And now blooms like never before. The English town of Preston was a monument to failed #kapitalisme - Yes. But now, ten years after the crisis, it's one of the most attractive British cities. What is the secret of the Preston model? 'It's about harnessing the latent activism that is present in everyone. '



On the Ribble River, in the county of Lancashire, north of Liverpool and Manchester, lies the provincial town of Preston. Here, in the northwest of England, is the cradle of the Industrial Revolution and industrial capitalism.

In 1961, five brothers founded Conlon Construction. The contractor company is still entirely owned by the Conlons — a large, prominent family from Preston, so big that they call the family weekend 'Conlonbury', after Glastonbury, the UK's biggest music festival.

How a dilapidated English town broke with capitalism