Dating from 1886, it was originally part of the Glasgow City and District Railway, the first underground railway in Scotland, and as such the station is built below the surface of the surrounding streets. The station was built using the cut and cover method, with the original walls being visible on the open air section at the western end of the platforms.
In 1968 it was demolished due to it being in the path of the new Glasgow Inner Ring Road, and the surface access to the station was moved to its eastern end, with a new surface building constructed as part of the Elmbank Gardens office complex in 1971 – the building was designed by the Richard Seifert & Partners.
I was there in 2024 to photograph the Charles Anderson mural.
Constructed in situ – one third has now been removed at the northern end
Charles Anderson studied drawing and painting at Glasgow School of Art under David Donaldson, Mary Armour etc, graduating with Diploma in 1959. The following year he entered The Royal Scottish Academy painting competition for Post Graduate students and won the Chalmers Bursary. Joan Eardley – one of the adjudicators- took a keen interest in his work and encouraged him to exhibit at the RSA the same year.
Following a period of five years teaching art, He worked as a professional mural painter and sculptor for the next thirty years on major art and design projects throughout the United Kingdom, carrying out commissions for a wide variety of clients including local authorities, property developers, banks and major insurance companies. His most prestigious commission to date was the result of winning a national sculpture competition to provide a bronze figurative group which is entitled “The Community” for Livingston New Town in 1996. In early 1997 he returned to the painting of easel pictures and contributed to the annual exhibitions of The Royal Glasgow Institute, the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours, The Royal Scottish Academy and The Paisley Art Institute. He has works in various private collections throughout the U.K. and abroad.
Plantation is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated south of the River Clyde and is part of the former Burgh of Govan. It lies approximately between the areas of Cessnock and Ibrox to the west, Kingston to the east, and Kinning Park to the south.
The 80-acre Craigiehall estate, previously three smaller properties, was bought in 1783 by John Robertson, a cashier in the Glasgow Arms Bank, who with his brothers owned cotton and sugar plantations in the West Indies. He renamed it Plantation, possibly as a reminder of the West Indies plantations. It then, in 1793, passed to John Mair, a merchant who developed the building and gardens. Plantation passed to the Maclean family, in 1829, in the person of William Maclean, a Glasgow Baillie.
In the years that followed, the estate was bisected by the railway to the south, with the shipbuilding yards of The Clyde Trust cutting off the estate from the river. Plantation was laid out for tenement houses in the 1870s and Maclean, Plantation, Mair and Craigiehall Streets refer to the history of the old estate.
Plantation Quay formed part of the site for the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 and subsequent Glasgow Science Centre.
A crowd gathered to watch a football match at Plantation, 1955. The players in dark jerseys appear to be celebrating a goal.
The mostly male spectators are focused on the game, while in the foreground a couple of women pass by with prams. The tenements in the background provide their inhabitants with a bird’s-eye view of the match. Other spectators are perched on top of a high wall separating the tenement back courts from the football pitch.
In 1955 Partick Camera Club set out to create a photographic survey of Glasgow. As the project progressed, other camera clubs joined and each was allocated a district of the city to photograph. Glasgow Museums exhibited the photographs at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and at the People’s Place, and in 1956 the exhibition was shown at the Palace of Art in Bellahouston Park. The photographs are now part of Glasgow Museums’ collections.
So the folks, homes, industry and streets of the past have been and gone.
I was walking through the area in March 2023 one quite quiet morning, and attracted by the neat rows of austere grey terraces, low rise blocks and maisonettes, which have replaced the tenements.
The estate is clean and well maintained, open areas of grass criss crossed with pedestrian paths, surrounded by mature trees, motor cars have discrete parking areas.
The bridge on the River Clyde – and access to the city’s motorway system.
The Kingston Bridge is a balanced cantilever dual-span ten lane road bridge made of triple-cell segmented prestressed concrete box girders crossing the River Clyde.
Carrying the M8 motorway through the city centre, the Kingston Bridge is one of the busiest bridges in Europe, carrying around 150,000 vehicles every day.
The bridge was first proposed in 1945 as part of the Glasgow Inner Ring Road scheme. After feasibility studies were carried out, William Fairhurst was appointed consulting engineer for the design of the bridge and its approaches and on 15 May 1967 construction began; this was a joint venture between Duncan Logan Construction Ltd and Marples Ridgway.
