30 Milkstone Rd Rochdale OL11 1EB
At some time in the not too distant past it seems to have lost its fascia board.
After also trading as HMA Launderette.
Google streetview.
On my way somewhere else with time to spar I popped in.
Launderette Rochdale
Worcester College Oxford
I was walking from the railway station, a map of Oxford folded in my back pocket.
Having no real notion of anything really, I simply followed my intuition and ended up here.
Worcester College was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet 1648–1701 of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was adopted by the college. Its predecessor, Gloucester College, had been an institution of learning on the same site since the late 13th century until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539.
Founded as a men’s college, Worcester has been coeducational since 1979.
This Mediaeval terrace is thought to be the oldest surviving domestic building in the city, known as the cottages – forming one side of the Quad.
This is the Casson Building – undergraduate accommodation.
The Linbury Building is a dedicated conferencing and private dining venue enjoying a beautiful natural setting among mature trees and landscaped lawns.
Accommodating up to one hundred guests for receptions or forty eight on a fully-catered basis, the Linbury Building offers the perfect venue for your mid-sized event. Set among the College’s award-winning gardens, the Linbury allows you to enjoy our unique natural setting thanks to floor-to-ceiling glazing which can be retracted to create an al fresco space in the summer.
With its own bespoke furniture made from English oak and College-crested leather chairs, the main conferencing space can be adapted into a wide variety of configurations, from seminar, cabaret or theatre to private dining and drinks receptions. The adjacent foyer area is a perfect space for delegate registration, break-out coffee and pastries or buffet lunch service.
John Davan Sainsbury – Baron Sainsbury of Preston Candover 1927 – 2022 was a British businessman and politician. He served as the President of Sainsbury’s, and sat in the House of Lords as a life peer and member of the Conservative Party
Robert Alfred Maguire 1931–2019 was an influential British modernist architect and leading thinker in the British liturgical architectural movement of the Church of England. Maguire and Keith Murray formed an architectural practice in 1959.
Nazrin Shah ascended the throne of Perak in 2014. As Sultan of Perak, he has been a strong advocate for education, Islamic moderation, and national unity. He has served as deputy king under Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan, Sultan Abdullah of Pahang, and Sultan Ibrahim of Johor.
The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre is a new building of 2017 housing a large lecture theatre, a student learning space, seminar rooms and a dance studio. The project is not simply the provision of new facilities, but also the development and enhancement of the setting of this significant part of the College site. Whilst the relationship between the new buildings and the listed parkland is important, it is only one part of a complex arrangement.
Elizabeth Frink’s sculpture Seated Man II – on loan from Yorkshire Sculpture Park, in accordance with the wishes of the artist’s late son, Lin Jammet, 2020.
He overlooks The Sainsbury Building student accommodation – 1983 Architect: Richard MacCormac
View from the loggia to the upper terrace.
Archive images 1983 – Charles Martin RIBA pix
The common room.
The central lobby.
A study bedroom.
The College Chapel was built in the 18th century. George Clarke, Henry Keene, and James Wyatt were responsible for different stages of its lengthy construction 1720–1791, owing to a shortage of funds. The interior columns and pilasters, the dome, and the delicate foliage plastering are all Wyatt’s work. His classical interior was insufficiently emphatic for the tastes of militant Victorian churchmen, and between 1864 and 1866 the chapel was redecorated by William Burges.
It is highly unusual and decorative; being predominantly pink, the pews are decorated with carved animals, including kangaroos and whales, and the walls are riotously colourful, and include frescoes of dodos and peacocks. Its stained glass windows were to have been designed by John Everett Millais, but Burges rejected his designs and entrusted the work to Henry Holiday.
Wikipedia
My first visit to Oxford and the centuries wide cornucopia of architectural styles and fashion.
See also: St Catherine’s College, Materials Science, and The Florey Building.
Materials Science University of Oxford
The Denys Wilkinson Building was designed by Philip Dowson at Arup in 1967.
The building houses the astrophysics and particle physics sub-departments of the Department of Physics at Oxford University, plus the undergraduate teaching laboratories. It was originally built for the then Department of Nuclear Physics and named the Nuclear Physics Laboratory. From 1988, the building was known as the Nuclear and Astrophysics Laboratory after the Sub-Department of Astrophysics moved from the University Observatory in the Science Area. On 21st June 2002, the building was renamed as the Denys Wilkinson Building, in honour of the British nuclear physicist Sir Denys Wilkinson, who was involved in its original creation.
Denys Wilkinson Building Oxford photo – Webb Aviation.
Department of Nuclear Physics, Oxford Arup Associates 1971 – Colin Westwood RIBA pix.
The University of Oxford is relocating its undergraduate physics practical teaching from the Denys Wilkinson Building amid concerns about the presence of asbestos at the ageing site.
From Michaelmas this year, some practical teaching labs will move to the former Biochemistry and Biological Sciences Teaching Centre, with the remainder moving by Michaelmas 2027. The Biochemistry and Biological Sciences Teaching Centre will be adapted for physics practical teaching. Around six hundred undergraduates currently take part in compulsory practical coursework in the Denys Wilkinson Building across the first three years of Oxford’s physics degrees.
