Pioneer of town and country planning, Leslie Patrick Abercrombie was born near Manchester.
Abercrombie was an academic during most of his career, and prepared one city plan and several regional studies prior to WW2. He founded the first planning school in the country in Liverpool. Came to prominence in the 1940s for his urban plans of the cities of Plymouth, Hull, Bath, Bournemouth, Hong Kong, Edinburgh, Clyde Valley and Greater London.
He is best known for the post-WW2 re-planning of London. In 1943 he created the County of London Plan, and in 1944 the Greater London Plan, together commonly referred to as the Abercrombie Plan. The latter document was an extended and more thorough product than the 1943 publication. The Greater London Plan proposed that physical growth of London should be stopped by a green belt and that over a million people should move out to expanded towns beyond it. The M25 was his idea.
This photo is dated 1942 and, yes, the sitter is wearing a monocle.
