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Urban design is the collective term used to describe the process of designing and shaping cities, towns and villages.

Whereas architecture focuses on individual buildings, urban design address the larger scale of groups of buildings, of streets and public spaces, whole neighbourhoods and districts, and entire cities, to make urban areas functional, attractive and sustainable.

Urban design is an inter-disciplinery subject, that unites all the built environment professions, including urban planning, landscape architecture, architecture, civil and municipal engineering. It is common for professionals in all these disciplines to practice in urban design. In more recent times different strands of urban design have emerged such as landscape urbanism.

Urban design demands a good understanding of a wide range of subjects from physical geography, through to social science, and an appreciation for disciplines, such as real estate development, urban economics, political economy and social theory.

Urban design is about making connections between people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric. Urban design draws together the many strands of place-making, environmental stewardship, social equity and economic viability into the creation of places with distinct beauty and identity. Urban design is derived from but transcends planning and transportation policy, architectural design, development economics, engineering and landscape. It draws these and other strands together creating a vision for an area and then deploying the resources and skills needed to bring the vision to life

Urban design theory deals primarily with the design and management of public space (i.e. the 'public environment', 'public realm' or 'public domain'), and the way public places are experienced and used. Public space includes the totality of spaces used freely on a day-to-day basis by the general public, such as streets, plazas, parks and public infrastructure. Some aspects of privately owned spaces, such as building facades or domestic gardens, also contribute to public space and are therefore also considered by urban design theory. Important writers on urban design theory include Christopher Alexander, Peter Calthorpe, Gordon Cullen, Andres Duany, Jane Jacobs, Mitchell Joachim, Jan Gehl, Allan B. Jacobs, Kevin Lynch, Aldo Rossi, Colin Rowe, Robert Venturi, William H. Whyte, Bill Hillier, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.

While the two fields are closely related, 'urban design' differs from 'urban planning' in its focus on the proactive design of urban areas, whereas the latter tends, in practice, to focus on the management of private development through established regulatory planning methods and programs, and other statutory development controls.

Principles[link]

L'Enfant's plan for Washington DC

Gehl Architects' project for Brighton New Road employing shared space

Public spaces are frequently subject to overlapping management responsibilities of multiple public agencies or authorities and the interests of nearby property owners, as well as the requirements of multiple and sometimes competing users. The design, construction and management of public spaces therefore typically demands consultation and negotiation across a variety of spheres. Urban designers rarely have the degree of artistic liberty or control sometimes offered in design professions such as architecture. It also typically requires interdisciplinary input with balanced representation of multiple fields including engineering, ecology, local history, and transport planning.

The scale and degree of detail considered varies depending on context and needs. It ranges from the layout of entire cities, as with l'Enfant's plan for Washington DC, Griffin and Mahony's plan for Canberra and Doxiadis' plan for Islamabad (although such opportunities are obviously rare), through 'managing the sense of a region' as described by Kevin Lynch, to the design of street furniture.

Urban design may encompass the preparation of design guidelines and regulatory frameworks, or even legislation to control development, advertising, etc. and in this sense overlaps with urban planning. It may encompass the design of particular spaces and structures and in this sense overlaps with architecture, landscape architecture, highway engineering and industrial design. It may also deal with ‘place management’ to guide and assist the use and maintenance of urban areas and public spaces.

Much urban design work is undertaken by urban planners, landscape architects and architects but there are professionals who identify themselves specifically as urban designers. Many architecture, landscape and planning programs incorporate urban design theory and design subjects into their curricula and there are an increasing number of university programs offering degrees in urban design, usually at post-graduate level.

Urban design considers:

• Urban structure – How a place is put together and how its parts relate to each other
• Urban typology, density and sustainability - spatial types and morphologies related to intensity of use, consumption of resources and production and maintenance of viable communities
• Accessibility – Providing for ease, safety and choice when moving to and through places
• Legibility and wayfinding – Helping people to find their way around and understand how a place works
• Animation – Designing places to stimulate public activity
• Function and fit – Shaping places to support their varied intended uses
• Complementary mixed uses – Locating activities to allow constructive interaction between them
• Character and meaning – Recognizing and valuing the differences between one place and another
• Order and incident – Balancing consistency and variety in the urban environment in the interests of appreciating both
• Continuity and change – Locating people in time and place, including respect for heritage and support for contemporary culture
• Civil society – Making places where people are free to encounter each other as civic equals, an important component in building social capital

History[link]

Although contemporary professional use of the term 'urban design' dates from the mid-20th century, urban design as such has been practiced throughout history. Ancient examples of carefully planned and designed cities exist in Asia, India, Africa, Europe and the Americas, and are particularly well-known within Classical Chinese, Roman and Greek cultures (see Hippodamus of Miletus).

