Raymond Gorbing

Planner and architect Raymond Gorbing worked at the Stevenage Development Corporation from 1950-1963, after which he was a partner with Leonard Vincent in Gorbing and partners, building for housing and industry in Stevenage and beyond. A local landmark building built by the company was the 'orange box' the Stevenage Leisure Centre built in 1975.

Architect Raymond Gorbing on housing density in Stevenage
'...They would say 'look that’s the amount of money you’ve got to build a house' if you like, 'building 600 houses that's the amount of money you’ve got.'...'
Gorbing about qualifying as a planner
'They had set up a school of regional association of planning and research in London which was attached to London University and they ran a correspondence course so by 47 I was a qualified Associate of the Town Planning Institute.'
Mr Ray Gorbing, architect on arguments about a pedestrian town centre [Text only]
"I mean the estates people were really anti pedestrianising the centre, they used to say “It will never work”. "
Mr Ray Gorbing, architect, talks about the time before the town centre was built [Text only]
"We couldn’t stop the spring at first, it was sort of gushing up all over the place and we finally did stop it..."
Raymond Gorbing about setting up a planning office
This excerpt is about setting up a planning office in Nottingham, but it will give you an idea about how the planning offices were working in the first years.