Manchester Arterial – A57

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The A57 was nearly a coast to coast route. It passes through three major city centres (Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield – with elevated sections in each) and several smaller ones, multiplexes with the A6 and the A1, follows the banks of two canals and negotiates the remotest part of the Peak District. In one city it part of it is a tram route, whilst in another its former route is also a tram route. After all these adventures, it sadly gives up just 40 miles short of the east coast, Lincoln apparently proving too big an obstacle.

The A57 crosses the River Irwell at Regent Bridge before entering its moment of motorway glory as the A57(M) Mancunian Way skirting the south of Manchester’s city centre on an elevated section and crossing the A56 and A34. This includes a half-completed exit that goes the wrong way up Brook Street – a one way street. The original A57 ran further north through the city centre along Liverpool Road (now the A6143) and Whitworth Street – B6469 as far as the A6 London Road which marked the start of a multiplex.

At the end of Mancunian Way, we reach a TOTSO, straight on being the short unsigned A635(M) and thence the A635 – for Saddleworth Moor, Barnsley and Doncaster whilst the A57 turns south, briefly multiplexing with the A6, and then branching off along Hyde Road. This section of road was extensively cleared for the westward extension for the M67, and consequently has seen a lot of redevelopment.

Sabre Roads

In 2014, having taken early retirement from teaching photography, I embarked on a series of walks along the arterial roads of Manchester.

See also Bury New Road and Cheetham Hill Road and Rochdale Road and Oldham Road and Ashton New Road and Ashton Old Road.

Manchester Arterial – A635

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The road now begins slightly further south than it used to. Instead of starting on Fairfield Street in Manchester city centre, it begins immediately as the Mancunian Way ends, which at this point is the unsigned A635(M). The motorway flows directly into our route. There’s a TOTSO right at a set of lights, and we pick up the old alignment, which now starts as the B6469.

We can see the new City of Manchester Stadium on the left, site of the 2002 Commonwealth Games and now home to Manchester City FC. The road switches between S2 and S4 as it passes through the rather run-down urban areas of Ardwick and Gorton. A short one-way system at a triangular-shaped junction with the A662 leads onto a wider stretch as we near the M60 junction. This area is set to see significant industrial growth, with whole swathes of land either side of the now D3 road cleared and ready for development.

Sabre Roads

In 2014, having taken early retirement from teaching photography, I embarked on a series of walks along the arterial roads of Manchester.

See also Bury New Road and Cheetham Hill Road and Rochdale Road and Oldham Road and Ashton New Road

Manchester Arterial – A662

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Starting at traffic lights on the A665 the road heads northeastwards, initially with the Metrolink on the left and a factory building on the right. The road then bears right at traffic lights marking the first section of on-street running for the trams, which lasts until just before a bridge over the River Medlock, after which the road passes to the south of the Sportcity complex whilst the tram line runs through the middle.

The A6010 is crossed at traffic lights, after which we see the tram lines on the left once more. We go over the Ashton Canal, then the tram lines at grade before bearing to the right to pass Clayton Park before another section of on-street running for the Metrolink begins, which continues for some distance. Just after crossing the Manchester city limit there is a set of traffic lights, after which the road becomes D2 for a short distance to allow a tram stop – Edge Lane, to be located in the central reservation. The tram leaves the road to the right for the next stop – Cemetery Road, and the stop in Droylsden town centre is once again in the central reservation. In all three cases the street running recommences after the stop.

Sabre Roads

In 2014, having taken early retirement from teaching photography, I embarked on a series of walks along the arterial roads of Manchester.

See also Bury New Road and Cheetham Hill Road and Rochdale Road and Oldham Road.

Manchester Arterial – A62

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The A62, which runs from Manchester to Leeds, via Oldham and Huddersfield, was once the main route across the Pennines, connecting the largest city in Lancashire with Yorkshire’s largest city. However with the completion of the M62 towards Leeds in the early 1970s it lost much of its importance and traffic to the motorway, which runs a few miles to the north. These days, the A62 serves as a busy primary route between Manchester and Oldham, an extremely very quiet route over the Pennines, and then a fairly busy local road linking Huddersfield with Leeds.

Most maps show that the A62 starts its journey in the middle of Manchester by leaving the A6 Piccadilly and running along Lever Street – the original route was the parallel Oldham Street. However, owing to a bus gate Lever Street is not generally accessible from Piccadilly. We head out easterly on a busy street – non–primary, until we meet the Ring Road where we pick up primary status that we retain until Oldham. We turn left at this point and then immediately right to start the A62 proper.

