Patrick Abercrombie

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This article is about the town planner. For the similarly-named Scottish physician, see Patrick Abercromby.

Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (b. June 6, 1879 in Ashton upon Mersey — d. March 23, 1957 in Aston Tirrold, Berkshire) was an English town planner. He trained as an architect before becoming the Professor of Civic Design at the Liverpool School of Architecture in 1915, and later Professor of Town Planning at University College London. Afterwards, he made award-winning designs for Dublin city centre and gradually asserted his dominance as an architect of international renown, which came about through the replanning of Hull, Bath, Edinburgh and Bournemouth, among others.

He is best known for the post-World War II replanning of London. He created the County of London Plan (1943) and the Greater London Regional Plan (1944) which are commonly referred to as the Abercrombie Plan. The latter document was an extended and more thorough product than the 1943 publication, and for Abercrombie it was an accumulation of nearly 50 years of experience and knowledge in the field of planning and architecture.

From the Abercrombie Plan plan came the New Towns movement which included the building of Harlow and Crawley and the largest 'out-county' estate, Harold Hill in north-east London. Patrick Abercrombie was knighted in 1945.

During the postwar years, Sir Patrick was commissioned by the British government to redesign Hong Kong. In 1956 he was commissioned by Haile Selassie to draw up plans for the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. He died in 1957.

Sir Patrick was the brother of Lascelles Abercrombie, poet and literary critic.