Wow, here’s how the ideal city, put together of the best parts of other great cities, would have probably looked like in 1951 (click to enlarge and read more below).
1. Modern Airfield 2. Mount Holmen Koll, Oslo 3. Acropolis, Athens 4. Helsinki Hospitals, Clinics 5. Old Town and Castle, Antibes, France 6. White Wooden Houses of Carolina 7. Governmental Palace, Prague 8. Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 9. Sacré Coeur, Paris 10. King’s College, Cambridge 11. Georgian Houses of Bath 12. Edinburgh Castle 13. Maritime Quarter, NY 14. Municipal Buildings 15. Modern Houses, Finland 16. Business Section, NY 17. Street of Steps, Valetta 18. Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen 19. Elevated Railway, NY 20. Broadway, NY 21. Palazzo Vecchio, Florence 22. Moscow Underground 23. Art Gallery 24. St Paul’s Cathedral, London 25. La Scala, Milan 26. Piazza della Signoria, Florence 27. Paris Boulevards 28. Canals of Venice 29. Library 30. Cultural Centre 31. Stockholm Waterways 32. Gothenburg Concert Hall 33. St Stephen’s, Vienna 34. Museum
Mid-20th century British illustrator Ronald Lampitt drew this map for the Illustrated Magazine of 17 February 1951, based on a proposal by John Sleigh Pudney (1909-1977), a prolific British journalist and writer, for an ideal city. In Lampitts interpretation, that nameless city becomes a spacious, undulating seaside paradise populated with monuments that look vaguely familiar – because they are; they’re architectural icons from all over the world – the Western world, that is.
A sociologist and English major by degree, I've worked in the area of civil society & human rights and have been blogging in the fields of travel, nature & science for over 20 years.
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