When the Victorian church was demolished, traces of several earlier churches were revealed, stretching back to the 9th century. Artefacts found included the stone sarcophagus of Alkmund of Derby, now in Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
Designed by Alexander Buchanan Campbell and named after former Lord Provost Sir Patrick Dollan, it was opened in 1968 as Scotland’s first 50 metre swimming pool.
It consists principally of pre-stressed concrete and imitates a colossal marquee – the vaulted 324 ft parabolic arched roof appears to be held down by pairs of v-shaped struts that meet the ground at a thirty degree angle.
Buchanan Campbell admitted that he had been influenced by the architecture of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan and the designs by Kenzo Tange for the gymnasium there.
In 1993, the international conservation organisation Docomomo International listed Dollan Baths as one of sixty key monuments in Scottish post-war architecture.
The Dollan’s wet recreation facilities include South Lanarkshire’s only 50m swimming pool and SLLC’s most exclusive health suite facility which features a sauna, steam room, sanarium, spa pool and relaxation area.
If you prefer dry recreation facilities then look no further as the Dollan features two gyms. The first is a traditional gym with the latest Life Fitness cardio and HUR compressed-air resistance equipment.
To complement these fantastic facilities there are two fitness studios that play host to a diverse range of fitness and mind, body and soul classes as well as a morning creche.
Sadly, I am neither a water babe nor gym bunny – body, soul and mindfulness are maintained in perfect harmony solely by means of modern mooching.
I walked around, I took a look.
Structural engineering surveys showed that parts of the pool surround and pool tank were in a state of near collapse and emergency work had to be carried out to install temporary structural supports. The centre was closed in October 2008 for major refurbishment, consisting of structural repairs and replacements and the installation of new structural supports. This required a significant amount of structural engineering design input. The structure of the unique roof was not affected.
Substantial redesign and replacement of heating and ventilation and pool water treatment engineering services was carried out. This included new high-efficiency gas-fired boilers, a ventilation system for the swimming pool hall, a combined heat and power system, new water filters, and high-efficiency pumps as part of an upgraded pool water treatment system.
Electrical engineering and lighting systems were almost entirely replaced throughout the building. The external roof covering was replaced and an additional layer of thermal insulation was added to reduce heat loss from the roof and to provide extra protection for the roof structure. New lockers were provided for the changing rooms and the health suite. New tiles were placed for the pool and health suite. The repair work began in July 2009 and the Aqua Centre re-opened on 28 May 2011. The completion of the major repair and refurbishment contract cost over £9 million.
Would that more buildings were saved from the demolition derby.
The wrecking ball has always been the great symbol of urban progress, going hand in hand with dynamite and dust clouds as the politicians’ favourite way of showing they are getting things done. But what if we stopping knocking things down? What if every existing building had to be preserved, adapted and reused, and new buildings could only use what materials were already available? Could we continue to make and remake our cities out of what is already there?
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.
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.
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.
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.
I was walking along St Vincent Street one rainy day.
From the corner of my left eye, I espied a pyramid.
Curious, I took a turn, neither funny nor for the worse, the better to take a closer look.
Following a promotion within the Church of Scotland to construct less hierarchical church buildings in the 1950s, an open-plan Modern design with Brutalist traits, was adapted for the new Anderson Parish Church. The building consists of a 2-storey square-plan church with prominent pyramidal roof, with over 20 rooms. The foundation stone was laid in 1966, with a service of commemoration in the now demolished St Mark’s-Lancefield Church. The building was completed in 1968.
Let’s take a look around outside.
Later that same day, I got a message from my friend Kate to visit her at the centre.
She is charged with co-ordinating a variety of activities at The Pyramid.
In 2019 the Church of Scotland sold the building and it became a community centre for people to:
Connect, create and celebrate.
It also serves as an inspirational space for music, performances, conferences and events.
Let’s take a look around inside.
As a footnote the recent STV Studios produced series SCREW was filmed here!
Architects: David Harvey, Alex Scott & Associates – 1967
The Adam Smith Building, named in honour of the moral philosopher and political economist, Adam Smith, was formally opened on 2 November 1967 by Sydney George Checkland, Professor of Economic History from 1957 to 1982. The building was the first of the University’s multipurpose blocks housing a large number of departments, and a library for Political Economy, Social and Economic Research, Economic History, Political and Social Theory and Institutions, Management Studies, Psychology, Social Psychology, Accountancy, Citizenship, Anthropology, Criminology, Industrial Relations, and the School of Social Study. A records store was provided beneath the Library for the Economic History department to house their rapidly growing collection of business records from the vanishing Clyde shipyards and heavy engineering workshops, which now form part of the Scottish Business Archive held at University of Glasgow Archive Services.
