Utopian urges: visions for reconstruction in Britain, 1940-1950

In popular culture, the 1940s have often been presented as a period in which architects and town planners became caught up in naïve, unrealistic 'utopian fantasies' about how to go about rebuilding Britain's bomb-damaged cities. To counter these claims, historians have increasingly sought to downplay the idealism of the period; emphasizing the pragmatic and restrained elements of the reconstruction proposals instead. This article attempts to tell a different story. Adopting a more nuanced and holistic approach to the idea of 'utopia', it demonstrates that, despite being highly practical and matter of fact, the reconstruction proposals put forward in this period were, nonetheless, still heavily idealistic and aspirational; suggesting that planners were, in this era at least, able to channel their 'utopian impulses' into visions of the future that were at once both idealistic and pragmatic.