Unbuilt Britain.

[The Egg Man]

A Revolution in the City

Monday 26th August 2013 21.00 on BBC Four.

Using her skills to uncover long-forgotten and abandoned plans, architectural investigator Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner explores the fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs that were never built.

Destruction, whether intentional or circumstantial, often creates a clean slate and demands a fresh outlook in which we come to think the unthinkable. This programme looks at bold, and in some cases shocking, plans to make revolutionary changes to Britain's biggest cities.

..........Glasgow was the second city of the empire and the industrial powerhouse of the nation, but was struggling to cope with overcrowding and slum housing. Many believed the only solution was to start again. The city's leading planner, Robert Bruce, proposed demolishing the entire city centre - the celebrated buildings of Mackintosh and Greek Thompson would all have been bulldozed - to create a 1940s vision of the future. The new Glasgow would have been built as a system of regular tower blocks, ringed by a motorway, built in districts according to function. Bruce's justification for these drastic proposals was the creation of a new 'healthy and beautiful city'. Although his plan was not realised in its entirety, many of his ideas were carried out, and the M8 motorway which cuts right through the city centre is probably the most visible legacy of the 'Bruce Report'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0394j6q

[sandabound]

Should be good, i'm on BBC 4 just now watching Whicker's so sky planner set

[Sharon]

I saw a bit of an episode last night looking at the proposals to create a mid-scotland shipping canal from across the centre of Scotland. Things would have looked quite different.

Worthy of a watch > http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038rj1b


General plan showing branch canal by University of Glasgow Library, on Flickr

Full set of pics > http://www.flickr.com/photos/uofglibrar ... 044163548/

[The Egg Man]

A Revolution in the City

Monday 26th August 2013 21.00 on BBC Four.

Using her skills to uncover long-forgotten and abandoned plans, architectural investigator Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner explores the fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs that were never built.

Destruction, whether intentional or circumstantial, often creates a clean slate and demands a fresh outlook in which we come to think the unthinkable. This programme looks at bold, and in some cases shocking, plans to make revolutionary changes to Britain's biggest cities.

..........Glasgow was the second city of the empire and the industrial powerhouse of the nation, but was struggling to cope with overcrowding and slum housing. Many believed the only solution was to start again. The city's leading planner, Robert Bruce, proposed demolishing the entire city centre - the celebrated buildings of Mackintosh and Greek Thompson would all have been bulldozed - to create a 1940s vision of the future. The new Glasgow would have been built as a system of regular tower blocks, ringed by a motorway, built in districts according to function. Bruce's justification for these drastic proposals was the creation of a new 'healthy and beautiful city'. Although his plan was not realised in its entirety, many of his ideas were carried out, and the M8 motorway which cuts right through the city centre is probably the most visible legacy of the 'Bruce Report'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0394j6q

This was rather good. Hard to imagine how Glasgow would have looked had Bruce's plan been accepted.

[RapidAssistant]

It was interesting from the point of view that it talked about the proposed changes to the city centre, and how the Bruce proposals contrasted with the Abercrombie ones, but for me the narrative was that all of the Bruce Report was rejected - it wasn't - as we all know, the slum clearance proposals, and the roads proposals were implemented almost in their entirety, yet this wasn't mentioned.

[old jock]

Easy in retrospect to pan him but his ideas were based on trying to keep the city one of the major players I guess, in a post war Brave New World where nothing was too big to be not worthy of consideration.

Its not too often I find myself thanking the posh boys and the establishment, but thank the lord for Abercrombie. I think Escher may also have played a part in swaying the plans away from the Bruce proposal.

Glasgow certainly dodged a bullet there.

Dammed fine program by the by

John

[The Egg Man]

Unbuilt Britain BBC4 Now. Sunday 27th Oct 2013. 20.00