Sabre Roads

In 2014, having taken early retirement from teaching photography, I embarked on a series of walks along the arterial roads of Manchester.

This whole undertaking was prompted in part by Charlie Meecham’s 1980’s Oldham Road project .

The work questions whether a sense of local identity can be maintained in an area of constant redevelopment and community displacement.

This area was first developed in the 19th century for cotton manufacture, coal extraction and later electrical and heavy engineering. The road was lined with shops and there was a vibrant community.

When I first started working on the project, most of the early industry had ceased operating and the mills were either abandoned or being dismantled. However, some had been refurbished either for new industrial use or later, made into apartments. Some run down areas were cleared making way for new housing. Clearance also provided opportunity to build new schools, trading estates and create green space. Most of the older community centres such as theatres and cinemas along the road were also abandoned and later cleared.

See also Bury New Road and Cheetham Hill Road and Rochdale Road and Ashton New Road and Ashton Old Road and Hyde Road and Stockport Road and Kingsway and Princess Parkway.

Manchester Arterial – A 665

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Cheetham Hill Road is part of the designated A665. Cheetham Hill Road starts at the junction of the A6042 Corporation Street and the A665 Miller Street. It crosses the culverted River Irk to the east of Victoria Station. At its junction with New Bridge Street, it turns north-northeast and is straight for 1 km, to the A6010 Queen’s Road . This stretch was called York Street until about 1900. Cheetham Hill Road leads from here to the community of Cheetham Hill, where at Bourget Street and Crescent Road – formerly Sandy Lane, Cheetham Hill Road becomes Bury Old Road.

Wikipedia

In 2014, having taken early retirement from teaching photography, I embarked on a series of walks along the arterial roads of Manchester.

See also Bury New Road.

Manchester Arterial – A56

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First crossing the M60 Manchester Outer Ring Road at Junction 7 into Stretford.

The A56 takes the name of Chester Road and continues north-eastwards through Stretford and Hulme into Manchester city centre, where it takes on the name Deansgate, one of Manchester’s main shopping streets and thoroughfares. At the end of Deansgate, the A56 takes on the name of Victoria Street as it passes Manchester Victoria railway station. Since 2012, most of Victoria Street has been pedestrianised with planters, but the road markings still remain underneath.

Wikipedia

In 2014, having taken early retirement from teaching photography, I embarked on a series of walks along the arterial roads of Manchester.

Westfield Estate – Sheffield

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I was asked to give a talk for Photo North in response to Sean Madner’s photographs.

Speaking on behalf of the Sheffield Modernists.

On the day, I was eager to visit the Westfield Estate for the first time.

Westfield Estate Mosborough, formerly Waterthorpe Farm Estate, a rural township which was subsumed by Sheffield’s expanding housing schemes.

Mosborough, a vastly expanding village, eight miles North East of Chesterfield and six miles South East of Sheffield.

Waterthorpe Housing Estate near Beighton named after Waterthorpe – formerly Walterthorpe Farm.

Path which goes behind houses on Short Brook Close 1974

The Waterthorpe and Westfield housing estates were built from mid-1970s and were added to over a number of years. Eventually linking with both the old council estate of Beighton and the new estate of Halfway, the estates house a condensed significant number of almost wholly local authority owned properties following the phasing down and demolition of the original estates around Parson Cross and Shiregreen in the north of the city.

Wikipedia

Eastcroft Glen 1986

May Tree Lane

Archive photographs – Picture Sheffield

So I jumped the tram from Sheffield Station to Halfway alighting at Waterthorpe.

A long rambling ride, rolling in and out of rolling hills.

I headed over the footbridge and into the heart of the estate.

Scrapyard Gates – Cornbrook Manchester

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The Cornbrook drains the urban area South of the River Medlock, it rises in Gorton and follows a tortous path through Manchester’s Southern ‘inner city’ suburbs and empties itself into the Manchester Ship Canal at the Pomona Docks.

28 Days Later

It’s a tram stop – primarily an interchange, though the brand new shiny residential new build has produced a brave band of brand new shiny residents in transit. Slipping and sliding ‘neath the bridge, skating over the age old accretion of filth, oil, diesel and detritus produced by the surrounding scrap yards.

The market leader is Bennett Brothers:

We are one of the first recycling companies operating in the North West, Bennett Bros was founded in 1948 by Francis William Bennett and Bernard Bennett, and remains a family-run business to this day. Bennett Bros was originally involved in loaning ponies to the many rag and bone men who collected unwanted household items and sold them to merchants, and while the recycling industry has now embraced modern technology, we are very proud of our heritage as innovators in what was then a new industry.

