Wolverhampton Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

Architects: Austin Smith Lord

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

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

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

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

BBC

Architects: Austin Smith Lord

Linking the Rail Station with the brand new Bus Station.

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

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

Sandra Anderson

Architects: Austin Smith Lord

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

Architect: Marcus Brown 1934.

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

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

Wolverhampton History and Heritage Society

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

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

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

Hold the front page

Extension is by architects: H Marcus Brown & Lewis 1965

With further work at the rear.

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

Architects: George A Boswell of Glasgow 1932.

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

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

Architects: James A Roberts principal architect Stanley Sellers.

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

Wikipedia

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

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

History and Heritage Society

Piazza postcard 1970.

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

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

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

Sainsbury Archive

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

Express & Star

Back tracking to the Combined Court Centre.

Architects: Norman and Dawbarn 1990

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

Wikipedia

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

Architects: John HD Madin & Partners 1969

Take time to have a look around the back.

Off to Church Street and Telecom House

Sold for £4.25 million to Empire Property in 2022.

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

Express & Star

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

£650 PCM – Connells

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

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

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

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

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

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

Birmingham Mail

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

Architects: Borough Surveyor. 

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

Locally Listed March 2000.

demolished January 2017.

Photo: Roger Kidd

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

There is access to its roof top car park.

And also an exit back to street level.

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

Architects: PJ Price and Harry W Weedon.

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

RIBA pix

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

Four men were arrested.

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

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

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

c20 Society

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

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

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

Architects: Richard Twentyman 1939.

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

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

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

Right turn to the Telephone Exchange

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

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

Architects: Lyons and Israel 1936-38

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

RIBA pix – 1939

Over the road to the Civic Centre.

Architects: Clifford Culpin & Partners 1974-79.

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

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

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

ST Luke’s RC – Salford

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13 Swinton Park Rd Salford M6 7WR

It was decided to build a new church in 1963, when the architects Burles, Newton & Partners were appointed and drew up a scheme for a church seating 470. Financial restraints delayed the start of building work until 1966. The contractors were William Thorpe and the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Burke in October 1967. The church was opened two years later in 1969. The church was built to reflect the emerging liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, with a wide interior affording full views of the altar.  The same architects designed a presbytery, added in 1974-5.  A sanctuary reordering took place at some point when the Blessed Sacrament Chapel became the Lady Chapel and the tabernacle was placed behind the altar. The altar rails were removed, and the sanctuary carpeted. Perhaps at the same time the font was brought from the baptistery into the body of the church.

Description

All orientations given are liturgical. The church is a steel-framed structure with loadbearing gable walls built on a series of rafts to guard against mining subsidence. It was designed to ensure that the congregation would have unimpeded views of the sanctuary, and the architects described the layout as ‘in conformity with the Spirit of the new Constitution’. The plan is near rectangular, angled at the east end, with a striking roof swooping up at the east end and trios of sharply pointed gables on each side.

The building is entered on the northwest side via a low porch which gives to a narthex and a former baptistery lit by a pyramidal roof light, attached on the west side. Light pours in to the narthex from a screen with semi-abstract stained glass with the ox symbol of St Luke, an original fixture. The nave is an impressive and memorable space with the boarded roof forming dramatic shapes which frame the east end and sanctuary, where a pair of full-height slit windows are angled to cast light without creating glare and frame a Crucifix. The roof rises up on each side of the big triangular windows on the north and south sides. Those to the south have stained glass showing the Tree of Life the True Vine and the Cross of Faith designed by Roy Coomber of Pendle Stained Glass in 2002-3. There is a cantilevered west gallery with a pipe organ set into the wall above it and a southeast chapel, now a Lady Chapel, formerly of the Blessed Sacrament, with stained glass on sacramental themes. A Pietà in the chapel probably originated in the previous church. The tabernacle, of stainless steel with high relief abstract modelling, was repositioned behind the altar at the time of the reordering. This item and the sanctuary Crucifix with a gilded figure are by an unknown artist. Stations of the Cross are by Harold Riley, installed in circa 2003. They consist of triptychs executed in pencil and wash. Other works by Riley include a study of the Virgin dated 2003 and a print of his painting Our Lady of Manchester.

Taking Stock

I had a very brief moment in time to photograph the interior in very low light.

But a little more time to wander around outside.

Central Area Flats – Sunderland

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Three nineteen-storey point blocks built as public housing as part of the redevelopment of Sunderland town centre. The blocks contain 270 dwellings in total. Construction was approved by committee in 1967.

The blocks were constructed by Sunderland County Borough Council.

The developers of the Town Central Area were Town and City Properties Ltd. It is believed that they contributed £38,600 to the development of the blocks.

Ian Frazer and Associates were the architects for the sub-structural works only.

Llewelyn, Davies, Weeks and Partners were the structural and mechanical engineers in addition to being the architects for the tower blocks.

Gilbert-Ash Northern Ltd.’s tender for the contract was £959,258 – construction began in March 1967.

Heritage Gateway

Astral House, Solar House and Planet House.

Welcome to Marineville – anything can happen in the next half hour.

In actuality the blocks sit upon a shopping centre – recently redeveloped as The Bridges.

And we are not in Marineville.

Though once upon a time it looked like this – a brave new shopping world, well worth producing a postcard for.

Photos: Sunderland Echo

Photo: Tom McKitterick

Thanks to Sunderland Antiquarian Society for the links.

This is the current state of affairs.

Though there are still some remnants of the original development.

The whole shebang is topped off with a roof top car park.

So in the absence of anything else happening in the next half hour, I took a look around.

A one bedroomed flat on the eleventh floor will cost you £45,000

Odeon and Ritz Cinemas – Sunderland

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44 Holmeside  Sunderland  SR1 3JE

Architects: Frederick Evans, Edwin Sheridan Gray

Black’s Regal Theatre was built on the site of the Olympia Exhibition Hall and Pleasuredrome 1897-1910 and it was built for the northern independent Black’s circuit. It opened on 28th March 1932 with Jessie Matthews in Out of the Blue.

The theatre was equipped with a Compton three manual, nine ranks theatre organ which had an Art Deco style console on a lift.

