Warrington Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

It’s a sunny day in May and we begin at Warrington Bank Quay station.

The first Warrington Bank Quay station opened on 4 July 1837.

The station was rebuilt when the line was electrified in 1973, a new power signal box covering an extended area was built east of the station for the electrification.

In 2009 a new entrance hall was completed, with a travel centre/ticket office and a shop.

The buffet on the London bound platforms was modernised.

Wikipedia

The station was once operated on a split level.

Next onwards to the Pyramid Arts extension 2002, a reworking by Studio BAAD of the former County Court and Inland Revenue Offices 1897-8 by Sir Henry Tanner.

Studio BAAD Ltd started winding up proceedings for a Creditors Voluntary Liquidation in April 2021 and the company was dissolved on 21 July 2021

The centre is currently closed – work began on the redevelopment, which has been funded by a £5 million grant from the Government, in July 2024.

The project aims to make the building more modern, accessible and fit for the future.

The redevelopment includes the addition of a new café and bar area while the Exhibition Hall will become a bigger capacity venue.

Across the way the Masonic Hall 1932-33 Albert Warburton.

Further along to Hilden House a former Department of Works and Pension building, currently undergoing a transformation into a residential block.

The £18m office to residential reset of the 52,400 sq ft building will offer a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments in plans now approved by the local authority.

Caro Developments, working in tandem with architect Falconer Chester Hall, hopes to start construction later this year.

According to a planning statement submitted on the developer’s behalf by Savills, once complete, the five-storey block will offer residents a concierge service, a gym and wellness facility, a resident’s lounge, and a co-working area.

Place North West 2025

Way out of period but a notable Warrington landmark are the Golden Gates designed in 1862.

The gates were made for the International Exhibition of 1862, and then intended for Queen Victoria’s Sandringham home in Norfolk. Coalbrookdale found it hard to find a buyer for such grand gates, so Frederick Monks, one of the town’s earliest councillors, was able to buy and bring them to Warrington to stand at the front of the town hall lawn.  Monks also presented the cast iron Cromwell statue, designed by John Bell, to Warrington in 1899.

Warrington Gov

The Golden Gates are Grade II* Listed, along with the gate piers and the lamps which line the driveways at either side of the town hall

Up the road now to the Soap Works – first views from across the railway tracks.

Then over the bridge.

Joseph Crosfield was born in Warrington, the fourth son of George Crosfield and his wife Ann née Key. In 1814, Joseph’s apprenticeship having finished, at the age of 21 he decided to establish his own soap making business in Warrington.

In 1911 the company was purchased by Brunner, Mond & Company and 1919 it was absorbed into Lever Brothers. From 1929 Crosfield was a subsidiary of Unilever. In 1997 its Warrington speciality chemicals division that made ingredients for detergents and toothpastes was acquired by ICI and in 2001, Ineos Capital purchased the company. The name Crosfield was finally lost as it was renamed Ineos Silicas. In 2008 Ineos Silicas was merged with PQ Corporation, with the new company retaining the name of PQ Corporation.

Wikipedia

The Crosfield’s factory closed for good in October 2020.

Dante FS Group formally acquired four acres of the site this month for an undisclosed fee from EcoVyst.

The latter firm will continue to operate from sections of the site, as will PQ Corporation, with Dante buying land closest to the train station, including the visible blue buildings and white Unilever tanks.

Renamed Platform at Bank Quay, the ‘next-generation, state-of-the-art modular data centre’ is ‘set to power the UK’s growing AI economy’ and bring high-tech jobs to the town.

Warrington Guardian

Across the way the Scared Heart RC Church 1894 Sinnott Sinnott and Powell.

Listed Grade II

We now approach the Pink Eye roundabout where we may view the Pink Eye Silo.

Middle right this Aero Photo of 1928 shows a much larger mill complex.

Also the site of an older bridge – later replaced by a pipe carrying structure.

We then follow the riverside green line path twixt Soap works and Mersey, heading toward the Transporter Bridge.

The route explained by the indispensable Friends of the Warrington Transporter Bridge.

Warrington Transporter Bridge aka Bank Quay Transporter Bridge or Crosfield’s Transporter Bridge across the River Mersey is a structural steel transporter bridge with a span of 200 feet.

It is 30 feet wide and 76 feet above high water level, with an overall length of 339 feet.

It was commissioned in 1916 and, although it has been out of use since about 1964, it is still standing. It was designed by William Henry Hunter and built by William Arrol and Co.

The Transporter Bridge was built to despatch finished product from the cement plant that had been built on the peninsula. It was originally designed to carry rail vehicles up to eighteen tons loaded weight.

The bridge was converted for road vehicles in 1940, and was certified to carry loads of up to thirty tons in 1953.

FOTWTB

This was my first visit in 2017 – recorded on Modern Mooch.

Highlight on any day out anywhere is the discovery of arcane British Rail typography.

There’s a brief history of Freightliner history right here.

Back now to Bank Quay and off to the Telephone Exchange.

This is the 1969 building designed by the MODBW, Reginald Norman Dixon with lead architect P Clinton.

Linked to the 1955 building designed by John Onslow Stevens.

Biggest thanks to Lisa Kinch who can be found over on Instagram, for all her informative research into telephone exchanges.

Toward the town centre and we pass the Bold Street Methodists Church – 1973-75.

Currently closed and for sale.

Thence to the Block 1 nightclub.

Medicine night club early 2000s.

Originally a Tetley’s house named The Woolpack.

Got served my first pint in there, I was only 14.

Karl Beckett

Coming down those stairs, I slipped and the heel came off my boot, I’d only had one drink – loved those boots.

Sue Duncan

This was the original Woolpack on the site.

Much of the town centre is dominated by the Golden Square shopping centre.

Designed in 1974 by Ardin and Brookes and Partners, since enlarged.

There is also extensive pedestrianisation and hard landscaping on the surrounding streets, carried out in 2002 by Landscape Design Associates with sculptural works by Howard Ben Tre.

Finally to the Bus Station which used to look like this:

Until it became an Interchange and looks a lot like this.

Warrington’s new bus interchange was opened on 21 August 2006. From 1979, bus users travelled from a facility on Golborne Street, but it was very unpopular due to its very dreary appearance. 

On The Buses.

Though the final word must go to an absent friend.

Where once the New Town House stood.

Built in 1976 to house the Warrington & Runcorn Development Corporation.

Visited by myself the Modern Mooch in 2021

Nobody actually likes brutalist buildings. 

They just pretend to like them to make themselves look cool, it’s like craft beer and food that comes in tiny portions.

Walsall Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

The name Walsall is derived from Walh halh, meaning valley of the Welsh, referring to the British who first lived in the area. Later, it is believed that a manor was held here by William FitzAnsculf, who held numerous manors in the Midlands. By the first part of the 13th century, Walsall was a small market town with a manor house; the weekly market was introduced in 1220 and held on Tuesdays. The mayor of Walsall was created as a political position in the 14th century.

Significant developments also took place nearer to the town centre, particularly during the 1960s when a host of tower blocks were built around the town centre; however, most of these had been demolished by 2010.

The Memorial Gardens opened in 1952, in honour of the town’s fallen combatants of the two world wars. The Old Square Shopping Centre, a modern indoor shopping complex featuring many big retail names, opened in 1969.

Much of the reconstruction of the post-war period was quickly reconsidered as ugly and having blighted the town. In 1959, John Betjeman advised that with sensitive restoration the old buildings of the High Street could become:

One of the most attractive streets in England.

Instead, almost every building was demolished.

Wikipedia

There is to be further demolition on the High Street, to open up the vista between the Bus and Railway stations.

In 2021 Walsall secured funding of £11.4m from the Future High Street Fund. With further investment from Walsall Council we are now delivering the early phases of the Town Centre Masterplan, through the Walsall Connected Gateway Project.

Walsall Gov UK

Approval has been granted to remodel the Saddlers Centre to create a more open and attractive arrival experience for train passengers whilst also opening up Park Street. Butler’s Passage, which has in the past been the centre of antisocial behaviour, will disappear as some of the buildings are removed to create a large open walkway, connecting the rail and bus hubs.

Former Railway station 4th March 1978 – photo by Walsall 1955

The station was about to be closed, demolished and replaced by a new Marks & Spencers and the Saddlers Centre.

The existing entrance to the railway station on Station Street.

Let’s begin at the St Paul’s bus station or Hub – if you will, complete in September 2000.

The 1936 St Pauls Street bus station closed in February 1975, and was completely demolished, rebuilt and opened in August 1975.

Photo by: Walsall 1955

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris designed the building for Centro. The structural engineers were Atelier One, Shepherd Construction Ltd were the contractors, Watkins Dally were the landscape architects and Clark Smith Partnership were the civil engineers. 

The project cost £6.5 million.

Wikipedia

Next, a glimpse of Hatherton Road multi-storey car park.

Though it appears to be closed.

Adjacent to Enoch Evans Solicitors, their offices housed in one of the many imperious inter-war buildings dotted around the town.

Which faces onto the back of the Civic Centre.

Following the formation of the Metropolitan Borough, the new Civic Centre in Darwall Street opened in 1976, architect Stanley W Bradford Walsall MBC Director of Architecture.

Central roof garden.

Leaving the Civic Quarter on the left is the Imperial

The Imperial started life as an agricultural hall, constructed in 1868-69, and designed by the architect GB Nichols of West Bromwich. At that time, it was used for a variety of community activities including shows and dancing, it was also hired out to travelling film showmen. The main feature of the early building was a principal ground floor hall.

In June 1914, the Imperial was closed to allow for conversion to a cinema, designed by West Midlands-based architects Hickton & Farmer.

The Imperial was converted to a bingo club in 1968, and in 1996 it was converted into a pub, which closed in 2016.

Theatre Trust

Next to the TSB Bank.

At the end of the otherwise period correct Victorian Arcade is a space age Pound Bakery.

Across the way a former Barclays Bank architects: John HD Madin & Partners.

Next door an anomalous disco themed fascia.

From here up the hill to the Old Square.

Sainsbury’s Old Square store in the early 1970s photo Will Parker.

The majority of the Shopping Centre was demolished in 2014.

I remember when I was about fifteen in 1990, Coca-Cola were doing these yo-yos and if you went upstairs by the cafe, I think it was you could earn a gold coloured yo-yo. You just had to perform three tricks with it to earn one. I did walk the dog, the sleeper and I think it was around the world! Proud as punch with that I was. I know my uncle was Father Christmas for a few years on the bounce as well, when they used to have a grotto. 

Dan Bracknall

These are the remnants.

Ascending to the dizzy heights of the Grade II Listed Memorial Gardens 1953 by Geoffrey Jellicoe designed as a memorial to the dead of the two World Wars and said to mark a significant stage in the evolution of his principles of design.

Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe was one of the century’s greatest landscape architects. His contribution to landscape design has been described as equal to the 18th-century gardener Capability Brown. He was educated at Cheltenham College and then trained to be an architect at the Architectural Association. It was while at the AA that his interest in landscape was first kindled.  

The second phase, comprising the building of the memorial chapel in the Memorial Garden, and the flats and Brotherhood or Church Hall to the south of the open space known as St Matthew’s Close, was completed c 1960

Photo: History of Walsall

Historic England

Of back down the hill onward to the Walsall School of Art.

Walsall’s art school’s history is a story of gradual growth and change, evolving from evening classes in a chapel to a modern art college. The Walsall School of Design and Ornamental Art, founded in 1854 as an evening class, operated from 1861 at the Goodall Street Baptist Chapel and eventually became the Walsall College of Art. 

To celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, the Walsall Science and Art Institute was opened in 1888 at Bradford Place. In 1897, it was transferred to the Town Council and renamed the Walsall Municipal Science & Art Institute. In 1926, the institute was renamed Walsall Technical College. Post-war demand led to the establishment of the Walsall and Staffordshire Technical College at Wisemore – now St Paul’s Street, in 1952. The Walsall College of Art officially merged with the College of Technology in 1992 to form Walsall College of Arts and Technology – now simply Walsall College. The college maintains strong historical ties to local industries, such as the leather trade.