The eventual cost was £2.4m excluding the approach viaducts or around £11m in total.
On 26 June 1970 Kingston Bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
Co-operative House was the former headquarters of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society and today is a mixed residential and commercial development.
There is a dubious urban myth that the fourth man in the Williamwood bank robbery, Archie McGeachy, is buried in the pillars of the bridge.
Heaton Lane car park is closed while demolition works take place.
Plans to demolish the car park were submitted by Stockport Council in September this year.
The plans propose removing the multi-storey car park down to ‘slab level’
The work itself will be carried out by removing floor slabs one by one from the parking bays, from the ground upwards. Contractor PP O’Connor has said it will take noise and dust into consideration when completing the works.
Dust suppression systems will be in place to minimise pollution.
Noise levels are not considered likely to be a nuisance, however the site manager will be able to review the demolition process if it’s deemed too high.
There car park is almost at the heart – on the edge of plans to regenerate the town centre.
The Strategic Regeneration Framework for Stockport Town Centre West set out how up to 4,000 new homes and 1m sq. ft of new employment floorspace and 5,300 new jobs could be delivered across Town Centre West by 2035.
In order to assess the overall economic benefit of an expanded Mayoral development area Stockport Council have developed an SRF for Stockport Town Centre East. This SRF sets out an illustrative masterplan to guide the creation of Stockport’s new neighbourhoods and achieve comprehensive urban regeneration by 2040. Together the SRFs for Town Centre West and Town Centre East will guide the development of a total of 8,000 new homes alongside services and amenities. The development set out in the SRFs will drive a transformational impact on the Stockport economy.
The Corporation is expected to be established in early 2026. It will provide a single, focused body for local decision-making; engagement with stakeholders including government departments, public agencies; private sector landowners, and developers; and to drive investment across the public and private sectors to realise the shared vision for the regeneration of the Area.
The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Sir Offley Wakeman, a former chairman of the county council, on 25 July 1964. It was designed by Ralph Crowe, the County Architect, in the Modernist style, built at a cost of £1.8 million and was completed in April 1966.
Having visited and snapped way back in June 2024, I returned in October 2025.
I had been asked to speak to the Shrewsbury Civic Society, regarding the history of Modernism in support of their campaign to save Shirehall.
The previous County Council were disposed toward demolition, the current administration are a little more circumspect.
Shropshire Council is considering a return to its former headquarters, less than a year after it moved out. The authority moved from 1960s-built Shirehall in Shrewsbury to the Guildhall in Frankwell, and said doing so would save up to £600,000 per year.
At a meeting on Wednesday, cabinet member for finance Roger Evans said the Liberal Democrats, who lead the council, had paused the demolition and sale of the land, and may retain parts of the building – but only if it could afford to do so.
“We would like to retain the council chamber and some of the associated buildings, but we do need to take account for the cost both in cash terms and in net zero terms,” he said. “What we have done is paused this decision and asked experts to look at it again, look at the whole site, do a reappraisal. The results are just now being recieved.
“I want to keep it as much as we can afford, both environmentally and cash-wise. Whether we can or not will depend, the council is strapped for cash.”
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.
The iconic Rainbow Bridge on the A55 has been lit up to say thank you to NHS, social care staff and other key workers.
This well-known landmark lived up to its name on Tuesday night when it was bathed in rainbow colours alongside a thank you message projected onto the nearby cliffside.
This one-off tribute to staff from the health and care sectors and other key workers who are working tirelessly during the Covid-19 pandemic, was arranged by the North and Mid Wales Trunk Road Agent.
The walkway over the A55, colloquially known as Rainbow Bridge, is situated on the strategic road network which NMWTRA is responsible for maintaining and managing on behalf of the Welsh Government.
The A55 partly follows the alignment of the Roman road from Chester to Caernarfon, particularly from Junction 31 to 30 and Junction 13 to 12. Between Chester and Holywell the alignment of this road is uncertain and between St. Asaph and Abergwyngregyn, the Roman road followed an inland route, via Canovium Roman Fort at Caerhun, avoiding the difficulties of the crossing of the Conwy estuary and the cliffs at Penmaenbach and Pen-y-Clip.