A University spokesperson told Cherwell that the decision to relocate had been taken proactively to avoid the risk of a sudden building failure causing disruption later. The spokesperson added that the Denys Wilkinson Building:
Is being carefully managed through the later years of its usable life, adding that the building has some legacy issues, including asbestos.
Originally completed in 1967, the building had not been maintained and required significant repairs to the roof structure of the accelerator tower, which had suffered from prolonged water ingress.
All defects were identified through a hammer test survey and thorough visual inspection, the original concrete was broken out back to a sound substrate and was square cut to depth of 10mm, thus preventing featheredging of the subsequent repair.
Exposed reinforcement was mechanically wire brushed, and prepared using high performing and sustainable products from Sika. Treated with Sika Monotop 1010; a bonding primer and corrosion protection, followed by the application of Sika Monotop 4012; a concrete repair mortar, to the original surface levels.
This building has been assessed under the Planning – Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest. The asset currently does not meet the criteria for listing.
It is not listed – the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport disagreed with Historic England’s recommendation for this case 23rd July 2015.
Let’s take a look at what I looked at:
Florey Building – Oxford Queens College
Florey Building, a residential student block.
RIBA pix 1977 Alastair Hunter
Designed by James Stirling and Partners in 1966-1967 for Queen’s College, Oxford, and built 1968-1971, with Roy Cameron as associate, and Frank Newby of F J Samuely and Partners as engineer.
RIBA pix 2005 Jeremy Harrison
Listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* as a highly significant work by Sir James Stirling, one of Britain’s foremost post-war architects;
* as the last of a triumvirate of university buildings that are without doubt amongst Stirling’s most significant works in England;
* as a highly creative re-working of a familiar formal language, executed with masterful handling of form and colour, characteristic of Stirling’s style;
* for the high degree of survival of the original plan form, fixtures and fittings, which have been little altered since the building’s completion, including but not limited to the bedrooms, porter’s lodge, and breakfast room;
* as a distinctive and popular piece of post-war university architecture.
On the day of my visit the building was secured and in a state of semi-dereliction, mothballed by the owners The Queens College Oxford.
There have been plans and a competition for refurbishment:
Perhaps the most charismatic of James Stirling’s surviving buildings; the Florey Building is hugely admired worldwide for its boldness and heroism.
Despite some practical and infamous failings, the Florey has a cult presence in Oxford: a modernist’s riposte to a city defined by traditional architectural masterworks.
The Queen’s College Fellows seek a dedicated team who are inspired by Stirling’s exhilarating vision. The challenge: to use advances in technology to update the building, provide modern facilities and achieve exemplary energy design.
The competition has now concluded — 27th February 2014
The Queen’s College, Oxford is delighted to announce that the team led by Avanti Architects has won the design competition to update the Grade II listed Florey building, widely regarded as an emblem of modernism. Avanti will now work to develop their scheme for the project and determine construction priorities.
The plans however were poorly received:
Alas the proposal for Florey lets down the practice, the college and most importantly Jim Stirling and the Modernist corpus, with a design that all but wrecks the essence of this unique building.
Alan Berman – founding partner at Berman Guedes Stretton
These proposals must be thrown out and consigned with distaste to the dustbin as a gross violation of Stirling’s intentions.
If permitted, they would constitute the comprehensive betrayal, by alteration, of one of the internationally most important buildings of the 20th century.
Thomas Muirhead – Stirling’s friend and former colleague.
Furthermore there has been a history of criticism of the building:
At the official opening in 1971, the Queen Mother was rumoured to have said it was the ugliest building she had ever seen.
College bursar AA Williams described it as – a structure revolting and inhuman in its hideousness and defective in practically every aspect of its functioning.
Just a year later, students were complaining that it leaked, was noisy, too hot in summer, too cold in winter, they couldn’t stand up straight in the showers, and there were no baths.
Lord Florey, the pioneer of penicillin after whom the building is named put up the money, and was almost the architect’s sole supporter in the college.
This culminated in a legal battle, an intense dislike of the building throughout the college, a reluctance to spend anything but the minimum on maintenance, and decades later, to the possibility of demolition.
Oxford Mail.
So with little institutional love and a soupçon of general loathing, we are left with a Listed building in limbo.
Happily Leicester University are taking care to care for their Stirling building.
Chorley Walk – 2026
Once upon a time it was 2022 and I was in Chorley.
Then all of a sudden it wasn’t and I was elsewhere – fast forward to yesterday and I was in Chorley again.
Arriving at the Railway Station.
The current railway station is a modern version from the 1980s that was built on top of the original station – it is entirely functional, but more than somewhat undistinguished.
Crossing over the road to Market Walk.
Whether it’s fashion, gifts, everyday essentials or an entertaining day out that you’re after, Market Walk has it all. With over thirty shops along an outdoor parade, plus entertainment and hospitality venues, there’s something for everyone.
