In the Georgian period, from the Act of Union between Scotland and England in 1707 and Queen Victoria coming to the throne in 1838, Scotland changed from being a largely rural country, with many small townships, to an urbanised country dominated by its four major cities, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee. However, this transition also took place through a period of planned village development in parallel with the planned extensions of the cities. The planned village movement took place on a very significant scale with some 426 listed in a publication by the Scottish Historical Society and a shorter, more selective list of 120 published in the Age of Improvement in Scotland. This book is a compilation of visual material, including photos, engravings and maps illustrating the planning of Georgian Scotland including the main cities and 50 exemplars of Georgian planned villages in Scotland. Roger Read
Roger Read trained as an architect and town planner in the 1960s. He became Deputy Chief Planner for Irvine New Town, in Scotland, and then Deputy Director of Physical Planning with Strathclyde Regional Council. When Strathclyde was dissolved in 1996, he founded, with others, METREX, The Network of European Metropolitan Regions and Areas and became its first Secretary General. He has since also written Levelling Up - Good Governance and Effective Planning, also published by College Publications.