Warrington Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

It’s a sunny day in May and we begin at Warrington Bank Quay station.

The first Warrington Bank Quay station opened on 4 July 1837.

The station was rebuilt when the line was electrified in 1973, a new power signal box covering an extended area was built east of the station for the electrification.

In 2009 a new entrance hall was completed, with a travel centre/ticket office and a shop.

The buffet on the London bound platforms was modernised.

Wikipedia

The station was once operated on a split level.

Next onwards to the Pyramid Arts extension 2002, a reworking by Studio BAAD of the former County Court and Inland Revenue Offices 1897-8 by Sir Henry Tanner.

Studio BAAD Ltd started winding up proceedings for a Creditors Voluntary Liquidation in April 2021 and the company was dissolved on 21 July 2021

The centre is currently closed – work began on the redevelopment, which has been funded by a £5 million grant from the Government, in July 2024.

The project aims to make the building more modern, accessible and fit for the future.

The redevelopment includes the addition of a new café and bar area while the Exhibition Hall will become a bigger capacity venue.

Across the way the Masonic Hall 1932-33 Albert Warburton.

Further along to Hilden House a former Department of Works and Pension building, currently undergoing a transformation into a residential block.

The £18m office to residential reset of the 52,400 sq ft building will offer a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments in plans now approved by the local authority.

Caro Developments, working in tandem with architect Falconer Chester Hall, hopes to start construction later this year.

According to a planning statement submitted on the developer’s behalf by Savills, once complete, the five-storey block will offer residents a concierge service, a gym and wellness facility, a resident’s lounge, and a co-working area.

Place North West 2025

Way out of period but a notable Warrington landmark are the Golden Gates designed in 1862.

The gates were made for the International Exhibition of 1862, and then intended for Queen Victoria’s Sandringham home in Norfolk. Coalbrookdale found it hard to find a buyer for such grand gates, so Frederick Monks, one of the town’s earliest councillors, was able to buy and bring them to Warrington to stand at the front of the town hall lawn.  Monks also presented the cast iron Cromwell statue, designed by John Bell, to Warrington in 1899.

Warrington Gov

The Golden Gates are Grade II* Listed, along with the gate piers and the lamps which line the driveways at either side of the town hall

Up the road now to the Soap Works – first views from across the railway tracks.

Then over the bridge.

Joseph Crosfield was born in Warrington, the fourth son of George Crosfield and his wife Ann née Key. In 1814, Joseph’s apprenticeship having finished, at the age of 21 he decided to establish his own soap making business in Warrington.

In 1911 the company was purchased by Brunner, Mond & Company and 1919 it was absorbed into Lever Brothers. From 1929 Crosfield was a subsidiary of Unilever. In 1997 its Warrington speciality chemicals division that made ingredients for detergents and toothpastes was acquired by ICI and in 2001, Ineos Capital purchased the company. The name Crosfield was finally lost as it was renamed Ineos Silicas. In 2008 Ineos Silicas was merged with PQ Corporation, with the new company retaining the name of PQ Corporation.

Wikipedia

The Crosfield’s factory closed for good in October 2020.

Dante FS Group formally acquired four acres of the site this month for an undisclosed fee from EcoVyst.

The latter firm will continue to operate from sections of the site, as will PQ Corporation, with Dante buying land closest to the train station, including the visible blue buildings and white Unilever tanks.

Renamed Platform at Bank Quay, the ‘next-generation, state-of-the-art modular data centre’ is ‘set to power the UK’s growing AI economy’ and bring high-tech jobs to the town.

Warrington Guardian

Across the way the Scared Heart RC Church 1894 Sinnott Sinnott and Powell.

Listed Grade II

We now approach the Pink Eye roundabout where we may view the Pink Eye Silo.

Middle right this Aero Photo of 1928 shows a much larger mill complex.

Also the site of an older bridge – later replaced by a pipe carrying structure.

We then follow the riverside green line path twixt Soap works and Mersey, heading toward the Transporter Bridge.

The route explained by the indispensable Friends of the Warrington Transporter Bridge.

Warrington Transporter Bridge aka Bank Quay Transporter Bridge or Crosfield’s Transporter Bridge across the River Mersey is a structural steel transporter bridge with a span of 200 feet.