On 1 April 1937, the route, as it was then, was classed to form the Chester–Bangor trunk road. By 2015, the Welsh Governmentwas also classifying part of the road as part of the London–Holyhead trunk road.
So much for modern motoring – I was walking from Rhyl to Colwyn Bay, so decided to walk back and forth across the bridge, before going along my merry way.
Steep and stepped, it certainly would not be described as accessible.
Other Concrete Footbridges are available – here in Durham and closer to home in Stockport.
Old Colwyn just short of the original Colwyn Bay station. In 1929 a pleasure boat is about to depart. Penmaen Head is still in one piece with its quarry jetty. The path can be seen leading directly from the beach to the platform and to the underpass which is still in use today.
I was walking around town, with a view to updating my Ardwick Walk.
Idle curiosity took me toward the Brunswick Estate – that pocket of housing nestle twixt the Mancunian Way/River Medlock, Ardwick Green, Brunswick Street and Upper Brook Street.
Back in 1813, a web of streets and enclosed fields, and more fields, along with small groups of higher status housing, but by the early 20th century it was very much a working class district, within which industry began to grow.
The population of Manchester expanded unstoppably throughout the nineteenth century.
Extensive slum clearance in the nineteen sixties saw the area and its street names change, some erased forever in the new build.
In Manchester, in a vast belt immediately outside the central area of the city, there still exist all too many remnants of a planless, knotted chaos of dark, dismal and crumbling homes. Many of these crossed the verge of uninhabit-ableness long before their most elderly inhabitants were born.
St Paul’s and St Luke’s Brunswick Street W Higham 1970
Lamport Court W Higham 1970
One of three nine-storey blocks, containing two hundred and nineteen dwellings; also including SilkinCourt and Lockton Court.
Litcham Close W Higham 1970
Harry Milligan 1903 – 1986 worked as the photographer at Manchester Central Library until his retirement in around 1968. He was instrumental in setting up the Manchester Region Industrial Archaeology Society in 1965. He volunteered at the North Western Museum of Science and Industry from 1968, assisting with reprographics requests. His knowledge of the history of photography in Manchester and the UK led to him taking on the role of Honorary Curator of Photography at the museum.
Panorama of Brunswick with UMIST in the background.
Hanworth Close area terraced housing and flats 1972.
Staverton Close
Melcroft Close
Wadeson Road
Helmshore Walk – Skerry Close
Cherryton Walk
Cray Walk
Wadeson Road
Hanworth Close
Pedley Walk
Cray Walk – note the decorative brick relief
King William IV
Former Chesters then Whitbread estate pub was built in 1967. Closed in 1996 when it was converted to residential property. It had a brief spell 1991 to 1995 as brewery premises for the Dobbin’s West Coast Brewery, during this period the interior was stripped out to accommodate the brewery paraphernalia.
The building was cladded with a COR-TEN® steel envelope, the nature of which was relatively complex.
Corten steel sets itself apart due to the inclusion of unique alloying elements: chromium, nickel, copper and added phosphorous which gives the steel its self-protecting properties.
Platform 14 is primitive, I understand totally from an infrastructure standpoint because it’s on a bypass line on a bridge, but it gets too overcrowded and is windswept. The rest of the station is ok. Platforms 13/14 have not changed in 40 years, grim.
We the pass to the former BT Building – architects JW Hammond 1973.
Originally conceived as a hotel, there were no takers at the time, so it became the BT HQ.
Comprising 338 rooms, Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly is near a shopping district, a 10-minute ride from Etihad Stadium. Offering a location right in the centre of a beautiful neighbourhood, this comfortable hotel boasts a lounge bar along with city views.
The developer’s architects now propose to ‘reimagine’ the artwork and incorporate it into the foyer of the new office building. However, this ‘reimagining’ requires large sections of the artwork to be removed by cutting away and ‘folding’ around 30% of the sculpture.
From beneath the roadway we can see the Ferranti Building.
Crossing over to see the Brunswick Estate, built in the Sixties and Seventies and recently refurbished.
S4B is a partnership leading the £106m regeneration of Brunswick, Manchester. The Brunswick Regeneration PFI is a combination of government funding, private investment and expertise that will revitalise Brunswick. Improvements will include council home refurbishments, new homes for sale and to rent and an improved neighbourhood design.
