one of my hook new town flickr images is featured in this article on the guardian cities website about unbuilt london schemes. really it's pushing it to call hook a 'london' scheme - even though it was produced by london county council.
who owns the copyright for 'the planning of a new town' now is not clear to me. the original copyright was wholly owned by the LCC and then the GLC, which published it itself with no other involvement eg from HMSO or government agencies. the GLC was famously abolished in 1986 with no direct successor, and its assets were parcelled out to various bodies and the remains sold off by the london residuary body which was itself wound up in 1996. so where did the ownership of a then 21-years-out-of-print urban study go? it's now 50 years since 'the planning of a new town' was published. is it in the public realm now? did it fall into the public realm in 1986? where did the ownership of other GLC architects department stuff like the standard house plans go? who, before the internet, cared?
If you really want to follow this up London Metropolitan Archives should be able to help - they took over the records of the GLC and I presume have a lot of experience with dealing with the intellectual property in LCC and GLC materials. If it was Crown Copyright it should be should be clear after 50 years if it was published.
They probably have the GLC architects and planning department papers. When I first started work in London they had a team dedicated to sorting out the GLC archives. See http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visiting-the-city/archives-and-city-history/london-metropolitan-archives/Pages/default.aspx
Posted by: Sue Donnelly | April 19, 2015 at 21:58
i looked at london metropolitan archives when doing the blog post. the hook study isn't mentioned although it was a notable publication, and it isn't clear if the copyright they do have is IP or just over the actual documents in their possession.
i like to know whose rights i am transgressing! might be fun to go to LMA anyway.
Posted by: steve | April 19, 2015 at 21:59
They may well have more than is on the catalogue – depends on the backlog so worth dropping them an enquiry. Even if they don’t have the copyright they may well know who does have it (kind of goes with the territory!) LMA would probably be fun – they have some great maps and plans.
Posted by: Sue Donnelly | April 19, 2015 at 22:00