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Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- 1 The Blitz, its Experiences, its Consequences -- 2 La ville éventrée: or, How Bombing Turned the City Inside Out -- 3 Holiday Camps, Castles and Stately Homes: The Residential Option for the Evacuation of Disabled Children during World War II -- 4 A Service Forged in the Flames: The Blitz, Wartime Fire-Fighting and the National Fire Service

This paper explores how wartime bomb destruction was mapped in various British towns and cities, the apparent extent of damage, and the extent to which the damage influenced post-war rebuilding. While it is often said that the destruction created the opportunity for reconstruction, how far was there a direct influence? The pre-war pressures to redevelop tightly packed, often medieval, city cores and the need to replace slum housing were also powerful pressures, hence the popular name for the first replanning legislation, the 1944 "Blitz and Blight Act". The paper also examines conflicts between local claims of the extent of damage and those finally accepted by central government. Overall the paper uses the catastrophe of wartime damage to question the urban morphological concept of the "morphological frame" which, under more normal circumstances, is held to contain and constrain development.

Throughout urban history, settlements have been subject to a range of catastrophes, both natural and human. The manner in which settlements recover – if they do at all – is of considerable academic and practical interest. Much of the research carried out has been more focused on the socio-economic consequences of the catastrophe, or on the socio-economic, political and even bureaucratic processes of reconstruction. In almost all cases, the reconstruction is 'planned' in one form or another. Nevertheless, it is instructive to consider one such period of intensive planning, during and shortly after the Second World War, as the context to the concept of 'non-plan' which originated in the late 1960s, towards the end of the 'reconstruction era'. For 'non-plan' could be seen as a product of too much planning, ineffective planning, or inappropriate delivery of plans.

This paper presents a critical overview of reconstruction planning in Britain following the bomb damage of the Second World War. In a very short period, several hundred plans were drawn up by both bomb-damaged and undamaged towns and cities - this was a short period of unparalleled planning activity in Britain. However the legal status of these plans was unclear - most were called "outline development plans". Plan authorship was diverse; although consultants' plans are better known and more widely studied, more plans were produced by local authorities themselves. New legislation was enacted to give greater clarity and bring new powers to the planning process, but also introduced a new-format "development plan" that instantly made earlier plans redundant and was less easy for the public to interpret. Overall, relationships between local and national decision-makers were difficult, the quality of plans was very variable, and implementation was so slow that most of these plans were superseded and have vanished without trace: few have had any enduring impact. The new Planning Ministry did not appear to raise the quality of planning at the local level. The paper presents consultants' plans of two smaller industrial towns, Accrington and Brierley Hill, as previously-unstudied examples of these processes. One plan was detailed, aware of recent trends in planning, and suggested a careful and long-term phased implementation. The other was published as a very short booklet, lacking detail though suggesting many of the same principles, but making no impact.

There are well-known reconstruction plans for various UK cities produced during and after the Second World War, but little attention has been paid to those towns suffering little damage, or whose plans were not drawn up by the usual eminent consultants. This paper explores the process of preparing such a plan for Wolverhampton, in the English West Midlands. Here, a 'technocentric' plan is evident, typical of the 1940s reconstruction plans, but one with roots stretching back a decade into the middle 1930s; one whose key impetus was the Borough Surveyor, but which was prepared for a major programme of public involvement and consultation. Although this plan was not carried out in this form, it set the agenda for the next forty years of development in planning thought and in changing urban form. It was pivotal in the history of the town and its restructuring from the middle of the twentieth century.

Several recent books provide reason for an extended review of aspects of the development and history of Los Angeles. This city is so prominent particularly in the entertainment media that it is often seen (from outside the USA at least) as the archetypal American city, which gives rise to many misconceptions. There is a great deal still to learn from Los Angeles.