Manchester Made Over

MANCHESTER MADE OVER

BY

ALFRED P. SIMON Er/itlfl iUUI arrar1gd ":J

LUCY REDFORD, M.A.

-

LONDON

P. S. KING & SON LTD. ORCHARD HOUSE, r+ GREAT SMITH STREET WESTMINSTER, S.W. t

FOREWORD Bv BARRY PARKER, P.P.T.P.I., F.R.I.B.A.

s 11

flllANCHESTER UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

PrintM i• Gwu B,;1.;,,

DissATISFACTION with the term " Town-planning ., is felt because of its want of comprehensiveness and the implication it carries with it that planning other than of towns is excluded from it. This has led to the latest Act dealing with Town-planning being called "The Town and Country Planning Act," and it has led to the latest school established to teach it being called a " School of Planning and Research."

In this book a man of deep and broad sympathies, wide knowledge, and keen artistic perceptions applies the results of earnest study of his and of other cities to his own city, while excluding the term "Town-planning" from its title. Every proposal he makes should receive consideration. " There is a freshness and absence of the stereotyped and a spontaneity in this book which give it great charm.

The fact that everything in it is given a specific relationship to Manchester introduces an element of reality and definiteness which makes it more convincing than a more general treatise on its subject could have been. This will be found to be true not only by the general reader, but also by the Town-planner who reads it.

We sometimes fail to appreciate that an underlying principle in the British constitution is the embodiment of the idea that important decisions should be made by those who are not experts in any of those things which must influence decisions, but should be made by those who are capable of weighing and balancing the views of one expert against those of another, unbiased by any expert knowledge of their own. We have as Commissioner of Works a man who is not an expert on anything which contriv

Vl

FOREWORD

butes to his arriving at decisions. We leave him to determine what shall be done, say, with a harbour. Before doing this he takes the views of financial experts, engineering experts, naval experts, navigation experts, legal experts, Town-planning experts, transport experts, survey.ors and architects. He appreciates the bearing of the views of one expert on those of another, and does not attach undue weight to any. Were he himself, say, a financial expert he could scarcely avoid being unduly influenced by financial considerations, and less influenced than he should be by, say, engineering considerations.

The value of this book largely arises from the fact that its author is able to approach its subject without bias in any specific direction, and with the breadth of outlook which his having no such bias gives him.

CONTENTS PAO!

CHAP'J'l!ll

FottEWORo-By

BARRY

PARKER.,

Esq.,

F.R.I.B.A., P.P.T.P.I.

xi.

INTRODUCTION

I.

v.

THE HUMAN FACTOR

I

Differing Individual Needs and Routines as affected by Location of Residence, Work or School, and Houn of Work-Owner-occupier as Main Type for Planning Purposcs--Outlying Areas first dealt with-Wage Earners as Part of the Machine-Needs outside the Home, ~.g., Accessibility to Work-The Town as a Machine.

II.

MANCHESTER'S REGIONAL PROBLEM (a) Unwieldy Size: too Big for Citlzcruhip : Outer

7

Suburbs must supply Deficiency-(b) Relation to Salford and Strctford-(c) Outlying Areas and Reason for their ,... inclusion.

III.

PLANNING IN SuBURBAN AREAS Three Rings : (a) Civic Centre 1 (b) Middle Ring,

I I

Slum Clearance ; (c) Outer Ring, Farmed Houses : Reason for Farmed Ho= ; Method for Preventing Slum Creation I Problem of Transport, better for Industry to follow Houses--Decantation of Amusements, etc., makes it better to plan Suburbs first and then work inward-Need for Social Development of Suburban Centre, Fallowfield, etc., by conservation and improvement-Shops on Main Roadt, however, make for Bottle Necks for Traffic-Suggestions for Fallowfield, Withington, Palatine Terminus, etc., etc.

IV.

18

AMENITY BELTS

t.g., Ardwick Green, All Saints, PiccadillyBw/tlirrgs, t .g., Hospitals, Schools, the Univenity-B/ock Dwellings. ¡

Sl{UartJ,

V.

PARKS, PARKWAYS AND TREES

Whitworth Park - Platt Fields - Birchfields - He:iton Park-Victoria Park. vii

25

...

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

Vlll

CHAPTER

VI.

PACK

THE ONE-AND-A-HALF MILE BELT •

Comparative Rateable Value-Re-distribution of Heavy Industry, Gas Undertakings, Goods Stations and Sidings needed-Re-housing Formula needed-Ring Roads may obviate necessity for New Street Widenings, Clearances, etc.-Landm:arks to be Conserved-Need for Car Parks-Need for estimating future Motor T raffic Requirements-Light Industries : Produce Market, Ancoats Turnery, Theatrical Centre-Co-operation between Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Trade, etc., and the AuthorityShudehill, position justified.

VII.

33

XVI.

WYTHENSHAWE (2)

88

BUILDINGS OF THE FUTURE

95

A Local Olympia- A Civic Stadium-Modern Public Houses-Post Offices.

ADMINISTRATION MADE OVER The Human Factor at the Helm-The Need of Education

BARRIERS

TRAFFIC PROBLEMS

MAPS

53

PLANS

MAP I.

C1TY OF MANCHESTER

MAP 2.

MANCHESTER, SALFORD AND

MAP

61

AND

3·

Fromispiece STRETFORD 8 to jJJ,Ce 5S

MANCHESTER'S RAILWAYS

THE PRINCIPLE OF LEX ADICKES

70

Hous1NG

78

AND THE JUNIOR SCHOOL

ECONOMICS •

Decentralisation and higher Rateable Values-Twentyfive Years' Survey-Outward Movement.

XI.

ZoNING AND LAND VALUES •

The Dangers of cutting up Zones : the lessened needs of Through Traffic within the Zone : the Powers for acquiring Industrial Slums-Lex Adickes.

XII.

PLANNING FOR WoRKING CLASS REQUIREMENTS

.....

WYTHENSHAWE (1)

15 81

1

....,

The School as a Unit for 1,:ioo Working-class Dwcllings100 Acres.

XIII.

99

in Dcsiftl-The Co-ordination of Municipal Plans-A Central Map Room.

Value of Ring Roads--Altcrnative Centre : Widening of Wythenshawe Road not necessary- Use of Roundabou~ Pedestrian Control-The Irwell, alternative Treatment : use as a Speedway.

X.

XIV.

THE SUPER-CENTRE

No Natural Obstacles, hence Formless Sprawl-Railways, Goods Stations, Sidings, etc.-Canals.

IX.

PACI!

CNAPTl!ll

xv.

To include Chief Official Buildings, Termini, etc., etc.Sensitive to Economic Changes-Effect of Helicopter-Subways unlikely unless Costs come down-PaMCngcr Railway Statioru1-Rcmoval of Trams from Centre-Need for Decentralisation of Bus Termini will lead to External Expansion of Civic Centre-Construction of Inner Core : use of AfClldcs-Etfect of Victoria Park Toll Bar on Civic Centre-Processional Way from Albert Square to Rylands Library : Culverting at Exchange Station, St. Peter's Square, Piccadilly (New Art Gn!lcry).

VIII.

IX

-< ~A

}

l '='c;TFR •· .. 11·-G J

f

y

•

INTRODUCTION A coNTEMPORARY form of American fiction deals with the small and isolated country town and the life of the careful and conservative householder in it. The ways and means of making the most of what is to hand, the care of the cabbage-patch, the treasuring of family heirlooms and relics, build up a ficture of human interest occupied in making the best o things.

We read of the treasured garment carefully laid by and stored in lavender which is requisitioned for the use of a later age and a younger generation and of the process of .. making over " which is resorted to. The cut is out of date but ample, there are bad patches and stained spots, but the material is good, better indeed than can be procured to-day. The purse is meagre and so the careful housewife "makes over" the garment and produces a useful and up-to-date article out of th.e old material.

It seems to the writer that this Americanism of " making over " describes aptly the technique needed for our purposes. A similar process and a similar frame of mind govern the reconstruction of a big old-fashioned industrial city, of which Manchester offers such an interesting example.

We do more than refashion when we make over. For we bring to our task efforts to fit in meticulously and with the greatest possible economy such material as we possess, and make it serve for what we desire to create without wasting a shred or a patch that can be utilised.

As in the Middle West neighbours and relatives all help the process of making over to a satisfactory end, so too must the writer acknowledge the aid received from friends and well-wishers.

The assistance from the various departments of the xi

l

Xll

INTRODUCTION

Manchester Corporation, in particular from the Townplanning section, but also from the Housing and Education officials, cannot be too warmly acknowledged. So also must the encouragement and advice from the Departments of Architecture and Economics at the 1University of Manchester, from Mr. Barry Parker, F.R.I.B.A., P.P.T.P.I. (the planner of the Wythenshawe Estate) and from many kind friends be placed on record, as without such stimulus the following chapters would never have been completed.

At once the most important and the most difficult thing in Town-planning is to preserve the long view.

We talk of " planning for fifty years,,, but in practice we are only too ready to consider immediate interests, to plan for results that we ourselves may hope to see. This is natural, but dangerous to our ideal of an ultimately satisfying Manchester, and it is with the desire to emphasise the long view in every aspect of Town-planning that this survey has been written.

The difficulties inseparable from the long view bring their compensating opportunities. It is true that none of us can measure the effect of unknown or unperfected inventions ; in building construction we may yet accept, as a standard of architectural fitness, the house on stifts, which by the use of ferro-concrete has already passed the experimental stage in France : this would open up, in addition to a radical change of appearance, a new conception of street works. Similarly, underground transit, and even more so aviation, may alter the direction of planning. We have only to visualise the perfection of the helicopter to understand how radically our traffic problems and our buildings would be altered ; we ourselves and our commodities would travel unimpeded by the narrowness of streets and would arrive direct at the desired destination via the roof. Such are instances which may well alter the whole habit of our lives and the appearance of our cities.

But with a large margin of time at our disposal we can plan generously and as wisely as we may, without the

INTRODUCTION

xiii

economic reservations which cripple our immediate development.

For in fifty years the present economic chaos will be settled in one way or another. If it be on the downward path, no planning o~ to-dar can help our city. It will awindlc at an ever-increasing rate, and the patches of derelict property .in the ce?tre will b~ enlar~ed until only the newer outlymg porttons remain habitable. It is difficult to reconcile such a state of affairs with our present conviction that the prosperity even of the satellite town of Wythenshawe depends upon that of Manchester in general. In a~y case, this do:wnward path would be from an economic aspect as disastrous as any overspending due to optimism might be.

Therefore we may as well plan in a spirit of optimism and since nothing in the affairs of men remains static, w; may assume that we shall go for:ward with, let us hope, less u~control~ed e~ergy. than tn the past, tempering enthusiasm with discretion. In the same spirit of optimism we may take it for granted that in fifty years' time we shall have abolished the smoke nuisance aml all other causes of air. ~nd water p~llution. And finally we may hope for a. S,Pmt of ~ood-wdl among the citizens of to-morrow, a spmt that will allow for a less exclusive mode of life, greater neighbourliness, greater pride in public possessions, all of which will help towards a better-planned and therefore a happier city.

In banking upon prosperity, it is the district as a whole that mu.st be considered, for the importance of Manchester is lar~ely the r.esult of dominant position in S.E. Lancashire. While planning for Manchester will keep us fully occupied, we must yet always think in term.s of th7 great~r area. In particular we cannot ignore our immediate neighbours, Salford and Stretford.

So~e of the suggestions which follow are frankly tentative, and no attempt is made to lay down hard-andfast definitions.

!ts

IUC. D,

6

MANCHESTER MADE OVER CHAPTER I THE HUMAN FACTOR TowN-PLANNING, w~ether it be in the und~ve!oped countryside, the partially developed suburban d1str1ct or the City itself, is, when all is said and done, an attempt to cater for human needs and human activities. This 1s, of course, obvious, but either it has not been fully realised or it bas not been acted upon in the past. Unless our town-planning envisages the needs and activities of every section of the community we shall only repeat the mistakes of the past. We must discard our outworn formul~ and resist any temptation to stick labels on our fellow-men.

w AGE-EARNERS

AS PART OF THE MACHINE

-

W c know, of course, that wage-earners constitute the largest proportion of our towns-folk. Are they not thought of mainly as mechanised human beings in spite of lip service to the contrary? The phrase, u The Human Factor in Industry," which is so much bandied about in talk and print, is merely used to denote the human agency which must maintain the efficiency of the machine. It is true that increased attention has been given during the last few years to the comfort and wellbeing of the workers in the factory or place of business, but this arises largely from the recognition that fatigue and dissatisfaction can be measured in exact terms of lessened mechanical proficiency and of tonsequent financial loss.

Terms and hours of employment determine the social system of an industrial town, and any plan for betterment .....o.

1

â&#x20AC;˘

MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER has to take this order of things into account. Yet the employer, as such, is only concerned with the period for which his workers are paid. What happens to them before they " clock on " in the early morning and after the close of the day's work is no concern of his, provided that efficiency is not impaired during working hours.

It is the task of the town-planner to intervene so that life outside the workshop may be made easy and effective and that the needs and wishes of the citizens may be conveniently carried out.

These principles are illustrated by the work done in housing and rehousing, and as similar principles are being applied to the labour of the home, we may say that to such an extent our home life is already subjected to planning and that the human factor is being considered in a humane sense. Our advance is slow, partly owing to the struggle against conservative traditions of housekeeping, i.e., to a human outlook which is itself unhelpful to considered planning. If the individual clings to overcrowded and over~rnamented rooms, to old-fashioned and wasteful methods of heating and lighting ; if he or she accepts with reluctance labour-saving devices and neglects the principles of layout which make housework simf,ler and easier (that is house-planning), there is not like y to be a large body of considered opinion to help the wider issue of town-planning.

NEEDS OUTSIDE THE HoME

Home being largely the affair of the individual, the workshop that of the employer, it is with the needs and activities outside both that our main problem lies. That is not to exclude any aspect of our daily experiences : the home life, the wage-earning life, and the leisure of the worker, must all claim our careful consideration, and this is not easy when we remember that each worker leads a life of individual pattern. Persons of the same age, working for the same hours and wages at the same job, under the same roof, have yet a different daily routine.

The variation may be caused by the size of the family and

THE HUMAN FACTOR

3

. fi ·al position: it may come from the incli~ations, its nan~ pursuits of the individual : it will certainly be taSks adn by the location of the home and its distance from affecte the workshop. . . . h h Th a worker hving m Wythens awe, t e new ll'~s, of Manchester, may have to leave home at sate i cm in order to " clock on ,, in the City at nine. A ~· !5 a~w~rker Jiving in Ardwick, nearer to the centre, e1 or the same job by leaving at 8.4 S. The first has ~~ cn~ive fares, tiresome waits and changes of transport : th~ second walks, and saves both m_oney ~nd wo~ry.

H far has this discrepancy been considered in working otw ur statistics of industrial fatigue ? To what extent OU 0 } • ~ does it affect town-p annmg .

We can approach the. same pr?blem from the home, where each unit has a differe~t tu?e-table. T~e wageearners depart in different direc~ions, the children _to different schools, all at differe~t times. The housewife has both local and City shopping nee~s, and sets up a . time-table different from that of her family.

If all these variations develop they may well m~ify the volume of traffic passing in certain directions at peak periods. Our roadways, which are at present adequate for all the demands made upon them except at rush hours when all workers move from home to place of busin~s in the morning and vice versa whe1_1 they re~rn homewards at night, may not need sub~tantial widening, even if the aggregate increase of vehicular traffic continues.

Other developments might increase the tendency. ( 1) The establishment of a' ~hift system throughout industry would spread the density more evenly over the working-day. . (i) The decentralisation of indus~ry and of workingdass districts would divert into mmor channels from what is at present a main stream. .

Traffic problems can be divided into two categones ; (a) The number of vehicles occupying the roadway. (b) The number of persons conveyed in these vehicles. a2

4

MANCHESTER MADE OPER

The common practice is to cast a disapproving eye upon the privately-owned vehicle, taking up too much road space for its one or two passengers. It may be assumed, however, that such motor cars leave the main str~ !ls quickly as they can, in order to reach their destination by less encumbered routes while the inwardgoin$' public conveyance rolls on 'to its prescribed terminus, regardless of the fact that just at the most congested points it is no longer full or even half full.

This accessibility to work, which is provided by our ~oad systems and our transport facilities, is of vital importance to each worker ; it is of equal importance to the en_ipl'?yer or the person who has charge of the business organisation, and even if the time occupied in coming to and going from work cannot be added to the hours of employment (of which it is in effect a part) yet the computation would be worth having. . The . st.atistics thus gained would help not only the industr~ahst, but also the town-planner in assessing and regulating the volume of passenger traffic ¡ it should be P<?ssible t<? estimate more accurately the amount of leisure available to each worker, with its corresponding effect upon .industrial fatigue. We could find out what demands might be made upon transport for the leisure requirements if we had this more accurate knowledge of the net amount of leisure available to each worker.

Owing to the Daylight Saving Act, we have during the summer month~ a large m'?vem7nt of population seeking outdc:>or recre~tion, and this, with a still greater amount of leisure available among the working classes might transpose the peak periods of traffic to those oth~r hours when recreation is sought.

In any case, with better knowledge of the time and fatigue spe~t in getting to work, employers would tend to draw their labour from those living in the vicinity or would alternatively (the new and better plan) follow 'the movement of the workers and plant their factories in the new suburbs. Working-class needs and activities must be carefully considered.

THE HUMAN FACTOR

5

B flight of imagination we may see our task not as I yrifled map with buildings for landmarks, but as one a :b.ose complicated machines where numberless revolv? cogs and wheels encircle and govern the central ing lvin drum, either by interlocking gears or by drl~ng telts. The analogy is near~r if we ta~e wha~ I ture to think is a correct perspective for the industrial ve~n (and what town is not fundamentally industrial ?)~at it is the machine whereby humai;i movements o( an interlocking character are made possible. . .

In the following pages we shall start with outlying reas (within the City boundaries), as representing some ~f the cogs an~ .wheels.. ~y connec!ing th~m internally, by short-circu1tmg their inter-relations with the ot~er areas we automatically react upon the centre of the City, and ; 0 replan on the grand scal,e . Only !solated .e~amel~s will be given and what may seem a series of tnvial civic adjustments 'must be taken as illustr3:tions for other similar readjustments, present or potential.

f

THE TYPICAL Po1NT oF V1Ew

Let us not forget that it is on the new estate!, in particular those for owner-occupiers, that we ~ay fii:td the typical outlook of to-day. In a democratic social system it is not safe to pla.n merely upon the standards which the few, e.g., the pioneer, the reformer and the specialist, may judge to be right : without popular support and popula,r comprehension, a reform i.s ~ifficult if not impossible to implement. Also the specialist may be unaware of some usage, fixed habit, established custom, or prejudice shared by a number of individuals, which might call for modification, adjustment, or even abandonment of a measure completely right in theory.

The owner-occupier, not too wealthy to be independent of public services and amenities, such as schools, playing fields, parks, etc., yet sufficiently well off to be free from the worry and fret of poverty, vested, by his ownership of the home, with a personal stake in the well-being of the community, may give us a view-point without which

6

MANCHESTER MADE 0/7ER

we cannot properly plan or build up the City of the future.

It is from this angle that the writer is trying to envisage the task of" maki;11g over,, the material (streets, squares and parks, fac~ories, warehouses and offices, workingclass areas, villas and mansions) which represents Manchester. Much of this is too good to be discarded.

Yfe must save w~at we can and only cut out those bits which are u.seless m themselves or which prevent the plan from bemg complete in itself and adequate for future needs.

CHAPTER II MANCHESTER'S REGIONAL PROBLEM THE REBUILDING OF MANCHESTER

we begin to examine particular instances, let us consider the geographical position of Manchester and its effect on our problem.

Three aspects at once ercsent themselves : (a) Its size (7 50,000 inhabitants mainly housed m two-storied dwellings); (/J) The proximity of Salford and Stretford ; (c) Its relation tÂŤ;> industrial S.~. Lancashire and residential N. Cheshire and Derbyshire. (a) The very .mag~itude of the p:oblem does, . of course, increase its difficulty. Captain L. R. Reiss, speaking at one of the earliest Town-planning conferences, opened his arguments by stating empharit:ally that instead of being proud of its 7 50,000 inhabitants, Manchester should be ashamed of its unwieldy size ; in his oeinion I 50,000 was the limit of population for an effective civic unit. Without accepting this point of view, we must admit that Manchester's population is too big and too dispersed to have achieved a lively sense of citizenship. It is for this reason, as will be seen later, that we look to the outer suburbs to supply the deficiency.