Artbiogs

Further on there’s an enormous Telephone Exchange comprising fifties and seventies buildings.

Across the way a large system built block on a podium base.

Standing on the corner where it has always stood the Silver Knight Garage.

Heading back into the town centre, picking up on there’s a former Woolworths that looks like a Burton’s that thinks it’s a Barclays Bank, and also improbably a Swag King.

1933 by FW Woolworth Construction Dept – H Wimbourne

Next an indeterminate infill with pale blue panels and central pivoting metal window frames, soon to be demolished along with its neighbours, as part of the Connected Gateway Project.

Possibly a former BHS – known as Jacey House.

Next up Park Place.

Ai says – notable features include Park Place Meats – a town centre butcher, and Park Place Shoe Repairs, which offers engraving and key-cutting services.

A Post Modern Poundland.

And last but not least a thoroughly Modern New Art Gallery.

Caruso St John Architects 1997-2000

Shirehall Shrewsbury 2025

Posted on by modernmoocher

Abbey Foregate Shrewsbury SY2 6LY

The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Sir Offley Wakeman, a former chairman of the county council, on 25 July 1964. It was designed by Ralph Crowe, the County Architect, in the Modernist style, built at a cost of £1.8 million and was completed in April 1966.

Having visited and snapped way back in June 2024, I returned in October 2025.

I had been asked to speak to the Shrewsbury Civic Society, regarding the history of Modernism in support of their campaign to save Shirehall.

The previous County Council were disposed toward demolition, the current administration are a little more circumspect.


Shropshire Council is considering a return to its former headquarters, less than a year after it moved out. The authority moved from 1960s-built Shirehall in Shrewsbury to the Guildhall in Frankwell, and said doing so would save up to £600,000 per year.

At a meeting on Wednesday, cabinet member for finance Roger Evans said the Liberal Democrats, who lead the council, had paused the demolition and sale of the land, and may retain parts of the building – but only if it could afford to do so.

“We would like to retain the council chamber and some of the associated buildings, but we do need to take account for the cost both in cash terms and in net zero terms,” he said. “What we have done is paused this decision and asked experts to look at it again, look at the whole site, do a reappraisal. The results are just now being recieved.

“I want to keep it as much as we can afford, both environmentally and cash-wise. Whether we can or not will depend, the council is strapped for cash.”

BBC – 19 November 2025

We can only hope that this remarkable building is saved – minimising cost and ecological impact.

So take a look around on what was a very wet Autumn day.

Here is a previous post illustrating the building’s interior.

Stafford Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

To begin at the beginning – we arrive at Stafford Railway Station.

The current station was built in 1962, by the architect William Robert Headley, as part of the modernisation programme which saw the electrification of the West Coast Main Line.

Illustration: John Greene

On leaving the station there is an as yet partially un-let Sixties office block to let – Victoria Park House.

Onward to the County Technical College 1937 Grade II Listed – interior completed 1946.

The shell of the building was completed in 1937, after which it was used as an American army hospital during the war, then completed afterwards. 

Heavily loaded with Art Deco details.

The new £28m three-storey Skills & Innovation Centre at Stafford College, completed in August 2023, was one of the first further education college schemes to be delivered under the DfE framework and a pathfinder scheme for delivery in accordance with the Further Education Output Specification. The new Centre is equipped with cutting-edge equipment and state-of-the-art facilities for construction, engineering and hybrid / electric vehicle maintenance facilities, as well as IT rich seminar suites and open learning break-out spaces along with a 4-court sports hall, a fully-equipped gym and a flexible 300-seat auditorium.

Ellis Williams

A 1970’s block was demolished to make way for the new development.

Almost everywhere we go we find a PoMo Crown Courts 1991 – architects: Associated Architects of Birmingham, cost of £10.4 million.

The war memorial of 1922 is by Joseph James Whitehead.

Sneaking through the alley to and before the McDonalds – one many more recent buildings with jetted lead clad bays.

Keeping the town Tudor one bay at a time..

Further along a Sixties Boots.

The Classical stone frontage of the Guildhall Shopping Centre.

Working with Mercia Real Estate, Glancy Nicholls Architects have designed a contextual mixed-use scheme in the heart of Stafford Town Centre, within the footprint of a disused shopping centre. This includes the regeneration of the 1930’s Guildhall building that serves as the main entrance to the shopping centre and the listed Market Square building. 

Glancy Nicholls

On the corner a Santander Bank

Across the way an understated Burton’s.

Around the corner a somewhat neglected retail development.

And a long lost Wilko.

Amidst it all the curious time warp that is Trinity Church 1988.

It is used by Methodist and United Reformed Church congregations.

Tucked away in a minor maze of retail a piece of figurative commemorative public art by Glynis Owen Jones, entitled Stafford Faces.

Around the corner a big B&M.

Further along a brick FoB Telephone Exchange of 1959.

Adjoined by the County Records building.

Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects have been appointed by Staffordshire County Council to create a new History Centre for Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent.

The new £4m centre will be located on Eastgate Street in Stafford and will hold historical records and collections up to 1,000 years old.

The scheme will help to provide a rejuvenated service combining the existing Records Office building and William Salt Library, in Stafford and provide a welcoming destination for all of those with an interest in local history. This will include bringing on to the Stafford site the Lichfield Records Office and aspects of the County museum.

Further FoB in the Civic Building.

Close by the Staffordshire Place a civic and retail mixed use development.

Our scheme delivers 135,000 ft2 of high quality contemporary office space across two buildings linked by a new town square. The ground floor incorporates a mix of retail and leisure uses around
a sequence of smaller public spaces to maximise the amount of visible active frontage and create a natural extension to the town centre.

Sustainability issues fundamentally informed the design approach, from mitigating energy consumption to ‘future proofing’ the finished building. The building achieves a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and a European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive Rating ‘A’.

3D Reid

Surprise surprise another retail development Riverside.

£70m riverside town centre retail and leisure development in the heart of Stafford. The 230,000 sq. ft. scheme anchored by M&S will deliver 18 retail units arranged over ground and first floors, five leisure units and a six-screen cinema to complement and strengthen the town centre economy and create new businesses and jobs.

Harris Partnership

Stafford’s £100 million Riverside development was officially launching today with two high street chains open for business on August 4th 2016.

None of this can detract from the monolithic complex Telephone Exchange.

Onwards across the main road past the Asda and up the road to Pennycrofts Court.

Featuring a split level garage facility.

The just around the corner this little corner of Vienna in Stafford – Corporation Street Flats.

Coniston, Windemere and Rydal were among the first council homes to be built in Stafford, between 1951-52, under the direction of County Architect CM Coombes.

The flats were built as a result of The Housing – Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1946, which gave subsidies to local authorities to provide social housing. The expansion of the Borough Council’s civic duties included the employment of County Architects, in this case CM Coombes FRIBA, to whom these flats are attributed. 

54 flats were built in total, to a distinctly Modernist design, and their appearance and setting are very well preserved.

Let’s head back into the town centre – to the Grade II Listed Picture House 1914

Architectural alterations made by: Captain Fred Campbell in 1930.

The Picture House was closed on 30th March 1995 after a three week run of Disclosure starring Michael Douglas, there were seventy eight attending the final performance.

Cinema Treasures.

Close by the former Odeon

Architects: Roland Satchwell 1936

It was disposed of by the Rank Organisation in July 1981 and was taken over by the Hutchinson Leisure Group who re-named it Astra Cinema. In December 1981 it was tripled with 435 seats in the former stalls and two mini cinemas in the former circle seating 170 and 168.

In 1988 it was taken over by Apollo Cinemas and re-named Apollo Cinema. The downstairs cinema was closed and became a bingo club for a couple of years, during which time the two mini cinemas in the former circle remained open. The bingo operation gave way to films again in 1990 and all three screens were again open, with seating for 305, 170 and 164. In January 2014 it was taken over by the Curzon Cinemas chain and renamed Stafford Cinema.

It was closed on 18th December 2017 with Star Wars:The Last Jedi.

Cinema Treasures

Onwards but backwards to the Civic Centre.

Tiled mural by Brian Lambert 1979

Finally arriving at this lively aggregate gable.

Bury Walk

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Arriving at and looking around the Interchange – 1980 architects: Essex Goodman & Suggitt

It is the northern terminus of the Manchester Metrolink’s Bury Line, which prior to 1992 was a heavy-rail line.

A new short spur line was constructed to connect the new station. The railway had originally run into Bury Bolton Street which was further away from the town centre, and was closed by British Rail on the same day that Bury Interchange opened.

It also incorporates a bus station.

Bury Interchange replaced the bus termini scattered around Bury town centre, notably around Kay Gardens.

Wikipedia

Image courtesy of Roy Banks

An £80m transformation is coming to the Bury Interchange, which will see step-free access at the Metrolink, a “vertical circulation core” to better connect the Metrolink with the bus facility, and an integrated travel hub with spaces for cycle storage.

The work is much-needed, explained Transport for Greater Manchester’s Alan Lowe, he said that the interchange was built in the 1980s and very much is of its time.

Onward to the Art Picture House which is Grade II Listed – currently operating as a Wetherspoons.

The Art Picture Palace was a 1923 rebuild of the earlier Art Picture Hall both designed by architect Albert Winstanley. The Art Picture Palace was opened on 26th January 1923. A remarkably complete survivor of a 1920’s cine-variety house executed in an elaborate style.

Films ceased in February 1965 and it became a bingo club. Later converted into a billiard hall until 19th May 1991 when it became a bingo club again, it later became a Chicago Rock Cafe.

Cinema Treasures

Next door a typical steel glass and brick banded office block Maple House.

Around the corner and over the road to the Town Hall 1939-40 architects: Reginald Edmonds of Jackson & Edmonds then 1947-54.

Large and Dull – Niklaus Pevsner.

Back through the Interchange to the former Cooperative Store of the 1930’s.

The Portland Stone towers still visible – the elevation largely retro-clad in glass.

Passing through the Millgate Shopping Centre of the 1980’s.

Unambitious but successful, the floors cheerfully tiled – Niklaus Pevsner.

Down in the subway at midday.

The better to get a view of the Market Hall 1971 – architects: Harry S Fairhurst.

The Indoor Market Hall is currently closed due to the discovery of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete – within the building structure. RAAC is a lightweight type of building material that was used between the 1950s and 1990s.

Back under the road – where we find a delightful Telephone Exchange.

With an adjacent Multi Story Car Park.

Around the bend to The Rock.

The Rock is a vibrant retail and leisure centre which is home to a range of high street fashion brands, independent retailers, tantalising eateries and fantastic entertainment – it’s the perfect place to visit any day of the week. 

It is the work of architects BDP – completed in 2010 at a cost of £350 million.

Our masterplan for The Rock took into account the historical street pattern and public realm context to give the scheme its own identity, and make visual connections to local landmarks.

The retail and leisure scheme brings many exciting brands to Bury for the first time.

New pedestrian streets rejuvenate and improve connections to adjacent areas stitching the town back together.

The development will also contain 408 one and two-bedroom apartments.

Back to basics at a former Burton’s hiding its faience facade.

Typical inter-war infill on our crazy mixed up mongrel high streets.

Ribblesdale House

Application by Shop and Store Developments Ltd submitted August 1965. Architect on application was Samuel Jackson and Son of Ocean Chambers in Bradford but during the application process this changed to John Brunton & Partners – Brunton was a partner in Jackson’s firm, at the same address. It had a restaurant and shops on the first floor.

Off now to the Bury Bolton Street Station – currently home to the East Lancashire Railway.

The street level buildings were destroyed by fire on 14 May 1947 and were replaced with a new brick and concrete entrance and footbridge in 1952. 

British Rail closed the station on 17 March 1980, when it was replaced by a new bus/rail interchange station further east into the town centre. Bury Interchange railway station served up until 1991 before the entire Bury Line was converted to light rail operation. It reopened in 1992 for Metrolink operation.

Bury was once the centre of multiple train links and the lost station of Knowsley Street.

Over the road the former Temperance Billiard Hall 1910 architect Norman Evans.

