Main entry:

Grindrod, John, author.

Title & Author:

Concretopia : a journey around the rebuilding of postwar Britain / John Grindrod.

Publication:

Brecon : Old Street, 2013.

Description:

439 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction : 'Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made' -- Part I : So Different, So Appealing -- 1.`A Holiday Camp All Year Round': The Temporary Building Programme and Prefabs (1944--51) -- 2.`A Decent Start in Life': Garden Cities and the First New Towns (1946--51) -- 3.`A Real Effort to be Jolly': The Festival of Britain on London's South Bank (1951) -- 4.`An Architect's Dream!': Rebuilding Blitzed Plymouth and Coventry (1940--62) -- 5.`A Touch of Genius': Herts, Minds and Brutalism (1949--54) -- Part 2 : Shake It Up Baby Now -- 1.`A Flying Saucer Taking You to Mars': Glasgow, King of Comprehensive Development (1957--65) -- 2.`A New Dimension Added to the Street': Sheffield's Streets in the Sky (1957--61) -- 3.`A Wild and Romantic Place': Arndales and Urban Motorways (1959--65) -- 4.`A Natural Evolution of Living Conditions': Newcastle Gets the System Building Bug (1959--69) -- 5.`A Contemporary Canaletto': How Office Blocks Transformed our Skyline (1956--75) -- 6.`A Village With Your Children in Mind': Span and the Hippy Dreams of New Ash Green (1957--72) -- 7.`A Veritable Jewel in the Navel of Scotland': Cumbernauld's Curious Megastructure (1955--72) -- Part 3 : No Future -- 1.`A Pack of Cards': Tower Block Highs and Lows (1968--74) -- 2.`A Terrible Confession of Defeat': Protests and Preservation (1969--79) -- 3.`As Corrupt a City as You'll Find': Uncovering the Lies at the Heart of the Boom (1969--77) -- 4.`A Little Bit of Exclusivity': Milton Keynes, the Last New Town (1967--79) -- 5.`A City within a City': The Late Flowering of the Barbican and the National Theatre (1957--81) -- Epilogue : 'The Dream has Gone but the Baby is Real'.

Summary:

Was Britain's postwar rebuilding the height of midcentury chic or the concrete embodiment of Crap Towns? John Grindrod decided to find out how blitzed, slum-ridden and crumbling 'austerity Britain' became, in a few short years, a space-age world of concrete, steel and glass. On his journey he visits the sleepy Norfolk birthplace of Brutalism, the once-Blitzed city centre of Plymouth, the futuristic New Town of Cumbernauld, Sheffield's innovative streets in the sky, the foundations of the BT tower, and the brave 1950s experiments in the Gorbals. Along the way he meets New Town pioneers, tower block builders, Barbican architects, old retainers of Coventry Cathedral, proud prefab dwellers and sixties town planners: people who lived through a time of phenomenal change and excitement. What he finds is a story of dazzling space-age optimism, ingenuity and helipads -- so many helipads -- tempered by protests, deadly collapses and scandals that shook the government. Concretopia is an accessible and eye-opening history of an aspect of Britain often ignored, insulted and misunderstood. It will change the way you look at Arndale Centres, tower blocks and concrete forever.

ISBN:

9781906964900 (hbk.)
1906964904 (hbk.)

Subject:

Brutalism (Architecture) Great Britain.
Architecture Great Britain History 20th century.
Architecture and society Great Britain History 20th century.
New towns Great Britain History 20th century.
World War, 1939-1945 Great Britain Influence.
Brutalisme (Architecture) Grande-Bretagne.
Architecture Grande-Bretagne Histoire 20e siècle.
Architecture et société Grande-Bretagne Histoire 20e siècle.
Villes nouvelles Grande-Bretagne Histoire 20e siècle.
Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945 Grande-Bretagne Influence.
Architecture and Planning.
Architecture.
Architecture and society.
Brutalism (Architecture)
Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
New towns.
Architektur
Gesellschaft
Wiederaufbau
Städtebau
Betonbau
Great Britain History Elizabeth II, 1952-2022.
Grande-Bretagne Histoire 1952-2022 (Élisabeth II)
Great Britain.
Großbritannien

Form/genre:

History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 287210
Call No.: BIB 228104
Status: Available