Truly Madly Brutal - Concrete dreams in 20th century Manchester
Saturday 31 August 3pm
A TOUR revealing how Manchester was re-imagined after World War II.
This is all about optimism and reality at a fascinating time for design. Broken as a superpower Britain found it hard to face its past. A dirty, bombed, Manchester, being the first urban centre of the Industrial Revolution, didn't like what it saw when it glanced in the mirror. It seemed better to wipe all the old stuff away. Make a fresh start.
So the city came up with the superb in scale and ambition 1945 Manchester Plan. The vision in this huge document is thrilling but thankfully it was never realised. If carried through the city would have been left with a Stalinist city centre like Nova Huta close to Cracow. The reality, apart from one or two ideas, would have been horrific. Instead of the glorious mess of Manchester architecture we would have been left with a regimented and uniform street scene. The Plan even carried an illustration (see below) that did away with famous Manchester Town Hall. It was out-of-date see. Old-fashioned.
Yet there are tell tale signs of how the plan would have been realised and there are buildings which hint at how the city might have looked if it all had been carried through.
The tour will include site visits inside and outside buildings. It will look at buildings, huge and often overlooked artworks (such as William Mitchell's wonders, illustrated below) and describe the personalities involved with the Manchester Plan. This is an informed tour but it is huge fun too.
Meet: Mercure Hotel, Portland Street, M1 4PH, ten minutes before the start time of 5pm.
This is all about optimism and reality at a fascinating time for design. Broken as a superpower Britain found it hard to face its past. A dirty, bombed, Manchester, being the first urban centre of the Industrial Revolution, didn't like what it saw when it glanced in the mirror. It seemed better to wipe all the old stuff away. Make a fresh start.
So the city came up with the superb in scale and ambition 1945 Manchester Plan. The vision in this huge document is thrilling but thankfully it was never realised. If carried through the city would have been left with a Stalinist city centre like Nova Huta close to Cracow. The reality, apart from one or two ideas, would have been horrific. Instead of the glorious mess of Manchester architecture we would have been left with a regimented and uniform street scene. The Plan even carried an illustration (see below) that did away with famous Manchester Town Hall. It was out-of-date see. Old-fashioned.
Yet there are tell tale signs of how the plan would have been realised and there are buildings which hint at how the city might have looked if it all had been carried through.
The tour will include site visits inside and outside buildings. It will look at buildings, huge and often overlooked artworks (such as William Mitchell's wonders, illustrated below) and describe the personalities involved with the Manchester Plan. This is an informed tour but it is huge fun too.
Meet: Mercure Hotel, Portland Street, M1 4PH, ten minutes before the start time of 5pm.
