Architecture for the People? Film Screening
Join us for a film screening and discussion exploring Manchester’s urban history and development from the 1940s to today.
Organised in collaboration with The Modernist and the current exhibition at Central Library, Architecture for the people: the works of Manchester City Architect’s Department (1902-2003), this Manchester Urban Film Series screening and discussion will revisit Manchester’s urban history and development from the 1940s to today.
We’ll be screening the 1947 documentary from the North West Film Archive collection, A City Speaks, which was a promotional film sponsored by the city council. As the BFI description summarizes: “Urban utopia beckons in this idealistic vision of postwar Manchester – fascinating to revisit as Northern Powerhouses and city devolution return to the agenda…Under the soaring, sweeping direction of Paul Rotha, it takes in themes of industry, energy, leisure and housing, present, past and future.”
We’ll use this as our starting point to reflect on Manchester’s historical urban development and the role of government within that as well as the resonances, challenges or opportunities of the dramatically transformed landscape we face today. With a resurgence of interest in “new municipalism” and public ownership, “it is worth remembering,” as the exhibit notes, “how much of the city’s operations were governed from the town hall. Manchester Corporation once controlled gas and electricity undertakings, tramways and trolleybuses, schools, police, fire and ambulance services, waste collection, parks and recreation, housing, libraries and more. The City Architect’s Department designed for all of these.” What can we learn from these efforts today?
Check out the exhibit up at the Central Library until February 28, 2026: Architecture for the people: the works of Manchester City Architect’s Department (1902-2003)
Free – booking advised.
Please consider making a donation if you can here or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library.