Long gone lost estate pub from the estate – King William IV a former Chesters then Whitbread estate pub was built in 1967. Closed in 1996 when it was converted to residential property. It had a brief spell 1991 to 1995 as brewery premises for the Dobbin’s West Coast Brewery, during this period the interior was stripped out to accommodate the brewery paraphernalia.
We take a jog around the block to see the concrete relief that clads the road ramp.
Where there was once a giant Cooperative Store there is now a light industrial and retail estate.
The Diocese of Manchester has been working in partnership with the Church Revitalisation Trust to open Fabric Church and refurbish the building, following a successful bid to the Church of England’s Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board.
We’re excited to be working alongside Fabric Church on the transformation of the Grade II listed former Ardwick Barracks in Manchester. This ambitious refurbishment project will see the historic site reimagined as a vibrant community hub, featuring a new worship hall, community café, offices, meeting spaces, and more.
Alongside Ardwick Green Park there are new housing developments nearing completion.
Ardwick Green combines contemporary design with great light infused spaces, offering stylish homes with a modern twist, private parking, outdoor spaces and a welcoming community atmosphere an urban retreat that truly feels like home.
With the city just moments away, living at Ardwick Green will give homeowners easy access to Manchester City Centre and beyond with its vibrant social scene, bustling business landscape and extensive transport network on your doorstep.
Without which much of what we understand as the modern age would possibly not now exist.
It appears to be green slate from the Lake District, the native underlying rock in this part of Manchester is a red sandstone.
Postcard of 1906
The Apollo of course prevails. – seen here in 1958
Architects: Peter Cummings Alex M Irvine
Opened on 29th August 1938 the interior decorations were carried out by noted interior designers Mollo & Egan with the Holophane lighting designed by R Gillespie Williams.
This Sixties municipal building remains a mystery.
Actor Harry H Corbett visiting his childhood area in 1969, he lived on Earl Street and later in Wythenshawe.
It seems that you are not long for this world – destined for an ultra elevated multi-storey heaven.
An eyesore Northern Quarter car park is to be demolished to make way for a new development. Four new public squares will be built, the council has announced.
MEN
Glenbrook’s proposal for the 1.5-acre site, designed by Tim Groom Architects, will feature 20% affordable provision, in line with the city council’s aspirations.
The new neighbourhood will also feature four public squares and green spaces, a flexible community and gallery space, and commercial units for local independent businesses and food and beverage outlets.
“The Church St site represents a unique opportunity in the heart of the Northern Quarter, a neighbourhood and community that is alive with energy and creativity, and Glenbrook is delighted to play an important role in its future growth,” said Ian Sherry, director at Glenbrook.
When in Halifax it’s imperative to visit Haley Hill flats, as we did in May 2025.
It’s a labour of love ascending the granite setts to the side of Dean Clough.
Walking in the footsteps of photographer Bill Brandt.
A Snicket in Halifax: Bill Brandt 1937
A Snicket in Halifax: Steve Marland 2025
Postcard c. 1970
So it’s October 2025 and today Matthew I am mainly Bill Brandt.
Walking in the footsteps of giants.
Print quality is a variable thing depending on the purpose of the image. I would expect a pure record photograph to have a full range of tone, with both shadow and highlight gradation. Against this, pictorial or art based imagery requires the range of tones best suited to making the statement. The classic case is the soot and whitewash printing of Bill Brandt. So we have a situation that carries a contradiction; blocked up shadows in applied work is not acceptable but blocked up blacks in pictorial work is often perfectly acceptable, if that lost information is not relative to the image. Burnt out highlights are more dangerous, but again Bill Brandt did it with great effect.
Bill Wisden
So, the record print would have an even tonality thus:
Whilst the pictorial artist may favour the higher contrast.
These are the streets in the sky passing between the Central Motorway, Saville Place and Oxford Street.
Streets constrained by infrastructure, a University and doomed leisure provision.
Welcome to Newbridge Hotel Newcastle upon Tyne – a charming oasis located in the heart of the vibrant city, just a short stroll from the renowned Theatre Royal and beautiful St James’ Park. Whether you’re visiting for business or leisure, the location ensures that you have easy access to the best of Newcastle, including fantastic shopping at Eldon Square and local attractions like the Metro Radio Arena.