This was opened by organist J Arnold Eagle. The policy of the theatre for many years was pictures and variety and it had a fifty seven feet wide proscenium, the stage was forty feet deep and there were ten dressing rooms. Other facilities included a cafe and roller rink.

Regal/Odeon, Holmeside, Sunderland, Co. Durham

In 1955 the Black’s circuit was taken over by the Rank Organisation and the Regal was re-named Odeon from 28th November 1955. It was divided into a three screen cinema in 1975 with 1,200 seats in the former circle and two 150 seat screens in the rear stalls.

On 28th March 1982 a special 50th Anniversary concert was given by Phil Kelsall on the Compton organ. Three months later, on 26th June 1982 the Odeon was closed with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Star Wars & The Empire Strikes Back, Mary Millington’s True Blue Confessions.

The building was boarded up and abandonded for a long period of time.

However it was to re-open as a Top Rank Bingo Club and remains in use today as a Mecca Bingo Club. The sub-division of the auditorium has been removed. In July 2009, it was announced that the building and the entire block had been the subject of a compulsory purchase order.

Cinema Treasures

I happened by the other day – attracted by the distinctive Deco tower.

And the building’s amazing mass.

I walked around the corner to find the side entrance – as the original lobby is no longer in use.

I was ever so fortunate to happen upon a convivial cleaner, who kindly invited me inside the auditorium.

Much of the interior detail is intact though the balcony was no longer in use.

On exiting, I noticed the ghost of the Regal.

Though the exterior is a pale shadow of its former self, the building is still intact and in use.

A close neighbour is the what was the Ritz latterly ABC Cinema.

Architects: William Riddell Glen

Opened on 1st March 1937 with Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers in Swing Time, the Ritz Cinema was built by the Union Cinemas chain. They were soon taken over by Associated British Cinemas – ABC. It was lavishly fitted with deep pile carpets and chandeliers.

In 1961 it was re-named ABC. It was converted into a two screen cinema from July/August 1974 when the former circle became a 534 seat screen and the front stalls a second screen seating 212. The rear stalls area was converted into a Painted Wagon pub. Sadly the conversion destroyed much of the original interior of the auditorium. It was later taken over by the Cannon Cinemas group, but later went back to the ABC name.

Sadly it closed on 29th April 1999, the last of Sunderland’s major cinemas.

It has recently reopened as The Point a nightclub which has four dance floors and has now completely lost all features of its cinematic past.

Cinema Treasures

Get y’self pumped!

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.

Further Education

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The first school of design in the UK, the Government School of Design, was established in 1837 and went on to become the Royal College of Art. It marked the beginnings of the development of technical education in the UK, which expanded in the remaining decades of the 19th century, and was largely instigated by the Science and Art Department of the Board of Trade, formed in 1853.  In 1856 the Science and Art Department transferred from the Board of Trade to the Education Department and administered grant-aid to art schools from 1856 and to schools of design and technical schools from 1868.

The Technical Instruction Act 1889 permitted local authorities to levy rates to aid technical or manual instruction. County and borough councils began to provide technical instruction by day and evening classes.

The Local Taxation Customs and Excise Act 1890 diverted ‘whisky money’ from publicans to local authorities for assisting technical education or relieving rates, boosting investment in technical instruction.

By the end of the 19th century continuing education was provided by a variety of bodies in a number of forms:

  • day continuation schools 
  • evening schools and classes
  • mechanics institutes
  • schools of art
  • polytechnics
  • university extension lectures
  • tutorial classes
  • working men’s colleges and courses

Under the 1902 Education Act, changes to conditions attached to government grants encouraged the expansion of technical education. Local Education Authorities took over most of the evening continuation schools.

Major changes occurred after the Second World War. Junior technical schools , commercial schools and schools of art were fully integrated into the revised system of secondary education.

National Archives

The development of technical and art education were inextricably linked to the industrialisation of the north of England.

The Textile Court or main gallery space of the Arts and Crafts Museum of the Manchester Municipal School of Art, photographed in 1898-1901.

Flickr

Manchester School of Art was established in 1838 as the Manchester School of Design. It is the second oldest art school in the United Kingdom after the Royal College of Art which was founded the year before.

The school opened in the basement of the Manchester Royal Institution on Mosley Street in 1838. It became the School of Art in 1853 and moved to Cavendish Street in 1880. It was subsequently named the Municipal School of Art. In 1880, the school admitted female students, at the time the only higher education available to women, although men and women were segregated. The school was extended in 1897.

Wikipedia

The mill towns which encircled the city of Manchester each had their own independent colleges of Art and Design.

Textiles in particular required practitioners in surface pattern and garment design and construction, innovative and skilled students were in demand for print, engineering, architecture and general manufacturing – who also required the services of typographers, illustrators, commercial and graphic designers.

Having left school aged sixteen in 1971, all I ever wanted to do was go to Art School.

My local college was the then Ashton under Lyne College of Further Education – the full-time mode of study was then a two year Pre-Diploma Course.

It had begun life as the Heginbottom School of Art based at – Heginbottom Technical Schools School of Art and Free Library Old Street Ashton-under-Lyne.

The new Technical Schools and Free Library, which has just been completed were opened for students without any formal ceremony. The building has been erected from designs prepared by Messrs John Eaton and Sons, architects, Ashton, at a cost, including fittings of £16,000. 

The building is now Grade II listed and the library and college long gone.

A blue plaque in the main entrance celebrates the former student Raymond Ray-Jones.

Father of photographer Tony Ray-Jones.

This is the syllabus of 1924-25 – courses take place in evening as students would have been working during the day.

Many of the classes were clearly defined by gender.

Drawing was a seen as a skill which underpinned he majority of disciplines.

Some of the provision was non-vocational.

Forward now to 1959-60.

There are now full-time courses in Art and Design – though there were no degree courses until 1974, students would find employment, places on a teacher training course or possibly progress to one of the London colleges, which did have graduate status.

There were still clear distinctions in what were considered women’s skills, which also reflected the patterns of employment.

There was also an increasing distinction between specialisms, Fine and Applied Arts taking diverging paths.

An astounding range of skills were available on a part time evening basis, opening up vocational or non-vocational options.

These were always affordable and well attended.

