{"product_id":"outline-plan-for-merseyside-liverpool-wirral-longstreth-thompson-1945-map-p-7-028559","title":"Outline Plan for Merseyside—Liverpool \u0026 Wirral—Longstreth Thompson 1945 map","description":"\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e'Outline plan for Merseyside—Summary of proposed plan'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePost-war Merseyside is replanned in bold colour on this large wall-sized map, F. Longstreth Thompson's summary of the Merseyside Plan for the whole conurbation from Southport to Ellesmere Port. Orange urban zones and purple industrial zones stand out against pale green farmland and deeper green open space, with hatched reserve areas for future growth and proposed new arterial roads. Liverpool, Birkenhead, Bootle, Wallasey, St Helens, Widnes and Runcorn are drawn into a single regional framework inside a heavy purple boundary. Dated 1944 and published by HMSO in 1945 at one inch to the mile, it makes a fascinating comparison with the overspill estates and new towns, such as Kirkby and Runcorn, that later transformed the region. The proposed arterial roads, drawn as barred double lines, are especially revealing, because many of them anticipate the motorway age. A new outer ring road swinging round the east of Liverpool from Huyton, past Knowsley and Kirkby, to Aintree closely follows the course later taken by the M57, opened in 1972–74 as Liverpool's outer ring road and ending at Switch Island. A new route east from Prescot through Rainhill Stoops towards Warrington broadly foreshadows the line of the M62, completed in the 1970s, and a new road crossing the Mersey at Runcorn Gap prefigures the Runcorn–Widnes Bridge, opened in 1961 and renamed the Silver Jubilee Bridge in 1977. South of the river, a new road east from Ellesmere Port along the Mersey shore past Stanlow towards Frodsham anticipates the M56, whose sections here opened in 1971 and 1981, while a new road south from Hooton towards Chester foreshadows the southern end of the M53, completed in 1982. Not everything happened: the planned bypass of Ormskirk resurfaced in later road plans, first as the A59(M) and then within the proposed M59 Liverpool–Preston motorway, but it was never built.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54371661054299,"sku":"P-7-028559","price":90.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0923\/9583\/1643\/files\/P-7-028559a.jpg?v=1792089741","url":"https:\/\/www.antiquemapsandprints.com\/fr\/products\/outline-plan-for-merseyside-liverpool-wirral-longstreth-thompson-1945-map-p-7-028559","provider":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}