BEFORE

(See Map I) (b) If we study the map of Manchester we are struck by its disproportionate length from north to south as against its width from east to west.

Now unless a town is restricted by obstacles of Nature, such as steep hills, rivers, harbours or sea-boards, its tendency is always to develop in a more or less circular form round the civic centre. In Manchester, however, MANCHESTER'S PECULIAR SHAPE

'1

I J

8

MANCHESTER MADE O/?ER

MANCHESTER'S REGIONAL PROBLEM

9

the Town Hall (its civic centre) is on the extreme western edge of the City. The circular development which one naturally expects can only be found if we include Salford (with its suburbs of Pendleton, Eccles and ~nton) and Stretford. A glance at Map 2 suffices to s ow that nearly the whole of Salford is within a radius of two miles frorn Manchester Town Hall; i.e., Salford as a whole is actually nearer than Manchester as a whole to the civic centre. In spite of the barrier of the River Irwell, Manchester has developed along with Salford, and if the cwo Cities attempt to plan in complete independence of each other the result must be impracticable as well as costly to both.

MANCHESTER IN RELATION TO S.E. LA.NCASHIRE ANO ITS EFFECTS ON MARKET STREET ALUES

v

(c) Our difficulties and responsibilities do not end with

Scale: it lncA to I Nile.

MAP 2

Salford or with Stretford, for we must consider the r6/e which Manchester plays in the needs and activities of S.E. Lancashire as a whole. The problem is intensified by the fact that Manchester is not in the centre, but at the southern boundary of this area.

Finally, we must add also the dormitories of Cheshire and Derbyshire, peopled as they very largely are by Manchester business men, with a share in Manchestees problems.

The main reason for the inclusion of S.E. Lancashire populations in this survey is the influence they exert upon the site values of our central area. Even under the present slump conditions these maintain the extraordinary heights of £200,000-£500,000 per acre. In the immediate second-mile ring (see Map 1), the corresponding value at its peak was (in 1922-23) £14,000 per acre, and the disparity of values between the two adjacent areas is enormous and significant.

When we remember that Salford's central area is also situated within this second-mile ring, and that the yield of Salford's rd. rate is £4,300 against Manchester's £24,600 (these are the figures for 1932-33), we can

I

f

to

MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

d~duce that it is our central area which contributes the d.~erence of [.20,000 for each rd. levied towards our

c1v1c needs, an~ that we owe some considerable part of this to. the popularity of Manchester's central shopping area with the people of S.E. Lancashire.

This assumption suggests a valuable line of economic research ; no ~oubt the big stores could furnish statistics of the proportion of sales outside the City proper. It would be useful to know whether the townships of the north or the countrysides of Cheshire and Derbyshire hold first place as our customers. . It may be. that fifty years hence the outlying towns w1!l have their own first-class shopping centres and so bring down our central land values. We might compensate !::mrselves for the loss thus entailed by adding o.ne-etghth or a quarter of a mile to the central area. Its site v~lues, though diminished, would still be considerably h1$'her than those of the adjoining areas ; we should be adding to the area where the demand can still keep }an~ values up, a_t the expense of the second zone, which, if 1t ever required extension, would correspondingly encroach upon the next circle, and either consolidate the present ":alues there, whic.h are round about [,500 per acre, or increase the portions nearest to the centre to whatever sum ([,3,000-[.7,ooo are figures now cited) the second zone may reach.

CHAPTER

nr

PLANNING IN SUBURBAN AREAS planning, Manchester FOR the immediate necessities of ' ' h' h 'th

is divided into three. c?ncentrtc rmghs .w ,!bcll~ a~ outer belt, have the c1v1c centre as t eir . s eye Ma r).

It will be agreed that our mam problem ( l~:: in tlie innermost core-the civic centre itself a~d the inner ring-where most of our slum clearance w1.ll 0 crate. Outside these two zones we have much t~at 1s b~dly planned and in a few decades we are certam to have blocks ~f property which will be outworn, ar:d thoroughfares which may pass muster to-day, but will then be condemned. .

At present we have in the outer parts of the Ctty a few slums, much cottage property that is regrett~ble, if II \ not bad, and it is here that we are face to face w1m the evil of farmed houses.

FARMED HousEs Farmed house" is the term applied generally to a substantial middle-class house in an U1;1fashionable neighbourhood which is let out in either single or double rooms to working-class families at exorbitant weekly rents.

These rooms supply an unfulfilled demand as a result of the clearance of slum property forcing workers into the nearest and next cheapest accommodation ; the gene~l shortage in houses is also a contributory factor to this search for rooms in such old buildings.

That such houses comply with the requirements of light and air, through having as a rule adequate gard~ns attached to them, makes it difficult for the local authonty to suppress house-farming:, except ':1nd~r e-yidencc of acute overcrowding. Happily, legislation is being framed 11

II

I '2

PLANNING JN SUBURBAN AREAS

MANCHESTER MADE OYER

to deal d:astic~lly w!th the .situation, but the problem is that the 1ll-pa1d or improvident breadwinner must find s~me shelter for the. family, and, although a single room without a!1y ~o~venience may be dear at 10s. or 12s. a week (all m), 1t 1s the cheapest shelter available.

twards · we are already aware that one of the rn<?11 difficulties' which re-housing in the outer suburbs ~i create for the slum dweller is the distance between rne and work. · ·th th. h0 Th are two recognised ways of copmg w1 ts · " . 'ffi ere 1 One is the process known as " decantmg, di c\tythe necessary number of houses is secured fairly wheret Ythe slum areas by removing from them those nca~r 0 who are slightly better off and who can budget ~h:vier tra\'elling expenses. Their houses are .then ~vailablc for the dispos~essed sl':1m dweller, w~o will be earer to his work, if we assume his work to somuch the n be in the centre of the town. .

But decanting c~n only serve a useful purpose while slum clearance is m process. The better meth?d of ·ng the distance between home and work is for d re uc1 · ~ f:actories • to .fio11ow industry to follow population, 1or Wythenshawe is already planned to this end S· h · · d .·m dustr1a · 1 zone:., ~ ouse with properly controlled and 1imtte d if we continue to plan along these Imes we shall only b~ following a spontaneous and universal moveme~t of decentralisation.

AREAS oF SoctAL L1FE The main stream of Manchester's social life as it exists to-day flows away from the centre: Even places f amusement chiefly in the shape of p1ctur~ theatres, follow the tr~nd of sectionalised suburban life. The City, for the present, serves only our workaday needs ; it is a desert m the evenings and at the wee~-ends. It would seem practi~al, therefore:, to take the lm~ of least resistance and begin our P.lah!1mg where there is already some evidence of community life, and where we may hope to find some expression of cumulative human needs and activities. .

In doing so, we must k~ep. clear i!1 ?ur minds that.we are not making this an end m .itself; it ts ~he d~c~ntrahsa­ tion of the past which has diverted pu~hc opm.ion from the larger aspect of Manchester as one single unit. Thus,

£

RE-DISTRIBUTION OF Ex-SLUM DWELLERS AND DECANTATION

The fear of slum dwellers setting up slum conditions wherever they are re-housed, be it in farmed house or municipal estate, is the trump card of those opposed to slum clearance and to Town-planning.

The answer of the town-planner to this opposition is that the ex-slum dweller responds quickly to the example set .by the J?eighbours in .higher standards of personal h~b1t, cleanlme~s and. hygiene, so that by the judicious mixture of family units the characteristics of the slums are not necessarily transferred to the new areas but the higher standards ruling there re-act upon ~he slum family.

The term working-class includes nowadays all kinds of groups; new estates for the working classes should there~ore accommoda~e. ~ifferent types of families. The exper~ment, recently in1t1ated on the Leeds Corporation Housing Estates, of making the family circumstance, rather than the cost of the house, the deciding factor of the basis of rent, may have a profound effect upon the w~ole outlook on housing and on Town-planning and w1ll, of course, secure the mixing of classes. ' A special provision has been made in Wythenshawe of including, in its plan, sites suitable for all purses and all c}asses of s'?ciety; we thus avoid the danger of creatmg a satellite town populated exclusively by one class, m~de up of those bordering on or just above the poverty hne.

We have to plan for the immediate future, therefore for a re-distribution of population from the inner slum belt and from the farmed house, that will .tend to

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MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

PLANNING IN SUBURBAN AREAS

a!though the proper re-planning of Manchester's middl n!lg and. " b~ll's eye ".may well proceed from the out: 1yi.ng. residential areas, 1t would be a rea] disaster if this pru~c1~le ~ere accepted as an encouragement to decentralisation tn the future.

TaE CHARACTERISTICS oF SuBuRBAN UNITS The residential suburbs, such as Fallowfield, Withinghorlton Crumpsa11, Higher Broughton, Cheetham . bu t we must not ton, cspring to, ~t~ . d in . th"is connection, Hill, 't the industrialised centres, such as Blackley, Moston, om1 Droylsden, as districts 路 路 wh e~e our re-pIannmg 路 ~mg 路 ht and start. In all these centres, and m .others not !llentt?~ed, lanning with the conservation of their original ~~~cter w'herever possible, will prove. as useful as t.he cation of new estates. We should like to emphasise ilie need for the preservation of. existing cond.iti~ns both sentimental and on economic grounds ; it ts better 0 ~ere ossible to develop and improve than to ~estroy wnd buftd up again. Particularly is this the case with the ~Ider suburban centres which have grown up rou!1d original villages, and which thus present .us at once with an extra difficulty and an extra opportunity.

The main difficulty is ~at in most cases these .ol~er centres are situated on mam roads, where the existing shops are brought forward to the street-line, and bottleneclcs for traffic are created by their consequent bl~k of standing vehicles.

In any widening process (a costly procedure at best) the village character will be Jost. The narrow roadways, which act as a check to dangerous speed and reckless drivin~, should be preserved '!herever possible the provision of alternative arterial ways. The village character of Fallowfield, with its church at one end and its inn at the other, is doomed to a so-called improvement which will actually result in disfigurement unless carefully planned.

Withington village, however, with its ad~e~. i!1terest of bifurcating roads at each end, offers possib1hties worth study. Here it may be worth while to abstain from widening the main street, and to set up one-way traffic by developing Heaton Road and the lower end of Parsonage Road as alternative shopping streets. In any case, the two dominant P.oints in the village itself should be stressed. The hbrary (unfortunately shorn of its trees)

THE PARISH PIVOT AND NEW COMMUNITY CENTRE

Round Churches, Chapels, Sunday Schools and the Joca] Political C!ubs can be found the real cont;cts which the average family makes with community Jife. Limited thou.gh these contacts are educationally, they can and possibly do lead to a widened outlook and to awakened inte:~st in public affairs. On our new estates, where fam~hes c~me from all quarters of the town, leaving behind t~eir old contacts and finding no Church, Chapel or estabhsh~d Club where. they can joih in some form of ~o.~mun~l life, the formation of Social Centres has been 1mt1ated tn the hope that the larger aspect of citizenship may evolve. These experimental centres are few and far between i. a!1d ~s yet they too.often derive their impetus from the 1mitat1on of such social events as are carried on in the older parishes.

Our lack of vision i~ to b!ame : had we envisaged early enough the dose relat1onsh1p between community-feeling and To~n-planning we might have done much more at the beginning in supplying buildings suitable for this purpose. We can do little now for the estates that are comple~ed, b~t in the erstwhile village, where a tradition of public service a~d community life still lingers, we can we~l develop our ideas of Town-planning. It will be easier to gauge the requirements of these sub-centresthe suburban centres of to-day-than to wrestle at the star~ ~ith the. complex problems of the central area.

Their issues will be less complicated and their needs less at cross-purposes; local interest will be aroused and educated public opinion enrolled, and we shall be making our experiment with land and buildings that are relatively cheap.

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PLANNING JN SUBURBAN AREAS

MANCHESTER MADE OP'ER

already does this at the northern end, but a similar emphasis is required where Wilmslow Road and Palatine Road divide. Behind this point, but masked from the village and from the two main roads, a car-park and petrol filling-station might be set up with access to both these roads. A curb should be set upon the tendency to extend shops along Wilmslow Road. The old-time sylvan character of this stretch of the road should be preserved so that the fu11 amenity value of the Christie Hospital and the Holt Radium Institute could be included in the local scheme. The. extension of shops, if really .needed, should be planned m an easterly and westerly direction i.e., nearer to the new housing estates. ' . As an alternative to a by-pass road round Withington vxlJage, we shalJ have to consider a drastic re-planning of the shopping area. This involves a set-back of the shops on either side, not merely to the adjacent building line which is on a generous scale wherever the frontages are of a residential character, but to a considerably wider extent.

We shall require sufficient total width to allow free pas~age for the through traffic; security i~ the shape of island refuges for the shopper and pedestrian, and service roads beyond the main sidewalks (or better still greenswards) to allow shopkeepers to deal with their own carts and their customers' cars. This alternative plan does not conflict with the retention of the library at one end or the desirability of an important feature at the other, where Wilmslow Road and Palatine Road converge.

Further down Palatine Road we have what is commonly known as" the Terminus," where the old terminal point of the horse-drawn bus and tram has in the course of years attracted several banks, some shops and a fairsized cinema. The adjacent railway station (Withington and West Didsbury) and the obsolescent Withington Town Ha11 are survivals of the past that do nevertheless enhance the importance of this " pivotal point," which is now developing as the starting place for motor buses on circular and outward routes. It is clearly a place that will repay a well-considered and dignified scheme.

THE P1voTAL Po1NT The " pivotal point " emerges wherever two .or m?re rt off from a main artery. The resulting sites roads sp 1 ch bifurcations should always be schedu!ed betvvdn 1sument of a distinguished character. Palatine for d~~:fminus ".has been given as an isolated example, Roa any others will suggest themselves. Where Plybut Grove divides from Upper Brook Street ; where J110d Lane leaves Stockport Road ; or, to take an Sla e le outside Manchester, the junction in Stretford examP Se mour Grove and Trafford Road impinge upon :e~':isy highways of Strctford Road and Chester Roaathese offer opportunities for the kind of re-d~veloP":' ment that will translate itself into increased amenity and . from that to increased rateable value.

To the names of suburban centres already cited many thers must be added, nearly all of which may be usefully 0 traightened out and tidied. This achieved, we shall be ~ell on the way to a comprehensive re-planning of the City as a whole.

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.AMENITT BELTS An gaps that kre left can then be planned to

pleted~t up fu our old pivotal points, or, where there are

CHAPTER IV AMENITY BELTS

conne close enough, to centre round new ones ; we nonuled then have a scheme co-ordinated in detail and h sbo complete as a w o1e.

"AMENITY BELT " This method of planning places the emphasis equ~lly the pivotal point itself and upon its surrounding ~~)~~ it is the latter which it !s proposed, ~ro?1 lack of a b etter nam e> to call the amenity belt, •and 1tf isfi upon the ity belt that we base our expectations o ne aspect. ampn ks which are to be dealt with in a later chapter, affo:d the best e~ample of what is meant. The park itself 1· the pivotal pomt. The roadways, and more important ti11 what is placed along the roadways on the frontage furthest away from ~he park, make what we call the complementary amenity belt.

Thus Oxford Street, with the Royal Infirmary, the Union Chapel, and the miscellaneous buildings between High Street and Victoria Park Entrance is the ea§tern amenity belt of Whitworth Park.

DEFINITION OF AN

IN addition to pivotal points of the character mentioned above, we should make use of any outstanding edifice we mar have. A church, chapel, public or private i~stitut1on, public house-wherever it creates a note of difference from the general sameness of its surroundings should be considered carefully as to its use as a centrai point, which could be emphasised by rearrangement and would serve as the pivot round which to plan. W c shall have to consider, not only the building itself, which may often be worthless, but the position which it occupies and the extra spaciousness that often goes with it. For spaces and the effect of spaciousness are what we aim at in our search for amenity.

Nor must we exclude these areJls which have elsewhere been .called " t~e lungs of the City," areas which by cons~1ou~ pl~nning or by the accident of their position provide air, light, and space for our congested populations.

Their value has Jong- been recognised : even the " stuffy ,, Victorians were lavish in the provision of parks. Nor has it ever been ~eriously ~ugge~ted that London•s squares should be built over, m spite of the enormous prices obtaining for land in London.

AMENrrY BELTS

It is on examples of ~his kind, e.g., parks, buildings, open spaces, that the major part of our town plan may be prep~red . . By taking the pivotal point, be it as small as a road junction or as large as a park, and working round it. as wen as towa~ds it-so that its benefit may be as widespread as possible-we may find when we fit it on to the large map of the City that our work is almost com1a

SQUARES

Manchester is not rich in squares, and such as we have must be cherished as precious possessions, taking the place of parks in congested areas nearer the centre of the City. They b.re~k the devastating m<;>notony. of straight lines of bui!dmgs, and sugg:est obvious pomts from which re-planning may be cons1der.ed. . .

Ardwick _Green, as one of the most .pivotal points m the City cries out for some such planning. T&e Green should thrown open to the surrounding roadways, and a scheme of re-building laid down which would prevent further untidy ?evelopment ~uch as has .taken place on its southern side, where a Jumble of picture houses compete against each other with all the blatancy which thoughtless and aggressive advertising can evoke.

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MANCHESTER MADE OPER

AMENITY BELTS

Here the motif might derive from the o1d red-brick houses sti11 to be found on the eastern side.

Piccadil1y, AU Saints, St. Ann's Square, St. Petees Square are Jess glaring examples of wasteful development.

In the case of All Saints, it may be noted that the Jess frequented frontages are fairly we11 occupied by public buildings of a certain dignity, though without the harmony which considered planning should give. On the Oxford Street frontage, the most costly of al1, the amenity value is completely unrealised and frittered away in meaningless fa.;adcs.

Buildings as pivotal points are no new feature in the practice of Town-p1annang. From feudal times onward an ordered arrangement has evolved round the domicile of the over-lord or protector. The town, boi:n of the Industrial Age, has no such protection and has suffered accordingly. Manchester, along with the rest, has been developed with scant attention to the setting and background of its important buildings, and with even less recognition of the potential value which would accrue from such setting and background. To-day we would ~ ~ .. ~ not fail to give due consideration to these points, and are -;, 1 ~~ " 1 ·,.not likely to place a central post office on a narrow street, I .,,,c.a.. "" ' where no one can see it except in sections, and where no ,... Sou~ St·augmented values can be attached to its surroundings.

'ty should be conceivet;l as a whole and should Jife of the Ci ' be fi nety placed. f the Royal Infirmary has been so recent1y The ·~tli~t it is unlikely to be reconsidered for many dealt WI even though to-day, in the short interval s to come, . b bl th. y~ar . com letion, there is pro. a y some m~ we since d~sh be different. Its neighbour, the Univershoulh is neither 50 unified nor of so recent date. sity, owever, Tiu UNIVERSITY e town- lanner would be culpable and negligent '.!'h h me -~d not make full allowance for the needs of a if his sc e di University. · · d 'f "t A University would be de~eat~ng its own en s i 1 'led to· set an example of dignity and ~ne w~rkman­ not less for the enjoyment of the mhab1tants at lar e than for its own personnel. . .. ~his applies forcibly to th?sC: youn~er U niver~i~es . h are mainly attached to big mdustnal communities, Wh ic ' activities . . . d'1uer~ .a: f rom that d · st as the character of t hcir !u residential University, so should therr outw_.ird ~ earance have a different appeal. . .

PPfhe fo~1 k with the past which is expr~ssed m a cloistered group of buildings need not be ~onsidered wro~g for a non-residential University, but it would be. gomg too far to copy the practice of Oxford and Cai:nbridge and to centre round itself, keeping its finest architectural effects for its Inner Courts and Quadrangles.

The University in Manchester has no easy develo.pment problem to face, as it has so verr much outgro_wn 1ts original street boundaries. Necessity ?r s~ort-sig~t.ed planning in the past has already robbed it of its requ1sit.e setback on the main thoroughfare and, unfortunately, ~t is some distance from any open space. Nevertheless, it would appear well for the University to be .Planned ~or a southerly extension whic~ would' final~y Im~ up with Whitworth Park and so with. the hospitals m Oxford Road and the in~titutions in York Place, with which it is closely linked.

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THE GROUPED BUILDING

A group of buildings, such as a hospital, a University, or an up-to-date school, offers a more difficult problem, for its proper functional use cannot always be reconciled with a dignified appearance suitable for a pivotal point.