In 2017 I visited the area to snap the gates of their older site – as they had moved the business just across the street.

I returned in December 2023 to discover what had become of the gates.

Remnants of the drop shadow block lettering remain, beneath a palimpsest of tags and grime.

Here’s what I saw.

Charles Street Car Park – Manchester

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Charles Street Car Park – M1 3BB

Hugging the railway viaduct twixt Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations, approximate to UMIST.

The entrance is extremely narrow so watch out for your alloys when you turn in. Ridiculous size for a modern car park – just terrible.

This car park has served me well on many occasions!

It is truly wonderful as car parks go.

Terribly maintained, regularly find human faeces and worse in the stairwell.

The pedestrian in a car park is taking you as high as is humanly possible – the upper tiers are now locked off.

Though it does remain a car park with a pub- the former Swinging Sporran now trading as Retro Bar.

Sackville Street 1902

Morecambe Library – Again

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Central Drive Morecambe LA4 5DL

I have of course been here before, way back in 2016.

With time to spare before leading a Modernist Mooch at 12.00, I came to have another look around.

Always a pleasure to visit this gem – the work of County Architect Roger Booth and his team.

Many thanks to manager Andrew Till and the rest of the staff for their warm welcome and this display of Booth’s drawings.

Many thanks to all those merry moochers that came along too!

Chisworth Works

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Chisworth Works Coombes Lane Holehouse Charlesworth and Chisworth SK13 5DQ

Built at the end of the 18th or in the early 19th centuries; Chisworth Works was as a cotton band manufactory. During these times, the site was called Higher Mill. 

It was referred to as Higher Mill, as there was a lower works, Mouse Mill in Holehouse, owned by the Booth family.

Glossop Heritage

Keiner & Co., at Charlesworth, employ over 100 people and are engaged principally in the production of synthetic and chrome tanning extracts.

Glossop Official Handbook 1948

It has been a longstanding, low-lying object of interest to those intrepid Urban Explorers.

A planning application of 2009 was submitted for redevelopment of the terraced cottages.

Proposed alterations and change of use to form ten two bedroom cottages from existing five dwellings and vacant office accommodation.

This was the state of play in April 2021 – the interior photographs were taken through an open aperture.

Lead Chromate can affect you when inhaled or swallowed. Contact can irritate and burn the skin and eyes. Prolonged skin contact may cause blisters and deep ulcers. 

Inhaling Lead Chromate can irritate the nose, throat and lungs.Exposure can cause headache, irritability, and muscle and joint pain. Repeated exposure can cause Lead poisoning with metallic taste, colic and muscle cramps.

Inhaling Lead Chromate can cause a sore and/or a hole in the septum.

Lead Chromate may cause a skin allergy.

Lead Chromate may damage the nervous system. Exposure may cause kidney and brain damage, and anemia.

The building was subsequently owned by EP Bray.

Wherever the choice has had to be made between the man of reason and the madman, the world has unhesitatingly followed the madman. 

Aldous Huxley –  Crome Yellow

Chrome yellow is a derivative of Lead Chromate.

For over two hundred years the site has been a place of toil, dangerous toil taking its toll.

The valleys which inevitably fed the Mersey, were home to the origins of the Industrial Revolution – people and water powered.

This is a toxic landscape, nestled in the heart of ancient post-glacial earth movements:

Geomorphological investigations of two landslide areas on the Cown Edge escarpment showed that slope failure was primarily the result of local stratigraphic and lithological conditions and not of past climatic vicissitudes or changes in the form of the relief. Failure on each occasion took place by shearing along the same line of weakness: shales either within a calcareous shale band or in close proximity to it became decomposed and unable to bear the weight of the slope forming material above it. Each displacement resulted in a bank slip failure and the formation of a block glide landslide. The morphology indicates that slip movements has occurred several times and the periods when these took place have been determined using palynological methods. These results indicate that the Cown Edge landslides date from a post-glacial period.

JSTOR

As of August 2023 the terraces remain un-rehabilitated.

The forecourt of the factory is currently strewn with the detritus of an ever more wasteful world.

Martins Bank – Eyre Street Sheffield

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176 Eyre Street Sheffield Yorkshire S1 4QZ

Opened in 1961, Martins Bank’s branch at Sheffield Moor is new and purpose built, occupying space left in the Sheffield Moor area by the bombing of the second world war. Time flies however, and more than fifty years on, the building is empty and awaiting the next chapter of its life.