Discover the essence of Newcastle from Newbridge Hotel, where every stay becomes a unique experience tailored to your needs.
Two sets of protestors gathered outside the New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle, as “Newcastle Welcomes Refugees” stood up to “Send Them Back” protesters who want an end to migrants being housed in the hotel.
This is an inland island of anonymity, home to pigeons, shake can shakers and the terminally curious.
It always rains on Saturdays.
Happily, the sun always shines on Sunday.
Hidden within and upon the walls of the walkways are these two cast concrete panels – the work of guerrilla artist Euan Lynn.
North east property group Gainford has unveiled its revised plan for a £170m residential and hotel project to transform Newcastle’s skyline.
It plans to redevelop a former Premier Inn site on New Bridge Street, with a 29-storey tower of 185 flats, alongside a separate 150-bedroom hotel, and bars, restaurants, and leisure space.
Plans for the new town centre started to be developed in 1960 by Chief Architect Roy Gazzard. The process would go through eight sets of revisions before they were finally approved in 1968. Yoden Way was then pedestrianised, and the small row of shops built in 1950’s was incorporated into the new shopping precinct, forming the north western end of Yoden Way. Like many other town centres across Britain undergoing modernisation, the high-street was split onto two levels, with ramps providing access to raised walkways.
The construction of Lee House – named after Peter Lee, started in 1974. Once completed, the Development Corporation moved its Headquarters from Old Shotton Hall to Lee House in 1976, occupying the building until it was sold in 1984 and remaining staff relocated to Newton Aycliffe.
Enhancing the built environment, Peterlee Town Centre was furnished with play equipment, an ornamental pond, open air escalators, and a sculpture by John Pasmore – son of Victor.
These features were later removed after the town centre was sold to Teesdale Investments – Peterlee Limited in 1985.
Access ramp at the bottom end of Yoden Way, prior to the construction of Lee House in 1973.
It’s 2021 and I arrive at the Bus Station.
Immediately adjacent is Ridgemount House. – once home to the Job Centre.
Firefighters were called to the disused Ridgemount House on Bede Way in Peterlee on Wednesday August 16th 2023 at about 8.20pm after reports of a blaze.
Crews found a fire had broken out in the first floor of the building, which was found to be the home of thousands of pounds worth of cannabis plants back in 2020, after a man converted two floors for use as a drug farm.
Tarlochan Singh, owner of Ridgemount House, has been prosecuted following the discovery of several serious fire safety breaches at the property.
Readers have voted Peterlee nightspot Vibe as the ‘most tragic hometown club’ in the North East
Formerly known as The Dance Factory, Vibe, in Peterlee town centre, is a place famous for it’s almost impossible to get off ‘tramp stamp’ and next door neighbour The Lodge, where many locals will go for pre-drinks and some karaoke before heading to the club.
The bar which once boasted a bijou rotunda with an exclusive upper terrace, has now closed.
Back in 1973 the hotel was badged as the Norseman.
The giants of Sporting Lisbon faced Sunderland in the European Cup Winners Cup and they spent the build-up to the tie in the Norseman Hotel. They met local children, took a walk in the dene, signed autographs and even tried riding a Chopper bike. The side lost 2-1 at Roker Park to a talented Sunderland team before overcoming the Black Cats 2-0 back in Portugal.
Back in 2021 Sambuca was the other town centre bar – badged with Olde English type.
Formerly the Red Lion a Cameron’s estate pub.
April 20th 2014 – Happy Easter everyone. We are open today all the way to 10pm – £2 bottles VHFs, house spirits only £3 double, buckets £4, Corona £2.50 selected shots 50p, cider cans £1 + £2 Karaoke – from now on everyone who sings gets a free shot Then we have the best in all your favourite dance ‘n’ house tunes to take you into Monday.
Onward to the Shopping Centre.
Yoden Way looking towards Lee House in 1977.
Photographs: JR James
The 1950’s shops are still in situ.
Though some of the original architectural detailing and features are no more.
Lee House is still standing but vacant.
Lee House was once home to charity and community groups, but in 2015 the building owners ordered them to vacate the property.Even the building’s clock has stopped working and has been stuck on the same ten-past-two reading.
However, Durham County Council has now confirmed the building is in new hands. Economic development manager Graham Wood said: “We have worked with the previous owner to try to ensure the building is secured while we await proposals for its long-term future.