Down the side and up the steps to the Unitarian Church.

The new church was designed and constructed by local architects James T Ratcliffe.

The church was opened in 1974, with a service of dedication on Saturday, 9th March. The total cost, including furnishings, was £85,000.

The People Praising by Elizabeth Mulchinock is a 12 foot high original sculpture at the front of the church which represents the family of the church.

Her work can also be seen at Sainsbury’s in West Ealing and Reading.

Next door is the former Trustee Saving Bank.

Planning application January 1965 – work started in June 1965. The architectural firm was Richard Byrom, Hill and partners. Richard Byrom was submitting building applications in the 1930s in Bury and locally.

The rendering on the building is original but the windows have been changed. The Job Centre took over the building in 1993. It is in a conservation area and the Civic Trust had some concerns!

Many thanks to David French for the above information.

Shirehall Shrewsbury – Interiors

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Abbey Foregate Shrewsbury SY2 6LY

Architect Ralph Vernon Crowe 1966

Having photographed the exterior of Shirehall – I am now sharing some images of the buildings remarkable interior.

These have images have been kindly provided by the Shrewsbury Civic Society – many thanks.

They have campaigned tirelessly to save the building which is under threat, the local authority wishing to demolish the site.

There has long been a split in Shropshire Council between councillors who want to keep Shirehall and this that want to demolish it and move to the town centre. Last December, the council agreed to dispose of the building in the next few years after work on Civic Hub in the town centre is completed. That Civic Hub is still in the ideas stage and there is no clear idea of where the money will come fund it. Unless the council sells the 3.5 hectare Shirehall site for housing boosting its capital reserves which were depleted by the £51m purchase of the shopping centres in Shrewsbury town centre.

The budget plans agreed two weeks ago days propose that Shirehall is sold before April 2025 to make a saving of £325,000 in 2024/25.

Andybodders

Here are the Civic Society photographs of the Courts, which are no longer in use.

These are archival images taken from RIBApix taken by Bill Toomey in 1967.

Shrewsbury Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

On leaving the front of the railway station – we see the former Granada Cinema.

Architects: Cecil Aubrey Masey

Built and operated by Shrewsbury Empires Ltd, the Granada Theatre opened on 14th November 1934 with Jack Hulbert in The Camels Are Coming.

It closed as a cinema on 31st March 1973 with Charles Bronson in The Valachi Papers and Anatomy of a Pin-Up.

The Granada circuit was famous for its lavishly decorated interiors created by a Russian émigré called Theodore Komisarjevsky, the most famous examples of which are at Woolwich and Tooting – both now operate as bingo halls. The Shrewsbury Granada was by far the best cinema in the area, and in addition to Komisjarevsky, the scheme was designed by Cecil Massey, with some work being carried out by a local architect called Arthur Williams. The architecture of the Shrewsbury hall is often referred to as being a “standard” Granada, and the interior was very similar to the Granadas at Bedford now demolished and Maidstone which wasdestroyed by sub-division. There were less than 20 theatres built for the circuit, of which Shrewsbury was number five, although many existing cinemas were taken over and renamed, making the Granada Theatres an important group, although in numbers they were far behind Odeon and ABC.

Ian Grundy

On 17th November 1995, the Granada Theatre was designated a Grade II Listed building by English Heritage.

Many thanks to the staff of Buzz Bingo for allowing us access.

Next up is a Marks & Spencers store very much a shop of two halves – marrying post-war Brutalism with interwar Classicism, unified by a glazed ground floor.

Across the way, a 60s corner site development, with a dual-entry Greggs.

Formerly the site of the Post Office – demolished in 1959, and next to the Barclays bank the long gone Crown Hotel.

On the adjacent corner a curvaceous Barclays Bank, built in the post war Ministry of Works manner.

Next door is Crown House – refurbished but with it’s architectural type intact.

One of Marshall Structures’ biggest projects to date was the conversion of Crown House from a tired office block to a complex featuring 14 luxury apartments, providing a much-needed improvement to the site. The work involved in this project included large amounts of steel work and timber design.

The biggest challenge faced during the completion of this project was trying to fit an additional storey without loading quite an old existing structure. To do this, the new storey was designed out of a lightweight timber frame. By doing this, the client’s brief could be met while also ensuring that the existing 1950s building wasn’t overloaded in the process.

Marshall Structures

Directly across the road, this retail and office development.

Next up some tricky brickwork on the Wyle Cop Car Park.

Formerly Kennings latterly Signpost Motors Fiat dealer.

Very badly run carpark, one machine broken, other not taking cards or cash.

Great place with a lot of parking space.

Onwards onwards across the river toward Shirehall.

Architect: Ralph Vernon Crowe – 1966

Ribapix 1967

The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Sir Offley Wakeman, a former chairman of the county council, on 25 July 1964. It was designed by Ralph Crowe, the County Architect, in the Modernist style, built at a cost of £1.8 million and was completed in April 1966.

Pevsner described the building as – the major monument to post-war modernism in the county.

The Shrewsbury Civic Society is fighting hard to prevent the demolition.

There are archive photographs of the interior here.

Back into town to take a look at the Telephone Exchange.

Next to the Market Hall.

The Market Hall, which includes the town’s 240ft clock tower, an indoor market and a ground-floor shopping centre, was hailed the most modern building in Shropshire when it opened in September 1965.

Developed by the Second Covent Garden Property Company Ltd to replace an ailing Victorian market hall, it cost £1 million to build and was designed by award-winning architect David du Roi Aberdeen who also famously designed the Trade Union Congress headquarters, Congress House, in London, and the Swiss Centre in Leicester Square. 

Today the Market Hall’s 1960’s architecture might not be to everyone’s taste, but its indoor market is thriving with over 70 small businesses ranging from popular contemporary cafes and gift retailers to artisan producers and traditional market stalls selling fresh produce.

Shropshire Live

More of the Market Hall here.

Bobbing toward the centre – a striking Lloyds Bank.

A conscious effort to reflect the nearby Tudor architecture of Ireland’s Mansion and Pride Hill. Lloyds Bank is considered a good example of Brutalist architecture, and proof that bold modern buildings can be successfully slotted into traditional historic streets.

Original Shrewsbury

Possibly Shrewsbury’s finest post-war building, but of course it has its detractors. It was well received by critics of the period including the assessors for the Civic Trust who bestowed an award in 1968. They noted the quandary that the architects faced of building in such a historic setting and terminating the vista along one of the town centre’s main streets. In their opinion the architects ‘faced the problem squarely and their building, brave in its conception and immaculate in its detail’ and that it was ‘uncompromisingly of today but beautifully sympathetic to the great buildings it rests with’. Pevsner’s original assessment of it being the ‘boldest modern response to the town’s half-timbering’ was not shared by the authors who revised the Shropshire edition and viewed it as an ‘aggressive display of exposed and textured concrete’.

It was also shortlisted for the European Cement Association awards, one of only two British buildings to make the grade. Opting to draw on the Tudor traditions of the town, partner W Marsden, working with project architect W Allan Clark and assistants Malcolm Lovibond and Keith Maplestone, used cantilevered floors, vertical structural and sub-structural members, oriel windows and a black and white tonal palette deploying anodized aluminium window frames against finely ribbed concrete panels. The standing seam zinc roof adopted the town’s norm of pitched roofs without gables in order to blend with the street scene. Concrete Quarterly referred to it as ‘a skilful bridging of the centuries in a way that would not offend a purist’ . The main contractor was Henry Willcock and Company Limited.

Mainstream Modern

Nearby more modern infill sits alongside the historic half timbered heritage.

Next down Raven Meadows to the Raven Meadows Car Park, built by Truscon Ltd in 1969.

Which also houses the Bus Station.

Back now toward the station under the railway to the Royal Mail.

Doncaster Modernism – Revisited Again.

Posted on by modernmoocher

The third time by the banks of the Don – first time around in May 2019, subsequently in October 2020.

So much can change in so short a time, post-pandemic and every town is doing its level best to build back better.

The vision includes:

  • Ensuring the centre is a focus for business and enterprise.
  • Building on the success of the current markets and raising the aspirations and functions of the markets.
  • Recognising the city core as the heart of the economy and the borough and the place where the image of Doncaster is most clearly reflected. 
  • Enhancing green spaces and waterways to create a better setting for visitors, investments and city heritage.
  • Developing the civic and cultural quarter and reinforcing the retail and leisure core through better links and public space improvements.
  • Developing city-scale functions and assets, to become a stronger draw for business, workers, visitors and inward investment.
  • Developing and bidding for new city-wide cultural venues, a University and Research and Development facilities.
  • Rebranding Doncaster as a location of choice for regional businesses.

Masterplan

Arriving by train and ascending into the light – here’s the station lights.

The railway station has sharpened up its apron and facade.

We have transformed the station forecourt. It has become a quality gateway which delivers a great first impression for visitors arriving in Doncaster by train. This will help stimulate interest from investors and developers, helping to attract new investment and create jobs for the borough and wider region.

Doncaster.gov

Celebrating engineering, speed and connectivity and stretching forty metres in length the public art at Doncaster Station consists of forty seven monoliths which are a nod to Doncaster’s past, present and future. With a fountain and three impressive water walls, the art takes centre stage in the new public space as you step out of the train station and head into the town centre.

The concept was devised by Doncaster Council and further developed by Chris Brammall.

CB Arts manufactured and installed the piece

Typically the high and low streets of Britain’s industrial towns and cities, are an amalgam of architectural style and fashion, spanning at least two or three centuries.

Faience fronted interwar developments abound.

Neo-classical speculative shopping arcades.

Revamped Victorian pub facades.

Behind the buff faience frontage is a lovely, small two-room pub with a well preserved interior created under plans of 1934. It was remodelled by the Grimsby brewers Hewitt Brothers Ltd who were Doncaster’s biggest pub owners for many years.

Pub Heritage

Originally a Gent’s Outfitters, this deco-gem was topped off with the Nags Head Hotel.

This grade II listed pub is now in retail use, though Vision Value, are it seems, on the move.

Lost pubs project.

Of course, every town had a Burton’s – the tailor of taste.

This post war infill has that distinctive Festival of Britain feel, original metal window frames, Portland stone and blueish slate like panels.

The revamped Frenchgate Shopping Centre, officially opened on October 4th 1968, has in places an upper tier, resistant to zinc over cladding.

The centre has been the heart of the city for over 40 years and was originally called the Arndale Centre because it was built, owned and managed by the Arndale Group. It was renamed in 1988 after a change of ownership, with the new name reflecting the name of the street which passes to the east of the centre and which is one of Doncaster’s main shopping streets.

The sale of the centre came just a year after Frenchgate had undergone a £200 million facelift to transform it into the country’s first shopping centre with integrated public transport and retail interchange.

Wikipedia

There are plans to rework the shopping centre.

We propose this is fundamentally transformed though the addition of apartments that wrap along the back of the first-floor retail with a further 2.5 new storeys placed on top. We also feel additional height -up to seven or eight storeys, is justifiable to the corner of Frenchgate and Trafford Way.

TODD Architects

The Lovers were once located in the Arndale, removed to a local garden, unloved – then later reinstated in the Waterdale Centre, where we will embrace them a little later.

Turn right to take in the 1920s mosaic remake remodel of the Grade II listed Blue Building.

The Blue Building which used to be the Doncaster Design Centre and Tourist Information Centre was originally the home of John Whitaker, a wine merchant, and son of James Whitaker who was Mayor of Doncaster in 1758.

In 1925 the complete building was demolished apart from the facade which was retained and given a facing of decorative blue tiles. The intention was to build a shopping arcade from High Street to Printing Office Street. Only part of the arcade, known as the  Westminster Arcade was built. It had a number of shops, the largest being that of Woodhouse & Co Furnishers.

Doncaster Heritage Trail

Two adjacent 60s extensions – to the right a redundant post office to the left an almost redundant telephone exchange, with the earlier brick built exchange in smack dab the middle.

Turn another corner and it’s all at the Co-op now – the Grade II listed Danum Co-operativeBuilding, department store and offices: 1938-40 designed by T H Johnson & Son for the Doncaster Co-operative Society Ltd. 