Note the olivetti shop incorporated into the bank building.

Our New Branch at Sheffield Moor owes its existence to the extensive replanning of this area of Sheffield. Part of it was destroyed during the war and the remainder has been or is in course of being pulled down as the plan unfolds for the creation of a brand new shopping area.

It is really too far from the old commercial quarter to be effectively served by our branch at West Street and so the banks are moving in. It is a beautiful modern building with interior decor which responds to the full blaze of sunshine most cheerfully, or, on a dark day when the illuminated ceiling has to be switched on, creates an oasis of light, warmth and welcome which makes it a pleasure to step inside.

Martin’s Bank Archive

Today the building is, sadly, a shadow of its former self.

Other Sheffield banks are available- William Deacon’s, where refurbishment seems to be taking place.

Fallowfield Campus – University of Manchester

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We visited the Lancashire County Archive where we were shown this brochure from the Building Design Partnership – BDP archive, which is held there.

The archive is open to the public.

I have previously led walks there to view the Apollo sculptural relief by Mitzi Cunliffe.

I am assured that the relief will be re-sited within the new development.

The Student Village was opened in 1964.

RIBApix

Local Image Collection

Plans are in place for redevelopment of the site and the demolition of the tower block and adjacent housing.

The scheme, designed by Sheppard Robson, would see 3,300 new bedspaces brought forward, taking the total number of units at the complex to 5,400, a net increase of 950. This is an increase of around 1,000 new units compared to the previous iteration of the project, approved in 2015.

Place North West

Electricity – Chester

Posted on by modernmoocher

The weir and former causeway stands across the River Dee. It was originally built in 1093 by Hugh Lupus, first Earl of Chester. It was built for St Werburgh’s Benedictine Abbey – now Chester Cathedral. It channelled the water to allow it to power a series of mills along the Dee. These mills were amongst the largest and most valuable in England during the 13th century. They were in use until 1910.

The weir was restored in the early 20th century to serve the City Council’s hydro-electric power station

Chester generated its own clean carbon-free electricity for almost half of the city’s needs from the hydroelectric building on Castle Drive between 1914 and 1949.

From 1932 the city was buying electricity from the Central Electricity Board’s embryonic national grid in order to cope with demand which grew to over 23,000 consumers by 1946.

The Hydro Electric Station on the River Dee is a Grade II listed building.

Photo: Len Morgan

At nationalisation in 1948 the corporation’s system came under the Merseyside and North Wales Electricity Board – Manweb, which in 1968–70 built its administrative headquarters in Sealand Road.  The buildings had as their centrepiece a seven-storey Y-plan office block, which dominated the skyline looking west from the city centre until it was demolished in the 1990s.

I was wandering the streets of Chester when I came upon this decorated doorway in Newgate Street.

In consultation with the current owners panda mami – we concurred that the building was once in service to the electrical generating industry.

Architecturally pre-National Grid, this implies that it would have been part of Chester’s independent provision.

It can be seen in the top left of this archive photograph.

Electricity House in the days of Chester Corporation Electricity Department.

Later subsumed by MANWEB.

My thanks to Richard Brook aka Mainstream Modern for his invaluable research

The building has the most shockingly assertive Futurist emblems embedded within the window grilles.

Any work of art that lacks a sense of aggression can never be a masterpiece.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

If she’s put together fine and she’s reading my mind
I can’t stop I can’t stop myself
Lightning is striking again
Lightning is striking again and again and again and again

Lou Christie and Twyla Herbert

The arch above the entrance is adorned with these carved stone electrical emblems – also rendered in the Futurist Moderne manner.

The pumping house is to become a visitor’s centre – named the Hydro Hub.

Singin through you to me
Thunderbolts caught easily
Shouts the truth peacefully
Electricity

Don van Vliet

Edward Thompson – Sunderland

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Richmond St Monkwearmouth Sunderland SR5 1BQ

Bingo-Master’s Breakout!

Two swans in front of his eyes
Colored balls in front of his eyes
It’s number one for his Kelly’s eye
Treble-six right over his eye

Edward Thompson, the family printing business, was founded in Sunderland in 1867.

They identified a business opportunity when a local priest, Jeremiah O’Callaghan, ordered some bingo tickets for a parish fund-raising exercise.

From those humble beginnings, Edward Thompson mushroomed in size as Britain went bingo-mad in the 1960s, becoming first the UK’s and then the world’s biggest producer of bingo cards and tickets.