Wandering almost aimlessly around the campus, when the blue mosaic caught my eye.
The glass stairwell drew me in further.
Entering the building I explained myself to the passing janitor:
I’m intrigued by the stairways of 1960s civic buildings.
There are two – he helpfully replied.
Further intrigued I took a good look around – first up one.
Reaching the top and discovering the Lecture Theatre.
Then down the other.
The mosaic mural at the foot of the main staircase was the work of George Garson, the head of the Mural Design and Stained Glass department at the Glasgow School of Art.
A quick look around the outside and then on my way.
Single storey, square-plan pyramidal church with halls adjoining to SW.
Category B Listed
St Mungo’s Parish Church is a striking landmark in the centre of Cumbernauld. Prominently sited on the top of a small hill, the bold copper pyramidal roof is an important landmark. Alan Reiach designed two churches in Cumbernauld, both of which can accommodate 800, Kildrum Church – the earlier of the two. Alan Reiach 1910-1992, who was apprenticed to Sir Robert Lorimer 1864-1929, was primarily involved in the design of public buildings, including churches, schools, universities and hospitals. Noteworthy features of St Mungo’s Parish Church include the bold pyramidal roof, with apex of which forms a roof light lighting the nave of the church, and above this is a pyramidal belfry. The impressive Baltic redwood-lined interior gains natural light from the large central rooflight and clerestory windows.
Sunday morning in Glasgow, I caught the first train out from Queen Street Station.
In October 2017, a £120 million project began on bringing the station up to modern standards, demolishing many of the 1960s buildings and replacing them with a new station concourse, which was completed in 2021.
I arrived in Cumbernauld and walked toward the Central Way and back again.
Cumbernauld was designated as a new town in December 1955, part of a plan, under the New Towns Act 1946, to move 550,000 people out of Glasgow and into new towns to solve the city’s overcrowding. Construction of its town centre began under contractors Duncan Logan, chief architect Leslie Hugh Wilson and architect Geoffrey Copcutt – until 1962 and 1963, and later Dudley Roberts Leaker, Philip Aitken and Neil Dadge.
The flats had acquired a stereotypical bad reputation.
Blight flats will soon be high-rise des-res.
Residents on a blighted Blackley estate have been told of plans to deal with the mostly unoccupied high-rise flats that are seen as the cause of the problem.
I entered via the vehicular access – in order to view the four remaining reliefs.
The Lakeside Rise blocks now form part of a private gated community and are accessed from Blackley New Road.
The original blocks and their locations are as follows:
Ashenhurst Court Now Lakeside 1 Heaton Court Now Lakeside 2 Wilton Court Now Lakeside 3 Blackley Court Now Lakeside 4
Bracknell Court demolished – was on the corner of Riverdale Road and Bridgenorth Road adjacent to Heaton Court Riverdale Court demolished – was on Riverdale Road opposite Bantry Avenue.
ICI’s Dyestuffs Division had its headquarters at Blackley in north Manchester, in a complex known as the Hexagon, which included its main R & D labs, and an experimental manufacturing plant.
The launderette was empty and offered an oasis of oddity in an otherwise predictable day.
There is always a mild sense of trepidation, entering a space devoid of folk, slowly placing footsteps tentatively, over those of the lost souls, that have trodden the worn floor coverings in times past.
Just look over your shoulder – I’ll be there.
Once inside the daylight fades, replaced by tremulous fluorescent tubes, illuminating the discoloured coloured surfaces.
Blown vinyl, damp carpet, dulled stainless steel, tired laminate and pine panels.
The Irk Valley – the damp, dark and dank Irk Valley.