Art and design education had undergone a major transformation in the early 1960s. The Coldstream report -1960/ 1962 had restructured art education: the existing National Diploma in Design had been replaced with a three year Diploma in Art and Design in 1963. The Dip.AD was conceived as providing ‘a liberal education in art’ and had four areas of specialisation: textiles/fashion, three dimensional design, graphic design, and fine art. Other subjects, such as electronic media, photography and film, were incorporated into fine art or graphic design courses.

The Dip.AD was intended to be the equivalent of a university degree. To achieve this academic entry requirements, at least five O’ levels, were introduced; although exceptions could be granted for “students with outstanding artistic promise”, very few were: only 36 were made in 1967 . The Dip. AD itself contained a compulsory academic element and enhanced art history component: taken together these accounted for 15 per cent of course time and 20 per cent of the final pass mark. One year Pre-diploma (latterly Foundation) courses termed Basic Design, were also introduced, these a product of the Bauhaus approach to art education, pioneered in the UK by and Richard Hamilton, Tom Hudson, Harr Thubron, Maurice de Sausmarez, and Victor Pasmore. Basic Design was a form of creative education involving basic analytic experiment and a clearing of the slate.

Centre for Global Higher Education

The college which I attended was opened on March 3rd 1964.

Gone were the autocratic Victorian stylings of the Heginbottom School – The College of Further Education represented a more open democratic age.

The communal areas were light and airy, with full-length windows, wooden floors, contemporary furniture and fittings.

The teaching rooms and workshops well equipped and staffed, with ample support from technicians and lecturers.

This was a no expense spared build – we were made to feel valued, in an institution purpose built for our education and future lives.

The full-time course was five full days a week, with one late evening for photography and art history.

I attended ever single day for two years, we were eager to learn and following an introductory merry go round of design disciplines, students were able to choose their own route.

I was privileged to have been taught by Bill Clarke as a student of Fine Art – of whom fellow Ashton student Chris Ofili said:

After six months on the foundation course I chose to specialise in painting and drawing. The teacher there, Bill Clarke, introduced me to painting in a way that didn’t make me feel restricted or limited. Not only was it something completely new, but it was something that allowed me to investigate further into who I am. He taught us that it wasn’t so much about painting a scene and making sure you got the shading right, but trying to get to a point where the thing that works is absolutely critical and essential to you as a living, breathing person. I was obviously aware of famous artists, but I suppose I never really thought that was what you could do with your life. He opened the door enough to make me think that it was worth going into the room.

Tate

Photo: Andy Duncan 2023

A huge emphasis was placed on observational drawing in the life-room, in addition to more exploratory work in a variety of media.

I also spent a great deal of time in the Print Room working in both etching and lithography with lecturer Colin Radcliffe.

Returning to the college four years ago, I found that the life room was now in use by the Animal Management course.

The site had been undergoing refurbishment and new development.

Built by Kier and designed by IBI Taylor and Young the Advanced Technologies Centre has been constructed following a £10.5 million investment.

Levolux designed, supplied and installed a customised architectural facade solution as part of the £10.5 million development of the Advanced Technologies Centre.

ITP supplied our VCL 250 vapour control layer as a protective solution underneath a stunning façade design. With a mono-filament reinforcement scrim for tensile strength, its polyethylene-based membrane ensures that the building envelope is properly sealed to control ventilation, prevent heat loss and protect insulates from interstitial condensation.

The single storey building was previously home to the Ceramics and Textiles rooms.

The Construction Skills Centre has been designed by Manchester-based architects 10 Architect.

Heckford Signs work with Willmott Dixon approached on a new coloured acrylic sign for the new Construction Skills Building at Tameside College.  The aim for this new sign was to create a showcase of the college logo at an eye-catching size, to include 3D elements which would be housed on the East elevation of the impressive new building on campus.

The rolling curves of the original workshops have been retained and updated.

Since leaving the college in 1973, I graduated from Portsmouth Polytechnic with a BA(Hons) Printmaking, subsequently spending thirty years of my working life teaching in a variety of Further Educational sites across Manchester.

Fielden Park College seen here in 1973 – where I taught design to the printing apprentices.

Originally designed by the City Architect SG Besant Roberts in 1965, refurbished by Walker Simpson Architects.

Closed.

Wenlock Way – an annex of Openshaw Technical College, a former primary school which housed courses in Sign Writing, Jewellery, Horology and Retail Display.

Demolished.

Openshaw College – since demolished and rebuilt, becoming Central Manchester College in the 90s.

We were relocated to Taylor Street in the former Bishop Greer School – renamed the East Manchester Centre.

Since demolished to make way for an old people’s home.

Following the reorganisation of Manchester’s FE provision we were moved again to the former Yew Tree High School, Arden Sixth Form College – renamed City College Manchester.

This block was eventually demolished to make way for the new Northenden Centre – which closed last year, which has in its turn been demolished.

Everyone was relocated to the brand new building on the former Boddington’s Brewery site.

Everyone but me, as I left in 2014 to become a modern moocher.

Manchester College City Campus

Following build completion in July, the long awaited 27,000 square metre, four-storey campus, designed by Bond Bryan and Simpson Haugh, offers a range of facilities, creating an exceptional student experience. It becomes the home of the College’s Industry Excellence Academies for Hospitality and Catering, Creative and Digital Media, Music, Computing and Digital as well as its Centres of Excellence for Visual Arts and Performing Arts.

It accommodates a range of Higher Education courses such as the UCEN Manchester’s School of Computing and Cyber-Security, The Manchester Film School and The Arden School of Theatre and the School of Art, Media and Make-up. 

BDP

Things may come and things may go but the Art School Dance goes on forever.

My thanks to the Tameside Local Studies Centre for assisting me in accessing their archive material.

Scarborough Art Gallery

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The history of the building which today houses Scarborough Art Gallery began in 1828, when local solicitor and Town Clerk, John Uppleby, in partnership with local builders John Barry and his brother William, bought the land on which The Crescent would be built from the wealthy local banker and shipowner, John Tindall. In 1830, the York architect Richard Hey Sharp and his brother Samuel were commissioned to draw up plans for the site.