Sky News

The company which has been printing for more than 155 years – has been hit hard by the crash in bingo hall use as Covid ripped through the leisure sector. CEO Paddy Cronin said he was ‘gutted’ but the business had finally had to face the inevitable as the cashflow dried up.

We were built on a bet but our luck has now run out – he told The Northern Echo.

Covid completely changed the market and as the halls went into decline it just became untenable so I had to break the news to the workers.

They were the pioneers of newspaper bingo, printing the first cards in 1975 and going on to work in places like Bolivia and Belgium and even printing the ballot papers for Nelson Mandela’s 1994 election in South Africa.

So their number is up the factory is tinned-up, house has been called for the very last time.

Yeah, yeah, industrial estate

Well you started here to earn your pay
Clean neck and ears on your first day
Well we tap one another as you walk in the gate
And we’d build a canteen but we haven’t got much space

Industrial Estate

Williams Deacon’s Bank – Sheffield

Posted on by modernmoocher

106 The Moor Sheffield S1 4PD

Currently to let

  • 2510 􏰀 5775 Square Feet
  • Self Contained Ground Floor Retail Unit
  • Seperate Offices Over First & Second Floor
  • WIthin Close Proximity to ongoing major redevelopment at The Moor

And looking for love.

I have often wandered by and wondered, well what were you?

The answer arrived last week on Instagram via Sheffield Modernist

Architects: WT Gunson & Son.

Images: Design In Sheffield 2 1964/5

@sheffieldmodernist

Williams Deacon’s Bank

This joint-stock bank was established in Manchester in 1836 as Manchester & Salford Bank by a group of promoters keen to take advantage of recent legislation allowing the formation of joint-stock banks outside London. The bank had up to 15 directors and the issued capital was £1m, of which £252,100 was paid up by December 1836.

RIBA Pix: Headquarters building for William Deacon’s Bank Limited – Mosley Street Manchester: the garden at podium level.

Harry S Fairhurst & Son 1965

The first shareholders’ meeting, in May 1836, took place in temporary premises, but in August 1836 a banking house was rented in King Street. Land off Mosley Street was later acquired and a new banking house completed in 1838.

In 1969 The Royal Bank of Scotland was restructured and Williams Deacon’s became a direct subsidiary of a new holding company, National & Commercial Banking Group. The following year the holding company’s subsidiaries in England and Wales – Williams Deacon’s Bank, Glyn, Mills & Co and the English and Welsh branches of The National Bank – merged to form Williams & Glyn’s Bank.

In 1972 Williams & Glyn’s Bank joined with five other European banks to form the Inter Alpha Banks Group to exploit opportunities in the European Economic Community. In 1985 The Royal Bank of Scotland Group’s two major subsidiary holdings, Williams & Glyn’s Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland, were fully merged as The Royal Bank of Scotland plc.

The very merry monopolies and mergers merry dance – consequently this perfectly formed Modernist bank stands alone and forlorn.

Love, for sale or to let.

St David’s Church – Penrhyn Bay

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St David’s – 1 Penrhyn Beach East Penrhyn Bay Llandudno LL30 3NT

This church was built in 1963 to a design by Rosier and Whitestone of Cheltenham, to replace a wooden church of 1929.

I had previously cycled by on one of my tours of North Wales – stopping to snap the elegant exterior.

On this occasion I contacted the church to arrange access to the interior – the building is open from 10.00 – 12.00 most weekdays.

The church has been recommended for listing in this CADW report on post war architecture in Wales.

St David’s deserves listing, a distinctive building with a remote slate clad campanile.

The interior does not disappoint, a light and airy space with confident curved wooden roof struts and clear angled arched windows.

My thanks to the kindly parishioner Alan, who made me more than welcome on the day of my visit.

Sadly the bell is no longer seated – its shell cracked and the wooden support rotted away.

Let’s take a look inside.

The organ pipes are purely decorative – the current console being digital.

Thanks again all for your time and informative conversation.

Lancastrian Hall & Central Library – Swinton

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Completed in 1969 to designs by Leach Rhodes and Walker in collaboration with the Borough Engineer John Whittaker

Constructed at the tail end of the Sixties – the last gasp of Municipal Modernism in the Borough, providing education, edification and entertainment for the local population.

The fountain is gone, the building is closed – the party’s over.

The Fast Cars are history – well they were history, until I was told that they are still speeding along!

A council has spent £348,000 on a masterplan for a town centre that the public has never seen.

Consultants have been used to come up with ideas to regenerate Swinton in Salford.

