Devastating bomb damage caused to the centre of Coventry during the Second World War famously provided an opportunity for post-war architects and town planners.

The task was to redesign the city; in their eyes, to produce a modern, ambitious urban centre to express the optimism of a country emerging from a dark, bleak period in its history. The construction of the new Coventry Cathedral was the epitome of the ideas which, conceived pre-war, were able to flourish in the 1950s and 1960s.

Also experiencing a resurgence in town planning after suffering heavy bombing was Plymouth. With 4,000 homes destroyed and 18,000 damaged, the potential to create a new centre which brought the city into an era of modernity was clear.

Sir Patrick Abercrombie, influential architect and one of the county’s foremost town planners, alongside Plymouth’s city architect, James Paton Watson, had already produced a ‘Plan for Plymouth’ in 1943 and they envisaged using 114 bombed acres including the area of the Hoe on the coast. They sought to make a grand statement and memorial using white limestone and concrete to dazzle in the sunshine.

Plymouth, unlike Coventry, was built to an entirely new plan to result in a totally post-war city centre. Grade II listed in 2007, the Council House and former Civic Centre, built between 1958 and 1962, exemplify this new approach to Plymouth’s town planning and building design.

What this approach required, however, was the removal of the remaining Victorian terraced housing; an example of slum clearances seen in the pre-war era elsewhere.

It was not just Britain that faced the dilemma of what to do with its damaged historic buildings and city centres. Many German cities had suffered terribly from bombing, especially in the later years of the war, including Dresden, Cologne, Stuttgart and Bremen.

The ancient city of Münster suffered damage and loss to 90 per cent of its historic centre. Unlike in Coventry and Plymouth, however, it was decided in the 1950s to repair and rebuild to match the original design and to retain the medieval town plan of the city centre.

The planning and architectural philosophy of the period was clearly interpreted differently, some pushing for rebuilding and others for introducing a new and fresh approach to a damaged urban landscape.

Coventry and Plymouth, as in many other regional cities which suffered from German bombing, provided the opportunity for re-using existing urban centres to rebuild and recreate a new and forward-looking townscape. They would meld the historic with the new, being cities with contrasting architecture merging with an existing or a new layout. The level of success is still open to debate.

Further information

Rebuilding Britain: how the end of WW2 marked the beginning of modern town planning

Rebuilding Britain: where old met new

Contact Savills Heritage Planning