European Medieval cities are often, and often erroneously regarded as exemplars of undesigned or 'organic' city development. There are many examples of considered urban design in the Middle Ages (see, e.g., David Friedman, Florentine New Towns: Urban Design in the Late Middle Ages, MIT 1988). In England, many of the towns listed in the 9th century Burghal Hidage were designed on a grid, examples including Southampton, Wareham, Dorset and Wallingford, Oxfordshire, having been rapidly created to provide a defensive network against Danish invaders. 12th century western Europe brought renewed focus on urbanisation as a means of stimulating economic growth and generating revenue. The burgage system dating from that time and its associated burgage plots brought a form of self-organising design to medieval towns. Rectangular grids were used in the Bastides of 13th and 14th century Gascony, and the new towns of England created in the same period.

Throughout history, design of streets and deliberate configuration of public spaces with buildings have reflected contemporaneous social norms or philosophical and religious beliefs (see, e.g., Erwin Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, Meridian Books, 1957). Yet the link between designed urban space and human mind appears to be bidirectional. Indeed, the reverse impact of urban structure upon human behaviour and upon thought is evidenced by both observational study and historical record. There are clear indications of impact through Renaissance urban design on the thought of Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei (see, e.g., Abraham Akkerman, "Urban planning in the founding of Cartesian thought," Philosophy and Geography 4(1), 2001). Already René Descartes in his Discourse on the Method had attested to the impact Renaissance planned new towns had upon his own thought, and much evidence exists that the Renaissance streetscape was also the perceptual stimulus that had led to the development of coordinate geometry (see, e.g., Claudia Lacour Brodsky, Lines of Thought: Discourse, Architectonics, and the Origins of Modern Philosophy, Duke 1996).

The beginnings of modern urban design in Europe are indeed associated with the Renaissance but, especially, with the Age of Enlightenment. Spanish colonial cities were often planned, as were some towns settled by other imperial cultures. These sometimes embodied utopian ambitions as well as aims for functionality and good governance, as with James Oglethorpe's plan for Savannah, Georgia. In the Baroque period the design approaches developed in French formal gardens such as Versailles were extended into urban development and redevelopment. In this period, when modern professional specialisations did not exist, urban design was undertaken by people with skills in areas as diverse as sculpture, architecture, garden design, surveying, astronomy, and military engineering. In the 18th and 19th centuries, urban design was perhaps most closely linked with surveyors (engineers) and architects. The increase in urban populations brought with it problems of epidemic disease, the response to which was a focus on public health, the rise in the UK of municipal engineering and the inclusion in British legislation of provisions such as minimum widths of street in relation to heights of buildings in order to ensure adequate light and ventilation.

Much of Frederick Law Olmsted's work was concerned with urban design, and so the (then-new) profession of landscape architecture also began to play a significant role in the late 19th century.

Modern urban design can be considered as part of the wider discipline of Urban planning. Indeed, Urban planning began as a movement primarily occupied with matters of urban design. Works such as Ildefons Cerda's General Theory of Urbanization (1867), Camillo Sitte’s City Planning According to Artistic Principles (1889), and Robinson’s The Improvement of Cities and Towns (1901) and Modern Civic Art (1903), all were primarily concerned with urban design, as did the later City Beautiful movement in North America.

The motor vehicle was the core influence on the design of urban development in the 20th century. And the rise of the "urban design" movement can be seen in part as a reaction to the adverse impact of car-use and car orientated design.

'Urban design' was first used as a distinctive term when Harvard University hosted a series of Urban Design Conferences from 1956 . These conferences provided a platform for the launching of Harvard's Urban Design program in 1959-60. The writings of Jane Jacobs, Kevin Lynch, Gordon Cullen and Christopher Alexander became authoritative works for the school of Urban Design.

Gordon Cullen's The Concise Townscape, first published in 1961, also had a great influence on many urban designers. Cullen examined the traditional artistic approach to city design of theorists such as Camillo Sitte, Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin. He created the concept of 'serial vision', defining the urban landscape as a series of related spaces.

Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961, was also a catalyst for interest in ideas of urban design. She critiqued the Modernism of CIAM, and asserted that the publicly unowned spaces created by the 'city in the park' notion of Modernists was one of the main reasons for the rising crime rate. She argued instead for an 'eyes on the street' approach to town planning, and the resurrection of main public space precedents, such as streets and squares, in the design of cities.

Kevin Lynch's The Image of the City of 1961 was also seminal to the movement, particularly with regards to the concept of legibility, and the reduction of urban design theory to five basic elements - paths, districts, edges, nodes, landmarks. He also made popular the use of mental maps to understanding the city, rather than the two-dimensional physical master plans of the previous 50 years.

Other notable works include Rossi's Architecture of the City (1966), Venturi’s Learning from Las Vegas (1972), Colin Rowe's Collage City (1978), and Peter Calthorpe's The Next American Metropolis (1993). Rossi introduced the concepts of 'historicism' and 'collective memory' to urban design, and proposed a 'collage metaphor' to understand the collage of new and older forms within the same urban space. Calthorpe, on the other hand, developed a manifesto for sustainable urban living via medium density living, as well as a design manual for building new settlements in accordance with his concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson in "The Social Logic of Space" (1984) introduced the concept of Space Syntax to predict how movement patterns in cities would contribute to urban vitality, anti-social behaviour and economic success. The popularity of these works resulted in terms such as 'historicism', 'sustainability', 'livability', 'high quality of urban components', etc. become everyday language in the field of urban planning.

Equality issues[link]

Until the 1970s, urban designers had taken little account of the needs of people with disabilities. At that time, disabled people began to form movements demanding recognition of their potential contribution if social obstacles were removed. Disabled people challenged the 'medical model' of disability which saw physical and mental problems as an individual 'tragedy' and people with disabilities as 'brave' for enduring them. They proposed instead a 'social model' which said that barriers to disabled people result from the design of the built environment and attitudes of able-bodied people. 'Access Groups' were established composed of people with disabilities who audited their local areas, checked planning applications and made representations for improvements. The new profession of 'access officer' was established around that time to produce guidelines based on the recommendations of access groups and to oversee adaptations to existing buildings as well as to check on the accessibility of new proposals. Many local authorities now employ access officers who are regulated by the Access Association. A new chapter of the Building Regulations (Part M) was introduced in 1992. Although it was beneficial to have legislation on this issue the requirements were fairly minimal but continue to be improved with ongoing amendments. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 continues to raise awareness and enforce action on disability issues in the urban environment.

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• RUDI - Resource for Urban Design Information, UK
• Web Urban Design - Urban Design Portal, CA
• cityLAB at UCLA, a think tank for architecture and urbanism
• MA Theories of Urban Practice program in New York City

Jan Gehl
Jan Gehl in 2006
Born	(1936-09-17) 17 September 1936 (age 75) Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality	Danish
Alma mater	Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture
Awards	Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize (1993) Civic Trust Award (2009)
Work
Practice	Gehl Architects

Jan Gehl (born 17 September 1936) is a Danish architect and urban design consultant based in Copenhagen and whose career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist. He is a founding partner of Gehl Architects.

Biography[link]

Gehl received a Masters of Architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1960, and practiced architecture from 1960 to 1966. In 1966 he received a research grant from the institution for "studies of the form and use of public spaces," and has since been a lecturer and professor there, and a Visiting Professor in Canada, the US, New Zealand, Mexico, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Norway. He is a founding partner of Gehl Architects – Urban Quality Consultants.

As a "young architect working in the suburbs," Gehl married a psychologist and "had many discussions about why the human side of architecture was not more carefully looked after by the architects, landscape architects, and planners... My wife and I set out to study the borderland between sociology, psychology, architecture, and planning."^[1]

Influence[link]

Gehl Architects' project for Brighton New Road employing shared space, awarded the UK Civic Trust Award

Gehl first published his influential Life Between Buildings in Danish in 1971, with the first English translation published in 1987. Gehl advocates a sensible, straightforward approach to improving urban form: systematically documenting urban spaces, making gradual incremental improvements, then documenting them again.