The town centre is dominated by the imposing Lancastrian Hall, opened in 1969, with an adjoining shopping mall.

The hall housed a council library and was used for civic and community meetings, wedding receptions and election counts.

But it has been closed since 2015 after the library moved to the new Gateway Building on the other side of Chorley Road.

Manchester Evening News

So this magical structure of stairways, undercrofts, elevated walks and majestic concrete clad volumes is under threat.

Swinton and the Lancastrian Hall deserve much better.

Over 550 people took part in the recent visioning work, and we are grateful for their time and valuable contributions.

An overwhelming majority of those who shared their views saw Swinton as a good place to live and bring up a family – somewhere friendly, with a strong sense of community.

People valued their local green spaces, but strongly felt that there needed to be more investment in the town centre, and a plan to tackle empty buildings and shops.

Overall, people felt that Swinton needed to be a more vibrant place, with more going on – and more reasons for people to visit and spend their leisure time there.

The Swinton Vision

This is an opportunity to create tomorrow’s local centre, but that does rely on removing the Lancastrian Hall, rethinking the shopping centre, and repurposing the Civic Centre and the spaces around it. 

Chorley Police Station and Magistrates’ Court

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St Thomas’s Road Chorley PR7 1RZ

The police station and magistrates’ court at Chorley was designed to replace a building from 1896 – a weights and measures plaque from the original building was retained and remounted at the foot of the new building.

The two buildings were set adjacent one another and around a newly formed square with one side made up of the rear of the existing town hall. This small civic group was intended to relate to one another in scale, but was markedly contrasting in its material make-up.

County Architect’s Report: 1963-64.

The design team was Roger Booth, Lancashire County Architect; C.A. Spivey, Assistant County Architect; D.B. Stephenson, Design Architect; and D.G. Edwards, A.G. Gass, responsible for the detailed design and construction. The seven-storey in-situ concrete framed main block was the last bespoke police station to be built in Lancashire, following this the department developed a systemised concrete construction method which was deployed across the county. The dramatic cantilevers gave the new building a stature and presence that signalled authority. The lower levels were accessed by ramps and provided space for police vehicles. To enter the police station one ascended a set of external stairs across a pool that once contained koi carp – fittingly, one boy described the new building as a ‘fishtank’ upon its completion. The magistrates’ court was finished externally in a grey brick and carried the signature pyramid rooflights that were synonymous with the Department.

Many thanks to Richard at Mainstream Modern

This is one of many Roger Booth police stations I have visited – Bonny Street Blackpool under threat, Bury long gone and the extant variant in Morecambe

The Magistrates’ Court is up for sale:

Coun Alistair Bradley, Leader of Chorley Council, confirmed that the council had enquired to take ownership of the building but that this was knocked back.

He said: We’ve enquired about taking the building on but the owners, the Ministry of Justice, has said they want to take it to market.

Lancashire Post

The building is being advertised as a potential site for a future office, residential, restaurant and bar, leisure, entertainment, and hotel.

Asked about its future, Chorley councillor Aaron Beaver told Lancs Live he had heard no news of developments but desperately wanted to see something happen with the building, he said:

It’s a perfect location. There’s lots of things it could be used for. 

If you were to knock it down, there’s all sorts of things which could be built there. If you were to convert it to something like flats, it could be tricky because there’s not many windows.

Commenting on the progress of the sale since it’s closure, he added:

I wouldn’t say it’s slow moving, I’d say it’s not moving.

Lancs Live

We eagerly await any possible developments.

Whilst walking around the adjoining Police Station.

Housing – Cwmbran

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Here we are again in Cwmbran having previously visited Monmouth Square and Taliesin.

The Masterplan, produced for the Cwmbran Development Corporation by Minoprio & Spencely & Macfarlane in 1950 – image from the Gwent Archives

Royal Commission

Cwmbran was founded in 1949 as a new town, to provide new employment opportunities in the south eastern portion of the South Wales Coalfield, but the area has a long history.

We shall now explore the housing framed by the railway and shopping centre.

From Cleeve Barr’s Public Authority Housing – published in 1958.

A mix of pedestrianised terraces and low rise blocks, set in a loose grid of roads and rolling, tree-lined, grassed areas.

Over time there has been the addition of uPVC and the revisionist intrusion of the ahistorical carriage lamp.

Incidentally an area with more al fresco shopping trolleys than I had ever seen, I assume that the big Asda, located within walking distance of the homes, to be the progenitor of such a notable proliferation.

It remains, generally speaking a well kept lived in area – let’s take a look.