This consideration must in any case be subordinated to the particular function of the institution ; where it serves as a refuge or a place of retirement, it would obviously be placed as far away from the centres of movement as possible, and it would not be called upon to suit a pivotal point. But a general hospital, ready at all times to deal with any emergency, an educational institution linked up with commerce, industry, or the general

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MANCHESTER MADE OJ7ER

AMENITT BELTS

. The frontages on Oxford Road, between the U nivcrsity and the Park, are not particularly good but th probably hav~ a prohibitive price set upo~ them presc:nt. Behmd them, however, there is much .property that is po~r and probably co1!1par~tively cheap ; 1t would see?? feasible that the U ;nivers~ty, working to a coordmated scheme and not 1n a piecemeal fashion could extend two parallel wings southwards towards Whitworth Park, with a ~eremonial roadway between them leading to. a ne~ main frontage. The intervening crossroadS m.1ght eithe~ .be closed by mutual agreement with the City Authorities, or they could be bridged over or even left as they are, without wrecking the co~ception.

Finally, the Oxford Street frontage could be re-introduced by the .purc~ase and r~moval of the buildings upon it, thus ~1sclos1ng the ~idden beauty of the U nivcrsity extension to the passing multitudes.

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BLOCK DWELLINGS

!he block of working-class. flats, P.r~jected at Smedley Point, marks a new venture in municipal re-housing as wel! as a n~w type of architecture, and it should therefore excite the interest of the community. ~t serves .a~ a not too good .illustration for a suggested ~oh~ of Joint Town-planning and re-housing. Its situation o!1 the slopes of the Irk Valley so definitely calls for site planning that a less obvious and more hemmed-in housing project would have offered a better example.

We h~ve ~t Sme.d!ey Point a scheme which offers geograph.1cal in add1t1on to community problems, and as far as it has b~en able to go the Corporation Housing Department has itself taken both into consideration. On the model recently exhibited at the Town Hall and at the Art Gallery, lawns and footpaths, both within the courtyard an~ surrounding the building, were shown. Within the fabric a nursery school, a laundry small shops and a hall of assembly have been included. ' ' On the sides of the Smedley Point scheme where the

23

d lopes towards the River Irk, a detailed study of groun ts urs would be necessary, and the possibilities of th~:OJd:velopment weighed. with the economic a!ld ~pdustrial conditions thereby involved. On.the op~o~1te 1 ~d f the River Irk, Queen's Park and its ad101mng 91 e ~e offers an open and on the whole pleasant ceme dund if it can be related to the amenities of ha~ Point. The frontage development of the Sme osk Irk Valley Road intervenes literally, and in our prop ity plan the purification of the River Irk, if it is to amen . must b e envisage . d. b a feature of the d.1strict, e It is on account of such considerations, which are unusual in Manchester housing schemes, that Smedley Point is not a very good illustration ; Smedley Point does h wever serve to show how much less difficult is our local p~oblem of re-planning than that of a hilly town such as Bradford or Sheffield. It is true that we shall have to re-plan along the Irk Valley (Red Bank, Cheetham, is an imminent case), but on the whole we have level area$ where the eye only sees what is within the amenity bc:lt.

As in the case of parks,. s9.uares, ~?d ou~standmR Municipal or Go~ernment bmldmgs, an a~emty ~It round a big houstng block should be established, incorporating the surrounding roadways as part of a betterment scheme, and thus creating a pleasant and tidy appearance to the eye? whether seen from the s~reet itself or from the outside windows of the block dwellings.

Shops would obviously face the block dwelJings and form a considerable if not major part of the " amenity belt ,, ¡ a post office and a public-house (one of the new type that caters for non-alcoholic as well as the usual needs) could be features of the general layout, which could also include reservations for Chapel, Church, and Cinema, all of which, if controlled by the local authority into a w~ll-ordered effect, would widen the circle of re-development and bring in an enhanced betterment value.

Behind, and not in front of such buildings, might be reservations for adequate car parking, bus stations (if

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MANCHESTER MADE 0/7ER

likely to be of a character which would involve th stan~ presence of several standing buses) and back ee ~~n~ to t e shops for .the unloading of goods. n rtcs . We can consider ourselves fortunate that our . t:1al zones can be so placed that the will indu~ visually at any rate-other by not affectta â&#x20AC;˘ d T . zones, ut can be self. th~n~ . fi~e1r unsightliness (if it c.ontinues to exi~~oh; ext ty years) need not donunate the land.sea ~'?rfh, s~uth, east, and west, as happens in a hi1Iy ind~e, r1a regio.n, nor need the denizens of our re .d .sareah~athve it constantly arrayed before their eyes =~ :nvatiatl amp 1 eatre. s

CHAPTER V PARKS AS PIVOTAL POINTS is comparatively fortunate in the matter of arks. They are well cared for and well used, but they ~e by no means developed to their full amenity value.

Too often their immediate surroundings are dull, if not decrepit ; what should be controlled building sites have been allowed to pass into private hands, with the usual hugger-mu~ger results.

In planning fifty years ahead we might very well take a lesson from the larger continental towns and try to discover the secret of that air of spaciousness and light which our own cities, outside the West End of London, so conspicuously lack. This is achieved largely by the frank recognition of the urban character of the City park.

Except in the case of the larger parks usually to be found outside the City proper (e.g., Heaton Park in Manchester; Hyde Park in London), it is useless to attempt the illusion of a rural retreat. Let us gratefully accept them as part of our City's amenities; let us get full value from them by removing all high railings, all screening embankments of sooty shrubs, so that the busy passer-by as well as the leisured loiterer may enjoy their colour and their light.

But this effect will be spoilt if the surrounding frontages, e.g., the amenity belts, are mean or undistinguished ; wide roadways, dignified and appropriate buildings must enhance the value of our precious open spaces, so that a position " overlooking the Park " will once more be as desirable as it sounds. This has to some extent been realised in the case of Whitworth Park, which has become the " lungs " of several hospitals on its eastern side. The other frontages should be harmoniously developed ; MANCHESTER

25

MANCHESTER MADE OPER

PARKS AS PlflOTAL POINTS

nursing-homes, students' and nurses' hostels, research laboratories and doctors' residences might develop their own " community life " behind a dignified fa~ade.

Similarly, the motif for the more drastic fa~ades round Platt Fields should obviously derive from the fine Georgian example of Platt Hall itself. Flats and private hotels have already established themselves in this neighbourhood ; they should be developed on the remoter and quieter sides of the Park, along with private houses which need not be large, but must be dignified. O~ Wilmslow Road we already have a fine frontage, from Mabfield Road to Norman Road, deteriorating rapidly at Dickenson Road. Particularly fine is the setback and the sylvan setting of the centre portion between Brighton Grove and Old Hall Lane ; the building line recently marked out, by which it is intended to bring future development nearer to the roadway and to destroy many forest trees, should certainly be abandoned before it is too late. Platt Lane has already been spoilt and has lost ~e . economic value ?f its southerly front (the most eligible of the Park sites). Yew Tree Road and Wilbraham Road have the added problem of houses backing on t~ the Park, with a consequent complete loss of amenity value.

Birchfield is another type of Park. Having evolved from open unused land, it has even less of amenity on its frontages. Neither Dickenson Road on the north nor Birchfield Road on the east is satisfactory to the town-planner, but westward the Park connects up with Platt Fields through well-preserved private property, capable of park-like or parkway-like development. Again, on the south it merges into the Grammar School reservations, and the amenity belt thus begun should sweep ?own to . Mosley Road without the present disturbing interrupt\Ons. Heaton Park marks the City boundary, and over two of its frontages we have therefore no jurisdiction. But this should not deter us from generous planning. It presents us with an entirely different problem, because of

. character and surroundings, but these should .be its h!lly ed as definite advantages. Here we have wide cons1derh. h are not limited to the abutting roadways, .and . ...... w lC d the continuation • . beIts ,. ri ght vis~- d of " amenity which ::neys and up to the sky-line. This would across the residential value of the district, of which we in~reas~e advantage by building within the Park itself, might tern side after the manner of Regents Park, on ~e eas This cou'ld hardly be said to deprive the preLon on. ta cs on Bury Old Road of any amenity, for the s~nhfronro~nding wall of the Park, which still carries on :~ e~~lusive seigniorial " de Wilton " tradition, already does that. · be foun d wherever the contours A similar roblcm will 'lly por instance the proposed Irk Valley road 1 he a r i .

F •• > • should be planned with amentty be1ts on t he a btt' u mg hillsides. Even on the flat contours to t~e south of Manchester the open spaces of the lo~-lymg iyI~r;;ey will be diminished in value if the adjotntng meadesoWS slo are badly planned. A notabl e .instance can b e see~ at ~arlow Mead, where ex~ples '!f good ~nd bad..Plan nin face southward t? ~h.e rive~ side by side.

P£ctoria Park. Adjoining Birchfields . on the north, e arated from it by little more than a ribbon .devel?p:n~nt of Dickenson Road, lies Yicto~a Park, a ~uslead1!1g title for a privately owned residential reservation. Victoria Park is a secluded backwater guarded by gates ~nd lodge-keepers, of ampl~ t~ee-s~aded avenues se~ing Victorian houses of distinction, 1f of doubtful archtte~­ tural merit. Placed well away from the roadways, in am le gardens and with protective boundary walls and hedges, these houses combine to give a se~i-rural aspect to an area which is not more than two miles from the centre of the City. .

There are several similar types of Park m_Manchester, as there are no doubt others in most of our larger t~wns.

Broughton Park and ~edgley Pa;k on the north ~ide of the town are not, strictly speaking, Manchester s concern, and the latter is further away from the centre of town

28

MANCHESTER MADE O?ER

bustle. Other parks, such as . Fielden Park in West Didsbury and Didsbury Park on the main \Wilmslow Road, are really only private roads and not the extensive areas of the first three named, but they all share the distinction of being made up of large private houses and grounds, with matured trees and well-preserved amenities.

Though less protected in privacy, and therefore more vulnerable to the attack of the builder of s1?all property, the fine suburb of Whalley Range comes into a similar category and calls for similar consideration before its character and charm disappear. What has happened to Plymouth Grove on the south-east of Manchester and to Seymour Grove in Old Trafford is menacing all these privately owned lungs of the inner rings of the City.

What would town-planners not give for the retention of the Ardwick Polygon, which many of us remember as a group of stately dweilings set back from Stockport Road by an avenue between open paddocks ? This was within a stone's throw of Ardwick Green and is now covered with the worst kind of grid-iron development.

The changing order of Society makes the problem of these areas a difficult one to envisage. Even if custom corrects the tendency for the wealthier to forsake the town in favour of a pseudo-country life in a more or less urbanised countryside, the type of house which, with its garden, maintains the character of places like Victoria Park, is not suitable for family life conceived in terms of to-day. The large mansion built for a large family, served by a large staff, can only be conserved as a hostel or for some purpose of a similjlr character, and is very often not particularly suitable for that use.

Already the privacy of Victoria Park is threatened by the need of free passage between the .City centre and the recently created Kingsway. Municipal trams now invade the Park, connecting Princess Street (vi4 Upper Brook Street) with Kingsway (vi4 Birchfields Road), and unless some care is exercised the Park will disappear along with its amenities.

Some over-riding control by the local authority, or

PARKS AS PI?OTAL POINTS

29

. 1 lead, seems desirable,b so that the full · · d· soinc P.racttca 1 of these districts may e maintame economic va eth old houses with outhouses and stables The :u-ea bl :nd it would seem possi b]e t~at reis .co?sid~:su~h sites could be restricted to app~o::cimat.ely building d wherever possible to the existing site. the same trea ::nds would allow of an upward developThe Jr residential hotels, hostels, nursing homes mendt. b a , omically developed on these lines and help oul e econ d' · cto conserve the area in its present con ltlon.

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PARKWAYS, FooTPATHS AND TREES

Parkways and trees are not exclusively thi~gs <?f the side and suburbs : Victoria Park, which .1s not countryh two miles from the centre of the town, is well more t an E in ven near~r ui ed with healthy and mature trees. eq PP · l ted groups and single trees that continue there are iso a . · h d' of to flourish and grow i.n spite of the increasing an icap oke fumes, and dirt. smEve~ if it is not found practicable to ap~ly Ebenezer Howard's principle of Garden Cities to the arger centres f o ulation and the examples set up by Letchworth ~n/ clwyn-'-where the emphasis is laid i:iore on country than on town conditions-must be mod1fi.ed to a ~?re urban formula, air, light, and. spac~ remain necessities, and trees are desirable in any civic development.

The Champs Elysees, surely the first and finest pa~kin the world has trees as its main feature and carnes ;a!m almost int~ the heart of Paris. Trees have. always been an accepted feature of towns, and at no penod has the world ceased to create tree-lined roadways and squares. But intensive building has always meant the sacrifice of good trees. .

This is often inevitable, but a · blmd eye has been turned to much destruction that was not necessary.

We have often cheated ourselves with the idea that when we substitute young saplings for mature trees, we ~re giving posterity trees similar to those removed, which would then be past their prime. We have forgotten

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MANCHESTER MADE OYER

that the old trees were planted and grew up amon

~urro?ndings which were quite different, that before th~ invasion had come of smoke, obstructing sunlight of SOQt and dirt, choking the pores of foliage, of the ~tiff collar of pavement encircling the base of the trunk and cutting off moisture and aeration from the roots, the old trees had been able to store up sufficient strength to resist the. attacks and ~o immu~i~e themselves ~ver a gradual penod of worsening condit10ns. The sapling, in a town area,. has a stiff fight against long odds.

Victoria Park, Whalley Range, and similar spots are only worth conserving if their sylvan character is not interfered with, and on general lines this can be envisaged by a larout of parkways and roads of a parkway character.

It must be rem7mbered that the particular trees which we are most anxious to preserve are those which line the garden fronts, and that these will be merged in the public highway as soon as we contemplate a parkway development. ¡ A widening that would bring such trees to the edge of the footpath would convert the road into an avenue and we should no doubt have had this development i~ many directions were it not for the fact that such trees are nearly always on a higher level than the adjoining roadway or the garden.

The front garden of nearly every residence has been and still is, laid out to ensure privacy and to screen th~ roadway from the front windows. (In brief, to secure secl.usion.) The invariable formula is to pile up earth against the boundary wall and so to make a bank, which is laid out with plants at the bottom, succeeded by shrubs and topped at the highest point and immediately behind the retaining wall by trees. Therefore nearly all our matured trees are above the normal level at their base and have some roots on the inward side from the road that are also above the street level.

If we remain bound to the convention that the footpath and the carriage war are one and the same thing and must be kept to the usua scale of level, we cannot do anything

PARKS AS PI?OTAL POINTS

31

troy these trees. For even if we could afford to

bu~l:essurrounding support to each tree, so as to preserve bUl a th immediately round the base of the trunk, we ~nC: safeguard vital and steadying lateral roots, and the mar become unsafe. treBut if we lift our whole footpath to a hei~ht corred'ng with the base of the trees (anything from spon it feet on an average) our difficulty is solved, and 1 â&#x20AC;˘ to ;ractical manner, for we then also lessen the dangers ÂŁf1 a edestrians against the fast traffic of the roa~w:ay.

Wh:re no widening is needed o.n the roadway, the exist~ng fi aths could be converted mto green verges, sloping uoo~om the carriageway to the higher footpath, and c?uld i!cidentally carry some of the underground services, bich are the source of so many road upheavals (when :hey run under the carriageway), and so much damage to trees (when under the footpath).

Where widening for traffic is needed, the new footpath would be shored up by the utilisation, in many cases, of the lower courses of the existing garden walls. The ramp thus created, with or without a further protective railway would by its own height from the roadway make an effe~tual barrier to protect the pedestrian from the dangers of the traffic. Trees, together with lamp posts and any other posts needed for public services, would add to this protection. The argument that tree trunks, poles, etc., when placed on the curb ar: an.added da~g~r to the/ublic will not bear close c;xamination when 1t 1s realise that this implies the use of the footpath as an extra margin of safety for the driven vehicle, and conversely an extra danger to the person on foot. A skid, met by the impact with a tree trunk on the edge of the pavement, might be considerably more fatal to .human life if it mounted the pavement and then had an impact.

Many pleasant country lanes where a comparatively small widening has become necessary could have conserved their charm had we accepted this relation of roadway and footpath. Burnage Lane, which was within living memory a delightful bit of countryside, has

J2

MANCHESTER MADE OYER

been robbed of all its attraction by road widening. y ct as it has parallel with it, and at no great distance two roadways (Kingsway and Errwood Road), it could' have been left with its tree-lined footpaths as a valuable addition to our plan.

CHAPTER VI THE ONE-AND-A-HALF MILE BELT

'fius is a misleading title. The area under consideration is the mile belt which surrounds the half-mile centring round the Manchester Town Hall. It is the area immediately adjacent to the land which fetches the highest prices in the whole district. Its own ground values, high as they are, are not one-tent.h of those round which it centres, yet they are twenty times as great as those which in tum surround it.

It is within this mile belt that much of our slum clearance will take place. It is here that a re-distribution of heavy industries, of gas undertakings, railway sidings and goods stations is most needed. It is here that a forrniila for re-housing must be found and applied if in the course of the next half-century Manchester is net to disintegrate from a solar unit into a constellation of nebulre. This seems to be the present trend ; re-housing within the City itself is not popular at the moment, but we proehesy that the extensive outward thrust will reach the limit of convenience within a few years. When and if Manchester becomes city-conscious and city-proud, with clean streets, open spaces, clear unpolluted air, with full use of existing amenities and the carefully planned provision of others, Manchester people will want to live in their City once more and not merely spend their working hours in it.

The one-and-a-half mile belt calls more urgently for planning than any other City area. Its re-development will largely dictate the more costly planning-of the civic centre, where high values make a wrong decision indefensible. In the area under consideration many of the newer arterial roads come to their central terminals, and 11.11.0.

,,,,

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MANCHESTER MADE O'f/ER

THE oNE-AND-A-HALF MILE BELT

connecting ring-roads !Day obviate some of the necessity for further prolongat10n of a costly character. Both prolongation and new roads should, wherever possible, be planned to allow of the conservation of the few notable landmarks which we have inherited from the past. For example:

lementary adjustments or may render superfluous for comthat are contemplated and so effect savings. othCers ¡ng back to the inner ring-roads, which are of a omt by-pass character, 1t . ts . obv1ous . . 'Jar that advan t age 1 1 s ~ b taken of so much clearance to place one at least ~l~.15eone-and-a-half mile belt. It is equally obvious that in.th 5¡miJar slum clearances already being effected in the section and foreshadowed in that of Stretford, it S ~d be a shortsighted policy to complete our circle W?iliin the western boundary of the City. This, as far as W1 be ascertained, is what is likely to be suggested, and can be justified only by the very real difficulty which a ca::eme of co-partnership always calls up. All the three :~wnships woul~ benefit from ~ co-or~inated/la~, ~nd. if Manchester decides upon an mner rmg-roa within its boundary, it may make .it necessary for Salford to plan a arallel road to carry its own north-south traffic. At present Salford's main roads converge towards Man~hester' and so increase Manchest~r's tr~ffic p:oblems.

By including Salford and Stretford m the inner rmg-road we should avoid unjustifiable duplication and correspon~ ingly unnecessary expense.

No attempt is made to explore in detail the possibilities of Salford and Stretford, and their proper re-planning is all the way through a necessary complement to Manchester's success. Stretford has developed its own civic centre which is well removed from its main arteries. Its rc-pla~ning would probably be in the direction of Manchester, but would also have to take into account the growing volume of cross traffic to Salford, to the Ship Canal, and to the Trafford (Industrial) Estate. Something in which all three cities are concerned is called for in the way of controlling the frontages of that part of Old Trafford where City Road and Stretford Road converge from Manchester and where the new and the old (Chester) roads split off towards the more residential parts of Stretfora.

A civic centre at this/oint would take in at least the stretch of Chester Roa as far as the Trafford Road

"':ifi d

All Saints (with or without the Church).

Ardwick Green.

Ancoats Hall.

The Church of the Holy Name.

Chetham,s Hospital.

It is in this belt that our planning must march with that of Salford and Stretford. The natural boundary which the River Irwell sets up may create a barrier between Stretford and Manchester. Viewed from the air, or viewed from the street level, there is nothing to distinguish any of the three towns one from another within this one-and-a-half mile belt.

Northwards, southwards, eastwards, and westwards, we have similar conditions of house property, warehouses, railways, factories and layout of streets as above described; we have the similar radial roads all converging upon the civic centre. To the eye there is no explanation why north, south, and east should be Manchester, while west is divided, partly Salford and partly Stretford.

