A city of trees, green spaces and fresh air

Post-war plans aimed to bulldoze much of the city centre to be rebuilt with European-style boulevards with new zoned areas

- By DAMON WILKINSON

TREE-LINED boulevards, vast railways stations, acres of green space and fresh air.

That was the post-war vision of the Manchester city centre of the future. But there was one minor obstacle - it involved tearing down almost everything and starting again from scratch.

Under the remarkable proposals published in 1945 only around 20 buildings would be spared the wrecking ball. They included Kendals, the cathedral, Central Library and Sunlight House. Not even the town hall would be safe from demolition.

The idea was to free Manchester from its 'perpetual smoke pall' and build a city where 'every inhabitant [could] enjoy real health of body and health of mind.' And it was one of - if not the - most ambitious plan for the redevelopment of a city centre in British history.

"Even while the war was going on a lot of cities were thinking 'After all this is over, what are cities going to look like?'" says Ollie Thompson, who runs the Bee Here Now YouTube channel about Manchester history. "And a lot of planners were idealistic enough to say we can probably improve lives for people while we are doing this.

"It's an idealistic version of Manchester and it's great, but it's almost fantasy land."

Written by city surveyor Rowland Nicholas, the 300-page plan was a wildly ambitious reinterpretation of what the city of the future could be.