Brook, R., 2019.

The Mancunian Way: techno-cultures of the post war

The Mancunian Way is Manchester's 'highway-in-the-sky' and was designed by Maunsell & Partners with input from the City Architect's Department. It was conceived as a means to link manufacturing in the east of the city to the docks in the west at a time when production and trade were already in decline. As such, upon its opening, it was something of a white elephant, but was strongly tied to the political White Heat of the era. Flanked by the new National Computing Centre, expanding technological education institutes and the northern headquarters of the BBC, the aerial motorway was rapidly invested with its own cultural significance in the city. In this talk, using archival materials I will present the scheme as having its genesis in the ambitious post-war plans of the city engineer and surveyor, Rowland Nicholas, its design and delivery informed by the work of multiple consultants, committees and working parties and its useful life as bound into the mobility of the region.