Our problems and their problems continue to be of the same character even when we get to the outer rings-for the Manchester Ship Canal Docks, the property of Manchester, but situated between Salford and Stretford, create a difficulty for by-pass roads which makes the prospect of a western by-pass road considerably more expensive than the one planned on the easterly side of the Manchester area, where there are no such important waterways to be negotiated.

It cannot be too strongly emphasised how much an internal rearrangement of Manchester may be influenced by what happens outside its boundaries. The eastern and western by-pass projects may call for extra spending

35

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Da

MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

THE ONE-AND-A-HALF MILE BELT

approach, on which lies the frontage of Henshaw• 8 Institution for the Deaf and Blind ; it would, in the athe direction, include the new group of buildings which include the recently erected Town Hall. The entrance to the County Cricket Ground would round off th! scheme for Stretford.

s !ford has and from the solution of which that ch~ster will profit, but mention must be made of t~e 1V1an that Salford unlike Manchester or Stretford, is f.ic~or hemmed i~ by other urban authorities and has 1 to expand. Its very interesting scheme for rc;entire~ no r~o in flats the citizens of its slum clearances is housing . d out .m t he M anch est er are~, a Uy to be carr1e fu~~er proof that re-planning on a tripartite basis is a necessity.

SALFORD

Far more could be written about Salford, for in some respects it has material that is well in advance of anything that Manchester possesses. To make over Salford we have in Chapel Street a really fine highway, which when it passes from the immediate centre where slum cl~rance is m progress, shows definite signs of thoughtful planning.

Both the Town Hall and St. Philip's Church are set back on short, wide roadways in a manner equal to anything that modern Town-planning can devise. A little further on we have the wonderful curve of The Crescent, lined with many fine Georgian houses and facing Salford's greatest asset, the large area of undeveloped land left vacant by the horseshoe sweep of the Irwell.

The possibilities of this section of the sister city are unlimited. On the one side it has the parklands included in Peel Park, with the Museum and the Technical College in fine positions. On the other side, which is less fortunate, there is at any rate the imposing elevation of the Royal Free Hospital. On three sides the land inside the horseshoe bend is overlooked by higher banks, which, if developed, would add distinction to a civic centre of which any city would be proud. The vacant space would allow of the erection of a civic centre similar to that of Cardiff, where different official buildings are left with unusual spaces between them.

Salford, in this sector, would plan for itself, and if the development, as indicated above, were proceeded with the Broughton area would be suitably connected up with that of Salford proper. It is sufficiently far from the inner belts which we are mostly anxious about.

Enough has been said to show the interesting problems

37

COMMERCIAL AREAS

To return again to our own sectors of t~e .one-and-a-h~lf ·1 belt if we limit street traffic in the civic centre to its nu e ' must provide car-park reservation · ·m t.h'is uanost we ad'acent area. Car-parks will take up the. room ~h1ch be freed by the removal or the re-modelling of railway ·dings though not necessarily in the same spots or on ~~e sa~e scale. Some estimate may be made of the increasing volume of mobile traffic during the next fifty years but against this we may set the unnecessary . room take~ up by immobile rail-born~ veh~cles..

Also in this belt are to be found various hght mdustrtal and distributing areas, which. we may class " Commercial Areas," some old-established, and some even now just coming into being. The market for butter, eggs, cheese and bacon is too near the congested centre for perfec~ planning, but it is anchored t~ere by its pondero_us Produce Exchange, and there it will pr<?bably remain.

Extended facilities for loading and unloading are needed now and further ware-rooms and offices will be called for ;s time goes on. Shudehill, our main wholesale food centre, calls for a special commentary.

Another of these commercial, as distinct from industrial, centres is to be found where the motor and allied trades have blossomed out at the lower end of Deansgate.

There are indications also of a definite centre for turnery and woodwork at the lower end of Ancoats. It is badly housed in obsolete and worn-out property, but it cannot be ruthlessly dispersed. Another centre is suggested by

J1

MANCHESTER MADE OYER the growth of small dress and milliners' shops mixed . 1 stores, which • seems to be arresting ' Up . htheatrica wit th dee.line of the least desirable portion of Oxford Street '!hi~ pale co~y of Shaftesbury Avenue no doubt owes i~ hvehn.ess, which may mask real pro~perity, to the position oc~upie~ by Manchester as the main centre of theatrical activ1.ty tn t~e north of Engl.and. T~e problem in this case ts no simple one, as th~s shopping centre may he dependent l~rgely upon adjacent outwo.rn residential prope~ty, wh1c? affords cheap a~d conveniently situated theatr~cal lodgings. Here, again, to eject a group of ~de mt~rests ~ummarily from property which is not in itself desirable is to endanger a future source of wealth to t~e co~munity. . . .

Light industries within this belt largely consist of wh?lesale tailoring, proofing, cap and garment making which are concentrated in the Cheetham district. Ali such industries, unless they have obnoxious effluents should be left undisturbed as far as is compatible with orderly rearrangement. ~~r-sighted and co~prehensive Town-planning would facilitate the easy working of these and other occupations and would only be effected with the full co-operation of the various trades and industries themselves. Not only would the criticism of the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Trade be welcomed, it would rather be assum~d that effective re-planning must depend upon the goodwill and co-operation of all such industrial bodies and trade groups.

SHUDEHILL

A long view in Town-planning suggests that our central market should be placed as near as possible to the Ship Canal. A still longer view queries the accuracy of this proposition.

When the idea of the Ship Canal was first mooted it was scarcely anticipated that it would affect Shudehill Market, and that their positions in relation to central traffic congestion would have to be carefully considered.

THE ONE-AND-A-HALF MILE BELT

39

re thinking rather in terms of raw cotton imports To-day it i~ realised an the importation of foodstuffs for our immense · · ·tn ·1tseIf a suffic1en · t that E Lancashire popu1at1on is ~· tlfication for the Ship Canal.

JUSShudehill receives large supplies daily of nearly every nunodity (except, strangely enough, fish) from the ~anal Docks. If this were the only factor, we shoul~ sider the volume of traffic required to transport this ~olk across the central area a sufficient reason for trans£u ring the central market to the Hulme district. From Hulme it would be just as easy to re-distribute to the retail shops within the City boundary, and also to Salford and Stretford.

But we may have to consider Shudehill in terms of a wider metropolitan centre, and that means that the eatest re-distribution would be northerly, to the fndustrial population of S.E. Lancashire. If that be the case then the central market is rightly placed north of the civi~ centre, because the intake (consisting ?f fewer b~t heavier ship-loads) will cause less congest10??- ~he_.e it crosses the central area than the outflow, conststmg of a greater number of smaller units, carried on light cars and tradesmen's vans.

If. however, our central market is to be moved, it go lock, stock and barrel, w!th all the . ancillary services which surround and derive from it. The I) distribution of agricultural requirements, tools, machines, I foodstuffs for cattle and poultry, is vitally c~nnected ~ith the main commerce of the market. Right planning demands a proper allotment of these on a new site ; it also means the clearance of an area much larger than that of the market itself.

Wd !~ufactured cotton exports.

must

.THE SUPER-CENTRE

CHAPTER VII THE SUPER-CENTRE

IN our earlier Chapters we have tried to show what we now confidently assert, that the development of the Civic centre must depend upon what happens in the surrounding. un_its. Town-planning too often starts at the centre, achieving a spectacular success, but shelving the far more difficult problem of the industrial zones, from which in the end the centre derives its prosperity.

The accepted area of Manchester's centre is the circle half a mile in radius, of which the Town Hall is th~ central point. This includes, and must still in any reconstruction scheme include, the chief administrative offices of the City, the main railway termini, and the most important public buildings, besides a whole host of shops a~d warehouses, business premises and places of entertainment.

The centre will be more sensitive to economic conditions th:in any other part of the City. A large working class with more money to spend may make good the reduced spcn~ing p~wer of less weal~hy ~iddle and upper classes ; the immediate effect of this will be seen in the outlying districts, but from there it will react upon the cent;e. In other words, the lessened prosperity of the fashion centre represented by St. Ann's Square and King Street may be cancelled by increased activity in popular districts, such as Market Street and Oldham Street. If we are to assume that Manchester will maintain its metropolitan character, we must take it for granted (a) that trade m S.E. Lancashire as a whole will be maintained, (h) that local extension of shopping facilities in S.E. Lancashire as a whole will not deprive us from our position as the purveyor of the more selective requirements.

40

I this respect we must be optimists, but "!le must not :iind to the possibility of other causes which ~ay probe dly influence the inner development of the City. For foun i'f the rcrinci~le of the helicopter were so far • tJUlCe, • uis~ cted as to al ow o •its practical use, our streets would r:lieved of much congestion, but our buildings for ort purposes would have to be enlarged and :cl:riy remodelled. We need not, on the other hand, eriously consider the development of undergrou~d loco~otion within the next fifty years ; we are not likely to b come at our present rate of growth, a large enough u~it to ~ake it economically feasible.

&:

RAILWAY TERMINALS

The question arises whether t~e retention of t~ree ~r four main terminal railway stations (Central, V1ctori~, Exchange London Road), as well as two or three subsidiary one; (Oxford Road, Knott Mill, ~alford) is necessary or justified. Railways being out~1de the scope. of Town-planning powers, local authority can only ~n­ directly exercise pressure, and in any case we must be extremely careful not to do anything that might handicap passenger traffic .on the ~ilways, as this makes Manchester so important to its satellite towns. .

A station is, in the truest sense, a centre of social activity. The traveller is usually much too busy arranging for a comfortable departure or a quick. disembark~­ tion to pay attention to the human note which throbs m any busy railway terminus. No other public centre can offer on a similar scale such a spectacle of human emotions, ranging from complete triviality to extreme limits of jubilation or gloom, and from complete casualness to most elaborate ceremonial.

In other countries the railway station has been planned with this conception of its function. Not only' is it complete in itself as a " rendezvous ,, between the visitor and the townsfolk, but it is the focal point round which a fine development is planned. Compare the average" Bahn-

MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

THE SUPER-CENTRE

hofplatz " or " Place de ]a Gare " with the correspo d. n ing rai路1way approach.m t h.is country.

At only one station in Manchester (Victoria) is th to be found evidence that we recognise the economic val~: of shops, so pla~ed as to catch the eye and supply the nee~s of the passing suburban traveller. The continental Station Square takes in the ancillary requirements of th traveller and is surrounded by cafes, hotels of variou: gra.des, shops for casual needs, such as tobacco, medicine fruits, flowers, and haberdashery. > Passenger stations are the modern gateways of the town, and as such are of the utmost interest to the townpla~~er ; they .should be focal points of dignity and nobility, pote~tial ~ss~ts for. the higher values which should accrue tn their immediate surroundings.

t Market Street, Portland Street, or Whitworth Street, would call for more walking on the part of the Stree .

Public.

Th路s could be made more acceptabl e by the extension

43

THE DISTRIBUTION OF OCCUPATION . Roughly, then, we m~y map out our centre with an inner core reserved for offices, chambers . public buildings, high-class stores> and smaUer shops. ,Fol1owing this sho~Id .come a belt facing inwards, with ample space behind 1t for car parks and bus stations. This might, in turn, be masked by another building belt, facing outwards> and possibly at this point the inner ring-road would evolve.

;ered arcades and the conversion of roadways which co ow inconveniently narrow for vehicles into adearc: tely n wide footways. We alreadh 路 路 y ave t hb e egmntng an arcade system, starting from the Parsonage to Deansgate, continuing to Cross Street, through St. Ann's 5 uare by Barton Arcade and the Royal Exchange. On th~ opposite side of Cross Street we have a network of narrow streets and alleys continuing, with breaks, all the way to Mosley Street. Instead of a general and exP.ensive clearance, this region might be developed on Imes here suggested. The heavy use of p~sages a~d by-w~ys behind the London Stock Exchange is an apt illustration of the advantages of such development. .

The planning of the super-centre on these Imes has the advanta$e of .not requ_iring any deviation from the existing main streets, which should be conserved on grounds of economy and tradition. Their significance and relative importance are lia~le to be altere.d by devCfo~ ments in the outer areas ; for instance, the importance of Princess Street may be augmented at any time by the removal of the toll charge at Victoria Park, whereby the Bow of Kingsway traffic would reach the ce~tre vit1 Birchfields Road and Upper Brook Street. This would intensify the cross traffic from Portland Street to Albert Square viJ Princess Street, and would perhaps lessen the movement between Oxford Street and Piccadilly vit1 Portland Street and Mosley Street.

We may therefore take as our minimum our present civic centre, which comprises the area where demands for accommodation have caused the price level of land values to be so high.

ARCADES AND RESERVATIONS FOR. PEDESTRIANS The relegation of car parks and bus stations to sites behind Oxford Street, Peter Street, Deansgate, Cannon

THE PR.oPoSED TowN HALL CENTRE Recently a suggestion was made by the Municipal authorities that all the civic developments should be

RoAD PASSENGER SERVICE The c~mplete abolition of trams from the centre of ~he town is clearly ~n the way, and bus stations are already m process of evolution. For long-distance traffic we must env~sage facilities similar to those offered by railway stations ; for local traffic we must try to evolve a different s~stem than that which now obtains of taking up the best bits of the best streets and squares. All this means an outward expansion of the civic centre.

0

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THE SUPER-CENTRE

MANCHESTER MADE OYER

ce~tred i~mediately

round the Manchester Town Hall which, with the new Library and the new extensi·ons ' f · · now · ~n course o. erection, will, when completed, form a ve important, 1f somewhat bizarre, unit. It was propos that Munic!p~l undertakings such as a new Art Gallec and a Municipal bank should be crowded into thi's ·ry c1rcumscr1.bed 11:r~, Vfh'Ii e other blocks of property, secured by t~e Muntcipahty, Vfo~ld be offere~ for Government requirements or for buildings of a semi-official characte 1:he effec~ of this scheme would be to denude the oth:; pivotal points of the City and to relegate them definite} to a seco~dary rank. The ~rontages of these sites woul~ become, in the course of time, less desirable, and as a consequence rents would fall and rateable values bring in less wealth to the City. But it would not end there fo all sorts of property adjacent to these pivotal points w~uld also become. I;ss yaluable ~s they were less near to the ~entre of ~ctiv1ty, i.e., to an important pivotal point. The i~ea of this concentration of the civic centre would be in direct contradiction to the principle of expansion and we should be faced with an inward shrinkage added to the o~tward urg7, a combination which would intensify the difficulty which the town-planner has, to find a suitable development for the next one-and-half-mile belt, where slum clearance has begun and industrial tidying-up is long overdue. . The existing. ~ayout of the centre of Manchester is simple and trad~tional, and there is no valid argument as far ~s can be discovered for any other alteration than a possible se.t-back, i.e., widening for its main streets.

The .main streets link up the three main pivotal points, and adjacent to each o~ these thr~e main pivotal points there happens to be a railway terminus which considered as the modern equivalent of a gateway to thd City helps to a combination which does not appear capable of betterment by any contrary readjustment of plan.

Naturally, the Town Hall group would form an important member, possibly the most important of the three pivotal points, and it has the advantage , of two open

1

45

es-Albert Square on the one side and St. ~eter's spac the other on which to plan generously without on . of l'm king up t he cen.t re Square due disturbance. ' The project th Town Hall fas:ade facing Albert Square w~th 0 e fumous Rylands Library in Deansgate by ~ wide th t r a processional way across the short distance 0 stree b tween the two was suggested ·m pre-war days. It has a: outstanding claim for conside~ation and would opc:n backwaters of old property, to give a valuable economic ~rturn for the initial cost of the imp:ovement. . .

St. Peter's Square, on the other side? has an historical tradition behind it, and it was (before 1ts recent ;nlargement) the only central pivotal point that was either by . design or accident properly planned. .

It can be remembered how the abutting streets conrged symmetrically towards this centre, Oxford Street ve d Peter Street entered at a similar angle at the lower :ides Dickinson Street crossed at right angles at the uppdr sides, while Mosley Street and . Lower Mosley Street faced and still face each other at either end.

Owing to the recent set-back and closing up of Dickenson Street on the north-east side, rendered necessaty by the layout of the new Central Library :and the Town Hall extensions this balance is now disturbed. The actual centre of the Square does not coincide with the Mosley Street and Lower Mosley Street vistas, an~ a new street has evolved, parallel to but not balancing Mosley Street. .

This closing of Dickenson Street and opening of the new roadway cannot be balanced by corresponding plans and set-backs on the other side of the Square, e~cept at enormous expense and ~ disturbance o~ tenancies and ownership over a long period of years, w~ich would ;epresent an almost incalculable cost to the City and the mdustrial life of the City. Moreover, when all this had been paid for, the irregular character of.the Tc;>wn·Hall group, as seen from St. Peter's Square, with a circular and comparatively low building (the Library) in the centre of the Square, flanked by a monumental and very high Town

uf

MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

THE SUPER-CENTRE

Hall extens!o~ at one corner, wou1d sti11 upset a ba1ance layout, as. it is scarcely conceivable that a similar sed o_f e1evations cou1d be set up on the correspo din t

~~

n

g

So much for the first pivotal points. Turning now t th~ other ~o, th.e Cathedral and St. Ann's Square as on~ unit, ~nd Piccadilly as the other, we must pay particular attention t? the fact that th:y are the finials to Market Street, which under the various names of Marketstead La~e, ~arket .Lane, and Market Street, has from the beginning of things been, and still is, the chief highway of Manchester.

THE CATHEDRAL CENTRE

We caH this the Cathedral centre although trad"t' ¡ "d > 1 ton wouId give prt e of place to St. Ann's Square which custom and old milestones have made the m'easured centre of Man~hester. The Cathedral is, however, the centre of the diocese, 3:nd stands therefore as a regiona1 mon~ment. ~o make 1t t~e central point rather than St. Ann s Square ts to emphasise Manchester's metropolitan status.

We have here-as in the case of St. Peter's Square where the: Central Station serves as the gateway-tw~ gateways m the shape of Victoria and Exchange Stations.

Moreover, they are the popular entrances, for to and f~om them move the vast crowds who inhabit the towns ":1l1ages, and countryside (if it can be deemed country~ side) of S.E. Lancashire, crowds whose response to !Vfanchester's attractions for business and pleasure tends m no smaH degree to swell its revenues.

1:he .rearrangement of this block of the City is a fascmatm~ prob1em, as it rncludes St. Ann's Square itself, which, but for the set-back due to the Royal Exchange e:ctension, is a pleasant and well-designed back~ater wtth the old Church as its centre of interest, and its use as a first-class shopping centre dearly defined.

The Royal Exchange is too hemmed in by pulsating

47

. arteries to aff~rd possibilities fo~ a. layout arou~d it tible with its importance as a bmldmg or a meetmgconipa f the whole industrial countryside, but the island p_I~ce the Victoria Buildings, which is the property of site Municipality, can and ~ill no doubt be suit~bly :planned to give extra spaciousness and fine architecral treatment. tu In a recent s~heme, arcaded. footpaths an~ the exten. of the interior arcade were included. With a reputa5!0n for being the wettest place in the world, Manchester tto~t some day realise the advantage of shops and sidewhich can be visited under all conditions of weather.

Moreover, the widening of Bridge Str~et, and the~eby the penetration of Salford over the barrier of the river, will increase the use of the Victoria Arcade.

7\o _. ,.. o "" But the most important form which re-rlanning can take in this part of the area, and it may wel be the most important in the whole City, is the conversion of the area fronting the Cathedra1, which takes in the space which the River Irwell has left to us.

A fine scheme is ripe for consideration, and is not l~ss attractive because it would affect equally the sister townships of Manchester and Salford. The lrwell-at this and other points-forms the dividing boundary, and it is in the culverting of the lrwell and the creation of a noble Square that the two cities can found a worthy monument to a first united effort for their common needs.

Broadly speaking, the division of costs would be in the right ratio to the exchequers of the two cities. Salford's portion, having the backing of the railway a:uthorities, and the fine fas:ade of the Exchange Station, would be less expensive than Manchester's. For Manchester has the responsibility not only for the right setting of its Cathedral, but for its other priceless treasure. the Chetham Library buildings.