Gehl's book Public Spaces, Public Life describes how such incremental improvements have transformed Copenhagen from a car-dominated city to a pedestrian-oriented city over 40 years. Copenhagen's Strøget carfree zone, the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe,^[2] is primarily the result of Gehl's work. In fact, Gehl often uses the phrase "copenhagenize" to describe his vision of how urban centres can embrace bicycle culture and urban cycling.

Gehl participates in and advises many urban design and public projects around the world:

• In 2004 he carried out an important study in to the quality of the public realm in London, commissioned by Transport for London and supported City of Wakefield and the town of Castleford in developing and delivering better public spaces, as part of an initiative known as "The Castleford Project".
• In 2007-08 he was hired by New York City's Department of Transportation to re-imagine New York City streets by introducing designs to improve life for pedestrians and cyclists. The DOT used Gehl's work to "directly inform" the implementation of their new urban planning and design policies and projects.^[3]
• Gehl has been influential in Australia as well, where he prepared Public Life studies for the city centres of Melbourne (1994 and 2004),^[4] Perth (1995 and 2009),^[5] Adelaide (2002)^[6] Sydney (2007),^[7] Auckland (2008)^[8] and Christchurch.^[9] In 2010 Gehl was hired by the Hobart City Council to prepare a design strategy for the city of Hobart, Tasmania.^[10]

Awards and distinctions[link]

• 1993 Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize - for exemplary contributions to Town Planning and Territorial Development, International Union of Architects
• 1998 EDRA Award, Environmental Design Research Association, USA
• 2007 Honorary Academician, The Academy of Urbanism, UK
• 2008 Landscape Institute Award, Landscape Institute, UK
• 2009 NYC Award, New York City, USA^[11]
• 2009 Civic Trust Award for Brighton New Road Civic Trust, UK
• Honorary Member of American Institute of Architects
• Design Futures Council Senior Fellow

Selected publications[link]

• Gehl, J (1987) Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space, translated by Jo Koch, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. (ISBN 978-87-7407-360-4)
• Gehl, J. and Gemzøe, L. (2000) New City Spaces, The Danish Architectural Press. Copenhagen. (ISBN 978-87-7407-293-5)
• Gehl, J. and Lars Gemzoe. (2004) Public Spaces, Public Life, Danish Architectural Press. (ISBN 978-87-7407-305-5)
• Gehl, J. et al. (2006) New City Life, The Danish Architectural Press, Denmark. (ISBN 978-87-7407-365-9)
• Gehl, J (2010) Cities for People, Island Press. (ISBN 978-1597265737)

See also[link]

• New pedestrianism
• Public space
• New Urbanism
• Transit-oriented development

References[link]

External links[link]

• GEHL Architects, Urban Quality Consultants, Copenhagen
• complete text of "Life Between Buildings" Chapter 1 in English
• The Castleford Project, an innovative urban revitalization program in Yorkshire, UK
• Metropolis Magazine 10-step program for pedestrianizing Copenhagen
• Streetsblog.org report: "Jan Gehl: Gridlocked Streets Are “Not a Law of Nature”
• The Royal Institute of British Architects, International Dialogues: Architecture and Climate Change talk presented by Jan Gehl(video)
• Jan Gehl interview from ArchDaily

Len (Leonard)[1] Brown
Mayor of Auckland
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 November 2010
Preceded by	created
Majority	65,945[2]
Mayor of Manukau City
In office October 2007 – 31 October 2010
Preceded by	Barry Curtis
Succeeded by	abolished
Majority	14,777[3]
Personal details
Born	(1956-10-01) 1 October 1956 (age 55)[1] Taumarunui, New Zealand
Spouse(s)	Shirley Anne Inglis
Children	Three daughters
Alma mater	De La Salle College and University of Auckland
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Catholic
Website	www.LenBrownforMayor.co.nz

Len Brown (born (1956-10-01)1 October 1956^[4]) is the Mayor of Auckland in New Zealand and the head of the Auckland Council. He won the 2010 Auckland mayoral election on 9 October 2010 and was sworn in as Mayor of Auckland on 1 November 2010, being the first to hold that title for the amalgamated Auckland 'Super City'. He had previously been elected Mayor of Manukau City in October 2007, the second time he ran for that office.

