Driving Spaces: A Cultural-Historical Geography of England's M1 Motorway

318 Pages·2007·4.03 MB·English

by  Peter Merriman(auth.)

Driving Spaces
RGS-IBG Book Series
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Edited by David L. Higgitt and E. Mark Lee
Driving Spaces
A Cultural-Historical Geography of
England’s M1 Motorway
Peter Merriman
© 2007 by Peter Merriman
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First published 2007 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
1 2007
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Merriman, Peter.
Driving spaces : a cultural-historical geography of England’s M1 Motorway / Peter
Merriman.
p. cm. – (RGS-IBG book series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-4051-3072-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-1-4051-3073-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. M1 Motorway (England)–Design
and construction–History. 2. Express highways–Social aspects–England–History. 3. Auto-
mobile driving on highways–History. 4. England–Social life and customs. 5. Cultural
landscapes–England. I. Title.
TE57.M47 2007
388.1′220942–dc22
2007011998
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
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To Mum and Dad
Contents
List of Figures ix
Series Editors’ Preface xii
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction: Driving Spaces 1
Mobilities 4
Driving, Space, Social Relations 6
Driving, Landscape, Visuality 12
Geographies of the Modern Road 16
Contents of the Book 20
2 Envisioning British Motorways 23
Motoring and the Motor-Car Way, 1896–1930 24
The German Autobahnen: The Politics and Aesthetics
of a Nation’s Roads 31
Motorways for Britain? National Plans, National Defence 38
Motorways, War and Reconstruction 43
Motorways and the British Landscape 46
3 Designing and Landscaping the M1 60
Legislating and Campaigning: Towards a National
Motorway Network 61
Locating the M1: Regional Planning, Local Protests
and the Authority of the Engineer 67
Landscape Architecture and the Post-war, Modern Road 73
‘A New Look at the English Landscape’: Landscape
Architecture, Movement and the Aesthetics of
a Modern Motorway 83
viii CONTENTS
Towards a Road Style: Service Areas in the Landscape 90
‘Cutting Holes in the Landscape’: Britain’s Motorway Signs 97
4 Constructing the M1 103
‘Operation Motorway’: Constructing the M1 Motorway 104
Song of a Road: Folk Song, Working-Class Culture
and the Labour of a Motorway 124
5 Driving, Consuming and Governing the M1 141
Motorway Driving, Embodiment, Competence 143
‘Motorway Madness’: Driving, Governing, Expertise 152
Motorway Modern: Consuming the M1 162
Motorway Service Areas and the Motorist-Consumer 178
Assessing the M1’s Performance: Cost-Benefi t Analysis,
Scientifi c Experiments, Accidents 186
6 Motorways and Driving since the 1960s 200
The ‘M1 Corridor’ 202
Motorways and ‘the Environment’ 204
Dystopian and Marginal Landscapes? 208
Placeless Environments? 210
Placing the M1 in the Late Twentieth and
Twenty-First Centuries 213
Appendix: Archival Sources 219
Notes 224
References 246
Index 285
Figures
2.1 An artist’s impression of the Northern and Western
Motorway, commissioned by Lord Montagu of
Beaulieu, c.1923 28
2.2 ‘Suggested scheme of motorways’ by the County
Surveyors’ Society, May 1938 41
2.3 The front cover of George Curnock’s New Roads for
Britain, published by the British Road Federation, 1944 58
2.4 Photomontage by Geoffrey Jellicoe of two motorway
carriageways passing alongside the banks of a river in
the Trough of Bowland, Lancashire, 1944 58
3.1 The Ministry of Transport’s 1946 map of future national
routes, including motorways and reconstructed trunk roads 62
3.2 Cover of the British Road Federation’s The Case for
Motorways, 1948, featuring a photo-montage by Geoffrey
Jellicoe 64
3.3 Map showing the location of Watford Gap in relation to
the communications corridors linking London,
the Midlands and the North-West, 1960 68
3.4 Map by A. J. Thornton showing the location of the fi rst
sections of the London to Birmingham/Yorkshire
Motorway, 1959 72
3.5 Landscapes composed for appreciation by pedestrians
and motorists travelling at different speeds 75
3.6 The Shadowed Road, c.1808–10. Watercolour by
John Crome (1768–1821) 77
3.7 ‘The average landscape of the average motor-road in
Britain . . .’ 78
3.8 ‘The Shadowed Road – modern style’ 79
x FIGURES
3.9 Motorway embankments in England and Germany 84
3.10 Two-span over-bridges spanning the M1 motorway 85
3.11 Two contrasting underpasses designed by Sir Owen
Williams and Partners 88
3.12 Design by Clough Williams-Ellis of a footbridge for
Watford Gap service area, 1959 92
3.13 Hampton Court Bridge, by Canaletto, c.1754 92
3.14 A maintenance depot loading hopper designed by
Sir Owen Williams and Partners 95
4.1 Blackwood Hodge advertisement, 1959 107
4.2 Caterpillar advertisement, 1959 108
4.3 London to Birmingham Motorway During Construction
at Milton Near Northampton. Oil painting by
Terence Cuneo, 1958 114
4.4 Sir Robert Marriott and four Iranian journalists
studying a model of the motorway in John Laing
and Son Limited’s news-room at construction
headquarters, Newport Pagnell, September 1958 118
4.5 Song of a Road. Advertisement from the Radio
Times, 1959 136
5.1 Cover of the Automobile Association’s Guide to
the Motorway, 1959 146
5.2 Cover of Motorway insert from The Motor magazine, 1959 148
5.3 India Tyres advertisement, 1959 150
5.4 Automotive Products Associated Limited
advertisement, 1959 151
5.5 Automobile Association patrol vehicles, spotter plane
and patrolmen on parade at junction 14 on 19
October 1959 161
5.6 Monthly fi gures for the number of breakdown
telephone calls received by the Automobile
Association, November 1959 to October 1960 163
5.7 Cover of the sheet music for ‘M1’ by the Ted
Taylor Four 165
5.8 The front cover of The Mystery of the Motorway, by
Robert Martin 168
5.9 The front cover of The Motorway Chase, by Bruce Carter 170
5.10 British Industrial Plastics and Midland Red’s
Motorway Express coach 175
5.11 ‘The M.1. Motorway’, black and white postcard, c.1960–3 183
5.12 ‘M1. Flyover, Dunstable Road, Luton’. Colour
postcard of a bridge, embankment and roundabout
at junction 11 of the M1 183
FIGURES xi
5.13 ‘Ye olde “A5” transport cafe’. Cartoon by Giles 184
5.14 The movements of vehicles involved in accidents on
M1 in 1960 and 1961 195
5.15 ‘Approximate position of accidents at Park St.
Terminal (A5/A405) in twelve months ending
Oct. 31, 1960’ 196