To make the best use of these fine examples of the City's past (not by any means a negligible asset) they Jrl1lln

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:i1ts

U! IVc~am OF f.1.\HCHESTEA rnf!G~L Or 1\RCHITEGTUHE

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THE SUPER-CENTRE

MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER shou!d not only be preserved adequately, but they should be displayed adequately. In other words, their sett'1 and surroundings should be so arranged for them ~g0 do?1.in.ate the pic.ture an~ not a~ a~ present be dwarfed b adJommg and adjacent high bu1ldmgs. In this partiCU} Y instance, if in no other, a deliberate policy should !niti~;ed of I.owering ~~e .building heights of the surround~ mg amenity belts (t.e., the fronta~es which connect up the Library building and grounds with the Church) so that the Cathedral Tower and the fabric would domi~at its surroundings and itself gain in dignity. It would an e~pen~ive res!riction to prescribe lower building lines, but m this case 1t would appear to be amply justified by the results which would be achieved.

The importance of a new open space, which would ~ct not ?nl~ as a common clearing ground for intercommunication between Manchester and Salford, is enhanced by _its. relation to t~e new Cannon Street improvements.

This 1s an old project well under way, and consists of a su~stantial and ~ostly widening of a~ old-world street, which, because 1t runs parallel and m dose proximity to the overloaded Market Street, is destined to become ~ ne~ main artery of the City and to extend, by its mclus1on, the area of the super-centre.

Thus the suggested culverted open space would serve as the reservoir of this new street, which incidentally would have the spaciousness of Ancoats to balance its other extremity.

But the possibilities of the Cathedral site would not even then be exhausted. The fact that the roadways are already on two levels (those crossing the Irwell being higher than the one running parallel to the river on the Salford side) could allow for the construction of a two-tier fabric with a completely open space on the upper part and the provision of bus stations and car park below.

These could be linked up with the motor way, which, in Chapter IX, is suggested as a suitable utilisation by culverting of the Irwell as it flows in an almost straight line towards Old Trafford.

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49

P1ccADILLY . all we come to Piccadilly, which from the time of yter's rise to prominence has been its crown ~~ :Ssit is to-day its most extensive central ~quare.

Je1~ 'is a mistake to think tha~ open spaces in a town chi an appearance of spaciousness merely because ~f ~:e actual acreage left unb~il~ upon: The. right ertical lines, i.e., bu1ldm~s, with horizontal b.al ance; eOf Vgardens and terraces, w1·1 do more ·m this Jines .. .,than a mere clearance. An ·instance of t h"1s can dirc~tion be readily seen by what has happened recently off neansgate.

The removal of St. John's Church at the foot of.St. John Street has given more space to the congested ne1ghbourthe effect of d' but it has considerably• lessened h00 . sp01·1 t aciousness to all its surroundings, and has quite ~e effect and charm of St. John Street itself, which has lost all its appearance of dignity and width by the ab~e~ce of the focal point which was .the. old C~u:ch· S1m1larly, Piccadilly with a fine dominating building such as the projected'Art Gallery; will have an added spaciousn!ss m spite of a slightly lessened open area.

By removing the railings which surround the grounds of the old Infirmary a beginning has n?w been .made that can be carried a step forward by the introduction of greensward and flower-beds interspersed between the statues on the Infirmary flags, which need not be so ample as heretofore. On the same lines, we ought to replace the ugly cast-iron t~m shelters, whic~ run. all along the Piccadilly (north) side, by others whtch will correspond to the more modern ones recently put up on the Parker Street (south) side. For this will not only have t.he effect of an individual improvement, but will emphasise the treatment of the site as a whole, including the abutting streets and frontages, and the necessity of controlled and well-balanced fa~ades as a complementary part of the project.

The removal of the offensive sky signs will restore to a

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MANCHESTER MADE OPER

THE SUPER-CENTRE

certain extent their original form to the dignified. grou of buildings which already exists on the Portland Stre P (westerly) side of the site. The Parker Street (south side) frontages are adequate, well spaced, and in harmone with each other-and all the above will combine as Y suitable background to the projected classical elevatio~ of the new Art Gallery.

As at " All Saints," the three less important sides vi-z.

Portland Street, Parker Street, and Mosley Street (th~ last-named after the clearance has been effected on Piccadilly), are better than the main frontage (Market Street), where competition and the rights of ancient lights. have established an untidy medley of styles and elevations.

On this 1?ain frontage i~ offered an opportunity for a comprehensive scheme which would make a prominent feature of the central block of buildings lying between Oldham Street and Lever Street. The flankm~ frontages, re-planned to balance each other, could each incorporate a noteworthy architectural feature which would serve as a fine terminus when Piccadilly is approached by Mosley Street and Portland Street.

The unification of Piccadilly's "amenity belt" would immediately focus attention to the site as a whole, and we should realise the necessity of adjusting the street layout which might, at many points, be rearranged. The wide pavements on the central island, useful when the grounds around the Royal Infirmary were not available for the public, could well be merged into the general garden layout The three sites-St. Peter's Square, the Cathedral and Piccadilly-discussed above, if joined together, give, broadly speaking, the framework of our super-centre.

The joints or connecting rods, as represented by main streets, must be subjected to a similar intensive overhaul and renewal. Nor may we overlook any new permanently cleared site in the inner area that may result from the removal of old, and the re-grouping of new, sites.

(We have a new small square at the apex of the old Town

. his evolving out of the Town Hall extension :fiall, VIh IC

50

scbelilC~diately outside the framework of the super-centre

IIJllil the Assize Courts, Great Ancoats Street, the we rave of Technology, churches, schools, and other Col fge d semi-public buildings. All of these we pub~d to bring in as part of a super-~en!re that will sho wi·dening as the needs and aspirations of the be ever ·tlzensexpand. . ct We have laid down a logical basis for our planning ; final touches to set the seal of add .here and there we may · · · 1ve ood taste in our c1"!c centre. These ~ay i.nvo ~elatively heavy expenditure, as we are ~eah.ng with the t valuable property not only of the City itself, but of %~s district (S.E. Lancashire) of whi.ch ~he C~ty .is the W c shall however, be repaid either indirectly centre. , d' l b .. b greatly increased rateable values, or . irect Y. civic ~ership, which should give an ever-increasing incre0

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In conclusion, by adoptu~g t e pnncip e o a . mg to that which we already have, m preference to breaking ~ut in new directions, we achieve equal~y good. results, not only at considerably less cost, but with considerably less disturbance.

For it must be borne in mind that the process of re-planning as opposed to new planning has to he ejfec~ed

during the everyday life and movements of a~y commun1fY, be it great or small in area, and that not only wzll each sectton of the w orlc ereale disturhance for som.e individual or ~oup of individuals, but each disturbance will s~nd out the ripples (of the proverbial stone thrown into the still pond) of greater or lesser strength and upset the placidity of everyday life in far-flung directions. . .

Just as a street improvement or repair, and as the relaying of a section of the tram lin;s, must be done at night or at the week-end, when it do~s. not unduly interfere with the free movement of the c1t1zens, so also must re-plannin~ take place without a wholesale disturbance of any section of the City as a whole:'

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MANCHESTER MADE 017ER

. We can under 110 circumstances re-plan at an . either to-morrow or in fifty years without due s ~ ry period the ge11er~I life of the City to pursue its accusto~:5uards for perfor1n; tis normal daily task durinrr the period ~ay 411d 0 forma/1011. °-' trans-

CHAPTER VIII BARRIERS

IT may be postulated that as a general rule barriers which create problems of town development also act as a stimulus to achievement. They are liabilities which may be turned into assets, and they should be the very first consideration of the town-planner. The crescents and terraces of Bath, the " pleasaunces " of Edinburgh, the " quais " of Paris, the sea fronts of Brighton and Scarborough (where they have not been disturbed by later interference) are the haPP.Y result of the stimulus which the barrier of contour, hillside, river, and sea front gave to the town-planner.

Even where the natural barriers were originally ignored-notably during the Industrial Revolution-we have at a later period a movement of re-planning, sU'ch as is seen on the Thames embankments and the Mersey dockside at Liverpool, which corrects the costly mistakes which had been made.

In many industrial towns, both in south-east Lancashire and the West Riding of Y orkshirc, we have barriers which were once accepted as liabilities, and should be turned into assets. It is quite easy to see in Stockport what the effect would have been if the development of the miles of dwelling-houses had been considered in relation to the steep declivities and the picturesque windings of the Mersey, on which they are built and upon which they abut. Manchester, however, owes little to the obstacles set up by Nature ; it has no wooded hills, no outstanding waterways, no seashore ; its unrelated town sprawl is the result of relatively easy conditions for house building and road construction. Only the recently included area of Wythenshawe was reserved ~3

54

MANCHESTER MADE 0/7ER

as a stretch of vir~'n countryside, and this Manchest · the R"1ver M ersey, which cut er owes to N ature 's arr1er, off Wythenshawe so effectually from the encroachments of the north. Now that Wythenshawe is at last linked up to Manchester, and must, if it is to be self-contained preserve its encircling green belt, the river, with its low: lying meadows, supplies the need.

Not only have we, thanks to the barrier of the Mersey a green belt of open fields, but the higher levels which border the meadows and the river as it flows across the southerly extensions of Manchester complete a landscape which is surprisingly sylvan and unspoilt. Approaching Manchester from the south vid Cheadle or 'Via Northenden, no one could believe that the pleasant banks of woodland and pasture mask the outskirts of an industrial region.

Unfortunately, the owners of these properties are moving away, owing to bad times or to the ever-existing urge towards the country, leaving the field clear for the speculative builder, who has already attacked some sections and threatens others. With a background thus altered, the river meadows, intersected with quiet lanes and field paths, lose all their charm and their remote character. Worse may happen; for the newly invented system of controlled tipping makes it possible, by the utilisation of our City's refuse, to raise the ground up hygienically above flood level, and may tempt a future generation to some form of building development.

The Irk Valley and the valleys of the lesser brooks and streams on the north-easterly side of Manchester have served as barriers and have also interfered with the sprawl, even if they have not held it up. The narrow Irwell, which modified and restricted the layout of the City in its early days, is dealt with elsewhere. The still narrower Medlock constitutes, perhaps, a greater barrier than the lrwell, owing to the wasted or badly utilised land which its numerous loops and bends create.

A glance at the map, however, i~ enough to show us that the main barriers, which have affected the shape and

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wth of the City, are the railways and canals created gr~ b Nature, but by human agencies. Let us now ~:nsider these more important barriers to co-ordinated dsVclopment.

RAILWAYS

It is at once obvious that the railways take up much room not only for their passenger traffic, but for the receipt and despatch of goods in a City of the size of Manchester. It is true that the interests of the railways march side by side with those of the town : their goods stations go naturally where industry has been established ; their passenger stations from where people live to where they most congregate. But it is hard to justify, in an ordered plan, the existing system of three separate termini, which hr, fusion are now the property of one company. Even 1f this division assists the daily suburban service, which is doubtful, it causes great inconvenience for the long-distance traveller, who has to cross the City from one station to another.

It may be useful to have the Central Station so near to the Town Hall, and its position as a ceremonial gateway to the City may offer a reasoned argument, not only for its retention, but for its elevation to the rank of a municipal landmark, yet its adjoining goods station scarcely justifies the occupancy of an exceedin$'1Y valuable area within the constricted limits of the civic centre.

Small in comparison with other goods yards, yet it covers 1ol acres and it is in close proximity to Albert Square -the seat of all civic ceremonies. Albert Square itself is rather less than half this size-but is nevertheless the second largest open space within the City proper.

The justification for taking ur Io! acres for goods traffic within the half-mile centra belt must be weighed by the consideration of other provision available for the same purpose. Only just beyond the half-mile belt we have a still larger goods yard adjoining London Road Station, occupying a choice frontage and an area that would contribute substantially to the rates (were the

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MANCHESTER MADE OJ7ER

rai.lways not .relieved of this burden); again al adJ~c.ent to this goods .Yard, although at a Jess desk::ost pos1t1on, are the Ardw1ck-Ancoats railway syste hie JUst a very little further out, but yet within the :s-.a?d belt, there is almost an unbroken line on thre ~de-mile the Cty · ·1ar rai·1way sidings · e s1 es of 1 , of s1m1 and' goods yard The ~ech!1ical difficulties which confronted the ;,;ilWa companies m tow~s &ener:illy_ are intensified in Man: chester, because of its s1tuat1on m a saucer-like dep · . h has caused t h e railway · wh 1c construction to be cress1on ·d out on what ~ay be termed " stilts." In other ~::s where. the ra1!ways have been tunnelled undergfound' Jess difficulty 1s created for the town-planner and ti ' h~arsay we gat~er less difficulty is occasio~ed tor~~ ~ilway c?mpames. A further or possibly a more vital di~culty is the fact of Manchester's railway system b · built up fr<;>m several rival undertakings. Most of th~ are now u.ntted under the control of the London Midland and Scottish Company, and- although one administration may cover the ma_Jor part of our local railway system it woul~ appear as t~ough it had not been found possible to u~ify the working of its several parts. Thus it was explained .recently t~at although two of Manchester's ~oods stations a~e a~Jacent to. each other and both serve in a southerly direction, consignments destined say for Derby would, if forwarded from one of them 'arrh:e in some hours, while if forwarded through the other might ta~e a coup]~ of days. The inference to be drawn from this example is that the two goods yards are each attached to a sepa~te permanent way and that an interchange at these arteries 1s unworkable.

The . closer we examine ~e pos!tio~ created by the exempt~on from Town-pl~nmng legislat1on of all railway p~opert~es, th.e more conscious we become of the increased difficulti~s la1~ upo!1 town-planners by this exemption. !h.ese difficulties .might be lessened if legislation were to insist that the railways should put their own house in order-but even then a municipal plan set up as a guide for developments over many years to come must have the

BARRIERS

51

eracion of a unit as vital to its corporate welfar~ as

co-<?P . snterna1 rai·lway system ·, a complete dTown-planning d. h

a1 for obvious reasons, -accommo ate, an m t e must so;atisfy every section of the City's life and every !ong:nto which each section is devoted. . snter ssume as so many who are engaged m TownTo· ag do >that the railway • • system m our bm·1 t-up l annm > • bl · P · static and for ever immova e, 1s a grave error of · recent Jy given • • d.1caacres . d isent. Manchester has quite m {i10~0 the railways of her re-development plans, and naturally no comments whatever have been made by iliryother side for the simple reason that the plans have be~n made to' conform with existing railway systems so that no interference has been suggested. . .

Manchester has in fact made it her business to modify her needs of the future to suit the present layout of the railways' properties.

It is not the function of the municipality to re-plan the railway system: this must be the work of the ~ra~c expert and is no doubt a formidable task. .A feeling !s about, however, that. the railways ar~ a11ve .to ~e1r shortcomings, but hesitate fro~ embarkin~ on !mprovements because of the heavy cap!tal e~pend1ture mvo]ved.

Be that as it may, from the v1ewpomt of the ordinary citizen, and from that of the tow?-planner, the pres~nt urban railway system is as much in need of ~e-planmng as any other section of a developed area which may be . out of date.

It would appear irrefu~ble that th~ a~rc:age which railways required for handling merchandise m r9~4 must inevitably be considerably les.s than was neede~ m I~ 14 when it is to be assumed, railways were at their zenith.

In ' 1914 Manchester had an expanding market for general goods and a world wide demand for her yarn and cloth· there was then no challenge to the railway's carrying power. Twenty years later the railways are facing a greatly reduced turnover ; our export trade has dwindled and is not likely ever to reach pre-war standards.

This reduced bulk is, moreover, shared, if not captured, its

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by road-borne traffic operatin fro d only saving time in the elimin~tion~f t~~~s~o df:oor, not to waggon and vice versa but en . er rom cart ki ' surmg a vast . pac ng costs as well as a fresher appearan f saving in di se so handJed. ce o merchan!he advantage which the railwa h unu~.terrupted permanent wa a:d ~s by reason of its bearing capacity will undoubredJ its greater . loadtran~port of heavy crude rninerals_:_ccons~rve for it the but .1t has an uphiJI fight in Jighter &:~' hiron, and steel ; g t. Even now textiles are being handled · . , m an attempt to att t th back to th e railway system b th rac em that the merchandise once ioa~ed ~tut~ of containers, so can be sent to its destination . e sc;>urce of origin sJingin~ the whoJe container on a:~~~~h~l~~{bance, by If this procedure can underc t h way truck. it wiH greatly simplify the work th;oa~l competiti~~' and remove any need for increased lb ra1 way ter~1ni, by extra gangs to k h .e ow-room reqwred bulk b~t increased i:~fver~i~. consignments reduced in Adgain, .the town-planner would within the . d ' peno un er review, challenge the based upon the immobility of\:'e~~~t syste~, whi~h is ~ven as the immobility of tra e ices on .railway Imes, Judged and found wanting. m~.~hstreet lines ~as been secure a more rapid clearan / new machinery to welJ as of their loads it se ce ofi trucks themse]ves, as less s ace . , ems sa e to assume that much be ne~ded. ln goods yards, warehouses and sidings wilJ

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With the trend of indust d away from the -centre it ry an commerce to move railways would folio.;, a.:iau:!~ppear. natural that the costly properties of the cent I to discard the more With th . ra areas. h . e zoning of heavy industries b th ) 1 £ut o~1ty, ~he railways will either lose their belt cus~o~ca Z::~n~m~a ;:~:iio~~ 0ht:J! have to foHo.w t~e displ~~~ smoke steam and bg . g~ up of leg1slat1on against ' o noxious rumes m U· d ay we l~C1u eas has happened in New y k c·1 or ty-the exclusion from

BARRIERS

59

the central area of all but electrically driven locomotives ; 't would then be to the interest of the railways to handle clteir goods traffic outside the limits of such restrictions.

For it must not be forgotten that Town-planning, as 'tis conceived to-day, is to bring together all the compo~ent parts which make up the daily life of a City for the eneial betterment of the citizens. There can be no g uestion of allowing industry to ride roughshod, as it ~as done hitherto, over the comfort and well-being, not only of the workers who depend upon it for their livelihood, but of each other and of all those who pass their lives in a vitiated atmosphere-the result of uncontrolled industrial activity. In this attitude of the municipality towards industry, railways, as a component part of industry, must expect to be regulated, so that even while they remain under Government protection and are exempted from Town-planning legislation, they cannot escape from the responsibility for their own re-organisation and re-orientation. Nor can they evade their share in the losses which by lack of co-ordination, by tardiness or unwillingness to face the facts, will be inflicted ~on every grade and every activity of City life.

CANALS

There is not as much to be said about Canals as about Railways, but the inclusion of the former is as desirable in ia Town-planning scheme as that of any other system carrying traffic. The emphasis on road systems, which emerges so predominantly in all betterment plans, is equally applicable to railways and waterways.

Canals are not much in evidence as we pass through the town, but their presence creates barriers and conflicts with roadways and road connections. Unlike the railways, which they antedate, canals have not been materially altered or added to .since they were originally constructed.

Originally they, with their systems of wharves, docks and locks, were on the outskirts of the business area. They have not moved, but the town has, so that to-day they do not even fulfil the original conditions of their promoters,

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much Jess keep pace with the I . the CitJ: of w~ich. they form a ;::.~. ut1on and progress of The mduston tn re-planning le islation f weU as railways, is not to be consideg d . o canals, as tow d th . . re in any way . ar s ctr suppression or abandonment . h . a step ston f~om a town plan is more like1 to h . t ctr .cxcluexclus1on means that less and Jess th as~en this, for to the changing needs of the future and fY e ~dfptab1e consequence, wi1l the community' m k ess an ess, in They will ?ecome merely barriers. a e use of them. . .Both railways and canals have serv d h industry in the past and may well co~tin~ee needs of Industry must, however, serve a new cone . to do so.

I eptton of the needs of the citizens, and railways and same. All therefore that is suggestedcaha s z:nust do the survey of their uses in order to find t here is a careful will in the future o~tweigh th . . 0~ ow far their aid etr tnterterence.

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CHAPTER IX TRAFFIC PROBLEMS THE congestion of traffic in the centre of the City has already become a major problem, and has received a good deal of attention. So far the introduction of one-way streets and of roundabouts and traffic signals represents our chief attempt at a solution. The provision of ringroads linking up the main arteries seems likely to prove more satisfactory, by offering less frequented and therefore quicker routes for through traffic, and so relieving the central streets of their through-traffic load. The problem is, after all, a further illustration of the demands of individual human needs and activities, for every driver of a vehicle will choose the easiest and quickest way to his destination.

Ring-roads are admittedly costly, but by relieving-the central area, where land is dearest, and by avoiding street widening, they will effect a saving in the long run.