AEW Architects were appointed by Chorley Council in 2015 as Architects for the Market Walk Scheme.
The Council’s aspiration was to breathe life back into the town centre by enhancing Chorley’s retail and leisure offer and refocusing Chorley’s centre as a destination for local residents and surrounding towns. The development needed to entice new, and retain existing, businesses in the town. Aesthetically, the development also needed to be a landmark for, and create a modern gateway into, the town – driving footfall towards Chorley’s commercial centre.
Next door is the Bus Station, opened in February 2003 replacing the previous structure.
Opening of the previous Bus Station – Ribble the area’s operators, before the Stagecoach arrived.
The Post Office – with its later extension.
Though dated 1935 the architect Charles Wilkinson died in 1927 – posthumous construction following his earlier plans?
Former Fine Fare finds a new occupant the Big Bargain Store.
The NatWest Bank is still a NatWest Bank.
Next the Royal Bank of Scotland presenting and passing as a Post Office.
My good friend Mainstream Modern informs me that the architects were Cruickshank & Seward.
The distinctive white tiles of 2020 having become a living wall.
Long gone – this swish interior with its alarmingly charming calendar.
Let’s have a look around the back.
Next door this sinister functionalist brick structure.
Next to the Chorley Theatre, formerly the Empire Electric Theatre and currently the Empire Cinema.
Opened on on 3rd September 1910, one of the nation’s longest continuously running cinemas.
I spent some time chatting to the chatty guardian of the booking office, I learnt that the recently installed blue plaque commemorates the areas links to esteemed Beano artist Leo Baxendale.
Leo attended St Mary’s School which was sited opposite the theatre, he had a miserable time there, an experience which formed the basis for the famed Bash Street Kids.
He may well now chuckle to himself in comic book heaven, knowing that the school was demolished in 1982.
It’s only right that the town boasts a Leo Baxendale Trail.
Furthermore, I was ever so excited to hear that the really surreal Leonora Carrington, was a local lass and that the theatre were screening her biopic Leonora in the Morning Light.
Back down to earth with a bang and just around the bend – here’s a former Social Services building, very much in the post-war manner.
Next thing you know we are at the Police Station.
County Architect’s Report: 1963-64.
The design team was Roger Booth, Lancashire County Architect; CA Spivey, Assistant County Architect; DB Stephenson, Design Architect; and DG Edwards, AG 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
Next door its partner in crime the Magistrates Courts.
Opened in 1968.
The courts are up for sale – offers in the region of £800,000 – the property has planning permission for an eleven storey apartment building with fifty two flats, three ground floor retail units and roof terrace.
The disused court building was last sold in 2022 for £300,000, according to the Land Registry.
Designs for the scheme were drawn up by FWP Group.
Next door is a pub no longer a pub.
Once upon a time a Vaux Brewery house the White Hart – implausibly renamed the Snooty Fox for a brief period.
Photo Alan Winfield 1988 – The Never Ending Pub Crawl
This was a really big looking pub.
The pub was decent enough inside with a large room which was empty on our Friday dinner visit, the pub was a Vaux tied house so we were well pleased as we had not done many of them.
We had a drink of Vaux bitter which went down well.
Interior from Red Rose Collections.
Currently the Ukraine Unit Donation Centre.
Our group was created in February 2022 to try and help raise awareness of the crisis in Ukraine and to help organise and coordinate local efforts to send support from across the Borough of Chorley in Lancashire. We have since grown into a major hub for donations.
Across Chorley & District multiple educational facilities, community groups and organisations reacted and began to spread awareness and collect donations. In order to sift and sort a lot of local donations, a unit has been loaned by Chorley Council. A large percentage of the region’s aid has come into this unit and we are regularly packaging aid and supplies in preparation for the next leg of the journey to Ukraine, whether it’s transported there by us or other charitable organisations.
Our philosophy is that if we can all do a little bit, together we can make a big difference.
Bouncing back to what was and never shall be no more Barclays Bank.
Almost finally we find ourselves at the Council Offices 1982.
You will be delighted to hear that Chorley Council has a Masterplan
Self Architects generated a high level Masterplan for this prominent site. The scheme proposes a boutique hotel, offices, restaurants/bars, along with apartments, aiming to transform the town centre by intervention to enhance the overall vision by:
- Establish a series of formal/informal public spaces
- Diagonally link public spaces
- Greening pedestrian streets
- Reducing dominance of cars
- Improving evening economy
Having a moment or two on my hands I ventured to the land beyond beyond – the land of the concrete bench, bin and planter combo.
They are on Hollinshead Street.
Google Streetview 2022.
Launderette – Boscombe
479 Christchurch Rd Boscombe Bournemouth BH1 4AD
Seen here in 2011 via Google – with clear windows and delightful signage.
2024 with vinyl covered windows and sign intact.
By the time of my visit in May 2026 – the sign and the Bentley were no more.
This is my most recent wander into a washateria following something of a lay off. Having previously published a launderette book and calendar way back when.