Four fire engines rushed to Lee House on Upper Yoden Way in Peterlee on Friday afternoon September 19th 2025 after a fire broke out on the first floor of the seven floor building.
An express bus ride away from Newcastle City Centre – arriving in Peterlee, with a clear intent to wander around and look at housing.
There have been many alterations and amendments made, in the short time since the inception of the Masterplan. Flat roofs have largely been and gone, timber replaced by uPVC, what remains is an interesting array of building types set in an attractive rolling landscape.
The case for founding Peterlee was put forward in Farewell Squalor by Easington Rural District Council Surveyor CW Clarke, who also proposed that the town be named after celebrated Durham miners’ leader Peter Lee. A deputation, consisting mostly of working miners, met the Minister of Town and Country Planning to put the case for a new town in the district. The minister, Lewis Silkin, responded by offering a half-size new town of 30,000 residents. The subsequent new residents came largely from surrounding villages in the District of Easington.
Peterlee Development Corporation was founded in 1948, first under Dr Monica Felton, then under AV Williams. The original master plan for tower blocks of flats by Berthold Lubetkin was rejected as unsuitable for the area’s geology, which had been weakened by mining works, and Lubetkin resigned in 1950. George Grenfell Baines’ plan was accepted, and construction quickly began, but it was of poor quality. Williams invited artist Victor Pasmore to head the landscaping design team.
The long and narrow site intersected by a sloped ravine necessitated a new design approach for the layout of the road system and housing in Sunny Blunts. Rather than imposing a grid system as before, the roads follow the natural contours of the landscape so become curvilinear. The housing is then arranged in asymmetric patterns – a deconstructed grid system is one way of describing it.
One of the oddities of Sunny Blunts is the way the houses are rotated 180 degrees in relation to the conventional streetscape where enclosed gardens are normally at the rear of the houses. At Sunny Blunts the front door opens into the garden, while the backdoor opens out onto public realm space, often directly onto grassed areas, which because of how the houses are arranged forms small communal gardens isolated from road traffic for safe places to play. Peterlee at this time had a very high percentage of young families.
Sunny Blunts is also where the now infamous Crudens houses were introduced – along with the Howletch area. Crudens owned the British rights to the Skarne building system, where prefabricated concrete walls and floors are bolted together to form the frame of the house. The system reduced building costs by 10% per house unit, though at Sunny Blunts this saving was then absorbed by the costs of remedial work required to make many of the houses habitable for residents to move in. This still didn’t fully resolve issues with water ingress in some cases.
After the completion of Sunny and Howletch the Development Corporation reverted back to using more traditional building methods.
The Peterlee Development Corporation initially employed the Russian modernist architect Berthold Lubetkin to design the new town. Appointing a renowned Modernist architect such as Lubetkin demonstrated the importance that was placed on innovative design. Lubetkin initially planned to build a modern town of high-rise towers and walkways in the sky. However, his plan was rejected because towers of such height could not be built on land that had been mined.
After Lubetkin’s resignation in 1950 a new architect, Grenfell Baines, was employed to work on the development of Peterlee. After further dissatisfaction with the plans, Victor Pasmore was invited to collaborate on a new scheme for the south west area of the town in 1955. Pasmore’s role was to work alongside the architects to add imagination to a project that could potentially get weighed down with the restrictions of building regulations. That Pasmore – one of the most influential abstract artists in Britain at the time – was given such a vital role in the development of Peterlee demonstrates the central role art played in urban design after the war.
As well as appearing in the Chapel Hill area, this house style was also introduced in parts of Acre Rigg, along Manor Way, and in the early phases of the South West Area. These were designed and built in the early 1960’s when Roy Gazzard was Chief Architect. The three story blocks of flats with their distinctive butterfly roof design that were introduced in the same areas of the new town can also be credited to Gazzard.
Roy Gazzard left Peterlee Development Corporation in June 1962 and went on to become Chief Architect at Killingworth in North Tyneside.
The footpath running between a group of two-bedroom houses.