Further, they are likely to be constructed throu$'h areas which are already ripe for clearance. Therefore 1t would seem wise to do the thing handsomely while we are about it, and give to the ring-roads ample width and verge enough to establish them as boulevards.

No amount of careful calculation can definitely forecast the effect upon traffic of new roads and widened existing roads. For instance, there is a flow of traffic across Wythenshawe from South Manchester towards Cheshire and North Wales which used to move along the Wythenshawe Road. The new Princess parkway and the widening of the Stockport to Altrincham Road open up an alternative route which, although longer, is so much less tortuous and so much wider that it is already the more favoured of the two. This suggests that the 6r

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proposed widening of Wythenshawe Road is not needed and it could be left as it is, a pleasant country highway and an "amenity belt" to Wythenshawe Park.

Similar situations are emerging both in the suburbs and in the City. The extension of Princess Road has brought into use Cambridge Street, a wide and less congested street parallel to Oxford Road, from which it is hoped to divert some of the excessive traffic. U nfortunately, Cambridge Street is difficult of access for the less well-orientated driver, and this handicaps the full use of Princess Road for throu~h traffic. It remains an uneconomic proposition, while Oxford Street and Wilmslow Road are still overburdened. It is intended to continue Princess Road through t.he slum areas, but whether this be implemented or not, the development of Denmark Road would link up some of the Princess Road traffic at a point where a ring-road is likely to be projected.

At this point, and at all other points where a ring-road crosses the main radial road, a direct rectangular crossing spelis increasing embarrassment and danger. Staggered entrances are safer ; but th.e principle of roundabouts, now universally accepted in rural and suburban planning, might well be adopted for the town plan also. The regular recurrence of roundabouts would emphasise important cross routes and would regulate traffic even more effectua1Jy than the " robot " signals now do.

But traffic on wide roads will tend to move rapidly and dangerously even when checked by roundabouts, and the safety of pedestrians should be ensured by defining their proper limits more dearly than is done by the present combination of curbed footpath and carriage way. We can again borrow from suburban experiment by placing our footpaths so that the temptation to step on to the roadway at any point and at any moment may be removed. After all, our arterial roads now serve much the same purpose as do the railways, yet we should not dream of allowing similar access to the permanent way of our railway systems. In Paris it is now a legal offence

TRAFFIC PROBLEMS Grands Boulevards or other important

to cross the dia onally or at any but the well-marked

~he development of foot-passages. and crossing-places~ed elsewhere would to some extent diyert

thoroughfares

arcades. sugfies the City thoroughfares ; and on the rm~pedestr1ans rlomt d grass verges will secure a certain ds tree-p an e

::asure of safety. f t ffic congestion it is interesting to In this matter o ~I use of the Irwell. This unforspeculat.e on th~ pos:~sae e through Manches~er, h~s long tunate river] on its ni; and is now a definite nu1sanc~. been a barr1e~ to p :hat w~ have so long tolerated what is It is extraordmary wer but by masking its unsavoury no more ~ah ~~u~f:g~e on 'its banks and high palisades aspects w.1t have uite successfully managed to on its .br1dg.es we yet~he river should be an asset to ign0Cr~ty1ts ::ds~;r;~e~any foreign cities, ~s in London, ?bJe any 1 ' . .tt.

Let us consider two poss1 e 0 f th chief amem es. e fd r ith the lrwell. methods o ea m~a:s purification both at its source and The ~s~ necess1 Shi Canal. It would then be during itsfJ~,u:::ie!ni~ ~~Its, ,,P and we might ultima:tely worthy o E b kments (even as London enjoys rejoice in lrwell mh an comparatively straight stretch the Thames) aonn et S~ation and the Docks. U nfo~­ between Exch .g the revt' sed conceptions of economic tely even under 1 ·t · tuna ' h' h the next fifty years may evo ve, 1 ts dev_elohment :e i~hall be able to afford to pull down .the y have their backs to the and which, b~~a~:!sof the extra light, air, and quietness, have no

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doubt corresponldingly. hig:hetrovca~l::;t the whole stretch The -se®JlSl a ternat1ve is . fl uick and use the resultant roadway e~clus1v~ly or q traffic It should not overtax the tngenuitJ: of mod~r; engin~ering to keep the wat~r level of t~Io~vf~rc~n]~~= ently low so tha.t the culv~rtmg wthould t belts of the level road This would lmk up e ou er City with. one of th: ~hree big~er o~e~hi'a~~ssth~:a;~ plan for our new c1v1c centre , an

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wou1d be carne · d' as to-day, over the bridges. abutting bui1dings would be left as to-d . l'hc entrances on . the river side> and' there wou ay,ldWithout b need to provide for or to admit d · c no speedway. pe estr1ans to this CHAPTER X ECONOMICS DECENTRALISATION AND HIGHER. RATEABLE LAND VALUES

WE are to1d that a currency lowered in value must mean higher commodity prices and particularly enhanced land values ; further, that only lack of confidence and the feeling of instability in the present world situation has revented this manifestation from taking place. p Right planning must be based upon considerations such as these. We can alternatively work with an optimism which envisa~es the soaring values which now obtain in all the large cities of the world, or we can work in a spirit of conservatism1 counting upon a maintenance of the present levels. Lastly-but this is the policy of despair-we can, in a vein of pessimism, foreshadow.-the complete collapse of the fabric from which the City derives its revenue and the wherewithal to continue its progressive administration.

It appears justifiable to adopt the middle course, on the assumption that an upward tendency of land values, due to falling currency, may be checked by decentralisation. The enormously high values set upon central sites can only be the result of a competitive movement to find accommodation in· a particularly limited area, so that the emphasis which is at present being laid upon outward development (as illustrated by the Wythenshawe scheme or industry's present-day preference for semi-rural or rura sites) carries with it the danger of lessened interest in central positions and a corresponding reduction of values there.

We have an illustration from London. Both Bush House in Kingsway and Chemical Industries on the

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ECONOMICS

MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

Westminster Embankment are creating centres whi if developed to plan, must shake the security of the each, paratively small area which surrounds the Bank of Enmland and which we know as the City. If this moveme is expanded, and if the congested condition of the is n~t relieved, there must be sooner or later a perceptib% fall i~ the swollen values of Lombard Street and its neighbouring streets.

If the change of land values is slow moving and onl perceptible over periods of twenty-five years, are we 9~ m assuming, as we appear to be doing, that the zenith has not yet been reached ? The cleared areas of Hulme in Manchester, purchased so recently as I 92 I at a price of £I 4,000 per acre, are admittedly over-valued on today's estimate. That eligible site of the Manchester Grammar School in Long Millgate, which is in the immediate proximity to Victoria and Exchange Stations as well as to the central shopping areas, is to-day availabl~ at a price that would have been considered impossibly low when the removal to Fallowfield was decided upon.

Some outward movement seems inevitable, but it may be higher or lower than our estimates of to-day suggest.

For more and more does a building and its business depend upon conditions which affect its particular traffic requirements. The position of Lewis's-probably to-day one of the most valuable sites in Manchester-may be ideal for the shopper on foot, but any further developments and extensions will create anxiety both to the firm and to the municipality on account of the burden which its traffic will impose. Once the situation is aggravated to such an extent that it lessens efficiency by delays in delivery and despatch or makes it awkward for customers to park their cars, Lewis's will look for sites that will remove these difficulties, or will meet with severe competition from rivals in better locations. (It is significant that Lewis's have already envisaged decentralisation by putting up a big warehouse in Davyhulme, well away from urban difficulties and restrictions.)

Rylands', who are immediately opposite to Lewis's,

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. a better position, as they are on the outer ri~ of Jl"e in. . centre The intention of Kendal Milne · the civic d' ) to develop on the west st'd e of D eansgat e, th:n on the more fashionable side where they are rath:;scnt, seems fundamentally sound. . . at ~ further incentive to o~tward e~pansio~ spnngs fro!ll lessened eligibility. of island sites, as. m the case m ~ chester of the triangle at Corporation Street and Ca:aton Street left vacant now for so m:i-ny years. Toa business that handles merchan~ise ?f any sort day · s an outlet for its traffic. The ideal 1s to have a require . · h eavies · t, fr ta e where the pedestnan movement is onb.g d wi'th backs where ample space can be secured com me . . for loading, unloading, an~ pa~kmg. . .

If industry is to be rationalised ~ithi.n t~e next fifty there must be a parallel rationalisation of office ycarsm,modation If the middleman and his job are acco · · 1e ~ ffi ces an d small doomed, a lessened demand for smg uites of offices (suitable only for the middleman or the : ent) seems assured. A guide to future development !uld be served by a survey of t~e amount of o_©ce accommodation now taken uP. by this.class of trader.

In the outlying-and particularly m the suburbanareas of Manchester, the econ.omic value of larid depends upon the demand for ~me particular f~rm of development, ;.e., housing on a basis of twelve to sixteen houses to ?ie acre. Sooner or later this demand must reach saturation point and have its corresponding e!fect upon "!rban values. Meanwhile the scarcity of suit.able. land w1!l be diluted, owing to the increasing re-distnbution of pnvate property. Just as we expect that no mem?er of the community will be housed at a greater density than twelve dwellings to the acre, so, at the o~her en~ of the scale, does it appear unlikely that there will remam any demand for houses at less than three or possibly four. t<? the acre.

This will set free for re-development the existing larger houses with grounds of half a~ acre and. upw~rd~.

Possibly in the course of time the d1spanty m value 'between land used for intensive agriculture and that used

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MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

68

for building development may be adjusted so that ¡ may ~e economically sound to maintain our well-till ~ Cheshire lands under cultivation instead of converti e them into building sites. ng e can th~refore summarise the economic position as 1t presents itself to us to-day when we are trying t'0 look forward, as something like the following : (a) Traffic congestion mainly, but hi~h rents and other causes also, may force outwards distributive and oth trades and occupations. As they will not want to ;r further out t.han is absolutely necessary, reduced value~ caused by this may be made good by a larger area of the centre. . (b) In the outlying districts the large private properties, e.g., dwelling-houses, are likely to make way for ~en~er development, whic~ may be of approximately similar rateable value. Against this must be set the cost of the Municipality for public services and amenities of an increasingly higher standard.

CHAPTER XI

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ZONING AND LAND VALUES powers which a Local Authority can now exercise in deciding where private enterprise shall or shall not settle must have an indirect economic effect on land values in general, and particularly in a built-up area. That we cannot re-plan Manch~ster. without . exerci~in~ these powers and without zonmg its heavy industries. is clear to any one anxious for the future welfare of the City. We must ask ourselves what will be the trend of land values within the new Industrial Zones and what will be the economic effect on the land vacated as a result of the factories so removed ? (Against the probable lowered rateable value may be set a correspondingly lowered cost of public maintenance.) .

Possibly because roadways are tangible and zones are only foreshadowed, ossibly because the roadway ir the exclusive concern o the Authority and the zone more the responsibility of the individual landowner, Townplanoing projects tend to lay stress on traffic movements and on routes, without, in some cases, being at all sure to what destinations these routes will lead, or what needs (such as houses, factories, rail-head, inter-urban communication) are thus catered for.

Zoning, in the sense of being a re-development of properties which adjoin such projected traffic rou~es, needs no less attention at the hands of the controlling Authority; the consequence of concentrating so much on main roads to car~ fast through-traffic, ~nd the fact that main roads are bemg planned concentrically as well as radially tends to isolate such zones and demands for them a meas~re of self-contained development. This pro~ess would, under existing Town-planning powers, be difficult, cumbersome, and costly to pursue.

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At present an Authority can acquire land needed for re-housing by compulsory purchase, which secures a more or less equitable valuation, but it has no such safeguards when it desires to re-develop in other ways. For there is an equivalent of slum property on the industrial side, and our definition of industrial property is comprehensive and somewhat vague. It includes coal and timber yards, together with all those nondescript enclosures harbouring all kinds of second-hand builders' materials, such as old tin and wood cases, wire netting and scrap iron, where wooden lean-to's and shacks offer shelter for the car or the pony cart of the needy or the thrifty. Further up the scale we find small laundries, bakehouses, bottling stores and workshops that may be merely" converted cottages, and lastly the obsolete mill. To deal with these other forms of industrial property the Authority has no course but to purchase in the open market, so that an area cleared of slum property may still have dotted about it industrial units of the character above mentioned, which will effectually block any rearrangement of the whole. For the Local Authority is involved not only in the immediate frontage, but also in the accessibility of such indu!f&ial units, so that one remaining isolated building may influence the disposition of all the street works around it.

The isolated unit of land such as we are discussing, whether it be cleared or with buildings still standing upon it, is generally small in area and burdened with chief rents ; the Authority has no powers to bring together the owners for a common betterment from which they themselves would profit, and without the Authority the owners cannot combine, as they are dependent upon the layout of streets, etc.

A formula capable of dealing with this sort of impasse has for some time been in existence in Germany, and is called the "Lex Adickes,,, after the Burgomeister (Mayor) of Frankfurt-on-Main bearing that name, ·who passed a local Act in I 902.

As early as I 9 I 8 the principle was made adoptive by the Prussian Housing Act to any town or rural commune

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MANCHESTER MADE OYER

in Prussia which wished to make use of it the basis of the procedure being the assumption that the rearrangement of ownerships within a certain area is a matter of public interest and that it will assist development of the area.

Roughly it works out as follows : the whole area w~ic~ is to be re-distributed is just pooled, including the CXlsttng streets and open spaces. Then all the land required for new public streets, etc., is vested in the "commu~e" or H!g?way Authority. The remainder of the Ian~ ts then divided among the previous (original) owners m the same proportion as existed prior to the poo.l'. giving ~s nearly as possible to the owner the same position for his plot as that which was previously held.

Owners are e~titled to compensation if their holdings are reduced, but increment of value due to re-distribution ~s not taken into consideration, and the compensation itself comes from a fund formed by a .. re-distribution levy" from the owners in proportion to the value of their new plots. As far as possible, the whole procedure is effected by agreement so as to avoid unnecessary costs and monetary compensation. .

The principle of Lex Adickes, with variations both in the land unit and the procedure of negotiation, is now ~ccept~d all over Ger~any, and. the city of Nuremberg m particular has used It to make important improvements under the Bavarian Act, which has $'One further than the others, since it permits the Authority to keep land free from re-building to meet public needs.

By the illustration, it will be seen how a block of property, such as exists in a local slum area, is divided ~p mt~ plots so small that they are in some cases quite 1mposs1ble to re-develop, and, in addition so inconyenie_ntly placed that their value to the owner' is seriously 1mpa1red. The Local Authority, who suffers in a similar degree, has to maintain narrow roads and alley-ways quite out of date for moder~ us~ge, merely because th~ access .(which may be qwte inadequate) to private properties has to be preserved. The first illustration,

ZONING AND LAND f7ALUES

73 besides showing the admixture of dwellings and industrial units which exists generally, demonstrates ho~ uneconomic is the layout, and how dangerous for hfe and limb is the almost universal through-street.

The second illustration also shows what could be done by the Authority if it had powers to re-distribute the holdings so that each owner would still possess the same amount of property and no less favourable access to frontage. The Authority would gain in the simplification of roadways and public services ; the owner by betterment of access and frontage to the plot itself and its enhanced potential value when included in a development of several units combined or of the whole area.

In another part of this review an example of zoning round a school has been suggested. The possibilities of zoning round other focal points and between the radial and lateral road arteries are of economic importance because of the opportunities which they offer of simplifying the road system and public services. As a rearrangement of arterial and circular roads is evolved it should be possible to determine the usefulness of such subsidiary thorough.fares as have taken the traffic hitherto.

It may be found that their function has fallen to that of service roads, and that they can be re-constructed for the lessened weight that they will carry, on cheaper, but not less useful, lines ; in some cases they may be closed for through traffic, e.g., turned into culs-de-sac, or they may even be closed altogether.

But better still would be to re-plan the whole zone afresh when we could at the same time arrange for the remov~l from the arterial roads of all buildings likely to create congestion by standing vehicles, to sites within the zone. The shopping centre in particular should be well away from the arterial road, for it is between the home and the shop that the children and housewives circulate and hurry and where pedestrian traffic is at ifs peak.

This adjustment from the borders to the centre of the area would have the effect of spreading the value of land and property evenly as opposed to the position which

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MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

at present o~tains of. the highest values being attached to the most inconvenient places. The cumulative effect would be that the present unproductive " hinterland " of the whole ~ity might provide compensation for what was lost on mau~ ~oadway frontages, which, through changed traffic cond1t1ons, may be already valued at more than they are worth.

CHAPTER XII PLANNING FOR WORKING-CLASS FAMILY REQUIREMENTS G1vEN an unpolluted atmosphere in the future and a continued demand for the privacy of a house and garden, there seems to be no objection to some development of working-class homesteads in re-developed town areas.

Even if the present clearances are not suitable, Moss Side, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Levenshulme will, within the fifty-year plan, be ripe for re-development or, alternatively, will sink into slumdom.

Unless the technique of block dwellings is developed and gives results similar to what obtains in other countries (i.e., lower construction costs), cottage building will still call for consideration.

We have a well-developed formula for this fofffi of housing in our garden city movement, and the steady improvement in our technique can be tangibly demonstrated in a survey which, starting from Withington Estate, passes vit1 Barlow Mead to the Wythenshawe Estate. There is, however, a definite difference between the planning of Wythenshawe and the re-planning on similar lines of, say, Chorlton-on-Medlock. Trees, spinneys, existing lanes have prescribed the layout of Withington. There would be nQ restrictions of this kind in a cleared urban unit, but against that must be set the limitations imposed by existing roadways carrying dangerous traffic on lines of communication not easily diverted.

Housing, whatever form it takes in the future, will always centre round the family in general and the child in particular, as it has always done in the past. Our housing projects are hampered by our desire to give the 75

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MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

1o~er pai~ wo~~er a ~inimum of three bedrooms, coupled with the mabihty o~ industry to give sufficient wages to pay the correseondmg rent. We have taken for this s~ndard a family made up of parents with children of mixed s~xes who are more or less of school age. It may be q'!est1one.d whether 'Ye have n.ot lost sight of the fact that m t~e hfe of a family there is only a comparatively shor~ period when a three-bedroom house is a minimum retir~ment for ~ecency and the segregation of the sexes. . akmg a. family of. three children (born at two-year intervals), girl, boy, girl (or vice versa), a two-bedroom B2 (type) house would accommodate three children until the eldest child has attained the age of eleven years, i.e.> after the parent~ have been married for twelve years.

The nee~ of a thir~ bedroom starts therefore at this point and cont1m.~es unt1] the youngest child, aged at this time seven, attains the age .of seventeen, by which time presum:ibly the older children will have left home (the boy being then tytrenty~one and the eldest girl twentythr~e). After ~his period of ten years the family will ~gam only ~equire a two-bedroom type, and at no great 1~te~l a still smaller house-so that in the whole family hfe it ts only for a period of ten to twelve years that the three:bedroom type is an essential. . It ts, however, important to emphasise that it is in the middle and the earlier period of life that the formative character of the popul~t10? is being built up, and not to forge7 that the upbringing of children is the chief function of the parents and the main interest of the State.

We have already recognised this aspect in providing new schools to follow cl_ose. on the heels o.f n.ew housing d~v~lopments. . The child 1s catered for m its social as d1sti!1ct f:om its family requirements (while similar cons1derat1on for the adolescent and adult is deferred or left sc:>mewhat negligently to the chance aid of outside agencies). . TJie school is.therefor~ the. first and always the most s1gnifica?t pubhc building m housing development.

For obvious reasons it is weJl distributed over the areas

WORKING-CLASS FAMILT REQUIREMENTS 77 under consideration. The home and the school combine to produce the right or the wrong citizen of the future, and the closer the ties and the more constant the contacts the more complete s~ould be the success. By pla!1ning with more emphasis upon the close relat1onsh1p of our houses and the school, we should (a) underline the joint responsibility to the child, (h) achieve a To'!nplanning amenity by creating a focal point that would give interest, relieve monotonous repetition, and pull the unit together.

The school would be surrounded by playing fields, supplemented, let us imagine, by. the recreational areas for the neighbourhood (and must.1.t be taken for gran!ed that we shall continue to need ra1lmgs for the protection of the weaker members of a city fifty years hence ?).

The central area therefore could be of ample extent and could be envisaged as taking on the character. of the village green (even in suburban development), with the playground as the meeting place for youth, middl~ age, and declining years. The lessened average density of houses per acre could be increased by a closer grouping of cottages and a considerable reduction in the size.-'and possibly in the number) of gardens. . .