So once again we enter that familiar bubble of bubbles, whirrs and washing.
Warrington Walk
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Across the way the Scared Heart RC Church 1894 Sinnott Sinnott and Powell.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
John Wherritt – Scarborough
J H Wherritt is a cherished gift shop located at 5-7 Eastborough in the heart of Scarborough. Known as a hidden gem and a fantastic treasure trove by visitors, this highly-rated establishment boasts an impressive 5/5 stars from numerous positive reviews. It’s the perfect place to discover a diverse range of gifts, souvenirs, toys, watches, and clocks, catering to all tastes and ages.
Customers consistently praise the shop for its extensive selection of goods, often finding unique items that are not widely available elsewhere. The dedicated team at J H Wherritt is renowned for being lovely, kind, helpful, and obliging, ensuring a pleasant and satisfying shopping experience for everyone. Visitors frequently highlight the reasonable prices and excellent value offered on all purchases.
Yorkshire.com
From being a very young youngster I have always adored the seaside souvenir shops. The dazzling array of knick-knacks and gee gaws, and Wherritt’s truly merits the sobriquet Aladdin’s Cave.
Sadly the shop is now for sale:
•Business & stock available by separate negotiation
•Upper floors in need of major refurbishment
• Very inviting shop frontage with 2 entrance doors
•Shop located on busy tourist route
Guide price £175,000
We can only hope that whosoever takes the business on will maintain the wide range of stock and friendly welcome.
Sandy Cove Estate – Kinmel Bay
As I walked out one morning, as on other mornings I passed a group of bungalows along the North Wales Coast, as seen on many a trip twixt Rhyl and Colwyn Bay.
What is the history of this Kinmel Bay estate?
During the 1930s a company called Kinmel Estates Ltd came up with a idea of building a Holiday Village called Sandy Cove Estate. These Houses soon produced a lot of interest by many wishing to own their own holiday home and by the 1940s most were sold.
Due to unknown financial problems the Company went into liquidation in 1947 leaving further work on the infrastructure of the village undone. The Village was taken over by the Crown as the local Council showed no interest. It remained this way until 1997 when the land passed to The Kinmel Bay and Towyn Community Assocation Ltd.
In 1925 a Mr Charles W Neville bought from 1,500 to 2,000 acres of land for the very small price of £30 an acre, and subsequently sold it at a handsome profit to himself, that is to say, to another company of which he is the moving spirit, a company known as the Kinmel Bay Land Company, of which he has been the dominating figure throughout.
By specious advertisements—which I have not now the time to show the House but they are contained in wonderful advertisements shown all over the Kingdom—and very cleverly devised contracts they have induced a large number of retired people, some with very small incomes, or small pensioners, to buy land which up to the year 1925 had cost £30 an acre at a price of from £100 a quarter of an acre up to £500 an acre with annual charges supposed to be for roadmaking, sewerage, and so on—a charge actually on the land which will last for all time, with the result that a beautiful site—a place of great possibilities to that part of the world—has been largely ruined and has brought a great deal of misery and discomfort to many people.
What is the present state of Kinmel Bay? In a few words I will give it. There is no proper system of sanitation or sewerage. Cesspools are a disgusting nuisance. In some cases they have to be emptied once a fortnight by the householder at an exorbitant cost, sometimes as much as £1 of poor people’s money. Ditches have become full. The sewerage in summer months is quite intolerable at times. Instances have been known of crude sewage floating on the surface and actually overflowing into a house in this area. There is no proper system of roads. Those that are made are mainly of twigs or branches of trees, old tin cans, and other rubbish, with a layer of stones on top. Even these roads, of course, are not maintained. Drinking water, at one time brown and muddy, has improved. A new company has been formed, a subsidiary of this very company, which is certainly selling rather purer water now, but at the exorbitant price of a minimum charge of 15s. a quarter to the householders. Of course, the hydrants are quite useless in the case of fire. Now we have here 1,380 acres built over in this scattered and haphazard manner with a population of over 2,000.
This seems to have been the oddest case of hucksterism – which also involved the sale of putative poultry farms. This image seems to be the only reference which I can find online.
Were they ever built?
Along with the aforementioned homes.
It would appear that they were perhaps self-assembly kits.
These are archival images from a variety of sources:
In the past Chester Avenue was nicknamed Dodge City thanks to its reputation for low-level crime and scruffiness.
It was like Beirut in the early days – said Mike Nolan, who has lived in the area since 1978. But now it is very pleasant, and since Cartrefi Conwy has taken over it has been even better. People want to come and live here now.
The homes of today are largely unrecognisable when compared to their kit counterparts of the past.
Some homes demanding top dollar.
The issue of infrastructure management on the estate is still an issue it would seem:
Clwyd West MS Darren Millar yesterday raised in the Senedd the plight of residents living on Kinmel Bay’s Sandy Cove, who recently experienced flooding. Calling for a Welsh Government statement on the issue of unadopted roads during the Business Statement, Darren referred to the situation at Sandy Cove. Adverse weather on April 9th led to residents of the estate being evacuated from their homes. The estate has also been hit by flooding in the past.
