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Herbert Life: Manzoni's Plan for Britain's Motor City.

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 With war damage, traffic chaos, and outdated housing pressing down on the city, he saw a rare opportunity to start over.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 cured. It must be demolished" was put into action: entire neighbourhoods like Ladywood, Nechells, and Aston were redeveloped. Influenced by modernists such as Le Courbusier, tower blocks and council estates rose in Lea Bank, Ladywood, and Chelmsley Wood. Large suburban estates such as Weoley Castle, Shard End, and Kingstanding were built, the latter being one of the largest municipal estates in Europe at the time.

His vision of Birmingham as a "motor city" with the "car as king" prioritised car use.
Redevelopment to facilitate increased vehicular traffic led to the building of the Inner Ring Road; a loop designed to keep cars moving and the city modern.

“Herbert loved cars. He used to say, ‘A good road is a civilised road.’”
— John Beckford, Planning Department draughtsman, quoted in Birmingham Post (1983)

Inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on April 7, 1971 (18 months before Manzoni's death), and nicknamed the "Concrete Collar", it changed the city forever, and resulted in the demolition of some of the city's most notable buildings, particularly those associated with A.W.N. Pugin and the Gothic Revival movement. 

In 1959, the city council required the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham to bear the costs of any alterations needed to preserve the Bishop's House of St Chad's Cathedral amid the new road schemes.  Unable to meet these demands, the Archdiocese saw it demolished. The main cathedral's survival was precarious; it was reportedly spared demolition by a single vote during planning discussions.

Two decades earlier, Manzoni had set the tone for his architectural vandalism; King Edward’s School in New Street, the collaboration with architect Charles Barry which led to their work on the Houses Of Parliament, was demolished in 1936.

Manzoni’s most infamous remark summed up his attitude toward Birmingham’s history:

“I have never been very certain as to the value of tangible links with the past.”
— Speech to the Birmingham Civic Society, 1961

To preservationists, this was architectural sacrilege.

“The quote that knocked down a thousand buildings.”
— Dr. Evelyn Marsh, author of The Lost City: Birmingham’s Vanished Streets

Still, others defended him.
“He wasn’t heartless. He genuinely thought he was making things better. He just didn’t have much time for nostalgia—or chimneys.”
— Maureen Singh, former council housing officer, from the Birmingham Lives Oral History Project (1994)

Herbert Manzoni retired in 1963, but his vision persisted. Birmingham’s landscape—especially its roads and housing—bears his imprint even now. However, the gardens which once bore his name are long gone; replaced by the west mall of the Bull Ring in 2014.

Many of his concrete structures are being replaced today with parks, trams, and pedestrian zones; his concrete collar eventually and inadvertently becoming a barrier to the city's spatial and economic growth. 

“He didn’t just change the face of Birmingham—he gave it a full concrete facelift.”
— BAA (Birmingham Architectural Association) Newsletter, 1975

Arguably, Herbert Manzoni reshaped Birmingham more than any other figure in the 20th century. His approach - blunt by today’s standards, reflected a time when cities were reimagining themselves for the modern world. 

As historian Carl Chinn succinctly said:

“Manzoni wiped the slate clean, but in doing so, he erased much of Birmingham’s soul.”
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