ThePullenCount.com

Herbert Manzoni isn’t exactly a household name—unless your nan's house was knocked down to make way for a ring road. But there’s no denying the mark he left on the city.  Born in 1899, Manzoni trained as a civil engineer before becoming Birmingham’s City Engineer in 1935 and Planning Officer in 1938. With war damage, traffic chaos, and outdated housing pressing down on the city, he saw a rare opportunity to start over. “ Herbert always had a ruler in one hand and the future in the other.” — Charles Bird, Assistant Engineer, Birmingham City Council (1971) Manzoni believed in mobility, efficiency, and clean modern living. Victorian Birmingham, with its cramped back-to-backs and narrow streets, didn’t meet his brief. During his tenure as Birmingham City Engineer and Surveyor (1935–1963), and with housing a major focus of urban redevelopment, he spearheaded some of the most significant and controversial projects in Birmingham’s modern history. His belief that "The slum cannot be...

In April 2016, Parliament enacted legislation enabling councils to remove out of date and unnecessary road signs. Nearly 6 years  later, and the difference is negligible, but the intention behind it is admirable. Road signs as we know them today really began in 1963, when the British Government commissioned a review into the signage used on the nation’s roads. The Worboys Report (named after the chair of the committee, ICI’s Sir Walter Worboys) re-defined and standardised the signage in use, replacing the inconsistent, localised, often incoherent and ill-placed text-based warnings, with the clear, pictogram versions that we know today.  Against a background of an enormous increase in car ownership, the governments of the 50’s and 60’s were tasked with modernising the road network, which, with the exception of the M1 (opened 1959) was still recognisably pre-war. The combination of confusing signs, a young population eager to enjoy the freedom of the road, no drink driving laws,...