THE PLANS FOR EARLY ABU DHABI REVEALED: ‘WE DON’T WANT AN AMERICAN EMPORIUM’
▶ Letters available online for the first time show how Rabat in Morocco could have influenced the way the UAE capital took shape, writes John Dennehy
New York was a city transformed after the Second World War. Towers soared into the Manhattan sky, the United Nations made the city its headquarters and, by the late 1950s, the Big Apple had begun to eclipse London as a major financial centre.
On the other side of the world, in Abu Dhabi, hopes of a similar transformation were high. Despite striking oil in 1958, a visitor to the town would have struggled to notice
any change to the way people lived. Life remained desperately hard, with most houses constructed from simple palm fronds.
There was not a metre of concrete road in the emirate. But a simple letter, typed on yellowing paper and sent on December 21, 1961, reveals that Abu Dhabi was not looking to New York for inspiration.
Now available to read online for the first time as part of the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive, the letter was written by Hugh Boustead, the British political agent in Abu Dhabi, to its embassy in Morocco.
He wrote that Sheikh Shakhbut, the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, had recently visited America and it had made a big impression. But not of the type you might think.
“As a result of his visit to New York, he has expressed his wish to keep the town [Abu Dhabi] in the Arab medium … with western amenities, rather than letting it become a hideous American emporium,” he wrote. It is not clear whether Sheikh Shakhbut used those exact words, but in the letter Boustead asked for town plans of Rabat that could influence the blueprint of Abu Dhabi as an oil town for 100,000 people – up from the few thousand who lived there at the time.
“With a view to obtaining an ideal layout for the future oil town of Abu Dhabi – which is now only a village – I am anxious to obtain for the Ruler the plan of Rabat, which is notable for its Arab architecture and for the beauty of the town,” he wrote. “If photographs could accompany them, it would be a great help to convince the Ruler of the beauty of the design.”
Not much evidence survives of Sheikh Shakhbut’s visit to New York and Boustead’s letter is the only reference to it in the archives.
Boustead’s bosses in Bahrain picked up on the positive noises regarding development coming from Abu Dhabi, but a British report later that month warned against underestimating Sheikh Shakhbut, who was not a frivolous spender.
“[Boustead’s] news is encouraging and I much hope that it represents the first real step in getting planned progress in Abu Dhabi under way,” it noted. “It would be as well, however, to sound a word of caution: the Ruler is very astute and is unlikely to let anyone make a quick fortune out of him.”
As Boustead was requesting plans of Rabat, Sheikh Shakhbut asked John Harris to draw a blueprint for Abu Dhabi.
The British architect is renowned for his work in Dubai, including two city master plans, the Trade Centre and Rashid Hospital, but less is known about his work in the UAE capital.
Sheikh Shakhbut told Harris to start work in 1960, and over the next two years he drew up the first plans for a modern city. Harris was starting from scratch. But he did not want to erase the old town.
The souq, mosques and Qasr Al Hosn fort were retained, while all traditional palmfrond houses faced the wrecking ball. Modern villas and would replace these old homes, with baqala-type grocery shops to cater for the residents.
Harris eschewed the grid system the UAE capital has today – the only straight roads were in the city centre, while roundabouts appeared at major intersections.
Parking spaces for 10,000 cars were also included, while the plan also included an extensive palm tree planting project. But the earlier hopes that development would now start in earnest were short-lived. It was clear that Sheikh Shakhbut resisted change and was loath to spend money.
There was also some suggestion of competing influences among British business interests that were vying for the
building and designing contracts. But in March 1963, a note from the political residency in Bahrain alluded to new and separate plans for the city, on which Harris had agreed to co-operate.
This did not bode well for the architect.
“We must now await the production of the overall development plan to see what is involved and whether, as we hope, some or all of Harris’ streets can be fitted in to the new and much larger plan,” it said. There, the file ends.
The archives do not reveal precisely what happened to the Harris plan nor the extent of Rabat’s influence. But planning a new Abu Dhabi would go through several more phases and it would be years before the city we know today started to emerge.
Harris eschewed the grid system of today – the only straight roads were in the city centre