Crescent Villa was the last of the villas to be built, erected in 1845 as a home for John Uppleby and his family. After John’s death in 1856, his wife and family continued to live in the house until her death in 1881, at which time it was bought by Edward Chivers Bower, father of the sculptor Lady Ethel Alice Chivers Harris and the great grandfather of Katharine, Duchess of Kent.

Bower renamed the house ‘Broxholme’ after his family seat near Doncaster.

Photo: Doc Brown

Following Henry Donner’s death, the house was purchased by Scarborough Corporation in 1942 for £3000 and for five years was used as a welfare clinic and children’s nursery. The clinic moved out in February 1947 and the Corporation decided to turn the building into a public art gallery.

The Scarborough Art Gallery opened to the public on 17 November 1947.

The permanent collection includes paintings donated by famous hotelier Tom Laughton, the brother of the film star and actor Charles Laughton.

Detail from a 1931 map of Scarborough by Edward Bawden – Scarborough Museums Trust collection

Both Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, who were close friends, became acquainted with Tom Laughton, who acted as a patron, particularly to Bawden and commissioned pieces from him to adorn his hotels.

Wikipedia

I visit Scarborough at least once a year – travelling by train from my home in Stockport and one occasion cycling from Hull.

Whilst visiting, a visit to the gallery is almost de rigueur.

This year I had a particular interest in the gallery’s photographic exhibition Squaring The Circles

The works on show demonstrate radical and experimental investigations into the process of making photographs. From cyanotypes and daguerreotypes to pinhole and cameraless imagery, the exhibition blurs the boundaries between art and photography, resulting in an expressive, otherworldly, and inspiring display.

Exhibiting photographers include Takashi Arai, Angela Chalmers, David Chalmers, Susan Derges Hon FRPS, David George, Joy Gregory Hon FRPS, Tom Hunter Hon FRPS, Ian Phillips McLaren, Céline Bodin and Spencer Rowell.

Curated by Zelda Cheatle Hon FRPS.

I turned up paid my three pounds for an annual pass and looked around.

This is what I saw inside and out.

Angela Chalmers

Tom Hunter

Tom Hunter

Susan Derges

Céline Bodin

Tom Hunter

The show’s full title was Squaring the Circles of Confusion – here’s some information to dispel the confusion

Photopedagogy

Not top be confused with the Ball of Confusion.

Go see the show.

Moston Miners Community Arts and Music Centre

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63 Teddington Rd Moston Manchester M40 0DJ

The building began life as a pit-head bath for Moston Colliery.

Several years ago I visited the listed baths at Lynemouth

NMRS

It later became a working mans’ club.

More recently it has had a renaissance under the stewardship of local lad Louis Beckett.

The community centre now provides space for local bands to rehearse, local artists to exhibit their work, a community cafe and larger function rooms that are available for events. 

A wide range of events takes place here through the year including live gigs, pantomines, Halloween parties, cabaret nights and art exhibitions, and since 2012 it’s been home to the Moston Small Cinema which screens a range of films and sporting events.

The Skinny

I popped by a couple of weeks ago and was given a terrific tour by Paula and Lou, along with a competitively priced tasty brew and breakfast.

Work was underway for the current Art Show and evidence of the club’s affable affiliation with FC United of Manchester, along with the results of the previous week’s art activities for the local youngsters.

Let’s take a look around outside and in.

Keep an eye and ear out for forthcoming events – get y’self up there soon!

Prifysgol Abertawe – Swansea University

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Campws Parc Singleton – Singleton Park campus

Whilst visiting the city for the launch of the Swansea Modernist’s book Abertawe Fodernaidd – it seemed only fitting to visit some Swansea Modernism.

Two weeks previously I had found myself at Aberystwyth University.

So I walked along the edge of the bay and cut up through the park to the University.

Singleton Park, and the Abbey, in which the university sits, were given to the borough of Swansea by John Henry Vivian, the 19th century Swansea copper magnate. The abbey was given to the university in 1923, but other campus developments, by and large, had to wait until after WW2, when a significant building programme was undertaken

The University’s foundation stone was laid by King George V on 19 July 1920 and 89 students (including eight female students) enrolled that same year. By September 1939, there were 65 staff and 485 students.

In 1947 there were just two permanent buildings on campus: Singleton Abbey and the library. The Principal, J S Fulton, recognised the need to expand the estate and had a vision of a self-contained community, with residential, social and academic facilities on a single site. His vision was to become the first university campus in the UK.

By 1960 a large-scale development programme was underway that would see the construction of new halls of residence, the Maths and Science Tower, and College House – later renamed Fulton House. The 1960s also saw the development of the “finite element method” by Professor Olek Zienkiewicz. His technique revolutionised the design and engineering of manufactured products, and Swansea was starting to stake its claim as an institution that demanded to be taken seriously.

Work began on the student village at Hendrefoelan in 1971, the South Wales Miners’ Library was established in 1973 and the Taliesin Arts Centre opened on campus in 1984. The Regional Schools of Nursing transferred to Swansea in 1992, and the College of Medicine opened in 2001. Technium Digital was completed in 2005 and, barely two years later, the University opened its Institute of Life Science, which commercialises the results of research undertaken in the Swansea University Medical School. Work commenced on a second Institute of Life Science in 2009.

In 2012 we began an ambitious campus expansion and development project, including the opening of our Bay Campus in 2015; which is home to the College of Engineering and the School of Management. In 2018 we opened the doors to two further projects, The College; Swansea University’s joint venture with Navitas (The International College Wales Swansea, ICWS) and the Computational Foundry; the home of the College of Science’s departments of Computer Science and Mathematics. 

Swansea.ac.uk

Before we get to the academic buildings here’s the Finance Building.

Formerly the School of Social Studies Building – Architects: Percy Thomas & Son 1960

RIBApix

Having been gifted the Singleton Abbey – the 1937 Library was the first new build on the site.

A competition was held in 1934 to find an architect to design a new library building.

The winner was Verner Owen Rees, a London architect with Welsh heritage. The Library opened in the autumn of 1937 and was known as the ‘New Library’, and has later become known as the ‘1937’ or ‘Law’ Library.  Miss Olive Busby, who had been the University’s librarian since 1920, moved to this new building and was famous for patrolling it for the next twenty years, ensuring everyone was being quiet!