It is 30 feet wide and 76 feet above high water level, with an overall length of 339 feet.

It was commissioned in 1916 and, although it has been out of use since about 1964, it is still standing. It was designed by William Henry Hunter and built by William Arrol and Co.

The Transporter Bridge was built to despatch finished product from the cement plant that had been built on the peninsula. It was originally designed to carry rail vehicles up to eighteen tons loaded weight.

The bridge was converted for road vehicles in 1940, and was certified to carry loads of up to thirty tons in 1953.

FOTWTB

This was my first visit in 2017 – recorded on Modern Mooch.

Highlight on any day out anywhere is the discovery of arcane British Rail typography.

There’s a brief history of Freightliner history right here.

Back now to Bank Quay and off to the Telephone Exchange.

This is the 1969 building designed by the MODBW, Reginald Norman Dixon with lead architect P Clinton.

Linked to the 1955 building designed by John Onslow Stevens.

Biggest thanks to Lisa Kinch who can be found over on Instagram, for all her informative research into telephone exchanges.

Toward the town centre and we pass the Bold Street Methodists Church – 1973-75.

Currently closed and for sale.

Thence to the Block 1 nightclub.

Medicine night club early 2000s.

Originally a Tetley’s house named The Woolpack.

Got served my first pint in there, I was only 14.

Karl Beckett

Coming down those stairs, I slipped and the heel came off my boot, I’d only had one drink – loved those boots.

Sue Duncan

This was the original Woolpack on the site.

Much of the town centre is dominated by the Golden Square shopping centre.

Designed in 1974 by Ardin and Brookes and Partners, since enlarged.

There is also extensive pedestrianisation and hard landscaping on the surrounding streets, carried out in 2002 by Landscape Design Associates with sculptural works by Howard Ben Tre.

Finally to the Bus Station which used to look like this:

Until it became an Interchange and looks a lot like this.

Warrington’s new bus interchange was opened on 21 August 2006. From 1979, bus users travelled from a facility on Golborne Street, but it was very unpopular due to its very dreary appearance. 

On The Buses.

Though the final word must go to an absent friend.

Where once the New Town House stood.

Built in 1976 to house the Warrington & Runcorn Development Corporation.

Visited by myself the Modern Mooch in 2021

Nobody actually likes brutalist buildings. 

They just pretend to like them to make themselves look cool, it’s like craft beer and food that comes in tiny portions.

Walsall Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

The name Walsall is derived from Walh halh, meaning valley of the Welsh, referring to the British who first lived in the area. Later, it is believed that a manor was held here by William FitzAnsculf, who held numerous manors in the Midlands. By the first part of the 13th century, Walsall was a small market town with a manor house; the weekly market was introduced in 1220 and held on Tuesdays. The mayor of Walsall was created as a political position in the 14th century.

Significant developments also took place nearer to the town centre, particularly during the 1960s when a host of tower blocks were built around the town centre; however, most of these had been demolished by 2010.

The Memorial Gardens opened in 1952, in honour of the town’s fallen combatants of the two world wars. The Old Square Shopping Centre, a modern indoor shopping complex featuring many big retail names, opened in 1969.

Much of the reconstruction of the post-war period was quickly reconsidered as ugly and having blighted the town. In 1959, John Betjeman advised that with sensitive restoration the old buildings of the High Street could become:

One of the most attractive streets in England.

Instead, almost every building was demolished.

Wikipedia

There is to be further demolition on the High Street, to open up the vista between the Bus and Railway stations.

In 2021 Walsall secured funding of £11.4m from the Future High Street Fund. With further investment from Walsall Council we are now delivering the early phases of the Town Centre Masterplan, through the Walsall Connected Gateway Project.

Walsall Gov UK

Approval has been granted to remodel the Saddlers Centre to create a more open and attractive arrival experience for train passengers whilst also opening up Park Street. Butler’s Passage, which has in the past been the centre of antisocial behaviour, will disappear as some of the buildings are removed to create a large open walkway, connecting the rail and bus hubs.

Former Railway station 4th March 1978 – photo by Walsall 1955

The station was about to be closed, demolished and replaced by a new Marks & Spencers and the Saddlers Centre.

