Here, in his book Design in Town and Village (MInistry of Housing and Local Government, London 1953 p.55) Thomas Sharp is showing varieties of internal reserve within new developments. He writes:
'There are some who contend that the roads should be kept outside the space altogether, so that it is free of all vehicles, and so that the floor is undisturbed by carriageways - always a source of aesthetic difficulty as kerbs, gutters and changes of material complicate the pattern. There are many examples (Fig 88a is an obvious one) to show that this presents no difficulties in a layout of flats; but a single light service road will seldom destroy the character of a space and to contend that every flat layout should be in the form of a precinct would be a dangerous dogma leading to stereotyped plans, and would cripple the design of a related series of such spaces.
'When houses are turned inwards to overlook a communal open space there is the inevitable problem of how to treat the private gardens. The choice in a nutshell is whether the gardens should be placed on the road side, in which case the street picture is sacrificed for the sake of the internal space, or whether they should be inside the space, in which case the latter is spoilt in the interests of the street picture. Figs 88b and c illustrate the dilemma. Possible solutions of the difficulty are to be found in a compromise in which the gardens on the road are reduced in size, and to compensate for this, small private gardens are placed around the internal space.'
