Abercrombie’s green-wedge vision for London: the County of London Plan 1943 and the Greater London Plan 1944

This paper analyses the role that the green wedges idea played in the main official
reconstruction plans for London, namely the County of London Plan 1943 and the
Greater London Plan 1944. Green wedges were theorised in the first decade of the
twentieth century and discussed in multifaceted ways up to the end of the Second
World War. Despite having been prominent in many plans for London, they have
been largely overlooked in planning history. This paper argues that green wedges
were instrumental in these plans to the formulation of a more modern, sociable,
healthier and greener peacetime London.