Over the road a zig-zag Halifax Building Society branch, tightly contorted by its corner footprint.

To the right of the Danum, this former Boyes store, having relocated to the Wilko site, the building is ripe for residential conversion.

To the left the Colonnades Shopping Centre a fierce angular glass and brick bunker of mixed office and retail space – the sole occupant seeming to be Home Bargains.

A £3.3m makeover of the Colonnades shopping mall in Doncaster town centre was completed in 2019.

The scheme of works was co-ordinated by Doncaster Council and funded by the Sheffield City Region Local Growth Fund.

Built in the 1980s, the brick built building received a major overhaul. The investment saw the visual appearance enhanced inside and out. The five floors were transformed into the prime office space needed in the town centre and the enhancements to the retail area were also finished.

The shift in the town’s axis to the Frenchgate and Market areas, seems to have taken the wind out of its sails.

The former flicks now a redundant pale brick behemoth – no more and ABC.

Architects: C Jack Foster and Alan Morgan

Doncaster’s new £250,000 ABC cinema, part of the Golden Acres development near the town centre, was opened on May 18th 1967.

Closed in January 1981 for conversion into a triple screen it re-opened on 9th April 1981 with seating in the three screens for 477, 201 and 135.

The Cannon Group took control in the mid-1980’s and it was re-named Cannon and it closed on 18th June 1992, screening its opening film Doctor Zhivago.

Cinema Treasures

The Golden Acres development seemed to have morphed into the Waterdale Centre.

It is currently being reshaped to provide a line of desire twixt the Civic and Cultural areas, from the town centre. There are still the remnants of homes, shops and a pub amongst the demolition – almost inevitably there is new paving.

Waterdale is a well-known part of Doncaster’s town centre. During its heyday it was a bustling area with people flocking to shops and the like – it was a place you had to visit while you were in town. However, it had suffered a steady decline which continued when the southern bus station closed – Frenchgate Interchange opening, and Doncaster College moved to the Hub at the Waterfront. With limited public transport entering the area and no student population on its doorstep, less people had reason to pass through.

Demolition of the College.

The Civic and Cultural Quarter is transforming Waterdale reconnecting it to the town centre. The quality and content of the plans is raising the profile of this part of town to new levels. The carefully thought out layout and consistent building design is giving the area a clear identity. It is already becoming a big attraction that draws people in and encourages redevelopment in the neighbouring areas.

Doncaster Gov

The relocated Lovers are still in love.

The weary walker is diverted toward the Civic Quarter Car Park.

The former Civic Offices are to be demolished.

Demolition of the Central Library is well under way.

Facing the former library we find the CAST Theatre, Civic Buildings and Savoy Cinema, grouped around Sir Nigel Gresley Square.

Within the square is a frieze, salvaged from the former Gaumont Cinema, the work of sculptor Newbury Abbot Trent.

The Gaumont Palace Theatre in Hall Gate at the corner of Thorne Road, Doncaster opened on 3rd September 1934 with Jesse Matthews in Evergreen.

It was designed by architects WE Trent and W Sydney Trent.

In 1949 WH Price the Borough Surveyor produced an outline plan for the area, with a green space at its heart, it was never realised. In 1955 Frederick Gibberd produced his plan to include a ten storey Town Hall, Art School, Technical College and Civic Theatre, revised and reduced in 1963 – eventually his Police Station and Law Courts were completed in 1969.

The former NHS Clinic at the ‘T Junction’ is transformed into a day care service.

The former Museum and Art Gallery now an archive and local studies centre.

The building was designed in the office of the Doncaster Borough Architect’s Department in a team led by borough architect Mr LJ Tucker. 

The ceramic designs were a later addition when it was discovered that the large open areas of glass overheated almost everything inside, the work was undertaken by LJ Tucker and family.

The sculptural work by Franta Belsky, now has a skip for company.

As a footnote the work by Fabio Barraclough reveals a murky past.

Barraclough was born in Madrid in 1923, to a Spanish mother and Yorkshire father who founded Madrid’s Chamber of Commerce. He moved to London with his family in the 1930s as a refugee from Francoist Spain. He taught fine art and sculpture at Rugby School, where colleagues considered him “highly entertaining, a most unorthodox and highly gifted” teacher. He established himself during the 1960s and early 1970s as an authority on sculpture, publishing in academic journals and becoming a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

In 2000, it was revealed that Barraclough, while outwardly living the life of anti-apartheid activist since the 1970s, had been a paid informant of the South African state security police. The media was used to promote his image as a “brilliant, liberal artist with apparently impeccable credentials” in order to gain public trust, while he was funnelling money from anti-apartheid groups to the police. He died on 6th January 2019.

Wikipedia

Over the way faros the green sward is St Peter in Chains RC – A large and striking design by JH Langtry-Langton, incorporating important furnishings by J F Bentley from the predecessor church, along with good furnishings of the 1970s. The churches houses the modern successor to the medieval shrine of Our Lady of Doncaster.

Figurative stained glass by Patrick Feeny for Hardman in 1973 and abstract glass fitted in 2000 as part of reordering and revival of the shrine.

Further information on Taking Stock.

A special mention for the Danum Cultural Hub

Designed by architects Bond Bryan and built by main contractor Willmott Dixon, the new cultural and learning hub has been created following the restoration of four existing buildings. 

A key focal point of the scheme is the restored frontage of the Edwardian former Doncaster High School for Girls, which has been framed by Senior’s slimline SF52 aluminium curtain wall and showcased within a new steel-frame building. The glazed facade, which was fabricated and installed by Senior’s supply chain partner Chemplas, also features Senior’s aluminium commercial doors.

RIBA Journal

Where I was delighted to see Sir Nigel Gresley’s hat.

Bradford Revisited

Posted on by modernmoocher

We arrive at and begin our journey at the Interchange – the bus station is closed, along with the station entrance.

Bradford accepts that it is a part of the Northern Supercity stretching from Coast to Coast – Liverpool to Hull. Every existing town and new settlement must be unique. People belong to their own hotspot as well as Coast to Coast. Bradford as a dispersed centre will give it individuality as well as becoming synonymous with the whole new city. Bradford is a mini version of the whole. It is composed of a series of mini hotspots which will each act as a focus for each square kilometre.

Bradford has the topography to allow every citizen to wake up to a view – both physical and mental. Their collective ambition can create a place of extraordinary difference.

Will Alsop

We have of course been here before.

Bradford Interchange will get a new entrance and other improvements to bring it up to standard, the city council said. 

The NCP car park on Hall Ings would be demolished to create a new pedestrianised entrance.

BBC

The Interchange opened in 1971 was the first of its kind in the country, designed by the BR regional team headed by RL Moorcroft and the City Architect.

Onward to the Magistrates’ Courts designed by City Architect Clifford Brown in 1972.

Bradford is in the process of paving and puzzling pedestrians, as it becomes City of Culture in 2025.

So we wind our way over the inner ring road, advisedly avoiding the filled in underpasses.

The former Central Library awaits us, designed in 1965 by Clifford Brown – a striking podium and tower, currently home to council offices.

Next door the Sir Henry Mitchell House home to the Children’s Services.

Sir Henry Mitchell 1824 1898 was a mill owner and Mayor.

Moving further along the Telephone Exchange of 1936, design by architect FA Key.

Partner to the Telephone Exchange of 1976 by architect Trevor H Hanson for PSA

The gates were open and we were afforded a view of these delightful vents.

Next to the Ice Arena topped off with Wardley House – Sanctuary accommodation for key workers and students.

Wardley House is equipped with all the modern amenities you need for a comfortable and connected life as a key worker. The rent includes high-speed broadband and building-wide Wi-Fi, utility bills, and contents insurance. Our top-notch facilities comprise a large common room with a pool table, flat-screen TV, and live BT Sport – the perfect social space.

Up the hill and around the bend to the University of Bradford – the main Richmond Building fronted by Joe Mayo’s tiles.

At the University of Bradford our focus is on creating the conditions for social, cultural and economic impact. We will achieve this by using our proud heritage as a springboard and remaining steadfast in our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. We will harness our strengths in research, innovation, teaching and partnerships to extend our reputation, influence and impact. All of this will create a values-led culture that is inclusive and effective in enriching lives and benefitting society.

The undercroft has undergone a major refurb rethink – transformed into a Goth Disco.

We emerge unscathed into the clear light of day and the BDP designed Chesham and Horton blocks.

The mosaic covered columns remain unclad.

Let’s hop to the Grade II-listed Co-op designed by CWS in house architect WA Johnson and JW Cropper in 1935.

Architect W A Johnson worked for the Cooperative Wholesale Society from 1899 until 1950. He was heavily influenced by the German architect Erich Mendelsohn after 1930, evident in his embrace of the International Modernist style. Johnson travelled widely in Germany and Holland, and Mendelsohn’s Schocken store in Stuttgart 1928 is quoted as being a particular inspiration for the Bradford Co-op.

Demolished despite protests in 1960.

In 2019 the Architectural Heritage Fund announced a £5,000 Project Viability Grant to Freedom Studios Ltd.

The money funded a viability study to investigate the potential of building becoming a multi-use cultural hub.

As of May 2024, sadly there is no cultural hub.

Next we hot foot it to the Kirkgate Centre and Market – John Brunton and Partners 1975.

In 1979, the building won a European award from the International Council of Shopping Centres.

But the Historic England report described its design as mundane and repetitive.

Janice Ivory and Lisa Donison didn’t hold back in their criticism of the centre in its current state.

Thank God for that, was Janice’s reaction to the news the building was set to be bulldozed, although an exact date for its closure remains unknown.

It’s just a concrete monstrosity, she said of its design, which Historic England said was lacking architectural flair.

It’s just an ugly building, added Lisa.

Once dubbed Bradford’s space age retail destination, Kirkgate Shopping Centre will soon be no more. 

The city centre landmark, which opened for business as an Arndale in 1976, has been denied listed status by Historic England – paving the way for its demolition.

BBC

Geoffrey Cowley from Wibsey, who was in town for an eye appointment, said demolishing it:

Might be the right thing to do.

There are plans to remove and display the William Mitchell panels along with these other examples of his work.

In-situ at Highpoint.

In storage – removed from the Bradford And Bingley Building Society.

Artist Bernd Trasberger plans an artistic project, which involves repurposing Fritz Steller’s tile works.

As Ken Kesey so rightly said – Further!

Up to Highpoint designed by John Brunton and Partners 1973.

The derelict former headquarters of Yorkshire Building Society, on one of the highest parts of the city centre, looms over the city centre, and to many people is the city’s ugliest building.

High Point is the perfect site for the first Radii development. Now perceived as an exemplar of the Brutalist style, this eight-storey titan, has languished derelict and in disrepair for many years in the heart of Bradford City Centre.

Our regeneration of High Point into an innovative residential apartment complex with a community at its heart, embraces ideas of sustainability, preservation, and rejuvenation that will bring a new lease of life to this abandoned landmark.

Sharp, chic and spacious apartments available. Furnished to the highest standards throughout and with the flex to provide you with office space if required – this is modern city living that’s easy on your eye and your pocket.

Radiiliving

And finally the cafe that is not a cafe – Fountains, where the griddle no longer grills, the lights are always out and the shutters tightly shut, ain’t nobody home.

Wishing nothing but well for this West Riding gem – Bradford City of Culture and cultures and culture.

tameside moderne book

Posted on by modernmoocher

Available online here or call in the Modernist Shop on Port Street Manchester.

Tameside Moderne

By Steve Marland

A comprehensive guide to the Borough’s modern architecture.

Almost two years in the making.

Tameside east of Manchester – a volcanic explosion of concrete, glass, steel, brick and wood!

From sacred sites to suburban substations, a rollercoaster ride through provincial style.

  
Softcover, 84pages,
B&W
148 x 210xmm – landscape

£10 well spent – be quick these will fly!