The close union of home and school is most important for the younger child, and is more applicable for the nursery and the junior school-for which a scheme is suggested based upon this group ?f ch~ldr~n under eleven years of age. At the pre~ent time a junior school with nursery class accommodation for the under fiyeyear-olds is considered by the Manc~ester E~~cation Authority as a workable and economic proposition on about 600 places. The average t.o-day of .this group of children is as low. ~s o¡ ~ per family; that is. to say, t~e Education Authorities will base their calculations for this type of school by reckoning.upon twice as many famili~s as there are likely to be pupils to fill the plac;es. That 1s, 1,ioo families in I, ioo houses.

Taking t~e p:escribed density o~ t~elve houses to the acre which is laid down by the Ministry of Health, we

,,

MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER have an ar~a of 100 acres on which to/lace 1,,;00 houses,

toget~er. with (a) a n~rsery school an a junior school, or (b) a Junior school with nursery classes, either alternative

requiring a minimum playground of 5 acres. The Jayout of the scheme should ensure for the children freedom from risk and quick access to the school .In order to emphasise and preserve the cha~cter of this more or less complete community unit, the whole

WORKJNG-CLASSFAMILTREQUIREMENTS

79

layout could be so arranged as to allow of an outside open belt sufficiently wide to mark it off from adjoining centres and traffic thoroughfares. In other words, we should be working on a density of 1,200 houses to 100 acres, rather than twelve houses to 1 acre, a deviation that has already been found necessary in different localities and in different proportions.

The post-primary, senior, and secondary schools would have to serve a larger area. The older children would have to go further afield, to fend more for themselves, to negotiate street crossings, all of which would be factors in education for the responsibilities and dangers of everyday life.

The average of the group of older children is still lower than the younger group. It is estimated at 0 · 25 per household, so that the corresponding administrative and economic school unit which the Education Authority places at 900 places (half boys and half girls) would require a background of 3,600 families and 3,600 houses.

Ten acres of playing fields would be required and considered adequate for this size of school.

We can therefore group three of our first units;-i.e., 3 x 100 acres covered by 3 X 1,200 houses into a larger unit as above. !~ an area of about ~alf ~ square mile we have the mtnimum of community hfe and roughly the maximum of educational life, altho~gh to differentiate between the various forms of education for the older child we should have to double the area again, as we should require two schools of 900 places (20 acres of extra ground).

To sum up, we have planned on a given square mile:7,200 houses . for 7,200 families.

6 schools for their 3,600 younger children.

2 ,, • for their 1, 800 older children.

That is, we have catered for the average number of children which each family has, and which isOne younger child per two families . o· 50 per cent.

One older child per four families . 0 · 25 ,, ,,

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MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

We h~ve arranged for the comfort and well-being of t!1ese children .as well as creating pleasant and mediums1zed community groups, but we have not made aHowance for other necessities, notably shops places of ~orshh1p an.cl ~musement, etc., and no apologies are made ior t e onuss1on.

Obviously the exact equation cannot be based u on a hard and fast rule. We are not likely in deared a!'eas to be able to parcel out a series of r co-acre plots unimpeded by.thoroughfares or to relate them into symmetrical square-mile areas.

The adaptation of the foregoing or of some betterplanned ~ormula to the ac~ual conditions to be met with on the site and. s~rroundmgs under consideration will ensure that var1at1on from dull repetition from which even the mos.t perfect combination of house, school and open space will not escape. >

CHAPTER XIII WYTHENSHAWE (r) (GENERAL)

reference to Wythenshawe is made on these pages ; its relation to the re-planning of Manche~ter cannot be overlooked. Much has already been written by experts about its development, its objective, and the underlying ideals behind its inception. This has been passed on to the public, and Wythenshawe can be said to enjoy a world-wide reputation.

Both because Wythenshawe has been so thoroughly explained, and because the process of making over cannot be applied to that which 1s so new, the writer had not originally intended to include it in this survey. But it is too close in location, and allied too closely with Manchesterin development, to leave a plan which looks fifty or 100 years ahead unaffected by its influence.

In any scheme of regional planning which Manchester may undertake with Salford, Stretford (and in this case also with Stockport), a Wythenshawe completely developed in ten or fifteen years may well be a problem when the process of re-development is at a later datesay thirty, forty or sixty years hence-still being practised by the older units.

This time-factor gives W ythenshawe a place in this review, to which can be added three special points to the general argument:(1) It is the spot-light of Manchestees development and therefore a popular advertisement for the mari in the street.

(2) It is a unique model, complete in itself, on which neighbouring schemes can be measured and compared.

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MANCHESTER MADE 0//ER

W'l'THENSHAWE (1)

(3) It is mainly the private property of the citizens of Manchester.

As the writer secs it, the three reasons are placed in their right order. No. (3) is placed last, and not first, because the over-riding ownership of Manchester conflicts in principle with the ideal of Wythenshawe as a self-sufficient entity. Manchester has not only the full municipal control, it has a strangle-hold, secured by its ownership of nearly all the land and a large proportion of the buildings as well. This cuts across the conception of a self-contained township, which, to achieve complete realisation, must aspire to an independent or at least .an interdependent outlook of its own. It is difficult to envisage a satisfactory civic life for Wythenshawe under an outside control so complete as is wielded by the citizens of the parent city. . There is a qualification in the statement frequently made of a clear field and a free hand for planning in Wythenshawe, brought about by ownership and the inclusion of the area into the City boundary. The village of Northenden offers many of the problems of built-up areas, and even if its situation did not dominate one of the main roads leading into Manchester, it would still have to be made over and its extremely poor layout corrected.

Nor has Manchester had a perfectly free hand. Strong opposition to the scheme was raised by the local inhabitants, anxious not only to continue their enjoyment of a countryside leisure, but to avoid the higher rates which city life imposes.

This entirely comprehensible and human point of view disregarded two fundamental factors, the one being that the break-up of the Wythenshawe Park estate would, in any case, have disturbed their rural seclusion ; and the other that the opportunity of living under these rural conditions and of yet being so near to their work was due to Manchester's municipal services, in the shape of good roads, adequate lighting, vigilant police control, and quick transport, together with Manchester's far-flung suburbs which stretch out towards their homes round Northenden.

For although the Wythenshawe area was separated from Manchester and entirely rural, it was not really far from the outlying development of the latter. Northenden's houses and the residences on Palatine Road were, and are still, well under a mile apart. But for the natural barrier of the River Mersey there would have been a more or less complete fusion, which would have prevented us from placing a satellite town so close to hand.

We have discussed elsewhere the value of the green belt, which the River Mersey and its low-lying meadows have created for Manchester. This value is equally important for Wythenshawe; it upholds the necessa.ry line of demarcation and protects Wythenshawe at its most vulnerable point from the menace of encroachment by the par~nt city.

We should see that the $"reen belt is rigorously adhered to, or the characteristics of Wythenshawe will degenerate into those of a suburb of Manchester. No amount of careful internal planning will compensate for a well-defined boundary and dignified approaches.

But for the discovery of the utilisation, by contr.~11.ed tipping, of town refuse to raise land levels not otherwise suitable for building operations, we should have no cause to fear disturbance. The experiments have, however, been carried out on this particular green belt, and what was valueless land, being subjected to river flooding, is now reclaimable and may tempt future legislators to developments which were not possible when the reservation was made.

On the flanks of Wythenshawe there are similar if lesser menaces. The district as a whole has been left open between the two tentacles, i.e., the arterial road to Cheadle on the east and that to Sale on the west. Both these districts have housing developments, which are partly normal extensions and partly the result of the new facilities which Wythenshawe has opened up for them.

On the Cheadle-Gatley side the line of separation is already lost at one or two points, and notably in the approach to the estate on the Stockport-Wythenshawe road.

MANCHESTER MADE OPER The v~stas, which are the result of green belts, will be most noticeable on the open sectors of the roads, which connect up two developed areas. The thousands of passer~-by, confronted with the open view, after clearing the built-up character of Northenden village, on their way to Manchester, are not really stimulated by the river meadows or the Mersey (which is scarcely visible and in any case not very exciting), but by the more distant vista of. the sloping woodlands and gardens on the northerly skirt ?f the City ; . it is the absence of buildings on the roadside that permits passers-by to appreciate this feature for as long as they are on the open sector of the road. . The gree'!- belt ~ust not be obscured by frontages even ~f, as t~e wr~t~r .believes, a knowledg~ that it exists in the imn_ied1ate vicmity creates a subconscious feeling of satisfaction. A street of closely packed houses¡ in many country towns may show as little relief from bricks and mortar and pavement as one situated in the heart of a congested area. Yet the knowledge that behind these ~ouses a:e gardens, and behind. these again open countryside, relieves the sense of prison-like pressure and of endle~s ~onotony which the city street conveys.

This is not to be taken as a justification for ribbon develop~ent,, but for greater. attention to the desirability of variation m Town-planning and particularly in that part which relates to housing schemes.

WYTHENSHAWE'S UNIFIED PLAN

Wythensha~e enjoyed a fly!ng start in b~ing originated by an expert m Town-planning and architecture in the ~erson of Barry Parker. From this it has so far, and is !ikely t~ continue to have, a unity which is largely lacking m previous developments. We can, by clear examination, ~ee t~at the layout is the result of a personal study of the situation, contour, and natural features of the site and that it has incorporated all that was worth retaining in woodlands, hedgerows, and trees. The plan adopted at Wythenshawe has avoided the mistakes of the past or better said, has learned from the experience of the p~st.'

WTTHENSHAWE (1)

85

When we are furnished with charts of municipal estates created since the war, we find, as a reversal of the pre-war grid-iron development, a pattern of groups of houses placed on curved and straight roads, flanked ~y culs-de-sac, which often, but not always, centre on a mam feature. From overhead (aeroplane or bird's eye) ~he effect is charming, but viewe~ from th.e road level, whic.h is the ordinary person's pomt of view, the effect is vastly different.

In a scheme of 1,200 houses, which, at twelve to the acre, would occupy 100 acre&, t~e value of t~e symmetrical layout is lost. The curving road continues to curve and each turn discloses a similar type of house, or a ~imilar group of types ; the culs-de-sac and side roads show the same groupings and the same types of houses. The mono~ony from .which we shra~k m t~e pre-war streets is with us agam ; less acute. m d~tail, as we have a variation in garden layout, but intensified by the extra length required by the limitation of twelve houses to the acre.

That somewhere at the other end of the estate there is a balancing arrangement of housing types, curving Jeads, and culs-de-sac, does nothing to dispel such monotony.

The duplication of plan adds nothing to the a!llenity at any given point of view, it merely increases bewilderment and adds to disorientation. It inevitably renders the task of planning .the estate more difficul:, as it adds one more consideration to an overwhelming number of necessary adjustments.

The householder on such an estate has no doubt little difficulty in finding his own particular dwelling, but the visitor is quite ofte? completely ~t sea, and ~here there is the customary circular formation, finds himself }lac~ at his starting point, if indeed he manages to recognise 1t when it is reached.

This convention of planning has not ar!sen fro~ a conscious intention to ignore the street pomt of vie!Âť from which the majority will view the development, m favour of one seen only from the heavens. It arises from

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MANCHESTER MADE O//ER

the fact that the projects arc worked out on large Ordnance maps by draughtsmen whose point of view as they work over their desks is similar to that from the aeroplane. The human factor has just been lost sight of, so that the difficult task of fitting in, with due economy, the requisite number of houses to the appropriate acreage is rendered still more difficult by a completely unnecessary bird's-eye view design.

The substitution of the drawing-board for the actual estate is responsible for a further monotonous result which occurs when two or more housing schemes arc in close proximity to each other. Each one has been projected as a complete unit in itself. But so often two or three of them are executed so close together that they merge into a large single unit, which has no form and no coherence ; the monotony and bewilderment is increased twofold or threefold.

This pitfall has been avoided in Wythenshawe. The Park itself, the parkways, the civic centre, and the defined shopping areas combine to give the points of relief, but there is still a danger that we may find some monotony when the township is fully developed with housing estates all of a similar pattern and all with twelve houses as a maximum to the acre.

Benchill and Holly Edge already merge, as do Rackhouse and Lawton Moor, but so far we have so many undeveloped gaps reserved for private development and other purposes that we have no sense of overcrowding, and the balance is not yet upset. It seems that an additional safeguard could be applied by the extension of the principle of green belts between the units, which will follow and be adjacent to those already completed, such belts to be proportionately narrower than the main encircling belt.

In Wythenshawe the strict application of twelve houses to a single acre has been modified to a varying average of multiples of twelve houses to multiples of corresponding acreage, i.e., 10 acres could have no houses spread unevenly over them. So long as the

WTTHENSHAWE (1) e uirements for air and sun~ight set up by the Medical

O~cer of Health are met, thts allo~s. for a closer cent.ral

fi0 rmation of development in butldmgs, round which th riate belts would be released, and on :~i~hf~~m~:!f~~~> playing fields, and allotments could be arranged. . d gas water The cost of roadworks, pavm~, sewerd although ther~ and electric mains ~ould n?t be mh.re~se , ~d not supply would be connecting sections w tc wou t the same abutting hfouse . proper7d b;nr:~~e:!!~eft's eapplication · · ith amount o service wou would be merely concentrated at certam sections, w corresponding gaps at others.

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W'lJTHENSHAWE (2)

' CHAPTER XIV WYTHENSHAWE (2) COMMUNITY LIF.E

To secui:e for Wythenshawe a corporate life and to establish it as a satellite town and not as a dormitory or suburb of Manchester, its plan has included provision for an industrial area, where the light character of the work will safeguard the neighbourhood from fumes and other air pollution. In order that it shall have opportunities for a future full civic status, it is also planned so as to attract, within its boundaries, all grades of society, thus to make sure that it shall not be merely a workingclass district.

In view of the crying need for adequate housing for the less wealthy members of the community, the Manchester Corporation is itself responsible for this class of building, but at the same time it encourages the development suitable for those with longer purses. This aspect has been left to. the pri~ate builder, who has responded to the invitation with considerable groups of the usual " owner-occupier u type house, which is only a little bigger than the municipal B3 cottage, and also with a steady development, on the choice sites fronting the Park and the parkways, of larger ?etached houses. Unfortunately neither type is so far entirely satisfactory, nor reaches the level of distinction and balance which the work of the municipality on the Estate shows.

The smaller type of privately developed property panders to the insistent demand, which may or may not be exaggerated, for trivial ornament, such as halftimber gables,, leaded window-lights, and fantastic excrescences which can only be given within the limited 88

price of the house by skimping essential qualities of building. .

The larger sized h~use is. er~~ed for the particular requirements of a l?art1cuJar m~ividual, and the ge~~ral lack of opportunity m our educat.ion~l ~yst~m of acqumng some standards of taste and discru~mat10n m art and architecture is responsible for the particularly un~o~nate types of house that occupy some of the best positions on the Estate.

By virtue of ownership, the officials at the Town_ ~all are invested with extra powers to veto any butl~m.g elevations that do not come up to standard, but it is obvious that their function is to criticise and not. to create, so that it is not their duty, nor have ~hey time at their disposal, to make 0e neces~ary .adjustments which will convert a badly des1gn~d project .into ~:>ne that will be satisfactory in itself and will harmonise with what is built around it. .

The position on the whoJe is that the bigger the outJay is on the individual house, the greater is. t~e lack of ~ood design apparent, and the process ~f budding for private ownership is lessening the effectiveness of the:_ -"Whole Estate. If, in a hundred years' time, a seeker of 1llu~t~a­ tions of the state of society in 1930 to 1940 v1s1ts Wythenshawe, he will find in . the contr~st . be~een municipal and individual enterprise a ~l~ar indication ~f the conditions now ruling. The municipal groups will stand for the growing socialisation wh~n people ~re content to live together without the desire to o~tshn~c each other. The part created by private enterprise. will show the distorted outlook which results when there is no guide or control to ~urb individualism or to check the desire merely to be different. .

Meanwhile the theory if not the actual practice, of erecting differing types of houses fo~ differ~nt g~des of society is an interesting and desirable 1tem m ~he programme of Wythenshawe~s ~evelopment, which recognises the value of community hfe.

MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER COMMUNITY CENTRES

It is withi~ the province of any Authority to grant aid for the establishment of community centres in its housing schemes, and a large measure of success has already attended _the Wythenshawe centres, of which there are three already in being in the short period that has elapsed since Wythenshawe appeared on the map. In fact, the Wythenshawe centres have beaten, both in numbers and activities, centres established earlier in other new housing estates in the City.

The need for such centres in these new communities is ~ply proved by experience. These municipal housing estates gather together, at an almost feverish rate, a number of families from all points of the compass most of them being on the younger side. In England: at any rate, there has been little or no precedent for this mushroom growth of neighbourhoods, and a formula was necessary with which to replace the traditional contacts, such as intercourse between relations within the family, as well as neighbourhood intercourse through sectarian and political activities.

There is a time-lag between the occupation of the houses and that of the institutional buildings. Schools follow the houses, with a minimum loss of time and through schools, a common interest of par~mthood'start~ a valuable community sense, Churches and chapels are dependent upon the necessary raising of funds before they can be brought into being ; clubs, cinemas and public-houses must be certain of an immediate support before they are launched, Quite apart from these social contacts, which the ne~-comers to a housing estate ¡have had in their former neighbourhoods, something more in keeping with to-day's outlook is necessary. The smaller family as compared with that of a generation or two ago m~ns fewer opportunities for family contacts. The churches and chape.ls do not now attract such large or such regular congregations as then. Many people are unwilling to

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subscribe to a narrow political or sectarian outlook, Others require a social life that does not need any mental effort or strong conviction to. back it. Both classes are seeking for new forms of social contacts.

As is natural, the semi-rural character of the new housing estates and its e~ect on t~e town-b:ed new-com~r produces a widespread interest in garden~ng an~ horticulture. This is a most valuable starting point for building up a community c~ntre, a!1d nearly always has added to it the recreational side, which fill.sup the gap .of the winter months and calls for the organisation of social reunions. These bring neighbours clos~r together, and however much we may deplore ~he 1n:portan~e that whist drives and dances have achieved in sections of society, we must recognise that they offer t~ .the mo!e retiring members of the community opportuni~1es to mix with their neighbours, and to t~e ~ore ~ssertive opportunities for direction and orgamsat1on which are of :value to those surrounding them. In t~e latte~ ~l~ss will be found those who will later help to direct act1v1~i~s, such as concerts and theatricals as extra means of raising funds, and so lead to the inclusion of activities of vah'lb to community life. .

The community centres which are already starte~ m Wythenshawe are moving healthily along the. Imes described above, and the future of Wythenshawe is v~ry much bound up with the influence that they may exercise on its development.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE AREA

Wythenshawe is already a big town and is rapidly growing out of the swaddling clothes th~t Manchester has provided. Its needs are looked after 1~ Manchester at the Town Hall and by the City Counc~l ~ a whole.

It has for its own particular needs and aspirations so far only four represen~ativ~ (one a!d.erman and three elected councillors) who, m their muni~t.pal ":ork, are expected to help with the general adm1mstratlon of the whole

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City and cannot concentrate exclusively on their ward problems.

There is a special Wythenshawe Committee which started with a small membership and is now increased, as the duties have increased, but which is still not up to the statutary numbers allowed by the standing orders of the Council. The representatives from Wythenshawe all serve on this committee, and there are other councillors who reside on the Estate and have particular interest and expert knowledge of its requirements. But the matters which have to be dealt with are, when all is said and done, such as a Local Authority is called upon to consider rather than a special but subordinate committee. Whatever municipal action is projected for Wythenshawe, whether it be gas, water, drainage, electricity, markets or buildings, its appropriate committee has to pass the project through the W ythenshawe Committee, instead of reporting, as do all other districts, direct to the monthly meeting of the Council. It is, in effect, a miniature Town Council, and it has, in addition, duties as ground landlord which give it greater powers than most Local Government Committees can ever hope to enjoy.

These powers allow of attention to details, small in themselves, but cumulatively important for a wellordered town plan. The opportunities are given for reasonable control of shopping facilities, the check on over-duplication of different classes of shops, the regulation of advertisements on hoardings and in shop windows.

It is a unique chance to demonstrate against the habit of over-advertising both in placards and on fascia (shop signs), of regulating lettering from all kinds of essays which are merely different and mostly difficult to decipher, so that the very object of advertisement aimed at is defeated by its over-insistence. Just as when everybody is shouting at their loudest the ear catches no meaning, similarly, if all space is crowded with conflicting appeals to the eye, no impression but confusion can be conveyed to the understanding.