Early years[link]

He was born in Taumarunui, and his family moved to Otara in Auckland when he was seven years old.^[5] He attended Mayfield Primary School, Papatoetoe Intermediate School and De La Salle College. He remembers his youth in prosperous small-town New Zealand fondly, remarking on them as "They were generous, generous days". His life growing up has been described as revolving around family, church, school and community, while parents Tom and Ngaire were described as strong believers in social equity and social justice as well as active in the community life.^[1] While not having grown up fully in Auckland, his family often travelled to see relatives there, his parents having originally moved to Taumarunui from South Auckland.^[1]

A lawyer by profession, Brown was a partner at law firm Wynyard Wood, and co-founded the Howick Free Legal Service.^{[citation needed]}

Political career[link]

He was first elected to the Manukau City council in 1992, and continued as councillor until 2004 when he did not run for re-election.^[4] He was also the chairperson of the Counties Manukau Health Council from 1998. Brown first ran for mayor of Manukau in 2004, and narrowly lost to long serving mayor Sir Barry Curtis; he lost by fewer than 600 votes. Brown had considered requesting a re-count due to the closeness of the vote, but decided that he had not been close enough to warrant it.^[6] Despite his affiliation with the New Zealand Labour Party since age 17,^[7] Brown did not run for election in the 2005 General Election, and instead returned to working for Wynyard Wood.^[8]

Mayor of Manukau[link]

Brown announced his candidacy for the Manukau Mayoralty in 2006,^[9] Barry Curtis announced that he would not be running for re-election, and Brown's main opposition were former Olympic runner Dick Quax and radio personality Willie Jackson. Brown resigned from Wynard Wood in 2007 to focus on his candidacy full time. In August 2007, both Quax and Brown were polling "neck and neck".^[10] Brown ran on several policies, including; capping rates at the cost of inflation, increasing public transport, and working with youth in the region.^[11]

Brown won the election in October 2007 with more than 32,000 votes; his next closest rival Dick Quax had less than 18,000,^[12] and the election was humorously termed a 'Lenslide' by some.^[7] He was officially sworn in on 26 October 2007 at the Manukau City Council hall.^[13]

On 31 May 2008 he suffered a heart attack, while at a music awards ceremony. The condition arose from a previously unrecognised congenital heart problem and Brown was admitted to Auckland Hospital.^[14] Brown had successful heart bypass surgery two days later and made a full recovery, returning to mayoral duties after a few months.^[15] His wife acknowledged that the attack was not stress-related, but rather a family issue, with Len's mother having died from a heart attack at 47.^[7]

Mayor of Auckland campaign[link]

In August 2009, Brown stated^[16] he would run for the mayoralty of the combined Auckland "super-city" in the Auckland mayoral election, 2010.^[17] Brown announced his candidacy in front of more than 300 supporters at Sorrento in the Park, One Tree Hill, Maungakiekie. His campaign speech focused on delivering public transport, public ownership of the region's public assets, environmental protection, economic and social development. He won the position by a majority of 65,945 votes over main rival candidate, Auckland City mayor John Banks,^[2] on 9 October 2010.

Credit card and expense issues

In June 2010, Brown came under media attention for matters relating to his spending on his council credit card and other council expense claims, which included items of a personal nature like toys, groceries and insect repellant.^[18] His subsequent explanations for these purchases were also scrutinised at a council meeting, where Brown repeatedly slapped his face and got emotional.^[19] An advisor later explained that Brown's emotional behaviour was attributable to his use of a Maori tradition, which Brown subsequently denied.^[20]

Another council expense claim included an $810 dinner at a restaurant, which Brown has refused to discuss who was in attendance.^[21] He noted that the event was a fundraiser for a local singer for which the Council bought a table, an explanation later supported by the artist.^[22]

Private life[link]

Brown is married to Shirley Anne Inglis, and has three children.^[4] They live in the Totara Park suburb of Manukau.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Len Brown For Mayor (official campaign website)

Michelle King is an American television writer and producer. She is married to Robert King who is also her writing partner. The two co-created the television legal dramas In Justice and The Good Wife. She has been nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Series for The Good Wife.^[1]

Career[link]

King and her husband Robert co-created the short-lived drama series In Justice in 2006. The series aired as a mid-season replacement on ABC. As well as the pilot King co-wrote the episode "Golden Boy". The series was not renewed after completing a thirteen episode first season.

