好色先生TV

1920

Some things never change. The middle class is always rising, the Middle East is always, as now, in crisis and prefab is always on the verge of a breakthrough. Other things move in cycles: stories about Birmingham鈥檚 rise/decline occur every 11 years, possibly as a result of sunspot activity; we鈥檝e just been through a fine example.

And some things are genuinely new, and it鈥檚 extraordinarily difficult to predict them before they鈥檝e happened, or even to notice them when they鈥檙e happening (consider the internet). So one edition of the magazine from 1920 鈥� something of a golden age 鈥� deserves a manly handshake and a hearty good show for this attempt to predict the future of Urban Design.

The problem was clear: 鈥淚n pre-war days it was the Englishman鈥檚 boast that his capital was the largest city in the world, and one can imagine that much the same pride might have animated the great reptiles of the Mesozoic period, ignorant that they had increased in bulk beyond the limits of their environment and were doomed.鈥�

Somehow these 鈥済reat undesigned aggregations鈥� had to be reconciled with 鈥渢he natural forms of human life鈥�. In the magazine鈥檚 solution, many of the important developments of the coming century drift hazily into view. One is the transformation of city centres into inner cities.

鈥淭he better classes are to an increasing extent migrating to the suburbs, leaving a central class composed of the poorest and least intelligent among the community.鈥�

Reflecting, no doubt, the influence of William Morris, DH Lawrence and the romantic literature of the time, the writer was convinced that access to agricultural land was essential to the health of the soul. And the poor thickos in the 鈥渃entral class鈥� would be 鈥渉emmed in by a broad belt of occupied territory, making it well-nigh impossible to get into the open country without a journey that is out of reach both as to time and expense鈥�.

But where we immediately think of drug-related shootings, the writer horrified his readers with a younger generation that 鈥渙btains its recreation by looking at professional football matches and the like鈥�, a process that was bound to be 鈥渞uinous to our manhood鈥�.

One answer to this grim spectre was to 鈥済roup small towns around the big city in such a way that while the workers can live and work in the town they can send their most promising children into the central town for hire or university education, or go there themselves for cultural life and relaxation鈥�. A description that could be taken as foreshadowing the new towns movement.

The clear advantage of this plan was that every citizen would be given the possibility of 鈥渋ntimate contact with nature and the soil鈥�. Quite what this entailed may best be left to the reader鈥檚 imagination.

The new towns would be separated from the city by 鈥渁n agricultural belt鈥� (read: green belt) and connected to it using 鈥渨ide carriageways as free from cross traffic as railway lines, aside from subsidiary roads that would join at very infrequent intervals鈥� (read: motorways).

Where it was less on the money was the idea that these 鈥済reat roads would also embody side strips of parkway along the fringes of which would stand valuable sites for building鈥�. Not too much call these days for housing with a good view of the M2. But before you smile, dear reader, how about making a similar set of predictions for the next 80 years?