Wolverhampton Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

Architects: Austin Smith Lord

We begin at the Railway Station – recently refurbished, overwriting its 60s iteration – completely rebuilt by the architect Ray Moorcroft as part of the modernisation programme which saw the West Coast Main Line electrified.

Across the way an enormous brick clad multi-storey car park – skirted by the lines for the tram, which travels to and from Birmingham.

Walk across the brand new pedestrian footbridge over the ring road.

Architectural glass artist Kate Maestri was commissioned to produce the artwork design which features glass with blue and green strips of colour running through it.

BBC

Architects: Austin Smith Lord

Linking the Rail Station with the brand new Bus Station.

The normal practice of the Wolverhampton Bus Service is to have dirty, smelly buses, that are cramped and extremely hot in the summer and freezing cold in winter. They offer no announcements apologizing for delays they know about and don’t appear to care how long passengers wait with no idea of how or when they’ll be getting a bus.

The best thing you can do is learn to drive as quickly as possible and get your own vehicle or car pool.

Sandra Anderson

Architects: Austin Smith Lord

Onward now to the Express and Star Building – Grade II listed.

Architect: Marcus Brown 1934.

The building is faced in a reconstituted Hollington stone called Vinculum, produced by another local firm, Tarmac.

A plaque commemorates RJ Emerson, art teacher and sculptor who sculpted Mercury in 1932.

Wolverhampton History and Heritage Society

Midland News Association managing director Matt Ross confirmed the company is now looking at the building’s future.

For a number of years we have been exploring opportunities surrounding our historic Express & Star offices in the heart of Wolverhampton.

After removing the printing presses from the site and restructuring our departments we now have significant spare capacity available and so are looking at the various options available to us, be that redeveloping the current site or exiting the building altogether.

Hold the front page

Extension is by architects: H Marcus Brown & Lewis 1965

With further work at the rear.

Along Princess Street this corner group, with an impressive clock tower – originally HQ for the South Staffordshire Building Society

Architects: George A Boswell of Glasgow 1932.

On to the Mander Centre – opened on 6th March 1968, refurbished 1987, 2003 and 2016-17.

The Mander Shopping Centre in the heart Wolverhampton is your one-stop shopping destination for all things fashion, home, beauty, food and technology.

Architects: James A Roberts principal architect Stanley Sellers.

Developed by Manders Holdings Plc, the paint, inks and property conglomerate, between 1968 and 1974. The site occupies four and a half acres comprising the old Georgian works and offices of the Mander family firm, founded in 1773, as well as the site of the former Queens Arcade.

Wikipedia

The Wulfrun Shopping Centre is an adjacent companion to the Manders development.

The Wulfrun Centre was built as a result of a joint project between Wolverhampton Council and the Hammerson Group – open for business in October 1969.

History and Heritage Society

Piazza postcard 1970.

Architects: T & PH Braddock and also Bernard Engle & Partners.

Along St Georges Parade, an abandoned Sainsbury’s church combo – store designed by J Sainsbury’s Architects Department opened 1988.

The church was built between 1828 and 1830 – architect: James Morgan, at a cost of £10,268. It was consecrated on Thursday 2 September 1830 by the Bishop of Lichfield, it was made redundant in 1978.

Sainsbury Archive

The site is currently under lease to Sainsbury’s for a further three years and will come forward on a phased basis subject to their lease concluding. The council is in active dialogue with prospective development partners on the redevelopment of this site and in wider consultation with Homes England.

Express & Star

Back tracking to the Combined Court Centre.

Architects: Norman and Dawbarn 1990

Notable cases included trial and conviction of four members of The Stone Roses, in October 1990, for criminal damage to the offices of their former record company.

Wikipedia

Thence up Snow Hill to the former Citizens Advice former Barclays Bank currently empty.

Architects: John HD Madin & Partners 1969

Take time to have a look around the back.

Off to Church Street and Telecom House

Sold for £4.25 million to Empire Property in 2022.

It had previously been sold for more than £3m in July 2018, also for use for apartments, to Inspired Asset Management which later went into receivership.

Express & Star

Located on a popular apartment block on Church street in the Wolverhampton centre, this 1 bedroom property has been newly renovated throughout and compromises an entrance hallway, open plan lounge/kitchen with in built appliances, shower room and double bedroom.

£650 PCM – Connells

Next to this modern piazza New Market Square – Architects: Nicol Thomas from a concept by head of planning Costas Georghiou.

Formed from the former Market Square, a mix of flats and shops opened in 2004, in an Italianate version of the modish school of streaky bacon.

In 2021 the Coca-Cola Christmas Truck visit to the Midlands was cancelled.

It was meant to arrive at Market Square in Wolverhampton at 11am today but failed to show up.

One fan had waited since 7am this morning to see the Coca-Cola truck.

While schoolchildren were left gutted when the truck didn’t turn up – and one boy had been so excited his mother said he had been talking about the red truck all morning.

Birmingham Mail

Retail Market – Late 1950s market hall and offices above. 

Architects: Borough Surveyor. 

Excellent example of the Festival of Britain style of architecture, won Civic Trust Award 1960.

Locally Listed March 2000.

demolished January 2017.

Photo: Roger Kidd

This development that wraps itself around Salop, Skinner and School Streets appears to be of a similar period to the Retail Market – and sports a Lady Wulfrun in relief.

There is access to its roof top car park.

And also an exit back to street level.

Where we find at street level the former Odeon Cinema, opened on 11th September 1937 with Conrad Veidt in Dark Journey.

Architects: PJ Price and Harry W Weedon.

In October 2000, the former Odeon was designated a Grade II Listed building by English Heritage.

RIBA pix

In recent years it was a Mecca Bingo Club, but this was closed in March 2007 In October 2009, it had been refurbished and re-opened as the Diamond Banqueting Suite. In April 2021 police raided the vacant building to discover an illegal cannabis farm operating in the building.

Four men were arrested.

Let’s take a turn around the corner to Victoria Street where we find the complex of Beatties Buildings.

Architects: Lavender, Twentyman and Percy 1920’s – 30’s

The C20 Beatties store is a multi-period site developed first in the 1920s-30s. A Burton’s men’s clothes shop was built on a curved corner site at Victoria St/Darlington St and Beatties themselves replaced their existing Victoria St store in the 1930s with a building by local architects Lavender, Twentyman and Percy. Beatties later acquired and incorporated the Burton’s shop into their store. These two buildings form the locally listed building to which were added a mid-C20 extension along Darlington St and a late-C20 development to the rear at Skinner St.

c20 Society

An imperious Portland stone clad mixed us block on Waterloo Road, with a delightful clock.

Formerly the Gas Showrooms then Sun Alliance & London Insurance offices – aka Clock Chambers

The showroom in Darlington Street was also the centre of a radio network that controlled a fleet of service vans. This enabled customers to receive service within minutes of making a telephone call. Demonstrations of cookery, washing and refrigeration were given by the Gas Board’s Home Service Advisers and a number of the company’s engineers, who specialised in designing gas equipment for industrial processes operated an advisory service for manufacturers. 

Architects: Richard Twentyman 1939.

Nineteen Waterloo Road latterly First City House formerly home to Eagle Star Insurance 1970

8-10 Waterloo Road architects: Richard Twentyman 1959 extended 1966.

31 Waterloo Road – Waterloo Court architects: Kenneth Wakeford, Jerram & Harris 1972

Right turn to the Telephone Exchange

Architects: NHA Gallagher of the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works and Clifford Culpin & Partners job architect Leslie Parrett 1971.

Around the bend to The Halls – once the Civic Halls.

Architects: Lyons and Israel 1936-38

Refurbished 2003 by Penoyre & Presad with more alterations in 2021 by Jacobs consulting engineers.

RIBA pix – 1939

Over the road to the Civic Centre.

Architects: Clifford Culpin & Partners 1974-79.

We end our Wolverhampton wander at the College of Art and Design

Architects: Diamond Redfern and Partners with A Chapman Borough Architect 1969

Huge thanks to Tom Hicks aka Black Country Type for his invaluable assistance.

Postcards from Swansea

Posted on by modernmoocher

Obliquely beginning with a postcard to Swansea

A Swansea man has been left scratching his head after receiving a postcard from Spain 29 years after it was sent.

The card, dated September 25 1986, dropped through the letterbox of Gethin Davies from Bonymaen.

Bearing two 1980s Spanish stamps and a British second-class stamp, it was sent by someone called Phyl, to a Mrs E Leon.

Mr Davies now hopes to reunite it with the person it was intended for.

Princess of Wales Court

In his postcard, Phyl writes that the weather is nice, he has a self-catering apartment near a pond, but complains about the expensive cost of Spanish bread at £1 a loaf. 

Although it was delivered to the right address on the card, Mr Davies said he has no clue who either Phyl or Mrs Leon could be.

I’ve been baffled by it really.

I suppose Mrs Leon once lived in my flat, but I’ve asked around neighbours who have lived here twenty or thirty years, and none of them have ever heard of her.

The Post Office say they have no idea what could have happened to the postcard for twenty nine years, may be it got stuck in a sorting machine, may be given that it’s got both British and Spanish stamps on it, someone found it and posted it on.

Really I’d just like to find out who either Phyl or Mrs Leon are, so I could finally give it to them after all this time.

Curiously the story does not reproduce the picture of the picture postcard.

Dear Eddie, this is a very pleasant place and the weather is just right. The food is very expensive though over £1 for a loaf of bread! We have a self catering little apartment by the side of a pond complete with ducks.

Love Phil xxx

September 25th 1986

BBC Wales

My interest is in both sides of the subject – the choice of picture and the carefully composed message on the obverse.

I have written concerning shopping precincts and shopping precinct postcards and often make reference to postcards when compiling posts about places.

There is something very poignant about the handwritten reportage of holidays past and also a sadness attached to the blank other side -sentiments forever unsent.

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all

We are all going somewhere or nowhere or other – we report back.

Having a nice relaxing holiday. Not had good weather. Got caught in rain on Friday have lost my voice. Uncle Jim laughing

Auntie Ethel & Jim

Hope Leslies finger is coming on alright

20th August 1968

Hello Sharon, hope you are as happy as can be. Sorry I can’t tell you anything about your country, as I’ve never been; not yet anyway.

Bye Don

23rd April 1979

Dear Rita, here we are enjoying our holiday with Frank, Jacky & Stuart. The weather has been very poor, but there is an improvement today. Hope all is well with you. Lynn her husband and the little ones are visiting on thursday, so we shall have a real tea-party.

Everyone joins in sending love to you.

Frank & Irene

July 23rd 1985

David, Best Wishes

From

Steve

Swansea University

Wish we were there?

Chorley Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

I arrived at Chorley Railway Station.

The current railway station is a modern version from the 1980s that was built on top of the original station. The level of the old platforms can be seen under the existing station’s two platforms which are connected by underpass. The initial station was opened on 22 December 1841 by the Bolton and Preston Railway – which later became part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and was subsequently served by the Lancashire Union Railway between St Helens, Wigan North Western and Blackburn from 1869.

Passenger trains over this route between Blackburn & Wigan were however withdrawn in January 1960. Further work was done in 2016 and 2017 in connection with the electrification of the line between Euxton Junction and Manchester.

Wikipedia

Crossed over to the Interchange – which was formerly a humble bus station, opened in February 2003 replacing the previous structure.

Across the way a stand of shops with distinctive faience fascias.

Further along the Shepherds’ Victoria Hall – once home to the Jubilee of the Ancient Order of Shepherds’ Friendly Society which was quite prominent in Chorley in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s

Down the way a ways a Baptist Chapel of 1845 on Chapel Street – currently trading as Malcolm’s Musicland.

Next door the Chorley Town Cafe with some excellent stained glass.

Hang a sharp right to the Market – where there is this newish piece of public art Pattern of Life a bronze relief by Diane Gorvin and mosaic work by Tracey Cartledge

This piece involves an innovative combination of cast bronze and ceramic mosaic. Two bronze relief panels display female figures holding out rolls of fabric, each decorated with patterns and images that are particular to the town of Chorley. Payphones, for example were invented and manufactured in Chorley, the crested newt is protected here and you might also notice the famous Chorley Cakes. As the fabrics tumble down, the designs are translated from bronze relief on the wall surface into 2D mosaic in the pavement.