Speaking in the Senedd Chamber, Darren said:
I’d like to receive an update from the Cabinet Secretary for Transport on the issue of unadopted roads. Sandy Cove in Kinmel Bay, which has around 250 properties on unadopted roads, experienced flooding during storm Pierrick just over 10 days ago.
That flooding was made worse because of the lack of drainage on that estate. It clearly needs an improvement to the drainage infrastructure. Those roads need to be up to an adoptable standard, and the poor condition of them is making life a misery for local residents.
Dockland Liverpool
1928
The days when a vast multitude of things came and went have been and gone.
The docks as they were are no more.
Yet in 2023, the Port of Liverpool was the UK’s fourth busiest container port, handling over 30 million tonnes of freight per annum. It handles a wide variety of cargo, including containers, bulk cargoes such as coal, grain and animal feed, and roll-on/roll-off cargoes such as cars, trucks and recycled metals. The port is also home to one of the largest cruise terminals in the UK which handles approximately 200,000 passengers and over 100 cruise ships each year.
Now with the opening of the Titanic Hotel in the Stanley Dock and the arrival of the Toffees just up the road at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, the whole area is slowly being transformed into a destination, as they say in modern parlance.
However much of the Industrial heritage remains in various states of disarray, used and possibly disabused, but hanging on in there.
It looks like this.
Merseyside Food Products Ltd – Liverpool
Merseyside Food Products Ltd of Marsh Lane, later 185 Regent Road.
Edible oil producers.
1939 Producing Pier Head brand margarine.
The Regent Road premises had originally been the marine engineering North Works of H&C Grayson. It appears that the southern block was converted to a warehouse at some point before being occupied by Merseyside Food Products in the 1950s.
The Regent Road factory closed in 1984.
Having a casual afternoon stroll along the road, I espied a narrow gap in the railings, whilst I could never be considered a devotee of urbex, who can resist a narrow gap in the railings?
There are those who have been here before – the 28 Days Later folk take a much deeper peep.
Uncovering some of the left behind plant.
And attracting a comment from a former employee:
I was company microbiologist at this site, The sets of broken windows at the front of the building on the first floor were the laboratories.
The main photograph shows the chemistry laboratory, my microbiology laboratory was next door.
The larger windows to the left provided light to a large open plan reception and office area. Within the factory, the main area had various packing machines for margarines, from 250g paper wrapped packets to 2 Kg catering packs.
A second packing area contained a machine that produced tinned margarine for the Ministry of Defence, who supplied it to the Army overseas.
Cratedigger
urbanchemist – 18th
Whilst feeling that familiar frisson of mild trepidation, whilst walking through the debris, dirt and decay, it’s important to recall those who have walked and worked in these now derelict premises.
With that in mind here’s what I saw whilst feeling that familiar frisson of mild trepidation, whilst walking through the debris, dirt and decay,
Stafford Station Multi Storey Car Park
Stafford Station – Multi-Storey Car Park Station Road ST16 2AA
Arriving by train one Saturday morning at the Stafford Station, with time on my hands, I thought to take a look at the adjacent multi-storey car park.
As a pedestrian I found it to be first rate, clean and well signed and designed, easy access by both stairways and lifts, affording panoramic views of the town.
The motorists however have mixed opinions.
Stafford Walk
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.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
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.
Onwards but backwards to the Civic Centre.
Tiled mural by Brian Lambert 1979
Finally arriving at this lively aggregate gable.
St Mary’s Church Interior
Broadfield Drive Leyland Lancashire PR25 1PD
May I first thanks Parish Administrator Catherine, for taking the time to open the church for our visiting group of Modernists this Saturday – and providing us with the warmest of welcomes, along with a brew and a biscuit or two.
The church was designed by Jerzy Faczynski of Weightman and Bullen. Cardinal Heenan blessed the foundation stone in 1962 and the new church was completed ready for its consecration and dedication by Archbishop Beck in April 1964.
The church is a testament to the ambition, imagination and optimism of its age. Significantly, the building was the collaborative work of both immigrant and native architects, artists and designers.
This has been celebrated by Owen Hatherley’s recent book The Alienation Effect.
A folded slab roof of ninety five feet in diameter, its concrete cast on site, bearing the marks of the wooden shuttering, contrasting with the smooth surface of the pre-cast valley beams.
The Crucifix Rex frame is by Alan Roberts and the ceramic figure by Adam Kossowski.
The organ is designed by JW Walker & Son.
The candlesticks and metal furnishings in all the Chapels were fashioned in the foundry of Messrs Bagnall of Kirkby to the design of Robin McGhie.
The curved benches are of Ghana mahogany and were made by the Robert Thompson Craftsmen of Kilburn, the steel work by GS Graham of Stokesley. The distinctive Mouseman mouse can be found on several of the bench ends.
