WHAT WE’RE SEEING
5pm – 9pm, Thursday 20 June
Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Steet, Manchester, M2 3JL
Lambeth Towers, George Finch, 1965
George Finch’s drawing of Cotton Gardens Estate, 1966
On 20 June, Manchester Art Gallery will be rounding up its Modernist Dreams and Utopias film programme with a special free screening of Utopia London, introduced by the director Tom Cordell himself. Utopia London brought a fresh look at post-war social housing projects and has been a landmark film ever since.
It maps the architectural relics of a utopian attempt to construct a city of equals, an idea which in London briefly interrupts the skyline-reflected transition of power from faith to finance. The film travels through the director’s home city, uniting architects with the buildings they thought would create this open, classless society.
Cordell traces the post-war social and political agendas of housing, which saw visionary concrete mega-structures rapidly come to symbolise Britain’s acute class divide. Utopia London captures the shifts and oscillations of the period covered, and you are left with an uneasy feeling of who we are now.
Tom Cordell will be answering questions about the film after the screening. For more information and to book a free place, visit: Manchester Art Gallery