Looking down Fazakerley Street to where Fine Fare once was.

We’ll return to such matters in a moment – we have to get to the Post Office – which is no longer a Post Office.

Architect Charles Wilkinson.

It was a Post Office in 1935 – it also has a later extension.

The local list declares that the post office dates from 1935. This is almost certainly erroneous since the contract documents date from 1924, and from contract to completion the average construction and fitting-out time was about 18 months.

British Post Office Buildings

Happily, the Library is still a library.

Plans supplied by the Architects Messrs. Cheers & Smith of Blackburn which were approved by the Education Committee on the 18th August 1904 – design proposals for the new Technical School entitled Light and Air.

The considerable task of erecting the school was given to the local builder Mr. William Hampson of Pall Mall.

Surely the envy of his trade, the total contract was worth a mouth- watering £10,041 15s. 9d. – approx. £720,000 today.

The building was officially opened by the 16th Earl of Derby on September 24th 1906.

Chorley History Society

Heading to the Council Offices.

Over the road the town’s newest retail development Market Walk – the work of AEW Architects.

Chorley Council bought the shopping centre from Orchard Street Investments for £23m in 2013 and commenced a large-scale regeneration scheme in 2018 involving a £15m, 79,000 sq ft retail and leisure extension led by main contractor Eric Wright Group and designed by AEW Architects. Here, Conrad Heald of Chorley Council tells his interviewer, AEW director Phil Hepworth, how the scheme came to fruition and has rejuvenated the town centre.

Place North West

The memorial re-sited in 2018 commemorates the Chorley Pals.

In less than 20 minutes, 235 of the 720 men from the 11th East Lancs. were killed. Another 350 were wounded, of which 17 would eventually succumb to their wounds. Many of the Battalion died where they fell, in No Man’s Land.

As a result of the attack on the morning of the 1st July, the Chorley Pals – Y Company, had 31 men killed and three died within a month of their wounds received on that day. 21 have no known graves and their names are transcribed on the Thiepval memorial to the Missing on the Somme battlefield. A further 59 were wounded, making a total of 93 casualties out of approximately 175 men from Chorley who went over the top that morning.

Landscaping of the public realm by CW Studio.

Reversing now to the former Barclays Bank – which closed earlier in 2022.

We return now to the former Fine Fare.

The company began as one single supermarket in Welwyn Garden City in 1951, as an offshoot of the Welwyn Department Store, owned by Howardsgate Holdings, the company of Ebenezer Howard, the founder of the garden city movement.

Wikipedia

Now here’s a thing a bank which is a bank NatWest not gone west.

Next to the former Woolworths, opened in Chorley in 1930 on Market Street, with its pale Deco faience fascia.

They traded from this building for sixty five years, before closing in March 1995 in order to move to a new store on Market Walk – it became an Argos, then it didn’t.

Woolies Buildings

Here we are now at a Post Office that is a Post Office but was an RBS Bank.

The new location is at the former Royal Bank of Scotland on Market Street in the town centre.

Since the Post Office that was based at WH Smith on New Market Street came to an end, when that store closed in January, it relocated to a temporary unit in Market Walk until a permanent solution could be found.

The unit, which had been provided by the postmaster from Burscough Bridge Post Office, closed on Tuesday.

Kenny Lamont, Post Office Network Provision Manager, said a Post Office is important to a community.

Lancashire Post

This had been a Methodist Church – then, it became the HQ of the Lancashire Electric Power Company.

The Lancashire Electric Power Company was one of the largest private electricity companies in the UK. It was established in 1900 and generated and supplied electricity to 1,200 squares miles of Lancashire from 1905 until its abolition under nationalisation in 1948.

Wikipedia

Time to back track to the Cop Shop – the work of County Architect Roger Booth and crew.

The Magistrates’ Courts are closed and up for sale.

Next door the White Hart once upon a time the Snooty Fox, a pub with an up and down trajectory – currently open and described online as plush.

Down the road a pub no longer a pub but an Urban Spa.

We offer you a full range of professional treatments tailored to your own personal needs. We treat every client as an individual and offer an extensive range of treatments and professional products making your visit one to remember.

Let’s go to the theatre – The Empire tucked away at the back of town.

The Empire Electric Theatre opened, as the town’s first purpose-built cinema, on 3rd September 1910. In 1912 Archie Hooley began his connection with the cinema business at the Empire Electric Theatre. By 1927 it had been re-named Empire Cinema and by 1930 it was equipped with a Western Electricsound system and was operated by the Perfecto Filmograph Co. Ltd. By 1939 it was operated by the Snape & Ward chain. According to the Kine Year Books, in 1940 the seating was for 800, while by 1952 it had been reduced to 679 – still a far cry from today’s 236 seats. 3D films were shown in the early-1950’s. Archie had died in 1944; his son Selwyn closed the cinema in 1957, apparently “because of the taxes”.

1959

Wrestling took over for a while before Chorley Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society – CADOS acquired the building and renamed it the Chorley Little Theatre. Since 1960 CADOS have been putting on high-quality productions, presenting at least six productions per season – from September to July. It is also the home of the award-winning Chorley Youth Theatre who meet every Saturday, putting on shows throughout the year; and Chorley Empire Community Cinema who present the cinema experience on their 21ft wide screen with 8-Speaker Surround Sound. Run entirely by volunteers the theatre has state-of-the-art sound systems and a full range of lighting equipment. There are two spacious dressing rooms, space for costumes and props and the Empire Bar. The building has disabled access throughout the public area, including a toilet, and the auditorium is fitted with a hearing loop. There are three spaces for wheelchairs in the auditorium. It was re-named Chorley Empire Cinema at Chorley Theatre in October 2019 and films are still part of the programming.

Cinema Treasures

Spare a thought for the town’s lost cinemas:

The Odeon Market Street was built for and operated by Oscar Deutsch’s Odeon Theatres Ltd. chain, it opened on 21st February 1938 with Jack Buchanan in The Sky’s the Limit.

Architect Harry Weedon was assisted by PJ Price.

It was closed by the Rank Organisation on 6th February 1971 with George Lazenby in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. After laying closed and un-used for over two years it was sold to an independent bingo operator and re-opened on 9th August 1973 as a Tudor Bingo Club. It later became a Gala Bingo Club which was renamed Buzz Bingo Club in June 2018. It was closed on March 21, 2020 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. On 15th July 2020 it was announced that the closure would be permanent.

The building was handed over to Chorley Council who decided that asbestos removal would be too costly and the building was demolished in August 2021.

Located on Salisbury Street, off Cunliffe Street, built in 1888 as a military warehouse, it was converted into a roller skating rink around 1909. It opened as the Pavilion Picture Palace on 14th September 1911, operated by George Testo Sante, a music hall strong man, who also operated the Grand Theatre as a cinema. By 1915, music hall acts were also part of the programme. After the end of World War I, the flat floor of the cinema was raked, allowing for better viewing of the screen. The proscenium was 30ft wide, the stage was 16 feet deep and there were two dressing rooms.

The Pavilion Cinema was the first in town to screen ‘talkies, when an Electrochord sound system was installed in 1929. It was taken over by the J.F. Emery Circuit in 1932 and they operated it until the end of 1933. The sound system was upgraded to a British Talking Pictures sound system. In 1954 it was the first cinema in town to be fitted with CinemaScope and the proscenium was widened to 36 feet.

The Pavilion Cinema was closed by 1962 and converted into a bingo club. In 1972 it was re-opened as a cinema again, but due to Star Cinemas chain barring it from showing first run features – they operated the Plaza Cinema, it was closed after 5 months of operation. It was later demolished and the area was redeveloped for housing.

Cinema Treasures

No trace of The Hippodrome Theatre on Gillibrand Street, which was built and opened in 1909, or the Theatre Royal, opened on 30th September 1911, It was demolished in 1959.

A supermarket was built on the site which later became a McDonalds, which is now a Pizza Hut.

Last but not least – located on the Flat Iron Parade, aka Cattle Market, The Grand Theatre was a wooden building built in 1885, which presented melodramas and plays. In June 1909 it was taken over by George Testo Santo, who had been a music hall strongman, and his family. It went over to operating as a Picture Palace for a short season.

By 1914 it was operating as a full time cinema, but was destroyed by fire in 1914.

Chorley Theatre Cinema History Map

This was a splendid day out – there is much more to see, these have been some of the less obvious landmarks.

Go see for y’self!

Joyce Pallot and Henry Collins – Gwent House Cwmbran

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Gwent House is the home of the District Council Offices for Torfaen and the Public Library. Used by HM Courts Service and HCMS – South East Wales, the building is a seven story structure with retail space on the ground floor and open plan office space above. Built during the 1970s as a local government building, it is constructed with a steel and concrete frame with wall to wall double glazed windows and a flat roof.

Gwent House sits on the east side of Gwent Square at the heart of Cwmbran New Town’s centre. The ‘Central Building’ as it was known during development was conceived by the Cwmbran Development Corporation, as a mixed development of leisure (including a club, dance hall and hotel) and office accommodation with retail to the ground floor. this was to expand the function of the town centre beyond purely a shopping centre, and to address the perceived lack of ‘professional’ office jobs. In the event, the offices proved difficult to let and were occupied by the CDC and Cwmbran Urban District Council. 

The building was designed by Sheppard, Robson & Partners and opened on the 18th January 1973. The eight-storey, concrete framed block included a job centre, the library, a conference and exhibition hall, and three restaurants catering for different tastes and age ranges, including the ‘Sign of the Steer’. 

On the west side of the building are a series of three moulded concrete relief panels designed by Joyce Pallot and Henry Collins for the MEPC, the Cwmbran Development Corporation and the Cwmbran Arts Trust in 1974. The panels depict scenes representing different phases of the history of Gwent: Iron Age and Roman, Medieval and Industrial.

Coflein

The work of Joyce and Henry is well known here at the modern mooch having visited Newcastle, Bexhill and of course Stockport. There are also examples in their hometown Colchester, Gloucester and Southampton.

Joyce Pallot 1912-2004 and Henry Collins 1910-1994 – two artist/designers, who along with John Nash, established the Colchester Art Society, during the 1930s.

The square it seems is due to be revamped as part of the broader regeneration plans.

Literature displayed at the public consultation said improvements in Monmouth Square aim to -introduce colour into what is a lacklustre space.

South Wales Argus 2017

One hopes that these important public arts work survive the transformation.

September 2022 the bandstand was demolished.

Photo: Rhiannon Jones

Lia Jones said:

The bandstand was a well-known centre point for the area. I really wish it had been kept in the design for the area, they should have relocated it instead of getting rid of it all together.

South Wales Argus 2022

City Hall – Leicester

Posted on by modernmoocher

Architects: Barnish and Silcock 1938

The medieval Leicester Guildhall was used as the Town Hall for around 300 years. By the mid-19th Century much larger premises were needed to support a rapidly growing industrial centre.  The Victorian Town Hall was opened in 1876 on the site of the old cattle market.

In 1919, Leicester was recognised as a city. It continued to expand, along with its Council. Conditions in the Town Hall soon became cramped and some departments began to move out. By 1930 it was agreed new municipal offices were needed to centralize the Housing, Electricity, Rates, Motor Licence and Valuation departments. They would form part of a major redevelopment of Charles Street, the so-called quarter of a million pound building on a million pound road.

The modest opening ceremony took place on 7th November 1938. In his speech the Lord Mayor, Councillor Frank Acton, said it was a privilege to open “this long sought-after and wonderful place.”  A stone tablet to mark the event can be seen opposite the reception desk in the entrance foyer. The building was designed to command attention and respect, and conform to a modern desire for simplicity. Clad in Portland Stone, its interior included many elegant Art Deco features, many of which have been restored.

Story of Leicester

The refurbishment was undertaken by Franklin Ellis Architects.

The office floors accommodate workstations for 480 staff, together with breakout areas and meeting rooms. The project included re-purposing original municipal spaces for new assembly functions; restoring period features; and providing a dignified civic interior appropriate to the functions of the Council. An environmentally conscious servicing solution minimises the building’s energy usage.