The Kings co-created a second legal drama series entitled The Good Wife.^[2] They served as executive producers for the series. As well as the pilot episode they co-wrote the episodes "Stripped,"^[3] "Unorthodox,"^[4] "Hi,"^[5] and twelve other episodes. King and the writing staff were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Series for The Good Wife.^[1]

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Gregg Mitchell, Sherry Goldman (2010). "2010 Writers Guild Awards Television, Radio, News, Promotional Writing, and Graphic Animation Nominees Announced" (in English) (Press Release). Writers Guild of America. http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=3888. Retrieved 2010-04-07. 
2. ^ Charles McDougall; Michelle King & Robert King (2009-9-22). "Pilot". The Good Wife. episode 1. season 1. CBS. 
3. ^ Charles McDougall; Michelle King & Robert King (2009-9-29). "Stripped". The Good Wife. episode 2. season 1. CBS. 
4. ^ John Polson; Michelle King & Robert King (2009-11-10). "Unorthodox". The Good Wife. episode 7. season 1. CBS. 
5. ^ John Gallagher; Michelle King & Robert King & Barry Schkolnick (2010-2-9). "Hi". The Good Wife. episode 14. season 1. CBS. 

External links[link]

• Michelle King at the Internet Movie Database

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Round Table
King Arthur presides at the Round Table with all of his Knights.
Plot element from Arthurian legend
First appearance	Roman de Brut
Created by	Wace
Genre	Fantasy
In-story information
Type	Fictional table
Element of stories featuring	King Arthur

The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of Arthur's fabulous retinue. The symbolism of the Round Table developed over time; by the close of the 12th century it had come to represent the chivalric order associated with Arthur's court, the Knights of the Round Table.

History[link]

The Round Table first appears in Wace's Roman de Brut, a Norman language adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae finished in 1155. Wace says Arthur created the Round Table to prevent quarrels among his barons, none of whom would accept a lower place than the others.^[1] Layamon added to the story when he adapted Wace's work into the Middle English Brut in the early 13th century, saying that the quarrel between Arthur's vassals led to violence at a Yuletide feast. In response a Cornish carpenter built an enormous but easily transportable Round Table to prevent further dispute.^[1] Wace claims he was not the source of the Round Table; both he and Layamon credit it instead to the Bretons. Some scholars have doubted this claim, while others believe it may be true.^[1] There is some similarity between the chroniclers' description of the Round Table and a custom recorded in Celtic stories, in which warriors sit in a circle around the king or lead warrior, in some cases feuding over the order of precedence as in Layamon.^[1] There is a possibility that Wace, contrary to his own claims, derived Arthur's round table not from any Breton source, but rather from medieval biographies of Charlemagne—notably Einhard's Vita Caroli and Notker the Stammerer's De Carolo Magno—in which the king is said to have possessed a round table decorated with a map of Rome.^[2]

Though the Round Table itself is not mentioned until Wace, the concept of Arthur having a marvellous court made up of many prominent warriors is much older. Geoffrey of Monmouth says that after establishing peace throughout Britain, Arthur "increased his personal entourage by inviting very distinguished men from far-distant kingdoms to join it."^[3] The code of chivalry so important in later romance figures in as well, as Geoffrey says Arthur established "such a code of courtliness in his household that he inspired peoples living far away to imitate him."^[3] Long before Geoffrey, Arthur's court was well known to Welsh storytellers; in the romance Culhwch and Olwen, written around 1100, the protagonist Culhwch invokes the names of 225 individuals affiliated with Arthur.^[4] In fact, the fame of Arthur's entourage became so prominent in Welsh tradition that in the later additions to the Welsh Triads, the formula "Arthur's Court" in the titles of the triads began to supersede the older "Island of Britain" formula.^[5] Though the code of chivalry crucial to later continental romances dealing with the Round Table is mostly absent from the earlier Welsh material, some passages of Culhwch and Olwen seem to prefigure it, for instance when Arthur explains the ethos of his court, saying "[w]e are nobles as long as we are sought out: the greater the bounty we may give, the greater our nobility, fame and honour."^[6]

Though no Round Table appears in the early Welsh texts, Arthur is associated with various items of household furniture. The earliest of these is Saint Carannog's mystical floating altar in that saint's 12th century Vita; in the story Arthur has found the altar and attempts unsuccessfully to use it for a table, and returns it to Carannog in exchange for the saint ridding the land of a meddlesome dragon.^[7] Arthur's household furniture figures into local topographical folklore throughout Britain as early as the early 12th century, with various landmarks being named "Arthur's Seat", "Arthur's Oven," and "Arthur's Bed-chamber."^[8] A henge at Eamont Bridge near Penrith, Cumbria is known as "King Arthur's Round Table".^[9] The still-visible Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon has been associated with the Round Table^[10] and has been suggested as a possible source for the legend.^[11]