Swansea.ac.uk

RIBApix

Around the corner is the building is The Mosque.

Next we encounter the Library and Information Building – Architects: Sir Percy Thomas & Son 1963

RIBApix

Onward to the Talbot Building

Then a swift right into the lea of the Faraday Building.

Walking beneath the Faraday Tower and looking back.

To our right Fulton House – This was built 1958-62 by Sir Percy Thomas & Son – design partner Norman Thomas. The decorative scheme in the main hall is by Misha Black; the panels of The Rape of Europa by Ceri Richards are an addition of 1970.

Fulton House, which was called College House from when it first opened in 1961 until 1986, is one of the most historically significant buildings on the Singleton Campus. Throughout the early 1950s, extensive plans were put in place to expand the Singleton site. At the core of this vision was a large building that could act as a meeting place, and a social and academic hub. This is what it became after 1961. The building contained common rooms, a music room, a coffee lounge, an extra library, a book shop and a barber’s shop.

Swansea.ac.uk

Photo: John Maltby

The building has a fine array of stairways.

And decorative details.

A recent addition Lifelines by Glyn Jones 1979.

This large wall hanging measuring H305cm x W620cm hangs on the wall opposite the Ceri Richards paintings. The hangings were very dusty and the nails holding the piece up were rusty. We were able to interview the artist to find out more about how the hanging was made. Glyn Jones used a blow torch to apply pitch and PVA medium to canvas and skrim fabric that he then attached to a geometric rope structure. Gouache paint was used and a solvent fixative spray allowed the colours to become imbibed into the PVA film. The hanging was made in six panels and then the horizontal rope ends glued together on site. These glued attachments had failed several times in the past and Jones had fixed them. With his permission we decided to come up with a new approach to these fixings. After cleaning the panels, we adhered magnets into the ends of the ropes so that they would click together easily. We reinforced the vertical ropes between the sections with nylon thread. Strong polyester was attached to the back of the top edge allowing a new hanging system where the strips were screwed into the wooden fixing battens. The hanging now looks much brighter and more colourful and detaching rope problem has been permanently resolved.

International Fine Art Conservation Studios

This generously spaced mural in the form of three splendid green, red, and blue shields in glazed plastic material and black cording is a creation in which the artist, Mr Glyn Jones symbolically portrays the Holy Trinity 

The centre shield, in green, represents God the Father as creator and sustainer.

On the right of the centre shield, that is on the right hand of God the Father, is the red shield which represents our Lord and Saviour.

On the left of the centre shield, that is, on the left hand of God the Father, is the blue shield which represents the Holy Spirit.

In other ways the mural is modern in its abstract technique. Its basic symbolism is simple: a shield is for protection and green fertility sustains all life. Mr Glyn Jones is to be congratulated on a study which appealingly and joyfully presents the Holy Trinity as a protective and creative life-force that is yet associated with the Cross. His is a new and attractive achievement in the artistic tradition of Celtic Christianity.

Steve Williams

Cutting back to the Digital Technium

Controversially plans for a £30 million Student Activity Centre at Swansea University’s Singleton campus have been revealed.

Bosses say the centre will form part of a new Student Precinct and, subject to planning permission, will replace the former Digital Technium building which was built in 2003 at a cost of £9.5million.

The scheme will replace the existing Digital Technium building and will be linked to the adjacent Grade II listed Fulton House, which will also be refurbished. Together, they will form the core of the new Student Precinct. Designs to resolve the surrounding streetscape and provide new access routes across the campus are also included.

Stridetreglown

Next to the Taliesin Arts Centre Architects: The Peter Moro Partnership 1984

Peter Moro is the forgotten co-designer of the Royal Festival Hall. A German émigré who had worked with Berthold Lubetkin’s famed practice, Tecton, in the 1930s, Moro was drafted in to help realise the Festival Hall in just two short years, in time for the Festival of Britain in 1951. With a team of his former students, he created many of the interiors we see today. For Moro, the Festival Hall was a stepping-stone to a career designing many of Britain’s finest post-war theatres, particularly Nottingham Playhouse, Plymouth Theatre Royal, and the renovated Bristol Old Vic. He and his colleagues also designed some exceptional one-off houses, as well as exhibitions, university buildings, schools, and council housing, collaborating with leading talents such as the designer Robin Day.

docomomo

Also notably the Gulbenkian Theatre at the University of Hull

Set in the heart of Swansea University’s Singleton campus we exist to enrich the cultural lives of individuals and communities across the region,  presenting arts experiences for audiences in our spaces and on the streets of Swansea.

Recently reshaped internally by Rio Architects.

Carl Cozier aka Holy Moly has added decorative details to the site.

Next door the Keir Hardie Building and its Neighbour the James Callaghan Building.

Heading back on ourselves toward the Wallace Building.

Percy Thomas was commissioned to design new buildings for science and engineering, but these plans were thwarted by cost constraints. However, following the appointment of John Fulton as principal in 1947, Thomas was re-engaged to prepare a new development plan.

British Listed Buildings

Of particular note are the cast panels forming a horizontal band along the elevation.

The entrance porch has a fine ceiling.

Along with etched glass window detailing.

Echoed in the stairway’s glass infill.

Opposite we find the Grove Building.

Alongside the Glyndŵr Building.

Heading now to the student residences the rear of Fulton House to the right

Swansea University Alumni Network

The earliest halls can be seen at the centre of this postcard.

Also to the left of this later postcard.

This card shows the Singleton campus of Swansea University. Top right, the abbey which was the university’s original building; beyond that the houses around St Helens – the sports ground where in August 1968 Sir Gary Sobers scored six sixes in an over for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan.

wonkhe

Prifysgol Aberystwyth University

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Prifysgol Aberystwyth University – Penglais Campus SY23 3AH

Led by London Welshman Hugh Owen, a small group of patriots sought from the 1850s onwards to raise enough money by public and private subscription to establish a college of university status in Wales. A project of enormous ambition, the University opened its doors in 1872 initially with a handful of teachers and just twenty five students in what was then a half-finished hotel building – the Old College on the seafront. 

