isolated and targeted decision, or did the decision to dissolve the Council fit into the broader context of Thatcher’s tough economic policy?
How much did it change the lives of John Parker and the other workers?
25 years after Margaret Thatcher’s government disbanded the Greater London Council, the Conservative government in Greece shut down the country’s public broadcaster overnight, sacking 2,500 workers. Did the Prime Minister of Greece imitate Margaret Thatcher’s policy model? Are there politicians in Europe today emulating the ‘Iron Lady’ policy framework?”
T H E P R O T A G O N I S T S
The day after Labour won control of County Hall in May 1981, party members met and called a leadership election in which Mr Livingstone beat Mr McIntosh by 30 votes to 20 to become leader.
In Parliament the Conservative MP John Hunt condemned it as “a pre-arranged coup carefully concealed from the electorate”.
Defending his actions now, Mr Livingstone says: “Andrew McIntosh just didn’t understand how politics worked.
“He wasn’t interested in talking to the whip, to his deputies. He wasn’t interested in getting things done.”
One of the first things he did on becoming leader was to introduce the “Fares Fair” policy, a 25% cut in London transport fares subsidised by higher rates.
Like many of his ideas, it inspired enthusiasm and abject horror in equal measure.
Particularly aggrieved at the rates rise were the Bromley Conservatives, who challenged it in the High Court and won.
Although his most famous policy was killed off in its infancy, Oxford University’s Prof John Davis argues: “It was really his posture as leader of the GLC that made Ken Livingstone stand out, not projects or policy per se.”
That posture was the active promotion of a new brand of left-wing politics with an emphasis on minority rights. It was sometimes known by its sympathisers as “the rainbow coalition”, and mocked by its detractors as “the loony left”.
It was embodied in the establishment of committees on the GLC representing women, ethnic minorities and gay people, as well as a committee which informally scrutinised the work of the Metropolitan Police.
These causes might seem relatively uncontroversial now, but at the time they were viewed as daft or even subversive by Livingstone’s critics.
