In 1973 the anarchist Colin Ward and journalist Anthony Fyson published "Streetwork", a result of their research for the UK's Town and Country Planning Associations Education Service. Left to their own devices by the Association they were given time and money to focus on the environmental education of the non-academic urban child. Having noticed a recent upsurge in public interest in town and country planning and the physical environment, the two collaborators set about rethinking environmental education. The ideology of "Streetwork", was the use of the urban environment as an educational resource and its aim was to develop a school department into an integrated community based program of decision making on local urban issues. The bulk of their research was into existing 'schools without walls' experiments in the US and the UK.

In the US the Parkway Education Program in Philadelphia was an educational program funded by the local education authority that had no school buildings, where students were chosen via a lottery.

"Each of the eight units or 'communities' (which operate independently) has a local HQ with office space for staff and lockers for children. All teaching takes place within the community. The search for facilities is considered to be part of the process of education."

"The city offers an incredible variety of learning labs: art students study at the art museum, biology students at the zoo, business and vocational courses meet at on-the-job sites. The program pays for none of its facilities but instead looks for "wasted space". Students, in going from class to class, travel around the city (normally on foot)."

The Parkway Program was followed by the Metro High School in Chicago, (the Chicago Public High School for Metropolitan Study), operating from 3 leased floors of an old office building in a decaying area of town. The students were also selected by lottery from all parts of Chicago.

According to Ward and Fyson, Metro Education Montreal used the city's underground railway as the central corridor for the same kind of activity - people were approached to give an hour a week teaching about their work. Other spaces used for classes were empty cinemas, vacant office spaces, under used computer centres, restaurants, libraries, clinics and laboratories.

UK initiatives included Dartington Hall and the Scotland Road Free School - 'taking kids from the half cleared townscape of Everton on daily expeditions to see things in and around the city. The kids were taken in an unemployment march and visited the Fischer Bendix factory when it was occupied by the workers', Guardian 21 march 1972.

"Shouldn't the school become the Enquiring School, and its students the local researchers who service the community with information on rents, traffic desities, current planning proposals, employment prospects and so on".

Ward and Fyson began to develop a handbook for setting up Streetwork Centres, mixing elements from existing models with strategies lifted from Paul Goodman's "Skills and Sabotage" and Patrick Geddes's writings on 'Outlook Towers'.

They belived that schools should have open access to the city's factories, warehouses, offices transport depots, municipal departments, supermarkets and sewage plants. "Our aim is to develop a school department into an integrated community based program of decision making on local urban issues"..

'Town Tracking' would be developed, and 'Trackers' were told how to make a Town Trail: "Develop your Town Trail so as to study of the floorscape: street furniture, house facades, the plaques on walls. Search out the names of architects inscribed in half-hidden places: ascertain dates of buildings, collect strange patterns in brick or stone. Evaluate different ways of building houses, shops and offices. Compare and contrast one group of buildings with another. Look for distant and unexpected views in the urban landscape. Only enter buildings to sample the contents: not to stay too long but to find one or two things which are relevant to the Town Trail: a picture, a map, and so on. This will whet the trackers appetite. Include within your trail the chance of experiencing a wide range of environmental 'stimuli'. For instance listen for characteristc street noises, take a part in open-air activities like a market or procession: breath in the air and take note of the variety of smells that can be experienced."

Many kinds of trails were suggested, night trails, industrial trails and anti-trails, as well as high outlook points or 'viewpoints'.

'Further functions the (Streetwork) Centres could serve: an up to date permanent exhibition of planning proposals for the area, a setting for community forums, a local topographical archive, a planning aid centre for the district, a centre for short courses for teachers on urban environmental work.'

As far as we know the research and suggestions published in Streetwork were ignored by the government and relevant education authorities of the time.