What Will Preston look like in 1992? A slideshow from 1972 Preston Guild

What Will Preston look like in 1992?

A slideshow from 1972 Preston Guild
predicting what Preston would be like in 1992

No, it's not the first of the 'Forward to the Past' trilogy. This is a bit like watching an old Sci-Fi film predicting the future 50 years after it has been made. No, we're still not buzzing around in flying cars, thankfully.

View West from Ladywell, towards the Docks and Penwortham Power Station

This short film, which is is effectively a forerunner of a PowerPoint presentation before personal computers had been conceived, let alone Microsoft software (...am I allowed to advertise on here? Other reputable software providers are also available, etc.), didn't quite make it to 3 minutes before they were getting it wrong.

Do you think that we will get a University?

The car:
It's a good servant, but the more concessions we make to its use, the more it becomes our master.
Hmmm. we still haven't cracked that nut.

The proposal for the River Ribble was ridiculous, but they got the canal right. It's just a pity that the University they said were weren't going to have built on the bits of the canal that would have allowed it to come back into the centre.

What IS the factory that she saw from the train? [12:15} This one has got me scratching my head a bit. The new gas works, 'all lit up and very spectacular'. Where on earth are they referring to?

...And we want people who are more concerned with helping to make the town a better place than with complaining about the things they think are wrong...
I hear you on that one!

There are some good stills of the town in the film, but you have take them with a 'pinch of salt', because there are quite a number from other places that are referred to as examples.

What Will Preston look like in 1992? from Harris Museum on Vimeo.

Made in 1972, a Preston Guild year, looking forward to what might have changed by the next Guild in 1992.

View it on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/47656089

PS sorry, I think you need to login to Vimeo to watch it. However, I don't think that is to onerous

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