City of Birmingham Public Works Committee : A place for the pedestrian : city centre pedestrianisation scheme leaflet 1972
The City of Birmingham was, of course, not unique in spending several decades of the late-20th Century carving out a massive and highly destructive Inner Ring Road to cope with what was seen as the necessary growth in road transport and to aid 'segregation' of road users and pedestrian conflicts. In Birmingham this meant an almost 'cordon sanitaire' around the city centre that was later to be seen as a massive barrier to urban permiability - the long, often desolate pedestrian subways that were the solution to segregation. In fact Birmingham has now studiously partially removed the many sections of the Ineer Ring Road, Queensway, to reintroduce links between the centre and immediate areas.
However, back in 1972 as the Inner Ring Road was nearing completion, the City Council recognised that one fo the promised trade-offs of the new road needed to be delivered - the pedestrianisation of certain central area streets. In truth the initial scheme seen here was relatively modest - other cities that had followed the pattern of Inner Ring Roads such as Leeds would make bigger strides in the removal of traffic from such streets. Anyhow, the leaflet issued by the Public Works Committee of the City Council, under the name of the Council's then powerful City Engineer, Surveyor and Planning Officer, Neville Borg, describes the scheme and, along with a map and 'before and after' scenes, also shows the City Centre Bus Service that the West Midlands PTE was to operate - from memory this would morph into the Centrebus 100 service.
The leaflet - the title of which uses the contemporary fashion for typefaces, was formally detailing aspecys of the City of Birmingham (Pedestrianisation Order) 1972, a reminder that legal powers to close streets to traffic was a requirement. This side of the sheet includes Union Street and shows two Birmingham buses loading at pavement stops. The front vehicle is one of the old Birmingham City Transport "Standards" or "New Look" buses delivered in vast numbers in the 1950s and that gave many years of service - this is on the old 56 Castle Bromwich service then operated by the West Midlands PTE. Bringing up the rear is one of the early Daimler Fleetlines from the 1960s.
City of Birmingham Public Works Committee : A place for the pedestrian : city centre pedestrianisation scheme leaflet 1972
The City of Birmingham was, of course, not unique in spending several decades of the late-20th Century carving out a massive and highly destructive Inner Ring Road to cope with what was seen as the necessary growth in road transport and to aid 'segregation' of road users and pedestrian conflicts. In Birmingham this meant an almost 'cordon sanitaire' around the city centre that was later to be seen as a massive barrier to urban permiability - the long, often desolate pedestrian subways that were the solution to segregation. In fact Birmingham has now studiously partially removed the many sections of the Ineer Ring Road, Queensway, to reintroduce links between the centre and immediate areas.
However, back in 1972 as the Inner Ring Road was nearing completion, the City Council recognised that one fo the promised trade-offs of the new road needed to be delivered - the pedestrianisation of certain central area streets. In truth the initial scheme seen here was relatively modest - other cities that had followed the pattern of Inner Ring Roads such as Leeds would make bigger strides in the removal of traffic from such streets. Anyhow, the leaflet issued by the Public Works Committee of the City Council, under the name of the Council's then powerful City Engineer, Surveyor and Planning Officer, Neville Borg, describes the scheme and, along with a map and 'before and after' scenes, also shows the City Centre Bus Service that the West Midlands PTE was to operate - from memory this would morph into the Centrebus 100 service.
The leaflet - the title of which uses the contemporary fashion for typefaces, was formally detailing aspecys of the City of Birmingham (Pedestrianisation Order) 1972, a reminder that legal powers to close streets to traffic was a requirement. This side of the sheet includes Union Street and shows two Birmingham buses loading at pavement stops. The front vehicle is one of the old Birmingham City Transport "Standards" or "New Look" buses delivered in vast numbers in the 1950s and that gave many years of service - this is on the old 56 Castle Bromwich service then operated by the West Midlands PTE. Bringing up the rear is one of the early Daimler Fleetlines from the 1960s.