Wide-Angle View

Wide-Angle View is on at RIBA North on the Liverpool waterfront, running from Friday 10 July to Sunday 1 November 2026. It's a partnership between RIBA North and Tate Liverpool, and it brings the Manplan series to the city.

Manplan was launched by Architectural Review magazine in 1969 as a ground-breaking, often uncompromising look at Britain's built environment at the end of the sixties, with photography at its heart. The exhibition shows more than 80 original photographs from the series, which ran from 1969 to 1970. The images are striking black-and-white reportage, and they focus on how architecture and urban planning shaped daily life. They don't shy away from the social issues that still ring true today: inadequate housing, community, and loneliness.

The series relied on renowned street photographers who looked at people rather than the buildings themselves. By combining pioneering graphic and print techniques with powerful photojournalism, they reframed the conversation around urban development and socially conscious design. Among the photographers whose work you'll see are Ian Berry, Patrick Ward, and Tony Ray-Jones.

RIBA North is the national architecture centre, and this show sits in Gallery 1 at 21 Mann Island, right on the waterfront. It's open Monday to Sunday, including bank holidays, from 10am to 5.50pm. Entry is free, and there's a companion exhibition catalogue available if you want to take a bit of it home.