Manchester’s Radical Post War Plan Nearly Leveled the City Center

Imagine Manchester after the war. They envisioned big, green spaces and wide roads. The idea was to make a modern city, but it meant tearing down almost everything. A 1945 plan suggested keeping only about 20 buildings.

Kendals, the cathedral, and Central Library would stay, but even the town hall wasn’t safe. The goal was a healthy city, free from smoke, aspiring to be Britain’s most ambitious city plan. Planners wanted better lives for everyone after the war.

One expert calls it a “fantasy land.” A city surveyor named Rowland Nicholas wrote the detailed plan, imagining a totally new Manchester. War damage made a fresh start seem possible. Nicholas said Manchester could be transformed; otherwise, it would remain ugly and congested.

Planners dreamed of boulevards and zones for different things like work or homes. Old mills and factories had to go for this vision. The rivers and canals would be covered, and Piccadilly Station would become huge. Also, Trinity Station was planned near Salford Central.

Piccadilly Gardens would be an entertainment hub with cinemas, theaters, and even boxing. Green space would surround the cathedral and Chethams. A grand “processional way” was central to the plans, running from the town hall to new law courts.

Cars were a big consideration. They planned highways and lots of parking spaces, with most of the work due by 1975. Nicholas thought predicting costs was pointless.

He envisioned a bright future, not decline. The plan had utopian elements. Some parts happened, examples including Mancunian Way and slum clearances. The complete demolition never occurred.

One expert thinks this was for the best. He called the plan paternalistic and from the top down, noting that Manchester’s chaotic nature comes from its history. People love places they connect with. Wiping the city away detaches it from its people. He worries the city’s energy would disappear, and a city feels like a museum with such a plan.