{"title":"Reconstruction","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"plymouth-retrofuturistic-redevelopment-plan-abercrombie-watson-1944-old-map-p-7-028567","title":"Plymouth retrofuturistic redevelopment plan—Abercrombie \u0026 Watson 1944 old map","description":"\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e'City of Plymouth—New City Centre'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe centrepiece of Abercrombie and Paton Watson's Plan for Plymouth, this vivid map imagines a city of the future rising from the ruins of the 1941 Blitz. A grand garden axis runs from North Road station to the Hoe, crossed by broad shopping avenues, with civic and theatre, shopping and government office groups arranged around formal gardens and circular places. With its sweeping symmetry, roundabouts and parkland boulevards, the design has an unmistakably retro-futurist look: a 1940s vision of the city of tomorrow. It was one of the most radical of Britain's wartime reconstruction plans, and much of it was built: the grid of Royal Parade and Armada Way still defines central Plymouth, although the architecture changed and the old Guildhall survived. From the second edition of the plan, it is one of the most striking and decorative images of Britain's wartime vision of rebuilding.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54371667640667,"sku":"P-7-028567","price":120.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0923\/9583\/1643\/files\/P-7-028567a.jpg?v=1792089770"},{"product_id":"plymouth-blitz-bomb-damage-reconstruction-sites-map-abercrombie-watson-1944-p-7-028569","title":"Plymouth Blitz bomb damage \u0026 reconstruction sites map—Abercrombie \u0026 Watson 1944","description":"\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e'Derelict Areas'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePlymouth's Blitz damage is mapped in stark red on this arresting 1943 survey of the city's 'derelict areas'. Red picks out the property destroyed or damaged in the bombing raids of 1941, concentrated in the shattered city centre and in Devonport, while blue marks older property the planners judged obsolete and ripe for replacement. The printed key groups both colours together as property sites available for reconstruction; the distinction between them comes from the report's accompanying discussion of war-damaged and obsolete areas, which refers directly to this map, and is borne out by the matching colours of its Proposed Central Layout. Together they show how much of the old centre, Devonport and Stonehouse was to be cleared and rebuilt. Government property is hatched and open spaces are stippled, framed by the Sound and the Hamoaze, under bold capital lettering. From A Plan for Plymouth by Patrick Abercrombie and James Paton Watson, it is one of the most powerful images of how wartime destruction became an opportunity to rebuild a whole city.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54371668263259,"sku":"P-7-028569","price":59.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0923\/9583\/1643\/files\/P-7-028569a.jpg?v=1792089773"},{"product_id":"plymouth-shopping-precinct-from-guildhall-tower-reconstruction-plan-harvey-1944-p-7-028575","title":"Plymouth Shopping Precinct from Guildhall Tower—reconstruction plan—Harvey 1944","description":"\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e'The Shopping Precinct looking north from the existing Guildhall Tower'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFlags fly, fountains play and shoppers stroll in J. D. M. Harvey's sunny vision of Plymouth's new shopping precinct, seen from the Guildhall tower looking north up the great axis towards North Road station. Long, flag-topped stores line the planned avenues around a garden roundabout, capturing all the optimism of the wartime Plan for Plymouth. The axis was built as Armada Way, with Royal Parade crossing it, and the rebuilt centre is admired today as a coherent post-war townscape, although its buildings turned out plainer than Harvey's. Armada Way's recent redesign has renewed public debate about this central space. A colourful, decorative perspective, drawn in 1943 and printed in the second edition of the plan.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54371669901659,"sku":"P-7-028575","price":23.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0923\/9583\/1643\/files\/P-7-028575a.jpg?v=1792089783"},{"product_id":"plymouth-traffic-centre-north-road-cobourg-st-reconstruction-plan-harvey-1944-p-7-028576","title":"Plymouth Traffic Centre—North Road \u0026 Cobourg St—reconstruction plan—Harvey 1944","description":"\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e'The Traffic Centre at North Road and Coburg Street'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePalm trees, gardens and a stately new station hotel turn a traffic junction into a grand civic gateway in J. D. M. Harvey's bird's-eye view of the proposed traffic centre at North Road and Cobourg Street, Plymouth. Buses and cars circle a landscaped square below flag-topped towers, with North Road, Sherwell and the Cobourg Street Schools labelled beyond and the inner ring road running out of the foreground. Reality was very different: the station was rebuilt with an office block in 1962, and the North Cross roundabout of the early 1970s cut it off from the city centre. A colourful and appealing perspective from A Plan for Plymouth, showing the gateway the city never got.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54371670229339,"sku":"P-7-028576","price":23.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0923\/9583\/1643\/files\/P-7-028576a.jpg?v=1792089788"},{"product_id":"stonehouse-plymouth-before-after-reconstruction-plan-abercrombie-watson-1944-map-p-7-028577","title":"Stonehouse—Plymouth—before\/after reconstruction plan—Abercrombie\/Watson 1944 map","description":"\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003eStonehouse reconstruction scheme [existing and proposed layouts; two sheets]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eStonehouse, the historic district between Plymouth and Devonport, is shown before and after the planners' intervention on this pair of plans from A Plan for Plymouth. The first, printed in black with red titling, records the crowded existing streets around Stonehouse Lake and Union Street; the second, in soft colour, replaces them with curving terraces, flats, schools, industry and open space, complete with a social-units inset and tables of proposed dwellings. Only part of the scheme was carried out: Stonehouse kept its mix of homes and industry, and the Palace Theatre survived. The pair therefore makes a revealing comparison with the district today. Two separate sheets, originally a single page, each about 30 × 24 cm.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54371670393179,"sku":"P-7-028577","price":41.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0923\/9583\/1643\/files\/P-7-028577a.jpg?v=1792089789"},{"product_id":"plymouth-bomb-damage-proposed-central-layout-abercrombie-watson-1944-map-p-7-028578","title":"Plymouth bomb damage \u0026 proposed central layout—Abercrombie \u0026 Watson 1944 map","description":"\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e'Proposed central layout—Showing properties existing 1943'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe planners' new city centre is drawn in bold red over the old street plan of Plymouth in this dramatic map, so that you can see exactly which streets the reconstruction would sweep away. Orange marks the property destroyed or damaged in the Blitz of 1941, and a lighter mid-grey the older property judged obsolete; the printed key groups the two together as sites available for reconstruction, and the distinction follows the report's discussion of war-damaged and obsolete areas and the matching red and blue of its companion Derelict Areas map. Darker greys show the buildings still standing in 1943, and the palest tone sites already cleared. Across them run the new axis of Armada Way, Royal Parade and the ring roads, in formal geometric lines that ignore the medieval pattern beneath. It is the clearest single image of the scale of Plymouth's post-war rebuilding, and one of the most striking maps in Abercrombie and Paton Watson's Plan for Plymouth.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54371670425947,"sku":"P-7-028578","price":45.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0923\/9583\/1643\/files\/P-7-028578a.jpg?v=1792089789"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.antiquemapsandprints.com\/collections\/reconstruction.oembed","provider":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}