BBC Documentaries

I Love This Dirty Town (1969x2)

Air date: Jan 04, 1969

This personal plea from Margaret Drabble is a lament for the death of the city, which questions whether 'civic redevelopment' is tearing the heart out of our cities. Are tower blocks, giant supermarkets and an ever expanding suburbia the way forward? Margaret Drabble thinks not and argues that a successful city combines areas where residents and office workers share a space and a multiplicity of shops serve their needs. She also challenges the myth that streets are traffic arteries and unsavoury places to be in, especially for children, arguing that it's traffic that's the problem, not kids. The documentary was based on Jane Jacobs' work "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" (1961), an influential book on urban planning in the 20th Century.