Talk - Beyond the Nobler and Fairer City

In 1945, with much fanfare, Hull Corporation unveiled Abercrombie and Lutyen’s plan to create a ‘fairer and nobler city’. Replete with artistically rendered images of the proposed city, the Plan has attracted much debate and, sometimes, opprobrium. Yet the fact remains that relatively little of the more eye-catching development was ever realised. This talk examines what did get built and why, in the thirty or so years that followed the war. It examines the areas of the Plan that enjoyed relative success and asks why they did. In doing so it traces a line from the interwar period into the 1970s, through the building of some of Europe’s largest social housing projects to the burgeoning development of the old town as a conservation asset, via arguments over shopping centres, investment areas and transport links. It’s a story about how we have ended up with the city we have today, both by design and by good fortune, but it’s also, I argue, the story of a city coming to recognise its own value and identity against the processes of economic and urban change.
Endplate from Abercrombie and Lutyens ‘A Plan for Kingston Upon Hull, 1945, permission of Hull History Centre.

Timings & Tours

Tuesday 16 September:

1.30

Location & directions

15 Whitefriargate, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, HU1 2ER

Booking information

Pre-booking requirement:

Pre-booking not required

Accessibility details

There is no wheelchair access to the first floor lecture room

Additional information

Est. tour duration:

1 hour(s)

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