Dalle de Verre stained glass by Patrick Reyntiens, thirty-six panels abstract totalling two hundred and thirty three feet in length.
The theme for the windows is taken from the first nine verses of Genesis, and the passage of Proverbs c. vii. Amorphous undifferentiated matter with the beginnings of definition and pattern, with here and there the promise of order and system.
The Stations of the Cross are the work of Liverpool sculptor Arthur Dooley.
The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament is designed to seat one hundred and twenty.
The lettering on the green marble frieze is by George Thomas.
The tabernacle, crystal lamp and altar furniture were designed by Robin McGhie.
The tapestry, designed by architect Jerzy Faczynski and woven by the Edinburgh Tapestry Company, under H Jefferson Barnes and Anthony Brennan.
The etched glass panels are also by Jerzy Faczynski.
This is a church whose design and integral interior order and design, sits alongside both Coventry Cathedral and Liverpool Cathedral of Christ the King.
The finest materials and skills, working in harmony to produce a majestic whole.
Take a look outside too!
Kendall & Gent – Victoria Works
Bounded on three sides by Williams Road, Williams Street and Sunny Brow Lane.
Here’s the Victoria Works, formerly home to machine tool makers Kendall & Gent of Gorton Manchester.
Kendall and Gent were machine tool makers, originally of Victoria Works, Springfield, Salford.
Founded by William Kendall and George Gent in 1847.
Latterly of Victoria Works, Belle Vue/Gorton from the 1890’s, acquired by Staveley Industries in 1966.
This was a world of heavy and light engineering, which reached in a broad swathe across Greater Manchester, from Stockport to Cheetham Hill and beyond.
This is the Gorton Works – illustrations taken from Graces Guide.
This was a world of terraced houses and corner shops, side by side with the local works.
Photographs: Tommy Brooks – Local Image Collection
This is that corner of Williams Street and Sunny Brow Road today.
Victoria Works Sunny Brow Road.
Victoria Works Williams Street
Victoria Works Williams Road
Manchester’s engineering industry has subsequently been seriously diminished.
The building became a base for toilet paper manufacturing and distribution.
But the metal beat goes on in both Wolverhampton and Florida.
Originally formed in 1847, Kendall and Gent enjoyed many years as one of the biggest machine tool manufacturers in the UK, producing many large machines which are still in production today. Many of the tangential threading machines are still used in pipe, bolt and stud threading.
Also of interest Richard Peacock Gorton industrialist .
Stafford Railway Station
Having passed through here on more than one occasion, it only seemed polite to stop and take a look around.
It is the second busiest interchange in the county, after Stoke-on-Trent. It serves the market and county town, as well as surrounding villages. The station lies on the junction of the Trent Valley line, the Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line and the West Coast Main Line; it was also the terminus for the former Stafford–Uttoxeter and Stafford–Shrewsbury lines.
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.
Headley was also responsible for the design of East Didsbury, Manchester Oxford Road and Coventry stations.
Archive photos: British Rail Architecture 1948-97
Illustration: John Greene
The station is light and airy, composed of a series of vertical and horizontal volumes.
Glazed walkways and bridges, concrete and timber cladding.
The station is not listed, and over time the signage, seating and entrance have all been compromised.
Martins Banks and Modernity
Martins Bank was a London private bank, trading for much of its time under the symbol of The Grasshopper, that could trace its origins back to Thomas Gresham and the London goldsmiths, from which it developed into a bank known as Martin’s Bank from 1890.[1] That bank was acquired in 1918 by the Bank of Liverpool, which wanted Martins to give it a London presence and a seat on the London Bankers’ Clearing House. The Martin name was retained in the title of the enlarged bank which was known as the Bank of Liverpool and Martins Limited. The title was shortened to Martins Bank Limited, without an apostrophe – in 1928, at the insistence of the directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank when it was bought by the Bank of Liverpool and Martins. The head office and managerial control remained firmly in Liverpool, cementing Martins’ place as the only English national bank to have its head office outside London.
It was taken over in 1969 by Barclays.
To begin at the beginning, to begin in Sheffield – at Martins Bank Eyre Street.
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.
Onwards to 38 Market Street Hyde – photographed as part of my Tameside Moderne book.
Seen here in 1963 – the year of its opening.
The rebuilt branch at 38 Market Street Hyde is typical of the clean lines and minimal fuss of Martins’ 60s rebuilds. After a year or so in temporary premises at 25 Market street it re-opens in 1965, and a year later a smaller but remarkably similar looking branch is completed at Peterborough.
Then last week in Burnley, I stumbled across another former branch, whilst on my Burnley walk – it is currently trading as the Real Food Hall, Vault Cinema and Above boutique hotel, having previously hosted a variety of retail outlets.
Architect: Mr J E Wadsworth of Samuel Taylor Son & Platt.
Discover Burnley’s premier destination for culinary delights. Nestled on Manchester Road, Real Food Hall offers a vibrant and diverse food experience that tantalizes every taste bud. Whether you’re craving gourmet burgers, delectable street food, or indulgent desserts, we’ve got something for everyone.
