Promenades and Ringroads - Konrad Smigielski and 1960s Leicester

In 1962 Leicester became only the second city in England to appoint a full time city planning officer. His name was Konrad Smigielski and his period in office, from 1962 to 1972, saw some of the most radical changes to the built environment in Leicester's history.

To this day many people in Leicester recall Smigielski as the man who destroyed old Leicester. This short film explores whether this assessment is fair and asks how the planning decisions made in the 1960s impact on the city of today.

For further information about Konrad Smigielski and his time in Leicester you can listen to radio programmes online at 'My Leicestershire History' in the BBC Radio Leicester section - http://www.myleicestershire.org.uk/ .

Professor Simon Gunn of the Centre for Urban History has written about Smigielski in 'Between modernism and conservation: Konrad Smigielski and the planning of postwar Leicester' in Rodger, R. ed., A History of Modern Leicester Lancaster: Carnegie Press (forthcoming 2012), as has Ben Beazley in 'Postwar Leicester', Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2006.

The Centre for Urban History - http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/urba...

East Midlands Oral History Archive - http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/

This film was produced by External Relations, University of Leicester.

Filmed & Edited by Carl Vivian
Written & Presented by Colin Hyde