The south bank of the Irk is here very steep and between fifteen and thirty feet high. On this declivitous hillside there are planted three rows of houses, of which the lowest rise directly out of the river, while the front walls of the highest stand on the crest of the hill in Long Millgate. Among them are mills on the river, in short, the method of construction is as crowded and disorderly here as in the lower part of Long Millgate. Right and left a multitude of covered passages lead from the main street into numerous courts, and he who turns in thither gets into a filth and disgusting grime, the equal of which is not to be found – especially in the courts which lead down to the Irk, and which contain unqualifiedly the most horrible dwellings which I have yet beheld. In one of these courts there stands directly at the entrance, at the end of the covered passage, a privy without a door, so dirty that the inhabitants can pass into and out of the court only by passing through foul pools of stagnant urine and excrement. This is the first court on the Irk above Ducie Bridge – in case any one should care to look into it. Below it on the river there are several tanneries which fill the whole neighbourhood with the stench of animal putrefaction.
Below Ducie Bridge the only entrance to most of the houses is by means of narrow, dirty stairs and over heaps of refuse and filth. The first court below Ducie Bridge, known as Allen’s Court, was in such a state at the time of the cholera that the sanitary police ordered it evacuated, swept and disinfected with chloride of lime. Dr. Kay gives a terrible description of the state of this court at that time. Since then, it seems to have been partially torn away and rebuilt; at least looking down from Ducie Bridge, the passer-by sees several ruined walls and heaps of debris with some newer houses. The view from this bridge, mercifully concealed from mortals of small stature by a parapet as high as a man, is characteristic for the whole district. At the bottom flows, or rather stagnates, the Irk, a narrow, coal-black, foul-smelling stream, full of debris and refuse, which it deposits on the shallower right bank.
The stylishly designed living areas and carefully considered external finishes within the new buildings, have been designed to compliment the rich industrial architectural style of the area.
They were never built
Pinnacle Alliance plans to build 344 luxury apartments on a site near Dantzic Street, as part of the ‘Northern Gateway’. Dozens of investors have paid up to £350,000 for the off-plan apartments in the proposed scheme. But two years since many first paid out for their home, no work has actually begun on the £30m scheme.
The dispute has led to a demonstration in Hong Kong, where around 50 buyers took to the streets over Christmas urging local authorities to take up their concerns. And in an unusual twist, protestors even recorded their own campaign song – to the tune of Jingle Bells – criticising Pinnacle.
On the way out are the Travellers’ homes on the other side of the road, adjoining the Irk valley.
Thought to be in danger of flooding, they were condemned, yet there are plans to build on the site for less contentious or socially inclusive usage.
For centuries the commons of England provided lawful stopping places for people whose way of life was or had become nomadic. Enough common land survived the centuries of enclosure to make this way of life sustainable, but by section 23 of the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 local authorities were given power to close the commons to Travellers. This they proceeded to do with great energy, but made no use of the concomitant power given to them by section 24 of the same Act to open caravan sites to compensate for the closure of the commons. By the Caravan Sites Act 1968, therefore, Parliament legislated to make the section 24 power a duty…for the next quarter of a century there followed a history of non-compliance with the duties imposed by the Act of 1968, marked by a series of decisions of this court holding local authorities to be in breach of their statutory duty; but to apparently little practical effect. The default powers vested in central government, to which the court was required to defer, were rarely if ever used.
The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said yesterday, that the new laws will target trespassers – who intend to reside on any private or public land in vehicles without permission, and where they are causing significant disruption, distress or harm to local communities.
This new offence will enable the police to fine or arrest those residing without permission on private or public land in vehicles in order to stop significant disruption, distress or harm being caused to the law-abiding majority – she added.
The new law also gives the police the powers to seize and impound vehicles whose owners fail to comply with the new law and who refuse or can’t leave.
You are criminalising a problem that has been created by the failings of a political will to deliver appropriate accommodation.
So here we are – in the shadow of the ever expanding New Manchester – no homes for those who choose their own traditional way of life.
Burnt out shells, discarded toys and a population of ghosts.
Today, we live in a political economy that has been dominated by neoliberalism as a consolidation of the role that capital has in accumulation by dispossession. It has been written extensively elsewhere that contemporary neoliberal land policy affects seemingly disparate groups within the urban population. Less explored, however, is how this logic affects GRT communities in particular.
The traveller site on Dantzic Street lies within the forthcoming Red Bank neighbourhood, on the meander of the Irk, this particular neighbourhood will consist of:
Given its proximity to the Green Quarter and other luxury residences, we can expect the rent gap produced by speculative land values to be fully exploited on this patch of land. As for a new traveller site to replace the one on Dantzic Street, the future remains unclear. Having reached out to an Executive Member for Housing and Employment within MCC about ecological concerns alongside the worries concerning lack of land access to travellers, the first question was responded to with misplaced enthusiasm whilst the latter was yet to be briefed at all.
