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Here’s my latest bit of lockdown reading - the Manchester Plan from 1945.
The cover might look as dull as the book sounds, but it’s utterly amazing with some brilliant illustrations.
Stick with me, I promise it will be worth it!
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The cover might look as dull as the book sounds, but it’s utterly amazing with some brilliant illustrations.
Stick with me, I promise it will be worth it!
Thread.
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First, some context.
This was a city trying to recover from the impact of the blitz.
The plan starts:
“It was the blitz that awakened public interest in planning. But it was not the blitz that made planning necessary.”
This was a city trying to recover from the impact of the blitz.
The plan starts:
“It was the blitz that awakened public interest in planning. But it was not the blitz that made planning necessary.”
“The main object of the Plan...is to enable every inhabitant of this city to enjoy real health of body and health of mind.”
It’s a hugely ambitious attempt to deliver betterment for everyone - especially the less well off.
It’s a hugely ambitious attempt to deliver betterment for everyone - especially the less well off.
It set out proposed land use zones for the entire city. Look at the huge purple areas set aside for industry.
It proposed an “interim” Green Belt too, to stop the spread of “a monstrous built-up area” that “should never have been allowed to come into being.”
It didn’t shrink-wrap the urban area though - look at the space it had to grow.
It didn’t shrink-wrap the urban area though - look at the space it had to grow.
And this was a city obsessed with cars. There are pages and pages on how to move more cars, more quickly - like this diagram prescribing road widths.
There were individual plans for many of the suburbs - especially the more deprived ones - supported by some amazing artist’s impressions. Here’s the one for Miles Platting.
And this is the proposed new district centre in Hulme.
Wythenshawe gets its own chapter with detailed masterplans for how it will be completed.
It notes that, “like most large housing estates” it has “a lack of robust community life” due its “newness” and “the absence of good communal facilities” which the Plan wanted to address.
It notes that, “like most large housing estates” it has “a lack of robust community life” due its “newness” and “the absence of good communal facilities” which the Plan wanted to address.
Arguably the best bit is saved for the penultimate chapter - an extensive redesign of the city centre with a brand new Town Hall linked to brand new Courts of Law by a “splendid boulevard.” Everything in the way was to be demolished.
This sketches show both ends of that route.
This sketches show both ends of that route.
The Plan finished with a cri de coeur:
“To bring such a grand adventure to fulfilment calls also for sterling qualities in the community that undertakes it. It demands a staunch willingness, a sustained drive, a calculated willingness to make some temporary sacrifice.”
“To bring such a grand adventure to fulfilment calls also for sterling qualities in the community that undertakes it. It demands a staunch willingness, a sustained drive, a calculated willingness to make some temporary sacrifice.”
And here’s what the Plan intended Manchester to look like in 2045.
It’s very much of its time - regimented, almost Soviet in feel. That’s wholly in keeping with the tone of the Plan.
You’ve got to be impressed by the vision and ambition - but I’m also glad it failed.
It’s very much of its time - regimented, almost Soviet in feel. That’s wholly in keeping with the tone of the Plan.
You’ve got to be impressed by the vision and ambition - but I’m also glad it failed.