It is therefore important that, if Wythenshawe is to

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. . ty sense in ratio to its growth in area, de~elop its c~dmmut.ni should be given to the form in serious cons1 e111; ion . . d 1 W c may ask which its administration is to eve op. ourselvesh E tate can demand a greater If and how soon t e s C ·1 ii

Wha~i:i~: £!:r~r~~;~~;;:sofit!h:dmi~is~~~ion to

be? . . . t ct ii administration o a . d by an From where is the .

"II doubt be answere 1 The first question ~ .. no .

W ds (Rackhouse, f sub-d1v151on into ar h . · 1 app 1cat1on or . ddit"onal representation on t e B7nchill, et7.), cT~:n!ili not1 be granted eas.ily, for ~e City Council. . 1 d to -heavy for debating Council of 140 medhers :.~:th (~hifh entails a considerpurposes? and one ay a olunta service given by memable sa~nfice up~ t~fthe CouZiI's size is to be ~nla:rged hers) will not suf cc 1 bers anxious to air their views. by a numbe~ o ex~ra mem and this is called for Re-distribution will b; ne~ess;~~tial needs, but for the not only by Wyt;en~ awVJafds such as Chorlton and pr~se?t needs Io . o.t tr esting t~ note that Chorlten and h any voters as the W1thmgton. tis m er Withington have flrcady. eaf th~ C:ntral Wards. Recombined voters o any ~~ ~esentation away from these distribution wWldd taked P give additional members to small .central adr s anh. ~o would be sub-divided to a ar s, w ic the bigger reasonabl~ s1z:e. b r htly conceded, as political and But this w1l.l not. e tg 'I involved and changes economic cons1der~t1odnsbar~~~:g1 ~ections of the Council will be keenly re~1ste Y and the co~mumty·from a proportioned representation, But, quite apart mittee will have to be rearranged the Wythensha:e Co~ extends and alters in charac~er. as and when t e wor f I that a solution of the diffiThe writer, at any r~te, fe s rtain duties to the officials culty by the re:g~tion o it c=;ould limit the consideration would not bee ect1ve, ash.ch this book wishes to stress. of the human contacts w t

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The member of the committee contributes, as a lay-man~ the reaction of the lay mind to each problem'as it presents itself, and so furnishes a justification for the practice in Manchester of sharing the administration as well as setting up the policy of public affairs. The official mind (which is not seldom shared by the elected representative) knows what .should be done, but may not know how it will be interpreted, received, and accepted by the ratepayers. Such a lay viewpoint can be contributed usefully by the less experienced member of the Council, and it is available before and not after the matter has been put in to effect.

There does not seem to be any immediate solution for this Wythenshawe problem, which probably will only be tackled when the congestion due to the present formula becomes acute. It can scarcely be deemed workable today: from Manchester's point of view it means a duplication of all work connected with Wythenshawe and a differentiation in procedure of one area from the rest of the City. From the Wythenshawe point of view the absence of its own domestic government must needs check the enthusiasm for citizenship which is a necessity for a self-contained town. The trend of local government being in the direction of regional co-ordination, perhaps a solution will be found under this movement to reconcile the conflicting tendencies of the moment.

Meanwhile the location of the controlling committee, which is responsible for all community developments and aspirations, demands consideration. We can scarcely hope to realise the high hopes of a quickened community interest through the various organisations set up in Wythenshawe if the practical application of its aspirations is decided in a place well outside the area.

There should be without delay some preparation made for administrative buildings in the projected Wythenshawe civic centre, from which local government can as far as possible be administered, and where, in case of need, the Wythenshawe Committee could meet.

CHAPTER XV BUILDINGS OF THE FUTURE 0 ublic buildings may be divided into ~wo groups : uRhp . d .eor Manchester's domestic purposes' (a) t ose req.mre l' • • (b) those which serve the;:i~~l~d:t:he University, the ~e la:~C:R~tye~o11!firmary (with its satellite. hospitals£ Cat .e .r~ ' . t of women and children, o spectahsmg 11?" thef treatn:.e~nd consumption), the Assize cance School as well as theatres, eyes, ears, skm, Courts and the rammar Most of these are well-estabconcert halls, and hotels. d 1 with problems lished entities and are now concerne lon y will keep a . which the town-p anner of expansion, on . he realm of entertainment Manfriendly eke. rut mg~eat lack of which we are becoming h ther Manchester or .ialford chester su ers roi:i a increasingly consct?us : w e it a northern Olympia secures first place ~n ~et ~etc fThe' lack of a building in is a real need for t e ts rte ·h ·table for an annual the thickly P.°pulat~d nho~dic~up1 and a loss of potential Motor Show ts a serious a

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rev~~~~· a building, either on th7 sit~h~~ ~Ts~~i~n~~~?t Hall~~tLJ::f~dlf!o::~t~~a~fse~d~rade exhibitiodn~, on a

cons . . feature that may well be include m our new stti~~s aThe Salford Cattle Market site has ~een

:::~n{g~~o~Jl1~r~~t~~ fu~~Jh:~it~~fe,b;h~;~~ ~f~eMa~:~ upon. . d l on the south stde o an-

of concentrahti~g un u Y ~offer the best possibilities, as f h C' Football Ground chester, Rus 0 me seems. ~s Ero~ed ~~e a~1~~ri'thlet~ceGr~%nd in Fallo~fiel~. ~nn ~~;~~ n~t unsuccessful venture was launched m thts

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BUILDINGS OF THE FUTURE

MANCHESTER MADE OPER neighbourhood before the war in a wooden building which was destroyed by fire. ' We have, moreover, never adequately replaced the old St. James's Hall on the site of the Calico Printers' Association Building in Oxford Street. If this class of ~uilding is to be left to m~nicipal enterprise, a suggestion has been made that a big annexe behind and masked

by Platt Hall-utilising the fine Georgian fa~ade and the rooms behind. it for administra.tive purposes-would make a co~vement an~ ;omparat1vely economical development, wtt~ ~l} amemttes safeguarded and at the point where access1b1hty from all quarters of the compass is assured.

The use of this exhibition hall opens up the possib!litics also of flower shows, horse shows, and large-scale d1spla.ys. From the latter the mind associates itself with athletics generally, and so to the lack of a civic Stadium to replace our present Athletic Ground in Fallowfield : Ma.nch~ster can well aspire: to a Wembley of the North, agam with .an eye to what i~ woul~ mean in gate-money and the ancillary benefits which the incursion of thousands of visitors w~uld bring to the trade of the neighbourhood. ~V:e!1 if th~ a~tual development, as in the case of the E~ibition B~ildmg (Olympia), were left to private enterprise, the gain to the community would be manifold. .(1. c~vic stadium, c?mpl7te with racing track and swu~mm.g pool, as provided m many continental cities, is no idealistic fantasy, but a real desideratum for the greater le~sure of w~ich we are already assured. . Our railway stations have been referred to in a previous chapter ; they are both municipal and regional landmarks, and should serve as the first line of welcome to ~isitors, whose early impression on arrival may colour their whole outlook on the district. A well-designed and pleasant railway terminus may mean much more to the community which it serves than a general amenity or an effective service. They represent the gateways of the City, where welcomes and farewells play a not unim-

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portant part in the lives of everybody, and where many idle moments are forced on most of us ; and much could be done to provide increased co?lfo~t and greater convenience. The art of Town-planning mclu~c:s such considerations in its survey, and Local Authorities can reasonably insist that the Railway shoul.d respond to the demands for a dignified and suitable station devcloe~ent.

If we turn now to the other (first) group of buildings for Manchester's domestic purposes, imagination may perhaps be allowed to roam more freely. Schools are dealt with on another page. Baths, Wash-house~, Branch Libraries will be extended and developed on Imes that are effective and well established. We may l~o~ forward to their being grouped into sub-centres. of dignity. yYe shall, let us hope, be planning local pubh~-ho~scs on Imes already initiated in Wy~henshawe (and i~spired by Carlisle) where non-alcoholic refreshi;i~nt will be at least as important as wines, beer, and sprnts. W.hY s.hould the name" Public-house " not literally describe its use as a building created for the public-a place. where a man can take his wife and children for rec~eation as wel.l as for refreshment ? Such things as music and a bowj,Jnggreen should not merely be the adjunct to the con;mmption of liquor. Swings and see-saw~ for the children, putting-greens and clock-go~f for the me~pert should be provided, and why not a. revival ~f th~ s~ttle alley?

And, taking further flights of imagmat1on, can we call up a vision of a metamorphosed Branch Post-o~~e as the centre where all that links. ~p the ratep:i~e.r~ interests with Government and municipal responsib1hties may be brought together ? The Post-office, even to-day, caters for many things other than the mere transference of letters telegrams and telephone calls. It is the banking centre' for many.' It handles lice?ces ~nd p~nsi~ns of various kinds. Already there are signs discernible m the dignified modern buildings which the ?~ce of W or~s is now putting up that the Post-?ffice s imp~rt~ce m everyday life is being realised. If m such a building t~e municipal contacts could also be arranged for, each dis-

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Ulli ~i:SITY OF t: 'liGHÂŁSTEn ~c::o~L o~ ;.-,.;Hlf(C!Urti: ~

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MANCHESTER MADE Of/ER

trict and each suburb would have its practical community centre, where such important facts as births, deaths, and marriages could be recorded, where the notification of illness and of accidents could be made, where rates and taxes, gas, electricity, and water could be paid for, where, more important still, advice could be sought and sympathetically given on an the doubts and difficulties which arise in the administration of these services.

The Post-office would become the people's office within and without, and would take on a new aspect symbolising friendliness and helpfulness instead of officialdom and frigidity.

Suitable accommodation should be made for the transaction of what is for many folk the most important and perhaps the most poignant business in their lives. Private rooms where qualified experts would give help to those who are suddenly brought face to face with family crises; tables and chairs for letter writing ; cubicles for the study in seclusion of documents that can for considered decisions would all be provided. Finally, could not these public offices, which would doubtless be /laced where the population was thickest, be schedule as permanent pollmg stations for the yearly municipal elections as well as the more spectacular but Jess frequent general election ? The establishment or development of such centres would surely foster the ~pirit of citizenship and re-animate the flagging practice of democracy.

CHAPTER XVI ADMINISTRATION MADE OVER

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Cleansing Committee, with its task of the removal of h01~seho1d refuse! the Watch Committee for the safety of life (not excluding that of the roads), be considered as a less important group of contributors. '!~e Education ~0;111mittee has the responsibility for trammg the future citizens to use rightly this City which we hope to re-plan for their better use and enjoyment.

It cannot be relegated to anything but the front rank ; for as all our .Plans centre round the family, and particularly the. f~1mly where the children are young, so must the provision of schools and their suitable location fit in to our general re..,planning scheme.

Electricity, with its faculty of reconciling the requirements of industry which use power (and so tend to create air pollution), with healthy living conditions (which demand as a first requirement clean air) will no doubt play an ever-growing part in Town-planning.

Markets, Baths and Wash-houses Libraries and Art Galleries constitute a group of Corn'mittees that should not l~cka personnel that will look to architectural amenity af!d ri~e to the opportunities that their respective buildings will give for central features in the general layout.

And over a11 these sectionalised activities hovers the Finance ~ommittee, wi~h its duty, as holder of the City's purse-stri.ngs, to sanct!on, bless, or even nullify the ~o!1~tructtve work which all other Committees may m1t1ate.

W~ ca~ only hope for a successful project of Townpl:inmn_g 1f we can count upon a local legislature that will .bnng. all these divergent activities into the right relation with each other, and with it goes the corollary that there must be willingness on the part of these groups of individuals to be so brought together. . It should be easi~r for the elected representative who sits on at least two different Committees and can therefore attack a problem from two different angles to adopt the r!ght attitude to Town-planning. The elected representative ?as, furth~r, ~he opportunity denied to the permanent official of reviewing, at the monthly Council Meeting)

ADMINISTRATION MADE Of/ER

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any question in the round. The tendency is, however, to sectionalise any piece of work ; and ~e ur~e to co-ordinate the work of the several Committees 1s not only absent, but any effort in this .dir~~tion _is ~ften strongly resented. The i~t~rest of t~e. mdi~dU:al. m. his, or her, particular part of muni.cipal administration ~s m mverse ratio to his or her toleration of any check which another considerati~n of r:iunicipal administration I?ay impose, with the exception perhaps of that exercised by the Finance Committee.

Beyond the Chairman a~d Deputy C:hairman. ?f the various Committees, there 1s no recognised position ~ leader of the elected representatives as a whole ; and m Manchester the appointed heads of the political groups hardly act as official leaders in Council pro:eeding~, . nor is their r6/e as protectors of the ~rouP. (i.e.,. poltt1:al) interests conducive to the very wide viewpoint which Town-planning considerations deman~, so that the personality of the individual member 1s a factor that counts, and if opportunities are n~t afforded to su~h representatives for seeing problem~ impersonally and m their full significance, it must ?bv1ously result m fa~lty deductions and consequent mistakes .. Town~plannmg, which consists of a thousand and one points, all important in themselves and all important in their relation to each other can be affected adversely not only by a wrong outlo~k, but by a shortsigh~ed outlook. .

Nor can it be assumed with safety that a readjustment of the above handicap to the elective reeresentation ~an be made good from the administrative side. The. fa1rl.Y large staff. employe~ exclus~vel~ on To~n-plann~ng is itself handicapped m two directions. It is a section of the Town Hall workers which is on no higher level than any other deeartment, and, being a comparatively new feature of civic administration, it may not have even 0e status of equality with, say, the other rate-spend~ng departments of the Town Hall. Yet the Town-planning Department may often be in a position to perceive ~at the constructive project of one department may stultify

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in the long run an equally constructive action of another department. An additional handicap to the Townpl.anning staff is the absence of a single director. The City .Surveyor, the City Engineer, as well as the City Archt!ect! are all three in close to"!ch with Town-planning or~amsation, but although the City Surveyor can in fact datm the official leadership, there is no administrative head who can give undivided attention to the re-planning of the City.

It is at this point that the lack of a City Manager would seem to be apparent. Alternatively the engagement of a permanent Town-planning expert seems to ~e called for, and exper~ence might prove that the two titles covered the same kind of duty and were suited to a similar type of personality.

But we come up against a further obstacle. Not only does right planning need someone to weld the work of the Local Authority into one harmonious whole, a difficult proposition in itself, but to it must be added the cap.ability of securing outside interests, and of studying their needs and reconciling their conflicting require?lents. The railways have been cited, and so has industry ; the local federations of the staple industries, both of employers and employed ; the distributive groups of wholesale and large-scale retail ; the caterers for public entertainment, hotels, theatres and cinemas.

This limits the choice of controller to someone who has lived long in the City or the neighbourhood or to one who has the gift of being able to gather ~ll the necessary threads and to harness the agencies that will make good for the lack of personal acquaintance with local conditions.

Again we are face to face with the human factor. . A beginning may be made to induce a general realisation of the. value and us~ of co-ordination among those concerned m the re-plannmg--elected representative and permanent official-by assembling in a room, sufficiently central and sufficiently sracious, the maps which accompany alJ departmenta schemes. Together with

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these there should be a comprehensive map of the whole City on a scale as large as can be accommodated. On this map the various schemes, as they affect each other, or stand in relation to the whole City, could be clearly seen and their effect judged. If the constant use of this maproom were insisted upon, it would in itself stress the significance of individual co-operation.

The map-room ;would arouse interest in othe~ di~ec­ tions, such as the different departments of the University.

Both in the Architectural Departmenf, where the study of Town-planning is stressed, and in the Depai:,tments of Geography and Economics, where local surveys are undertaken, similar objectives are pursued and similar interests are evoked. Some of these might prove invaluable to planning for the future. ~. map-room, available not only to the Town Hall Author1t1es, but also when required for students, research workers, and anyone interested in City affairs, would be a focal point for combined effort and a means of creating livelier interest both in the public and the Press. This or that development would emerge more clearly if it were illustrated m such a manner. â&#x20AC;˘ The future of Manchester cannot be foreseen, and what is now planned there and elsewhere can only be worked out in the light of experience coupled with a wider vision.

This wider vision can only be gained by the realisation that mistakes in the past were largely the result of individual or sectionalised action and a too narrow conception. The map-room would show at once how any proposal, whether by private enterprise or by departments of the Local Authority, affected the general trend of orderly development.

The architectural illustration of projects is almost always misleading, not from any deliberate wish on the part of the draughtsman to deceive, but from the fact that the viewpoint which is forced upon him by circumstances is not one that the ordinary eye would take up, i.e., an aerial from above, a bird's-eye view from a hi~h­ storied window will distort the effect of what a building

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will be like after it has been put up and when it is viewed from the street level, which is the view-point that alone affects everybody. Allowance cannot b~ made on illustrations for the narrow frontage which a street affords, so that a spaciousness is depicted which is misleading.

As it is essential to carry public opinion along any lines of development that are drastic as well as costly, and as so many persons are unable to read plans, we shall more and more have to rely upon models to replace or supplement the illustrations in the map-room. Such models have, time after time, proved to be the best aids to get the individual to realise what is projected and to approve the scheme : again we touch upon the human element.

By the fa~ade of every building in our City we can read some of the intentions, the desires, and even the disappointment, of the person primarily responsible for its erection. It is by no means to be assumed that only the architect is responsible, nor is it the owner, even though he foots .the bill. The arch!tect wi~l to some degree modify his standards and will certainly ad~pt himself to the wishes of the owner. The owner will, according to his measure of knowledge, either bow to the greater experience .of the arc~i~ect, or imp?se his ?Wn modifications. Theu¡ personalities and their reactions must be reflected in the resultant edifice.

A useful illustration of this sort of thing is furnished by a warehouse development, which took elace duri!lg, or immediately after, the war.

A plain Georgi~n frontage to a warehouse extended along one of our mam thoroughfares and occupied a corner site and two-thirds of a block of property ; the expansion of trade during the war created the need for extended premises, and the remaining portion of the block was purchased. The first development that the passer-by saw was a new monumental doorway, in the centre of the whole block ; and on the upper floors of this severely simple brick frontage a stone pediment, or an arrangement allied to such (because

the alteration included the windows of the uppermost storey as well as b~eaking th: parapet) was added, obviously in order to give emphasis to the whole block. The old doors, which had at one time been the entrances to more than one warehouse, were closed, and there was clear evidence that some one was planning an important fa~ade which should bring the well-known features of the past into complete unity, based upon the. block as a whole. But when the re-constructed new wmg emerged from its hoardings and its steel framework proceeded to be clothed instead of disclosing the complementary balance antl simple brick work~ an entirely differe.nt conception in stone emerged, ~hich, nc;>t even particularly good in itself. not only entirely spoilt the effect of the new doorway ~nd the upper pediment, but destroyed the unity of a single building covering one block and bm.~nde.d by three not unimp?rt~nt streets. The newe.r portion ts obviously complete m itself, and equally o~viously more costly than if it had been in harmony with the other unornamented but well-proportioned flank.

The whole gamut of human reactions s~em.s aeJ>a~ent in this illustration ; frustrated hopes, ~a~illatmg pohcy, quarrels, or at least differences of .opmion, m~st h~ve governed this process of " swapping horses m midstream.'' . . . . . .

But there is a deeper significance m this lastmg 111 ustration of confused planning. Someone at the top can have had no real feeling or training for eye-values, an~ unfortunately there are ~o. many at the top. who lac~ this perception. If the trammg o~ the. ~ye m our higher educational system or at .our U mversit1e.s was encm~raged as is the study of music, drama, or literature ; if our well-educated citizens were as conscious of standards of good taste in the things that they see as they are of the standards of other mental attributes, we should not have had this or other expensive monuments of bad taste or lack of taste.

How different Manchester might have been had the leaders of industry, the elected representatives, and the 11.11.0.

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chief officials of the municipality in the past, one and all, in addition to their other qualifications as economic, legal or scientific specialists, had that of taste trained to eyevalues l How much simpler would the problem be of making the town pleasanter if the practical organiser could have taken the ~thetic considerations, which are inseparable from any development, in his stride, instead of calling in the hundred per cent. artist, too often interested solely in iesthetics, and unpractical in other directions 1 For the beauty and harmony which a well-conserved countryside and a well-planned village, town or city must possess is more a matter of clear thinking, wide outlook, and proportion than of insistence on what is ornamental and picturesque ; and it depends upon individuals linked together by a common aim and united in a common effort, to encompass all that is required in a City of the future that shall meet the demands of its human elements in every direction.

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