St. Jude’s Church Poolstock Lane/St Paul’s Avenue Wigan WN3 5JE
Following the demolition of many working class homes in central Wigan in the early-to-mid 20th century there was a migration to new council estates on the outskirts of the town including new developments in the Poolstock and Worsley Mesnes localities. In order to cater to the Catholic inhabitants of the new estates Father Richard Tobin of St Joseph’s parish in Wigan, established a chapel of ease – described as a wooden hut, on St Paul’s Avenue in 1959.
In 1962 Tobin wrote to the Archbishop of Liverpool George Andrew Beck with his proposals for a new, permanent church, suggesting that the church should be dedicated either to St Jude or Our Lady of the Assumption.
Beck replied on 15 March:
My dear Father Tobin, Many thanks for your letter. I like your suggestion of St. Jude as a patron of the new church. We already have a parish in honour of The Assumption but none, so far as I know, to St. Jude. I assume that you do not intend to suggest by this title that Wigan is a hopeless case!
The Liverpool architects L A G Prichard & Sons were engaged and work began in the summer of 1963. Subsidence caused by coal mining in the area necessitated reinforced foundations and the final cost was over £100,000. The foundation stone was laid by Archbishop Beck in December 1964 and the church was opened for worship in July 1965.
The most remarkable feature of the church is the dalle de verre stained glass on the walls of the nave, designed by Robin Riley, made by Verriers de St Jobain in France and fitted by glaziers J O’Neill and Sons.
Sadly Robin Riley died this year, aged 90, my thanks to his former student Keith Hamlett for the information.
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
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.
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.
Almost not quite in the shadow of nearby neighbour the Hanley Tower, this little gem sits tucked away by the side of Queensway, minding its very own business.
The business of telecommunications.
Just a short walk from the railway station let’s take a look.
Formerly the Friendship – which suddenly became surplus to requirements, when the Old Street area was redeveloped, and the adjacent Magistrates Courts built.
So far so good, these are the facts we are located.
In an unfamiliar street, in an unfamiliar town.
I myself had the good fortune to grow up here and drink in the Friendship.
Even so I have no recollection of this distinctive concrete column, neither does the whole of the internet.
Do you?
Though very much in the style of the day – exemplified by William Mitchell there is currently no attribution for this work.
The Anglican Church of William Temple was opened in 1965 on the corner of Robinswood Road and Simonsway as the church of the Civic Centre. The mission was already well-established, having begun many years previously in Shadow Moss School Room, latterly operating in a dual-purpose building on Simonsway. The architect, George Pace, agreed with the proviso that he should not design a ‘pseudo’ building, but that it should be modern in concept. This he did and particular attention was paid to the acoustics with a view to music and drama being performed there. One of Pace’s stipulations was that, as with all the churches he designed, there must be no plaques attached to the walls commemorating the dedication of the church or in memory of anyone, for he said he built his churches to the Glory of God. The only lettered stone is on the back wall of the church and it has on it the date of the consecration and a symbol, which is Pace’s original sign for William Temple Church.
The internal supports of the church are black-painted steel girders, not romantically symbolising the industry of the area, as it is sometimes said, but because when it was discovered that the church had been built on swampy ground an extra £2,000 was needed for foundations; the wooden beams of the original design had to be changed for cheaper steel ones. There is symbolism, however, in the placing of the font between and beneath the three main weight-bearing supports of the church.
The pews have an interesting history, having been brought from derelict churches in and around Manchester.
The present lady churchwarden said:
“whenever we heard of a church being demolished we borrowed Mr. Owen’s coal cart and went off to see if we could buy any of the pews. Many times I’ve sat on the back of the wagon, in the pouring rain, with the pews, bringing them back to Wythenshawe to be stored until our church building was completed!”
Some time after the building was opened, a fire damaged some of the pews. With the insurance money all the pews were stripped and bleached, giving an element of uniformity and a bright welcoming atmosphere in the church generally. An interesting thought was voiced that as many people living in Wythenshawe now had their origins near to the centre of Manchester they may be sitting in the same pews in which their ancestors once sat.
