William Graham Holford

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William Graham Holford, Baron Holford of Kemp Town (22 March 1907 – 17 October 1975) was a British architect and town planner.

He was born in South Africa and educated at Diocesan College, Cape Town. He studied architecture at Liverpool University, where he won the Rome Scholarship in Architecture to the British School at Rome in 1930. He succeeded Patrick Abercrombie as Professor of Civic Design at Liverpool University in 1937. Holford was heavily involved with the development of post-World War II British town planning and was largely responsible for drafting the Town and Country Planning Act 1947. In 1948, he again succeeded Abercrombie as Professor of Town Planning at University College of London until he retired in 1970.^[1]

He is notable for developing a plan for the redevelopment of Paternoster Square, near St Paul's Cathedral, London. This area was devastated by aerial bombardment in The Blitz. From 1961-1967 the entire superblock between St Paul's churchyard and Newgate Street was redeveloped according to Holford's scheme. The new Paternoster Square soon became immensely unpopular, its grim (in the eyes of many) presence immediately north of one of the capital's prime tourist attractions an embarrassment. It was redeveloped between 1996 and 2003.

In the mid 1950s, the Robert Menzies Government asked Holford to report on the planning and development of Canberra, which had become disorganised due to the Great Depression, World War II and post-war economic stringency. His report led to to the creation of the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC), which contolled Canberra's development between 1957 and 1989, when the city as it exists today was created. He also advised extensively on Canberra's planning and this advice was largely accepted by the NCDC and led to the evolution of Canberra into a city of car-based suburbs based on the British New Town concept.^[2] One unfortunate legacy is the NCDC's acceptance of his recommendation that the proposed new Parliament House be constructed on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin, rather than on Capital Hill. In 1978, Parliament decided that Parliament House would be built on Capital Hill as proposed by its original planner Walter Burley Griffin. The use of the area that the Parliament House was to occupy under the Holford plan has never been fully resolved.

Holfor was also involved in selecting Lúcio Costa's plan for Brasília.^[3]

In 1962, Holford presented a plan which would have created a "double-decker" Piccadilly Circus, with a new pedestrian concourse above the ground-level traffic. This concept was kept alive throughout the rest of 60s, before eventually being killed by Sir Keith Joseph and Ernest Marples in 1972; the key reason given was that Holford's scheme only allowed for a 20% increase in traffic, and the Government required 50%.

He was knighted in 1953 and in 1965 he was made a life peer by the Wilson Government, the first town planner to be made a Lord.^[1].