My father, Lewis Braithwaite, who has died aged 87, was influential in the 1970s and 80s in town planning, saving historic buildings and street patterns, and in considering canals as urban assets. Many of his ideas are taken for granted now, but were radical at the time.
Lewis wrote three books for A&C Black. The first, Canals in Towns (1976), argued that cities should embrace their canals, and advocated new flats and warehouse conversions facing the canal. The Historic Towns of Britain (1981) and Exploring British Cities (1986) were guidebooks based on the first edition 6in Ordnance Survey maps from 1865 to 1890. He hoped that people would “notice new things, find new alleys and raise their eyes above fascia level”.
