AN 192/897

Greater London Council: correspondence

Date range	1968-1979
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series AN, subseries AN 192

This file is truly delightful. It is likely to bring a smile to your face, probably because it contains the sort of thing that makes trawling through dusty archive documents worthwhile. The thing in this file that makes your day might actually have nothing to do with its subject matter.

This article is a stub. You can help out by expanding it.

This file is a waste of time. You are advised to avoid it like the plague. Its file title sounds rather interesting but it may contain only dull papers that fail to illuminate the subject matter or it may not even be related to the subject suggested by the title.

Context

This is the correspondence file, held by the British Railways Board, for all correspondence between BRB and the GLC. The earliest item on file is from 1968, but there are only a couple from that date through to 1973. The bulk of the file (perhaps 200 pages) is then from 1973 through to the end of 1979. Presumably there are other files somewhere for earlier dates but they don't come up in the catalogue.

There is very little here of interest to Ringways research. It comes too late to cover any correspondence about railway land in connection with motorway plans, and the main themes appear to be reconstruction of the underground ticket hall at Charing Cross, and connections to the proposed Channel Tunnel.

Contents of note

• A pamphlet called London: The Future and You, published by the GLC in 1973. It's effectively a statement of intent from the new Labour GLC administration and makes passing mention of the motorway plans being scrapped. Contains a lot of stuff about land use planning, restriction of car-centric commercial development and transportation planning that would be considered good practice or even quite progressive today.
• Copy of a leaflet published in April 1977 by "Movement for London", an organisation campaigning for better provision for drivers, which was supported by the CBI - in fact this leaflet was sent out by the CBI to all its members with its newsletter, which stated that MFL had its support. The aim appears to have been to get the GLC to reverse its pro-public-transport policies. It is a very rare example of a post-1973 campaign in favour of roadbuilding in London.

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a partial copy.