ABSTRACT
By 1962, SPUR had managed four years of exhibition and other propaganda activities (see Chapter 5) before patently running out of steam. Formed by a group of senior architect-planners to provide a forum to campaign for attention to the then-neglected topic of urban renewal, the organisation faced a variety of problems. Changing government policies that gave greater priority to urban renewal posed questions as to whether the group, as presently constituted, remained necessary. The programme of events had become sporadic and perfunctory, with meetings poorly attended and group projects resting on the initiative of a handful of members. SPUR also faced the inevitable problem of succession. The first flush of enthusiasm had receded and many of the original members had ceased to be active participants often, like Graeme Shankland or Percy Johnson-Marshall, through moving to major public sector jobs away from the organisation’s base in London. Others had become embroiled in the growing wave of renewal projects and could not spare the time. Ted Hollamby, a committed stalwart of many architectural pressure groups over the years, had written to apologise that his work on the LCC’s Thamesmead project had caused his attendances to be
so disastrous this last year, but my time and energies have been completely absorbed by work on the vast project at Erith (50 million pounds) which has been my ‘Swan-song’ to the LCC. I undertook to complete the design and get it through the Committees by the end of 2
faced the choice of either proposing disbandment or of finding others to take over.
