The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction in 1940s Britain

Abstract

German air-raids during the early days of the Second World War destroyed a number of cities in Britain. At the same time, some contemporaries regarded such destruction as an opportunity not only for the reconstruction of the built environment but also for the creation of a fairer society. The replanning of the blitzed areas became a symbol of the aspiration to build a New Jerusalem. This article examines the fate of radical town planning ideas in the 1940s and the early 1950s with particular reference to the rebuilding of heavily bombed cities. It analyses the visions which inspired reconstruction plans, examines their conception and studies the visionaries, both ordinary citizens and the political elite. The process of postwar reconstruction in general has become a much-debated subject in political, economic and social history in recent years, but there has been a serious lack of detailed examination of postwar urban replanning and redevelopment. This article, therefore, also considers how the rebuilding of war-damaged cities should be evaluated in the light of the contemporary political, economic, and social realities and issues during the period of postwar reconstruction.