Attenborough Hall

By the 1930s, demand for electricity was growing rapidly. The Municipal Offices housed the Leicester Corporation Electricity Department (later the East Midland Electricity Board) and were specially furnished with a model kitchen for:

Housewives who are interested in the modern uses of electricity in the home.

A special theatre also presented weekly cookery demonstrations and a Service Centre displayed, sold and hired out electrical appliances.

The theatre is still extant, though sadly no longer available for cookery demonstrations.

On the back wall this mural remains as a reminder of the theatre’s the former use.

Many thanks to Grant Butterworth – Head of Planning, for negotiating access to the hall and accompanying us on our Modernist Mooch.

In the 1960s a nuclear bunker was constructed. This was one of many across the country built by local authorities to protect key personnel from radiation in the event of an attack, enabling some form of government to continue. Today, the bunker has long gone, and the basement of City Hall is now used as a storage area.

By 1963 the De Montfort Hall Box Office was located in the building.  This caused chaotic scenes in Charles Street when, in October of that year, around 3,000 youngsters queued all night for tickets to see The Beatles. When the Box Office opened at 9:30am, the queue stretched back to Humberstone Gate and was held in check by a pitifully thin line of police. The Leicester Mercury described the scene as:

A heaving, shouting, screaming, unruly, undignified, disorderly mob – a disgraceful night.

Pressure from the crowd caused a 10 foot square window in Halford´s shop to break.  With all the tickets sold, the crowd dispersed and the Leicester Mercury said Charles Street resembled

A filthy, unswept ghost street, badly in need of the cleaners to remove the mountains of waste paper and return its respectability. 

With thanks again to the Story of Leicester.

Civic Centre – East Kilbride

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I walked from St Bride’s Church, through a valley to East Kilbride Civic Centre

Commissioned by the burgh of East Kilbride, was designed by Scott Fraser & Browning, built by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts and completed in 1966.

Accommodating Ballerup Hall.

Ballerup Hall is located within East Kilbride Civic Centre and takes its name from its twin town Ballerup, which is near Copenhagen in Denmark. The hall comprises a main hall with stage, kitchen facilities and a bar servery. The adjoining district court room is available after office hours for a limited range of activities.

SLL&C

The stars of British Championship Wrestling return to East Kilbride with a star-studded line up including The Cowboy James Storm and all your favourite BCW Superstars!

I missed the missing link twixt Roddy Frame and the Civic Centre.

If you were lucky enough to catch the 2013 concerts in which Frame marked the 30th anniversary of High Land Hard Rain by playing Aztec Camera’s seminal debut album live, you’ll already have seen Anne’s pictures. Before getting to High Land Hard Rain itself in those shows, Frame treated audiences to a rare set drawn from what he termed his East Kilbride period – the songs he was writing as a teenager that would appear on Aztec Camera’s two Postcard singles, and form the basis of the band’s legendarily unreleased Postcard album, Green Jacket Grey.

While he played those tunes, huge, striking black and white images of his old hometown appeared as a backdrop behind him, setting exactly the right fragile, retro-future new town mood of post-industrial Fahrenheit 451 urban development.

Glasgow Music City

There are plans for redevelopment:

A strategic masterplan for East Kilbride town centre which could see a new purpose-built civic facility is to be put before the council next month.

Last March we told how radical new plans could see the crumbling Civic Centre replaced with – a new front door to East Kilbride.

Despite there being no specific proposals agreed at this stage, South Lanarkshire Council has confirmed that agents of the owners are set to present their strategic masterplan to elected members in February.

Daily Record

It currently sits by the shopping centre and a patch of empty ground.

Several imposing interlocking volumes, formed by pre-cast concrete panels.

East Kilbride was the first new town built in Scotland in 1947. New Town designation was a pragmatic attempt to soak up some of the population from an overcrowded and war ravaged Glasgow. Its design was indeed an anathema to the chaotic and sprawling Glasgow: clean straight lines, modern accessible public spaces; and footways, bridges and underpasses built with the pedestrian in mind. It was designed as a self contained community — with industry, shops, recreation facilities and accommodation all within a planned geographic area.

Medium

On a quiet Saturday morning in April, approaching through an underpass or two, I arrived at the shopping centre.

Then circumnavigated the Civic Centre.

The cost of getting married in East Kilbride will rise by up to 39 per cent.

Couples currently pay £217 for a council official to carry out their service on a Saturday – this will increase to £250.

On Fridays, the next most popular day, the cost will rise to £120 from £87.50.

Getting married Monday to Thursday still represents the best value, but the rise from £72 to £100 represents the highest in percentage terms.

Daily Record

Wigan Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

Arriving at Wigan Wallgate turn left and left and right.

Tucked away along Clarence Yard is the former Princes Cinema.

Photo: Ian Grundy

Where once upon a time the flat capped and hatted audience queued at length, for a glimpse of Dracula and Frankenstein.

Opened in 1934 and closed on 10th January 1970 with a screening of The Mad Room.

Cinema Treasures

It has subsequently been in use as a nightclub.

Back out onto Dorning Street in search of telephone exchanges, three telephone exchanges.

Inter-war

Sixties.

Seventies.

Just around the corner is an expansive GPO Sorting Office of 1959.

Across the way is the Technical College.

The foundations of Wigan & Leigh College date back to 1857, and the current institution was formed in April 1992 through the merger of Wigan College of Technology and Leigh College.

Partly formed from the Thomas Linacre Technical School.

Architects: Howard V Lobb G Grenfell Bains & Hargreaves 1954

School Hall – RIBA Pix

Curious decorative brick motif – a floor plan of the building.

My thanks to Mark Watson for his erudition and insight.

Across the road the former Grammar School now an NHS Centre.

Wigan Grammar School was founded in 1597 and closed in 1972 as part of the comprehensive education movement. it became Mesnes High School until 1989, and then the Mesnes Building of Wigan College.

It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1997.

Architect: A E Munby

Since 2003, it has been known as the Thomas Linacre Centre and is an out-patient department for the Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust.

Let’s head back into town and along Standishgate.

Former Burton Tailors – possibly.

Turn left into Millgate to see the boarded up Civic Centre.

Formerly not boarded up Civic Centre.

Across the way the new Library and Life Centre by Astudio and LCE Architects

Down the road to where the International Swimming Pool was – opened 1968.

Demolished 2010

Scholes Comprehensive Development 1964 – five thirteen storey blocks.

Moving down the street to the former Police Station now Premier Inn on Harrogate Street.

Lancashire County Architect: Roger Booth

Flickr

Next door the Post Modern brick monolith of the Wigan and Leigh Courthouse 1990.

Then back up along King Street to visit the Job Centre.

Take a look up at the Royal Court Theatre – 1886 Richard T Johnson

Then back up toward the centre to the County Playhouse.

Construction began on the County Playhouse in 1916. However, due to a shortage of materials and labour during World War I, it was not completed until 1919.

Finally opened on 22nd December 1919 with The Peril Within – starring Dorothy Gish.

Onwards to the Wallgate News.

Finally to The George public house.

All ages, all different, all characters all like a bevvy.

The George is all you need.

Billingham

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Whilst cycling twixt Redcar and Newcastle one sunny Monday morn, I espied a tower on the distant horizon.

I pedalled hurriedly along and this is what I found.

Dawson House aka Kingsway.

A fifteen-storey circular tower block of 60 one-bedroom flats and 29 two-bedroom flats, making 89 dwellings in total. The block was built as public housing at the western fringe of the Town Centre development that began in 1952. Approved in 1973, the block is of triangular concrete-beam construction.

The architects were Elder Lester Associates.

The block was built by Teeside County Borough Council.

Stanley Miller Ltd.’s tender for the contract was £778,850.

The tower block was opened on 3rd April 1975 by the Mayor of Stockton Borough Council, John Dyson.

The block is described as ‘gimmicky circular tower block’ in The Buildings of England: County Durham by N. Pevsner.

Historic England

Across the way the cosmically named Astronaut pub known locally as the Aggy.

Though all it seems, is not well in outer space:

Locals say punters are creating a giant toilet next to a Billingham pub – and performing sex acts.

I wouldn’t disregard what they say, and I can’t say that didn’t happen, said boss Jordan Mulloy.

I know urinating goes on from time to time but people do it outside every pub – anyone I catch doing it will be barred.

Teeside News

The pub stands at the outer edge of the West Precinct.

The precinct sits beneath the Civic Offices.

And has a ramp leading to the roof top parking.

Next door the earlier Queensway Centre.

The Family unveiled by HRM Queen Elizabeth II in 1967 the country’s first pedestrianised precinct.

Edward Bainbridge Copnall 

In November 2013, a time capsule was buried in front of The Family, under a stone with the inscription Forever Forward 30 11 2013.

The capsule is not to be unearthed until the year 2078.

Twenty million pound bid to take back control of the centre of Billingham.

The council says: Proposals include addressing the physical condition of Billingham town centre in support the Council’s ambition to take back control of the centre. Redevelopment would solve the challenges of changing retail trends that are contributing towards excess retail space and high vacancy rates.

This includes exploring options for mixed-use redevelopment and high-quality public spaces that improve accessibility within the town centre and a modern retail offering.

Hartlepool Mail.

Missing in action – La Ronde aka Eleanor Rigby’s.

Built in 1968 by local architects Elder Lester and Partners as part of the expansive plans for the town centre along with the Forum, La Ronde nightclub was to form part of the expansive plans for Billingham focused on the pursuit of increased leisure time.

La Ronde’s distinct cylindrical form comes from the car park access ramp that winds around the stair core to the upper floors of the club. The elevated drum-like form inset with cross latticed concrete webs was cast entirely in-situ.

In 2006, the council demolished La Ronde and Forum House at the cost of £500,000 to make way for a supermarket.

The Forum

In 1960, Billingham Urban District Council, began one of the most ambitious new leisure centres in Europe. The Forum was funded by the district’s new-found wealth – a product of the local petrochemical industry.  It was designed by local architects Elder Lester and Partners and brought together a variety of recreational activities including an ice rink, swimming pool, sports centre, theatre, and bar all under one roof. The Forum opened in July 1967 to great enthusiasm.  Weekly attendance over the first six months was between 20 000 and 30 000 people, far exceeding all expectations.

The inclusion of the theatre alongside the sports facilities broke new ground in recreational planning and in the shift from sport to the broader notion of ‘leisure’, the Forum predated architectural thinking of the time by nearly a decade.  The building’s form is derived from the functions within, expressed in a variety of bulbous elements.  The most distinctive is the canopy of the ice rink roof which is hung using steel cables running the length of the roof and cross-braced to achieve a clear 73m span.

Something Concrete and Modern

Hull Walk 2021

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Turn right out of the station toward the Cecil Cinema.

The Theatre De-Luxe was built in 1911 at the corner of Anlaby Road and Ferensway with its entrance in Anlaby Road and its auditorium along the side of the pavement in Ferensway. Kinematograph Year Book of 1914 lists 600 seats and the owners as National Electric Picture Theatres Ltd.

In 1925, the theatre was rebuilt to a radically altered ground-plan and renamed the Cecil Theatre. 

The Cecil Theatre’s demise came during bombing on the night of 7/8 May 1941 when German incendiary bombs reduced the building to a shell; and it remained like that until demolition in 1953.

Work on the new Cecil Theatre was begun in April 1955 and it was opened on 28th November 1955 with 1,374 seats in the stalls and 678 in the balcony.

Architects: Gelder and Kitchca

At the time of opening it had the largest CinemaScope screen in the country measuring 57 feet wide, and the first film shown was Marilyn Monroe The Seven Year Itch.

In the 1980’s it was taken over by the Cannon Cinemas chain. The cinema operation was closed on 23rd March 1992 and the cinemas were ‘For Sale and/or Lease. It was taken over by Take Two Cinemas and renamed Take Two Cinema. It was closed on 27th February 1997 and the two screens in the former circle were stripped out and converted into a snooker club.

