Killing London with the Future: City Planning with the Bressey Report, 1937

JF Ptak Science Books   Post 920

Sir Charles Bressey
didn’t really try to “kill” London, of course, though parts of his Greater London plan for redirecting and accommodating increasing vehicular traffic certainly would’ve destroyed some great beauty had some of his suggestions been implemented.

I have no doubt that Sir Charles was on the right path to something, here and there, but all I have access to regarding his work appears as an article in The Illustrated London News (28 May 1938), and much of it looks like a absurdo-horror/sci-fi setting for a film by Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton.  I can hear the noise of this city, and it ain’t pretty:  a road through Hyde Park, floating pontoon car parks in the Thames, , elevated highways sitting on top of apartment buildings, removing Piccadilly “Circus”, removing the “park” part of Hyde Park, and so on.

(Very slightly related is this post from 2008 featuring a self-defence plan that would semi-encapsulate London (1938))

And so I’ll pass along these images of “traffic improvements” without too much comment, letting them speak for themselves.

Trafalgar Square as a triple-decker parking deck. (What can one say?)

Hyde Park, with a semi-submerged road cutting through the heart of the place.

 

 

 

Comments

[Mhaynes87]

Well, I think the Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus and Hyde Park Corner schemes are all improvements on how they are now! The ROOF GARAGE building is sheer insanity, and I wonder if it wouldn't be a guilty pleasure of mine had it actually been built...

Just discovered this blog via Fantastic Journal; looks like a great find.