The first decade presented many challenges for the University’s survival. The generosity of a few individual benefactors and organised appeals for support from the ordinary people of Wales kept the University in being, and, perhaps more importantly, deeply rooted it in the minds and the affection of the Welsh people. A matter of considerable pride is that the University has made a significant contribution to the education of women, being one of the first institutions to admit female students. 

Since those early days, Aberystwyth University has gone from strength to strength and now has more than 6,000 students and 2,000 staff. As the institution grew, its main campus moved from Old College on the seafront to Penglais Hill. This finely landscaped site enjoys spectacular views over the historic market town of Aberystwyth and the Cardigan Bay coastline. New buildings, including major arts and science developments, halls of residence, a magnificent Arts Centre and sports facilities are located here.

aber.ac

1947 and the site is developing behind the National Library of Wales.

In 2023 we closely encounter – the Visualisation Centre Mathematics and Physics Department

Opened in 2007 – designed by Boyes Rees Architects.

Sadly a Welsh architecture practice which has ceased trading under the burden of late payments, leading to the loss of forty jobs.

BBC

Its near neighbour is the Cledwyn Building – Architect: Sir Percy Thomas 1883-1969.

It has recently been Grade II listed.

In 1935 Percy Thomas prepared a plan for the layout of a new campus, and was appointed as architect for the first three buildings to be constructed – Cledwyn, Pantycelyn and the swimming bath.  This marked the beginning of the move away from the college by the sea to the college on the hill. 

Built in a simple Georgian modern style, faced with Forest of Dean stonework, the building’s main entrance features a broad architrave adorned with low reliefs of agricultural scenes, and there are decorative circular stonework emblems in between the windows of the upper floor.

The carved stone work is by David Evans.

A Manchester-born sculptor who attended the Manchester School of Art, and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. After active service in the World War I, he resumed his studies at the Royal Academy, where he was instructed by Francis Derwent Wood. In 1922, he won the Landseer Prize and later went to work in the British School at Rome. He had been exhibiting at the Royal Academy since 1921. His works from the 1920’s are mainly highly stylised religious and mythological themes. 

During his stay in the United States, he executed some significant work for public buildings in New York. The locations there included Rockefeller Center, Radio City, Brooklyn Post Office, a bank on Wall Street, St Thomas’s Church on Fifth Avenue.

Here are the four decorative panels placed higher on the building.

Liss Llewellyn

Next to the Llandinam Building

Seen here under construction in 1963

On completion in deep winter.

Tucked away at the back is this decorative concrete relief lacking attribution but gaining an ashtray.

Backtracking now to the Physical Sciences Building completed in 1962 and opened in 1963 – Sir Percy Thomas Partnership

August 1st 1962: Arthur Chater

Immortalised in this elegant educational stamp set – designed by Mr Nicholas Jenkins of the Royal College of Art 

To the right of the entrance this striking mosaic – action is ossified in the manner of a semi-permanent Pollock.

Aberystwyth Arts Centre is one of a number of campus buildings designed by Dale Owen of Percy Thomas Partnership, and completed in 1970-1972.

Built to a strongly horizontal design using grey granite aggregrate, the facade is essentially an overhanging rectangle framing of glass with an off-centre overhang. The position of the building providing unobstructed panoramic views over the main piazza style concourse and the sea beyond.

Coflein

Ribapix: Stewart Bale 1970

Let’s take a look inside the Arts Centre – to the right an exceptional collection of ceramics.

At its inception the reception area – an exemplary example of integrated interior design and architecture.

Ribapix: John Maltby 1970

David Tinker’s striking cast aluminium relief.

David began lecturing at Cardiff College of Art, later teaching and holding administrative posts at University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, retiring in 1988 as director of the department of visual art.

ARTUK

David Tinker was prominent in so many aspects of the visual arts in Wales throughout the second half of the 20th Century as a painter, sculptor, teacher, and stage designer. 

Tinker is perhaps best known as one of three originators of the 56 Group with Eric Malthouse and Michael Edmonds, the new generation of young artists in Wales who were interested in modernism and keen to ally themselves to the international art world. 

The 56 Group had no manifesto and for the most part they acted as an exhibiting co-operative; not all were abstract painters and their work was stylistically very different from one another, but all shared radical ideals. Their orderly revolt against the establishment was unique in the history of art in Wales. 

They championed abstraction and allied themselves to European and American modernism, at a time when painters in Wales were being commended for recording the urban, rural and industrial face of Wales and its inhabitants. 

As might be expected, the art establishment more readily accepted 56 Group avant garde works, and those artists who had been achieving some success as painters of the contemporary scene suddenly found themselves side-stepped, and labelled parochial. 

The period 1966-1974 saw in his paintings a move toward hard-edged abstraction in which Tinker employed geometry-based structures, simple arithmetical problems, colour mixed from a restricted palette, and gentle tonal gradation. 

Free Library

Bonny Street Police Station – Blackpool 2022

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I have been outside several times in 2016 again in 2020 – never inside.

Let’s take a look:

Photos – Blackpool Gazette

So whilst in town for a stroll I strolled by once again, the main block now tagged and tinned up.

Whilst the Courts are still in use, until they make their move in 2025, stasis seems to be the order of the day.

There are no signs as yet of the proposed redevelopment of the site.

Some day maybe

Councillors have approved a compulsory purchase order to complete the land assembly for the £300m Blackpool Central project but still hope to negotiate terms with property owners.

Blackpool Council’s executive unanimously agreed the recommendation towards enabling the Central Car Park to be transformed into a leisure destination boasting a flying theatre, virtual reality rides, a thrill and gaming zone, multi-media exhibition space and themed dining areas.

Lancs Live

Let’s veer off the promenade and assess the situation.

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. 

Ambulance HQ – Glasgow

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48 Milton Street and Maitland Street Glasgow G4 0LR

Scottish Ambulance Headquarters on Maitland Street and the adjoining St Andrew’s House with it’s entrance on 48 Milton Street. Designed by Skinner, Bailey & Lubetkin in the late 1960s. Originally two linked buildings, they now act independently with St Andrew’s House occupied by St Andrew’s first aid and the Headquarters next door currently lying vacant April 2011.