An imposing and monumental building by Adrian Gilbert Scott.
The church has a rich, little-altered interior with strong architectural qualities and notable furnishings. The church is described as ‘one of the few real landmarks of Wythenshawe’ and ‘beautifully built’, by Hartwell, Hyde and Pevsner2004
Backtrack toSt AndrewsArchitects JCG Prestwich and Son 1960 – as seen by Comrade Yuri Gagarin 12th July 1961 – detailed here.
We now take a secular route around the back of the Civic Centre to look at Centron and Delta House.
Built in 1972 to encourage white collar jobs into the area, formerly occupied by Shell and the TSB, currently partially unoccupied.
Across the way the former Barclay’s Bank IT HQ by DLG Shuldham the bank’s chief architect.
Just around the corner.
There were four eight-storey blocks of ‘Sectra’ flats that Laing built in Wythenshawe for Manchester County Borough Council, completed in 1967. The blocks were described by Laing in their monthly newsletter ‘Team Spirit’ in January 1968 as four blocks of specially designed eight-storey flats for elderly people.
Showing skeleton cladding, patterned end wall units and access balcony.
They were named Park Court, Violet Court, Birch Tree Court and Edwards Court.
Park Court and Violet Court have since been demolished to make way for retail space.
A mini-estate of impeccably kept, neat steel-framed prefabs, designed in 1946 by Frederick Gibberd. We got a tour around one, home to former Durutti Column drummer Bruce Mitchell. The space standards and architectural quality are, as Phil Griffin points out, way above those of contemporary central Manchester luxury loft living.
In December 1956 Basil Spence and Partners were commissioned to design St Francis Church in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester. The project was part of a large building programme by the Manchester Diocese and was to service the new post-war housing estate at Newall Green. The site housed an existing hall that had been serving a dual-purpose as church and church hall but which reverted to use as a church hall once the new church was opened. The foundation stone was laid by Colin Skinner CBE on 23 April 1960 and the church was consecrated on 25 March 1961 by the Bishop of Manchester, W D L Greer.
The main building is predominantly brick; it is set back from the road by a landscaped courtyard that includes a brick tower and 73ft concrete cross. Another large cross rises from the front wall of the church itself making it highly visible from the surrounding neighbourhood.
The church can hold a congregation of 250. A small chapel is separated from the main church by a sliding screen and can be used independently for private prayer and mid week-services. On busy days the screen can be retracted to provide additional seating to the main church. A gallery over the entrance porch houses two organs and the choir.
Prior to the end of WWII, the British Iron & Steel Federation worked closely with Architect Frederick Gibberd & Engineer Donovan Lee, to develop several steel framed prototype houses and flats, which could be erected quickly and efficiently with limited use of skilled labour.
Frederick Gibberd
These prototype were duly named BISF which is a acronym of the originating sponsor, The British Iron & Steel Federation.
However, it was in fact the newly formed company, British Steel Houses Ltd, that went on to develop and manufacturer the BISF houses we see today.
Over 34,000 three-bedroom semi-detached houses and 1048 Terraced Houses were erected across England, Scotland and Wales.
The final production design incorporated rendered mesh ground floor walls and the now familiar, profiled steel sheeting panels affixed to the upper storey. The preferred roofing material was generally corrugated asbestos cement, or corrugated metal sheeting.
The frame of the prototype ‘B’ house was of the same general design as the type ‘A’ frame, but fabricated from flat light steel sections.
Northolt
The roof trusses were also of light steel sections and the roof cladding was the same as that used in the type A house. Both prototypes had been designed to accept a variety of external wall materials, including traditional brick masonry if desired.
The external steel cladding that was affixed to the upper storey of the original BISF house appears visually similar to the external cladding that was used during the production of the unrelated Hawksley BL8 temporary bungalow.
This visual similarity caused many people to wrongly assume that the BISF House was a semi-detached version of the temporary bungalow, despite the fact that the BISF House was built as a permanent dwelling.
The vast majority of BISF houses were built as two-storey semi-detached pairs. A smaller number of terraced houses were also built by replicating the standard semi-detached frame.
A number of variations relating to the layout and materials used in the construction of this house have been noted, but in all cases, the original construction, design & construction of the steel framework, remains largely as described.
The area in Wythenshawe where the BISF houses were built, is known locally and colloquially as Tin Town.
Modern Mooch 