English Heritage reveals how car has changed the landscape

Carscapes, Wellington Arch, London, until 9 July

English Heritage is staging an exhibition in London which shows how the car has transformed the landscape. Carscapes: How the Motor Car Reshaped England accompanies a book by John Minnis and Kathryn A Morrison. 

Archive photographs and a selection of historic advertising, cartoons and motoring magazines testify to how the English countryside and streets radically changed between the 1890s and 2010s, at first to accommodate the arrival of the motor car and later to manage ever increasing traffic jams and congestion. Also on display are an early 1930s traffic light, a petrol pump and other motoring accessories and memorabilia.

'Carscapes' looks at the different building types associated with the motor car including those factories such as Austin, Longbridge, Birmingham where cars rolled off the assembly lines, the London car showrooms where they were sold, and the garages which serviced and stored them. Buildings featured include an old village forge in Hertfordshire which was converted into a garage, the Michelin Building in London, and the recently listed Preston bus station and car park.

The exhibition runs at the Wellington Arch until 6 July. This is a particularly appropriate venue. The Arch was built in 1828 but Victorian traffic jams meant that in 1883 the Arch was dismantled and moved 20 metres to its current location. Between 1958 and 1960, to further ease congestion – this time from cars – Hyde Park Corner was radically altered and the Arch separated from Constitution Hill by a new road. Today the arch stands on a roundabout surrounded by traffic with pedestrians access via an underpass.

To find out about the exhibition click here