Berthold Lubetkin in top hat beside caryatid at the entrance to Highpoint Two – North Hill Highgate London.

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One of the only two buildings in Scotland designed by this architectural practice with Lubetkin acting as a consultant. Lubetkin is one of the outstanding figures of pre-war British architecture – penguin pool, London zoo & Highpoint Flats, London. Lubetkin designed the main cross of the north elevation and the main staircase, Bailey was the lead architect on this project. Both buildings are A listed.

Architecture Glasgow

By the mid 1960s, Lubetkin was based at his farm in Gloucestershire, Skinner in London and Bailey in Glasgow. Bailey asked Lubetkin to work out the design of the main staircase and parts of the principal elevation, notably the large cross. Lubetkin’s staircases are particularly spectacular and the St Andrew’s one is no exception. Allan notes that the Lubetkin leitmotif was the controlled collision of straight and curved geometry and this would appear to be exemplified here in the triangular plan geometric staircase which ends in a gentle curve at the ground floor. It is possible that Lubetkin may have influenced the vertical timber panelling in the boardroom. While that in the main hall is smooth and varnished, the boardroom has been sandblasted to present a weathered appearance. At Highpoint Two Lubetkin designed the interior and furniture for the penthouse flat with walls of vertical roughened sand-blasted pine panelling.

Historic Environment Scotland

ribapix

Acorn Property Group has applied to Glasgow City Council for permission to convert the Maitland Street property.

The developers want to repair and refurbish the building, at Cowcaddens, before offering managed workspaces.

Glasgow World

This is a walk around the street view of the building during my first visit to Glasgow in April 2022 – there was no evidence of any redevelopment work taking place.

St John The Baptist RC – Rochdale 2022

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I was last here in 2020 – made ever so welcome in this Byzantine cathedral like church.

The apsed sanctuary is completely covered in a mosaic scheme with the theme Eternal Life designed by Eric Newton. Newton was born Eric Oppenheimer, later changing his surname by deed poll to his mother’s maiden name. He was the grandson of Ludwig Oppenheimer, a German Jew who was sent to Manchester to improve his English and then married a Scottish girl and converted to Christianity. In 1865 he set up a mosaic workshop, (Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd, Blackburn St, Old Trafford, Manchester) after spending a year studying the mosaic process in Venice. Newton had joined the family company as a mosaic craftsman in 1914 and he is known to have studied early Byzantine mosaics in Venice, Ravenna and Rome. He later also became art critic for the Manchester Guardian and a broadcaster on ‘The Critics’. Newton started the scheme in 1932 and took over a year to complete it at a cost of £4,000. It had previously been thought that he used Italian craftsmen, but historic photographs from the 1930s published in the Daily Herald show Oppenheimer mosaics being cut and assembled by a Manchester workforce of men and women. It is likely, therefore, that the craftsmen working on St John the Baptist were British.

Historic England

There had, as ever, been issues with the structure, water ingress and such, given several flat roofs and a temperamental ferro-concrete dome.

Happily, a successful Lottery Heritage Fund grant has covered the cost of two phases of repair to the physical fabric.

Thanks to the Parish Team, for once again making us all feel so welcome, and thanks also for their efforts in securing the finances which have made the restoration possible.

We were all issued with our hard hats and hi-vis at the comprehensive and informative introductory talks.

Followed by a detailed explanation of the mosaic work being undertaken by Gary and his team from the Mosaic Restoration Company.

This involves skilfully cleaning the whole work, whilst repairing and replacing any damaged areas.

We were then privileged to ascend the vast scaffold, the better to inspect the work up close and personal.

And this is what we saw.

Many thanks again to our hosts, the contractors and all those involved with this spectacular undertaking.

Althea McNish – Whitworth

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Oxford Rd Manchester M15 6ER

Recently opened and on for a while, I was here first thing Saturday morning – here are the details of Colour is Mine.

Althea McNish was the first Caribbean designer to achieve international recognition and one of the most influential and innovative textile designers in the UK. Drawing on extensive new research, this exhibition explores McNish’s extraordinary career and her transformative impact on mid-century design, along with her enduring influence today. Highlights include items from McNish’s recently uncovered personal archive – much of which has never been seen before. Also on display will be examples of McNish’s original designs alongside her most celebrated textile and wallpapers.

Althea McNish: Colour is Mine is a touring exhibition from the William Morris Gallery, London, and has been curated by Rowan Bain, Principal Curator at the William Morris Gallery and Rose Sinclair, Lecturer in Design Education at Goldsmiths, University of London. Althea McNish: Colour Is Mine is part of a three-year research, exhibition and archiving project generously supported by the Society of Antiquaries through its Janet Arnold Award.

An extensive biography can be found here.

Her work collided with new technologies in printing and fabrics, along with developments in design which were very much of their time: a freer more expressive approach to drawing and colour – using observational drawing from natural forms and geometric pattern

Typically employing the techniques of wax resist and a wandering Indian ink line.

Her work for the leading manufacturing and retail companies extended across fabric and dress design, wallpaper and accessories.

I urge you to go and see it – several times, the show is so wide ranging and joyous, a fitting testament to a creative life well-lived.

Oriel Mostyn – Llandudno

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I have posted here previously regarding the Naples of the North.

With particular reference to its seaside shelters.

This is a town with a visual culture defined by carefully created picture postcards – conjuring images from land, sea, sand and sky.

New technology arrives, dragging Llandudno from the sepia soaked past into the CMYK age!

So it’s only right and proper that the town should have an art gallery.

Oriel Mostyn Gallery was commissioned by Lady Augusta Mostyn after the Gwynedd Ladies’ Art Society asked her for better premises than their existing home, in a former cockpit in Conwy. The ladies’ gender prevented them from joining the Royal Cambrian Academy, also based in Conwy.

Designed by architect GA Humphreys, the new gallery opened in 1901. From 1901 to 1903, the gallery housed works by members of the GLAS. As a patron of the arts and president of the society, Lady Augusta was aware that the ladies needed more space to display their work and gave them the opportunity to rent a room in the new building.