In 2010, following archaeological discoveries at the Roman ruins in Chester, some writers suggested that the Chester Roman Amphitheatre was the true prototype of the Round Table^[12] but English Heritage, acting as consultants to a History Channel documentary in which the claim was made, declared that there was no archaeological basis to the story.^[13]

Later development[link]

Sir Galahad takes the "Siege Perilous"

The Round Table takes on new dimensions in the romances of the late 12th and early 13th century, where it becomes a symbol of the famed order of chivalry which flourishes under Arthur. In Robert de Boron's Merlin, written around the 1190s, the wizard Merlin creates the Round Table in imitation of the table of the Last Supper and of Joseph of Arimathea's Holy Grail table. This table, here made for Arthur's father Uther Pendragon rather than Arthur himself, has twelve seats and one empty place to mark the betrayal of Judas. This seat must remain empty until the coming of the knight who will achieve the Grail. The Didot Perceval, a prose continuation of Robert's work, takes up the story, and the knight Percival sits in the seat and initiates the Grail quest.^[1]

The prose cycles of the 13th century, the Lancelot-Grail cycle and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, further adapt the chivalric attributes of the Round Table. Here it is the perfect knight Galahad, rather than Percival, who assumes the empty seat, now called the Siege Perilous. Galahad's arrival marks the start of the Grail quest as well as the end of the Arthurian era.^[1] In these works the Round Table is kept by King Leodegrance of Cameliard after Uther's death; Arthur inherits it when he marries Leodegrance's daughter Guinevere. Other versions treat the Round Table differently, for instance Italian Arthurian works often distinguish between the "Old Table" of Uther's time and Arthur's "New Table."^[14]

Round Table tournaments[link]

Winchester Round Table

During the Middle Ages, festivals called Round Tables were celebrated throughout Europe in imitation of Arthur's court. These events featured jousting, dancing, and feasting, and in some cases attending knights assumed the identities of Arthur's knights.^[15] The earliest of these was held in Cyprus in 1223 to celebrate a knighting. Round Tables were popular in various European countries through the rest of the Middle Ages and were at times very elaborate; René of Anjou even erected an Arthurian castle for his 1446 Round Table.^[15] On 19 December 1566, in Stirling Castle, Mary Queen of Scots gave a feast with 30 guests at an imagined replica of Arthur's round table during the masque-themed celebrations of the baptism of the future James VI.^[16][17]

Winchester Round Table[link]

The artifact known as the "Winchester Round Table," a large tabletop hanging in Winchester Castle bearing the names of various knights of Arthur's court, was probably created for a Round Table tournament.^[18] The current paintwork is late; it was done by order of Henry VIII of England for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's 1522 state visit, and depicts Henry himself sitting in Arthur's seat above a Tudor rose. The table itself is considerably older; dendrochronology calculates the date of construction to 1250–1280—during the reign of Edward I—using timber from store felled over a period of years.^[19] Edward was an Arthurian enthusiast who attended at least five Round Tables and hosted one himself in 1299, which may have been the occasion for the creation of the Winchester Round Table.^[18] Martin Biddle, from an examination of Edward's financial accounts, links it instead with a tournament Edward held near Winchester on April 20, 1290, to mark the betrothal of one of his daughters.^[20]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bromwich, Rachel (2006). Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain. University Of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1386-8.
• Geoffrey of Monmouth; Thorpe, Lewis (1988). The History of the Kings of Britain. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044170-0.
• Lacy, Norris J. (Ed.) (1991). The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-4377-4.
• Loomis, Roger S. (1959). "Arthurian Influence on Sport and Spectacle". Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. Oxford.
• Padel, O. J. (2000). Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature. University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-7689-1.
• Rouse, Robert; and Cory Rushton (2005). The Medieval Quest for Arthur. Tempus, Stroud. ISBN 0-7524-3343-1.
• Thomas, Charles (1953). "Folklore from a Northern Henge Monument". Folklore 64 (3): 427–429. JSTOR 1256826. 

External links[link]

• Timeless Myths - Knights of the Round Table
• The 14th Century Round Table in Winchester, Hampshire. UK