Essington Way is the main spine road running north from the town centre to Thorpe Road which connects Easington Village and Colliery, with Horden and Sunderland Road. East of Essington Way is the North East Quadrant . West is Acre Rigg which was built in five phases from 1956-1966. The early phases of Acre Rigg share a similar character to that of the earlier North East Quadrant. The later phases built in the 1960s contrast sharply, drawing on the design approached developed in the South West Area under the guidance of artist Victor Pasmore.
The contract to build the Howletch area was awarded to Crudens, who owned the British franchise for the Swedish designed Skarne building system.
The Crudens houses were constructed using prefabricated concrete sections bolted together to form the frame of the building. The gable end walls were then rendered with brick, with non-loadbearing glass, wood, and rendered panel sections forming the front and rear elevations of the houses.
In the foreground of this aerial photo is Old Shotton Hall, which at this time was the headquarters of Peterlee Development Corporation after it was refurbished in 1948 by Architect Planner Berthold Lubetkin. In 1976 the Development Corporation moved its headquarters to Lee House in the town centre. It is now the offices of Peterlee Town Council.
After the departure of Berthold Lubetkin, Grenfell Bains was drafted in as Architect Planner to develop the new Master Plan and oversee development of the North East Quadrant. Bains at the time filled the position at Newton Aycliffe, another of the first wave new towns located 20 miles south west of Peterlee.
1956
As the dates of these aerial photographs testify, building work was already well underway in the North East Quadrant by the time the Peterlee Master Plan was published in September 1952. Indeed, as surviving residency agreements and rent books also testify, houses in this part of Peterlee were already occupied, such were the pressures on the Development Corporation to have something tangible to show for their efforts.
Thorntree Gill was the first phase of residential development completed in Peterlee. It was home to the towns first residents, who began moving in in 1951. The road layout is that designed by Architect Planner Berthold Lubetkin for his ‘Hundred Houses’ scheme , though the houses eventually built differed dramatically from what Lubetkin had envisaged.
In the first phase of the South West Area, Victor Pasmore – Consulting Director of Urban Design, Frank Dixon – Building Architect and Peter Daniels – Landscape Architect, settled upon an orthogonal layout system – roads and houses set at right angles to form a grid pattern.
Three bedroom semi-detached cantilever house on Avon Road.
Screen partition on Thames Road.
Dart Road
A stub block of single-bedroom flats over garages.
The road and housing layouts in the South West III and IV areas extend the orthogonal grid pattern introduced in the South West I and II areas.
The presence of existing mature trees is a feature of South West III which helps give the area an identity that is distinctive from South West I and II. This distinctiveness is further enhanced by the choice of building material.
The South West III and IV areas were built with cured lime brick, with black dye added to a material that is naturally white, creating symbolic reference to a coal face. The visual effect was then sharpened with white panelling. When the dye added to the bricks began fading to a pale grey colour through exposure to the elements, the intended symbolism uncannily started to mirror the fate of the coal industry across the east Durham area.
The South West V Area is approximately twice the size of Sunny Blunts. This final phase of development therefore provided Victor Pasmore with the opportunity to expand the new layout system without the constraints presented by the Sunny Blunts site.
Though the basic cubic house unit is retained in South West V, the detailing in the house elevations is much simpler and closer in feel to the South West III and IV Areas.
This is an an abridged version of the material to be found on PeterleeHistory – intended as an accessible guide to visitors wishing to explore the town.
The idea for the Apollo Pavilion was the culmination of Victor Pasmore’s involvement with the planning and design of the new town of Peterlee in County Durham which began in 1954 with his appointment by AV Williams, the General Manager, as a consultant architectural designer to the Corporation. The brief was to inject a new initiative into the new town’s design, which had been limited by practical and financial constraints. The early departure of Berthold Lubetkin from the original design team, and the limitations imposed by building on land subject to underground mining, had led to a deterioration in the quality of the architecture being produced at Peterlee.
The Apollo Pavilion, created by Victor Pasmore in 1969, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: Architectural interest: the structure is of very high architectural quality, forming the centrepiece of a registered landscape Artistic quality: the only truly three-dimensional work by the internationally known artist Victor Pasmore, the Pavilion is an abstract work of art, a demonstration of Constructivist ideas on a large scale and an expression of brutalist architecture Setting: the setting of the structure is the centrepiece of the registered Pavilion Landscape and as such survives intact.
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.
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.
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.
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 ListedPicture House 1914
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.
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.
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.
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.
Modern Mooch 