Whilst bingo continues in the former stalls area of this post war 
cinema, the former mini cinemas in the circle still contain the snooker tables, but the space is unused. The screen in the former restaurant/cafe area remains basically intact, but is unused.

Cinema Treasures

Whilst circumnavigating the Cecil one can’t help but notice the KCOM HQ – and its distinctive white telephone kiosks.

The work of City Architect A Rankine OBE RIBA

When Hull City Council founded KCOM back in 1904, as Hull Telephone Department, it was one of several local authorities across the country granted a licence to run its own phone network.

1952 Call Father Christmas service was introduced.

Having heard of a recorded message service in Scandinavia, Hull Councillor J M Stamper suggested the idea of putting Father Christmas on the telephone. The Call Father Christmas service was introduced shortly afterwards, the first of its kind in the UK. By dialling a Hull Central number children could hear recordings of a Christmas story and carol singing. 

The success of the Father Christmas service led to the creation of other recorded information lines, such as Bedtime Stories, Teledisc and Telechef. 

This recipe line was introduced in 1950s and was still going strong until the 1990’s, with 50s recipes such as meat loaf and corned beef with cabbages being replaced by dishes such as Italian Chicken Bake.

Returning to Ferensway we are confronted by the Danish Seaman’s Church.

Sea trade created a large Danish community which Hull’s very own Amy Johnson was descended from. Her grandfather was Anders Jorgensen, who anglicised his name to the more pronounceable Andrew Johnson. A Danish pastor was appointed and an old chapel in Osborne Street was purchased in 1841.

It was on May 9, 1954, that the present church, with its now familiar separate bell tower, was consecrated by the Bishop of Copenhagen.

Around the corner we find Porter Street Housing.

Hull was the most severely damaged British city or town during the Second World War, with 95 percent of houses damaged. It was under air raid alert for one thousand hours. Hull was the target of the first daylight raid of the war and the last piloted air raid on Britain.

Of a population of approximately three hundred and twenty thousand at the beginning of the war, approximately one hundred and fifty two thousand were made homeless as a result of bomb destruction or damage. 

Overall almost one thousand two hundred people were killed and three thousand injured by air raids.

Despite the damage the port continued to function throughout the war.

The earliest housing was built just after World War II, starting with what is known locally as Australia Houses. 

A circular five storey housing block off Porter and Adelaide Streets, with a communal garden in the middle. These flats consist of deck access flats and some traditional style Art Deco tenements. Some are three bedroom, and have been refurbished over the years.

UK Housing

Porter Street – three six-storey blocks containing seventy dwellings of 1954

Contractor J Mather

New Michael Street and Melville Street aka Upper Union Street one hundred and eight dwellings in three nine-storey blocks of 1958

Contractor Truscon

The designer behind Hull’s tower blocks was Andrew Rankine RIBA, who from 1939 remained City Architect until his retirement in 1961.

Just around the corner:

Over the last three years both companies have worked on undertaking the complex development of an off-site constructed, low carbon, Code 5 housing product. Working with Hodson Architects on the design the project will provide 3-bed family houses on the Thornton Estate in Hull. The scheme will increase provision of suitably sized accommodation in the area for families.

The project will see Premier Interlink manufacture the steel framed modules at the factory in Brandesburton East Yorkshire starting this March. The five houses are to be prefabricated off-site, with each house comprising of four separate units which are then assembled on site. This offers the benefit of reducing construction time, improving efficiency, reducing material wastage and offering an improved thermal envelope.

Premier Modular

The Goodwin Trust, a brilliant and pioneering community group, decided the new version of pre-fab, or ‘modular’ housing, was exactly what was needed to provide affordable housing for the people it also cares for in so many other different ways.

Locality

Onward to Holy Apostles Church now home to Hull Truck and renamed Thornton Village Hall.

Architects: Ferrey and Mennim

Back toward the station and Hammonds of Hull/House of Fraser – soon to be a food court, artisan everything outlet.

Built in 1952 on Paragon Square to designs by T. P. Bennett, with extensions added in 1954 and 1957. Within a couple of years the business had grown again by opening its own hairdressing salon, and in 1960 added a new warehouse to accommodate their furniture workshops and stock rooms. This itself was extended within four years, while a fourth floor was added to the main store.

On the right a civic building Festival House of 1951.

Architect: John Brandon-Jones.

Apprenticed to Lutyens‘ assistant Oswald Milne and later working with Charles Cowles-Voysey

With his good friend, John Betjeman, he helped found the Victorian Society in 1958.

On 1st May 1951, the foundation stone of Festival House was laid, to commemorate the first permanent building to be built in the city centre since the 1941 Blitz. Placed under the stone was a time capsule containing coins, stamps, a Festival of Britain programme, a copy of that day’s Hull Daily Mail, and a booklet about the city. Festival House was owned by Hull Corporation on behalf of the people of Hull.

Before us Alan Boyson’s Three Ships – now listed and set for preservation.

The fate of the attached former CO-OP/BHS is less secure.

Architect: Philip Andrew

Onward to the Queens Gardens the almost filled in former Queens Dock – forever fourteen feet below sea level.

We encounter Tonkin Liu’s Solar Gate – a sundial that uses solar alignment to mark significant times and dates in Hull. The super-light innovative two-shell structure is place-specific, responding to pivotal historic events and to the cultural context of its location in Hull’s Queens Gardens adjacent to the ancient site of Beverley Gate.

Carved stone panels Kenneth Carter 1960 – Ken’s art career began as an inspiring teacher, first at his alma mater, Hull College of Art, and later as principal lecturer at Exeter College of Art.

A number of decorative fountains featured in the ponds; those at the eastern end designed as part of the sculptured panels of 1960, by Robert Adams, described by Herbert Read as belonging to: 

The iconography of despair. Here are images of flight, of ragged claws, scuttling across floors of silent seas, of excoriated flesh, frustrated sex, the geometry of fear.

And behind we glimpse Frederick Gibberd’s fine Technical College.

Adorned by the William Mitchell relief.

Porstmouth

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Having cycled here from Southampton, we now had time to cool our heels and look around.

Tim Rushton and I were Fine Art students here in the 1970’s, eager to take a trip down Memory Lane to Lion Terrace.

We’ll get there in a bit.

We took a look along The Hard discovering pubs that we never went in which are no longer pubs.

This pub was built in 1900, possibly on the site of an earlier pub. For most of its history it was tied to the Brickwood’s Brewery of Portsmouth. 

The pub closed in 1970 to become a restaurant, before becoming an estate agents offices.

The pub sign appeared in the 1971 film Carry On At Your Convenience.

Many Brickwoods’ pubs were ever so elegantly tiled, though the beer was largely undrinkable.

Just along the way another pub which we never really knew, though still a pub for all that.

Across the water in Gosport our old pals Harbour and Seaward Towers.

Along the way some high quality hard landscaping.

Beneath our feet the smiling face of Pompey!

We resisted the charming period charms of the Clarence Pier

The pier was originally constructed and opened in 1861 by the Prince and Princess of Wales and boasted a regular ferry service to the Isle of Wight.

It was damaged by air raids during World War II and was reopened in its current form on 1 June 1961 after being rebuilt by local architects AE Cogswell & Sons and R Lewis Reynish.

Mind the Baby Mr. Bean an episode of British TV comedy series Mr. Bean was filmed on location at Clarence Pier.

Wikipedia

Tim wisely eschews the Wimpy.

Lyons obtained a licence to use the Wimpy brand in the United Kingdom from Edward Gold’s Chicago based Wimpy Grills Inc. and, in 1954, the first Wimpy Bar was established at the Lyons Corner House in Coventry Street, London. The bar began as a special fast food section within traditional Corner House restaurants, but the success soon led to the establishment of separate Wimpy restaurants serving only hamburger-based meals.

In a 1955 newspaper column, Art Buchwald, syndicated writer for the Washington Post, wrote about the recent opening of a Wimpy’s Hamburger Parlor on Coventry Street and about the influence of American culture on the British.

Buchwald wrote:

Food served at the table within ten minutes of ordering and with atomic age efficiency. No cutlery needed or given. Drinks served in a bottle with a straw. Condiments in pre-packaged single serving packets.

In addition to familiar Wimpy burgers and milkshakes, the British franchise had served ham or sardine rolls called Torpedoes and a cold frankfurter with pickled cucumber sandwiches called Freddies.

During the 1970s Wimpy refused entry to women on their own after midnight.

Moving along eye spy the Isle of Wight Ferry through the Hovertravel window.

Hovertravel is now the world’s oldest hovercraft operator, and this service is believed to be unique in western Europe. 

It is the world’s only commercial passenger hovercraft service.

The operator’s principal service operates between Southsea Common on the English mainland and Ryde Transport Interchange on the Isle of Wight: the crossing time of less than 10 minutes makes it the fastest route across The Solent from land to land. 

This service commenced operations in 1965, Hovertravel currently operates two 12000TD hovercraft on a single route between Ryde and Southsea.

Wikipedia 

We took a turn into the back streets to visit our old home 20 Shaftesbury Road, where Catherine Lusher, Tim and I lived in the basement flats.

Liz Bavister and Trish Frowd lived above

The former Debenham’s is to become flats.

Hampshire Live

Nearby Knight and Lea has been listed

The Knight & Lee building, which is located between two conservation areas on a prominent corner of Palmerston Road and Clarendon Road in Southsea, Portsmouth, was designed by Cotton, Ballard and Blow.

C20

Notable surviving original interior features include spiral staircases with terrazzo flooring in the northwestern and southwestern corner customer entrance vestibules.

A little Stymie Bold Italic aka Profil for your delectation along with a delightful low concrete fence.

A ghostly sign.

The Wheelbarrow where we drank, currently home to Joe and his pizzas.

The former Duchess of Fife in Castle Road long gone Long’s pub

Long & Co Ltd Southsea Brewery

Founded by William Tollervey 1814 and was acquired by Samuel Long in 1839. Registered in March 1924. 

Acquired by Brickwoods Ltd 1933 when brewing ceased.

The Barley Mow my favourite local where we would take a drink later.

Later.

The evening was enlivened by the arrival of a drunken wedding party the bride all in white, veil askew.

The besuited groom three sheets to the wind, mayhem ensued, we departed.

The Grade II Listed India Arms – North part 1902 by AE Cogswell; south part formerly Fishmonger and Game shop 1900, which formed the extension to the public house c1980.

Once part of the long gone Gales Brewery estate.

Founded 1847 when Richard Gale acquired the Ship & Bell home brew house.

Registered in April 1888 with 80 public houses. 

Acquired by Fuller, Smith & Turner Ltd in 2005 with 111 houses and closed.

Now we is at the Borough Arms and other favourite – purveyors of strong rough cider.

Built in 1899 architect AE Cogswell as the Old Vic now listed but no longer a pub

Along with the adjacent Wiltshire Lamb which since the 1980s this pub has had a variety of names including, Drummond’s, Tut ‘n’ Shive, Monty’s and now Hampshire Boulevard, usually shortened to HB.

The Norrish Central Library: city architect Ken Norrish 1976 – is all that remains this Brutal part of Portsmouth.

It faces the stylish new Civic Centre: Teggin & Taylor 1976 – a piazza completed by the adjacent Guildhall.

Alas no more:

The Tricorn Centre was a shopping, nightclub and car park complex, it was designed in the Brutalist style by Owen Luder and Rodney Gordon and took its name from the site’s shape which from the air resembled a tricorn hat.

Constructed in the mid-1960s, it was demolished in 2004.

Next we are by the former Portsmouth Polytechnic Fine Art block in Lion Terrace.

The ground floor corner housed the print room where I learnt my craft under the tutelage of Ian Hunter who we hooked up with for a pint and a chat.

Thanks ever so Ian for everything.

The happy days came to an end when the department was acrimoniously closed during a Hampshire shuffle.

We also cycled out to Langstone Harbour in search of the Arundel Canal lock gates, where Tim had languidly drawn away the hours, too many summers long ago.

After some circuitous searching we finally found them.

We ended a long day in the Barley Mow sharing yet another pint, one of many in our almost fifty year friendship.