Enjoy top movies in a luxurious former bank vault, featuring high-end design, ultimate comfort, and a selection of premium snacks and beverages.
Indulge in next-level hospitality with Burnley’s largest, most intelligent hotel rooms — tailored for football fans, couples, and business travellers seeking a seamless, stylish stay.
Most people will remember Whitsuntide, 1963 as a weekend of blazing sunshine spent by the sea, or on the hills, or golfing, or just sitting in the sun. The staff of the two Burnley branches will remember it as a week-end of evacuation and invasion, Dunkirk and D-Day rolled into a lost weekend, the evacuation of Hargreaves Street and St James Street into the new Manchester Road premises.
Mr Jobling, who had controlled operations throughout, created a record that can never be beaten in working twenty-four hours’ overtime in one day! We welcomed our first customers at 10 o’clock next morning and a civic visit at 11 a.m., not only proud of our lovely building but very proud of and grateful to so many who had never spared themselves to achieve what at one time seemed the impossible.
In service from 3rd June 1963 until 19th June 1991.
I was delighted to see that the Martins’ shield was still intact and in place.
This in turn lead me to the archival Designing Martins Banks.
Since the last war the uses of fibreglass have developed to such an extent, that there are now companies engaged solely in the manufacture of fibreglass products. Such a company is Carleton Russell Limited whose works at Loughborough. The company makes fibreglass signs and displays and has produced several of our Bank signs. At the time of our visit the finishing touches were being made to the huge sign, seen in the colour photograph below, which now gleams upon customers entering our branch at Digbeth, Birmingham.
Why fibreglass – two of its advantages, lightness and flexibility, have much to recommend it as the material for a wall sign, either inside or outside a building. The Coats of Arms carved in stone which once surmounted the two entrances to our Leeds office, have now given way to fibre-glass reproductions. Weather resistance is another valuable property of these signs and Hove branch, for example, exposed to coastal weather, is saved frequent cleaning and retouching costs by having its external sign made from fibreglass.
In addition to innovative materials, Martins began to employ Modernist Architecture, interiors and design to attract a younger customer base.
Particularly at their branch on 95 Wigmore Street London, where Ernö Goldfinger was commissioned to do away with the old and bring in only the newest of the new.
Ribapix
The Manager’s Office.
And this is 95 Wigmore Street today.
New office development for Great Portland Estates on Wigmore St. Designed by architects ORMS, 95 Wigmore Street is a new office and retail development by the Great Wigmore Partnership, completed in 2013. The building occupies a prominent site in the West End, between the thriving restaurants and bars on James Street and yards from Selfridges on Duke Street.
Closer to home this is the Fishergate Branch in Preston, opened in August 1965.
Preston branch today is not merely impressive; it is handsome. The entrance porch is of clear glass but the windows are of hand-made tinted glass set in aluminium frames, the counter is of teak, faced with Sicilian marble, and the walls of the main banking office are of wide elm boarding with one large panel of silver grey marble.
The management rooms are lined with cedar of Lebanon against a maple background and hot water coils in the ceilings warm all the office areas. Clearly the transformation has cost a lot of money and even the more humble rooms would not disgrace the London Hilton. Does the Hilton staff kitchen, for example, have built-in teak wall cupboards with magnetised catches?
Now operating as a Barclays branch.
In the late 1950s, Martins begins to commission works of art that can take pride of place in new branches, and in most cases reflect something of the local area – a kind of giving back to the people. To begin with, this is neither a grand nor hollow gesture, and the character of many a branch is decided by its own unique internal décor and its artwork.
Such as the four elaborate carvings from Newbury Branch, depicting four local activities – Brewing, Weaving, Chasing and Farming.
Bristol Clifton 9a Whiteladies Road – the design depicts various buildings and landmarks in Bristol.
Designer – Philippa Threlfall 1966
Gloucester Branch 8-10 Southgate Street
Gloucester Cathedral, viewable from both sides: shatter-proof glass prevented hands from penetrating the fretted ceramic.
Designer Philippa Threlfall 1968
Philippa Threlfall has been making relief murals in ceramic since the 1960s. Together with her husband and partner Kennedy Collings she has completed over one hundred major works on sites all over the United Kingdom and overseas. Some of these were made for private clients, but most were commissioned for display in public situations – shopping precincts, banks, building societies, an airport, hospital and office developments.
Philippa studied Illustration and Ceramics at Cardiff College of Art and went on to qualify as an art teacher at Goldsmiths College London. She taught ceramics and painting part time for six years at North London Collegiate School in Edgware, and during this time began to receive commissions for mural work.
Bournemouth 39 Old Christchurch Road, where sculptor Paul Fletcher’s creation exudes locality and security at the doors of the branch.
Where in the universe have we landed? Is this one of the wobbly sets from the 1960s episodes of Dr Who? Even worse – no need for LSD when paying in your £SD at the new Watford Branch – Bryan & Norman Westwood & Partners, architects 1962.
Ribapix – rear elevation.