Lady Augusta was keen for the gallery to be used by local people, so the society was asked to leave and a School of Art, Science and Technical Classes was set up. Alongside the many classes, there were art exhibitions, lectures. social events, and even a gallery choir and shooting range!

The current shop area was the location for a ‘Donut Dugout’ – a rest and recreation area for the many American servicemen in the town. Coffee and doughnuts were served and the men could read magazines from home.

After the war, Wagstaff’s Piano and Music Galleries occupied the building. In 1976 the artist Kyffin Williams, and others, suggested the building should become the proposed new public art gallery for North Wales. Architects Colwyn Foulkes supervised its restoration and it reopened, as Oriel Mostyn, in 11 August 1979.

History Points

Once the Post Office had vacated the adjacent building, expansion and development took place – Ellis Williams Architects were responsible for the design.

RL Davies undertook the construction work.

Acknowledged to be ‘one of the most beautiful galleries in Britain’, Mostyn in North Wales was an existing listed Victorian museum with two lantern galleries tucked behind a listed facade. We were appointed by Mostyn after winning the Architectural competition with a design combining a gallery space refurbishment with a gallery expansion and a new dramatic infill section linking new and old. The project has won a number of awards and increased footfall by over 60%.

Why not let your feet fall there soon – Oriel Mostyn is open.

The very first time I visited the town as a child back in the early 1960s, it rained almost every day.

Subsequent visits have almost always been bathed in warm sunshine.

Postwar Modern – The Barbican 2022

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Is it a book is it a show?

It’s both – well it was a show and it’s still a book.

I went along and looked at the art and looked at the people looking at the art.

Eccles Congregational Church

Posted on by modernmoocher

Wellington Road Eccles M30 9AL

Architect: TD Howcroft 1969

Once upon a time there was a Gothic church.

The Cornerstone of the building was laid in front of a crowd of 2,000 on Good Friday 1859 and the church was opened for public worship on Good Friday 6th April 1860. In the press of the day, the church was described as – a Cathedral looking church.

Photo: Flickr cabinet photograph by Enos Eastham of Eccles.

In 1965 it was announced that a new Eccles motorway would be built through the church land.

Work began to demolish the Church and replace it with a new smaller church, but the old church did not go down without a fight as workers could not pull down the steeple. After eleven days of battering and buffeting by eighteen pounds of gelignite and two eight ton bulldozers, the steeple finally surrendered.

Then there wasn’t – then there was this:

On Friday 11th July 1969, the new church officially opened with a splendid ceremony. A minor hitch occurred when the organ blew a fuse during the second verse but the Congregation sang through it while organist Mr Kenyon frantically fumbled about and rectified the matter.

Eccles Congregational Church

TD Howcroft was also responsible for St Wilfrid’s in Pevensey Bay – I happened to cycle by in 2015.

My thanks to Mr Tony Flynn – the acting Lord Mayor of Eccles, for arranging our visit through church member Mr George Cross.

To the rear the exterior is, as Mr Pevsner would say – unprepossessing.

The elevation facing the main road more than somewhat less unprepossessing.

A curved apse along with a raised and canted roof – a window up above illuminating the altar.

The main body of the church is bold and voluminous – strong verticals to the rear and right.

The pews, organ pipes and other furnishings appear to be of a piece.

There is a dynamic timber roof with supporting beams.

Previous Pastors.

Relocated War Memorials.

St Mark’s Broomhill – Return

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Broomfield Rd Sheffield S10 2SE

Having been here before – I returned.

There is something within the work of George Pace which speaks directly to my eyes and heart – and feet. His Modernism is tempered by the Mediaeval – along with Arts and Crafts references and a nod to Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp

I have also visited Bradford, Chadderton, Doncaster, Keele and Wythenshawe.

Here in Sheffield is a church built in 1868 – 1871 to a standard neo-Gothic design by William Henry Crossland. Bombed in the Blitz restored, redesigned and built by Pace 1958 – 1963, accommodating the original spire and porch.

Here is the Historic England listing.

There is stained glass to the east, Harry Stammers illustrating the Te Deum and to the west an abstract design by John Piper made by Patrick Reyntiens.

The laddered design glass in the side chapel, is by Gillian Rees-Thomas.

Let’s take a walk around the exterior.

Time to go inside – happily the St Mark’s is open weekdays, in addition to Sunday services.

Swansea Civic Centre

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Architects: J Webb as County Architect and CW Quick as the job architect of the West Glamorgan County Architects Department 1982

Canolfan Ddinesig Abertawe formerly known as County Hall.

Confused?

Don’t be, it’s all quite simple really.

Following the implementation of the Local Government Act 1972, which broke up Glamorgan County Council and established West Glamorgan County Council, the new county council initially met at Swansea Guildhall. Finding that this arrangement, which involved sharing facilities with Swansea Council, to be inadequate, county leaders procured a dedicated building, selecting a site formerly occupied by an old railway goods yard associated with the Mumbles Railway.

The design features continuous bands of glazing with deep washed calcined flint panels above and below.

Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, visited on 20 April 1989.

After local government re-organisation in 1996, which abolished West Glamorgan County Council, ownership of the building was transferred to Swansea Council. It was renamed Swansea Civic Centre on 19 March 2008, and Swansea Central Library moved into the complex as part of a redevelopment scheme.

See, simple!

Wikipedia

However.

In 2019 it was reported that Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart said:

As part of our city centre’s multi-million pound transformation, it remains our aim to vacate and demolish the civic centre.

We want to reinvigorate that area and we continue to make progress on a master plan for it.

Powell and Dobson think that this seems like a swell idea

Urban Splash seem to have a slightly vaguer vision.

In March 2021, plans to find a new use for the location continued to still be a commitment of Swansea council, with the announcement of the transfer of the central library and other public services to the former BHS and now What! store on Oxford Street.

Swansea Civic Centre is at risk the Twentieth Century Society says so – they are strongly opposed to demolition of the iconic building and have submitted an application to have the building listed as Grade II.

I do not know what fate awaits it, I only know it must be brave – to paraphrase Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin, Ned Washington, Gary Cooper and Frankie Laine – it’s High Noon and counting.

Any road up as of the 11th of May it looked just like this:

Diolch yn fawr once again to Catrin Saran James for acting as my spirit guide.