The uneven cobbled effect on the floor, clashing with walls that look as if they might close in on you at any minute, must have made for an interesting visit to Watford.
The public space is comparatively dimly lit, with a black ceiling, slate floor and dark-coloured sculptural panels by Eric Peskett placed in echelon so that as you go into the bank the wall appears to be quite solid, but on leaving you see the street through the windows set between the slabs.
The counter top is a solid piece of Afromosia. The floor is of riven Delabole slate. The sculptured slabs between the writing desks have in parts a very smooth shining surface obtained by casting against glass and the insets are rough and dark, they were cast in rubber moulds. The ceiling is roughly textured Pyrok, dark grey in colour and intensely sound-absorbing.
The Architect and Building News – 5 September 1962
Ribapix
And finally – welcome to dystopia 1967 – or Thornaby on Tees Branch, as it is known, an office drowned in its own grey drabness, a real nightmare in concrete. How many people were subject to trudging those awkward walkways with a pram, we can only guess.
The in-house Martins’ magazine and archive may at times, have an ambivalent attitude towards Modernism, I myself, can only admire the optimism and originality, embodied in the work that the bank commissioned.
Many thanks Modern Martins, from thoroughly Modern Mooch.
Burnley Central Railway Station
Burnley Central railway station is a stop on the East Lancashire Line, it is managed by Northern Trains, which also provides its passenger service.
Architect: RL Moorcroft of British Rail 1964-1966
Described by Claire Hartwell in the Buildings of England Lancashire: North as – of blue brick, bleak.
The station was opened by the East Lancashire Railway in 1848, as part of its route from Bury and Blackburn to Colne; here, an end-on junction was made with the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway line from Skipton that had been completed several months earlier. The service from Colne through the station to Manchester Victoria, via Accrington and Bury, was well used from the outset by the owners of the local cotton mills, who travelled from their homes in the area to make their purchases of raw cotton at the Royal Exchange several times each week. It was also possible to travel from the station by direct train to Blackpool, Liverpool and Skipton and even through to London Euston, via Blackburn, Manchester Victoria and Stockport.
1964 Red Rose Collections.
However, the cutbacks of the 1960s affected the station badly, with through trains to Manchester via Bury ending in 1964 (two years before the withdrawal of the Accrington to Bury service) and those to Liverpool in 1969 whilst the line to Skipton was closed to all traffic in 1970. This left the station on a 10.5 km long dead-end branch line from Rose Grove to Colne.
The station was rebuilt in 1965, its ground floor is at street level and the first floor at platform level.
1985
On the day of my visit the hourly service to Colne was almost due, there were two passengers on the platform.
A single track to a dead end town, the booking office and waiting room locked.
Granada Bowl Belle Vue
Once upon many times ago we all went to Belle Vue – formed from John Jennison’s Victorian pleasure gardens and zoo, into an inner city funfair and entertainment extravaganza.
I went to the circus, competed in school sports days, watched the wrestling and music, I still go to the speedway – Belle Vue Aces now racing at the nearby National Speedway Stadium.
Then one day it all fell apart.
In 1979 the amusement park was leased to the main concessionaire, Alf Wadbrooke, although by then it was only open at weekends during the summer season. The long-promised restoration of the Scenic Railway had not happened and the Water Chute had closed. In August 1980, Wadbrooke was given notice to close down the park by 26 October 1980 and to have all his equipment removed by February 1981.
The Greyhound Stadium is now a housing estate.
In 1963 the Top Lake, formerly known as the Great Lake, was filled in and a 32-lane ten-pin bowling alley built on its site, just behind the Lake Hotel.
Known as the Belle Vue Granada Bowl, it opened in 1965, advertised as “the north’s leading luxury centre”. In 1983, after the rest of Belle Vue had closed, it was sold to First Leisure Group, and bowling continued for a time.
Wikipedia
The 32-lane Granada Bowl at Belle Vue, Manchester is believed to have been the first centre to be opened by Granada and the centre went on to become one of the most successful in the country.
The centre was equipped with lanes and machines supplied by AMF and the rest of the centre was well appointed with a licensed bar and food operation. The centre was a joint operation between Granada and Belle Vue with two directors from each company on the board of Belle Vue Granada Bowl Limited.
To mark the opening ceremony Lee Kates, with the support of the band of the 8th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and trumpeters of the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry, introduced Granada’s Mr Chapman, who made a short speech and welcomed the guests. The golden ball was handed to guest Pat Phoenix, star of the TV soap Coronation Street, to roll the first ball.
Gala Bingo came and went too.
Buzz Bingo have announced plans to close nine of their 91 clubs across the country.
One of those earmarked for closure is the club at Belle Vue. Bosses are blaming the dwindling number of players following the Covid lockdowns as well as the ‘ongoing and challenging operating environment’ of increased energy bills and other costs.
MEN – March 2023
House has been called fro the very last time, the signage removed and the building tinned up.
I was cycling by today – 20th May so stopped to take a few snaps.
Modern Mooch 