The existing entrance to the railway station on Station Street.

Let’s begin at the St Paul’s bus station or Hub – if you will, complete in September 2000.

The 1936 St Pauls Street bus station closed in February 1975, and was completely demolished, rebuilt and opened in August 1975.

Photo by: Walsall 1955

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris designed the building for Centro. The structural engineers were Atelier One, Shepherd Construction Ltd were the contractors, Watkins Dally were the landscape architects and Clark Smith Partnership were the civil engineers. 

The project cost £6.5 million.

Wikipedia

Next, a glimpse of Hatherton Road multi-storey car park.

Though it appears to be closed.

Adjacent to Enoch Evans Solicitors, their offices housed in one of the many imperious inter-war buildings dotted around the town.

Which faces onto the back of the Civic Centre.

Following the formation of the Metropolitan Borough, the new Civic Centre in Darwall Street opened in 1976, architect Stanley W Bradford Walsall MBC Director of Architecture.

Central roof garden.

Leaving the Civic Quarter on the left is the Imperial

The Imperial started life as an agricultural hall, constructed in 1868-69, and designed by the architect GB Nichols of West Bromwich. At that time, it was used for a variety of community activities including shows and dancing, it was also hired out to travelling film showmen. The main feature of the early building was a principal ground floor hall.

In June 1914, the Imperial was closed to allow for conversion to a cinema, designed by West Midlands-based architects Hickton & Farmer.

The Imperial was converted to a bingo club in 1968, and in 1996 it was converted into a pub, which closed in 2016.

Theatre Trust

Next to the TSB Bank.

At the end of the otherwise period correct Victorian Arcade is a space age Pound Bakery.

Across the way a former Barclays Bank architects: John HD Madin & Partners.

Next door an anomalous disco themed fascia.

From here up the hill to the Old Square.

Sainsbury’s Old Square store in the early 1970s photo Will Parker.

The majority of the Shopping Centre was demolished in 2014.

I remember when I was about fifteen in 1990, Coca-Cola were doing these yo-yos and if you went upstairs by the cafe, I think it was you could earn a gold coloured yo-yo. You just had to perform three tricks with it to earn one. I did walk the dog, the sleeper and I think it was around the world! Proud as punch with that I was. I know my uncle was Father Christmas for a few years on the bounce as well, when they used to have a grotto. 

Dan Bracknall

These are the remnants.

Ascending to the dizzy heights of the Grade II Listed Memorial Gardens 1953 by Geoffrey Jellicoe designed as a memorial to the dead of the two World Wars and said to mark a significant stage in the evolution of his principles of design.

Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe was one of the century’s greatest landscape architects. His contribution to landscape design has been described as equal to the 18th-century gardener Capability Brown. He was educated at Cheltenham College and then trained to be an architect at the Architectural Association. It was while at the AA that his interest in landscape was first kindled.  

The second phase, comprising the building of the memorial chapel in the Memorial Garden, and the flats and Brotherhood or Church Hall to the south of the open space known as St Matthew’s Close, was completed c 1960

Photo: History of Walsall

Historic England

Of back down the hill onward to the Walsall School of Art.

Walsall’s art school’s history is a story of gradual growth and change, evolving from evening classes in a chapel to a modern art college. The Walsall School of Design and Ornamental Art, founded in 1854 as an evening class, operated from 1861 at the Goodall Street Baptist Chapel and eventually became the Walsall College of Art. 

To celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, the Walsall Science and Art Institute was opened in 1888 at Bradford Place. In 1897, it was transferred to the Town Council and renamed the Walsall Municipal Science & Art Institute. In 1926, the institute was renamed Walsall Technical College. Post-war demand led to the establishment of the Walsall and Staffordshire Technical College at Wisemore – now St Paul’s Street, in 1952. The Walsall College of Art officially merged with the College of Technology in 1992 to form Walsall College of Arts and Technology – now simply Walsall College. The college maintains strong historical ties to local industries, such as the leather trade.

Artbiogs

Further on there’s an enormous Telephone Exchange comprising fifties and seventies buildings.

Across the way a large system built block on a podium base.

Standing on the corner where it has always stood the Silver Knight Garage.

Heading back into the town centre, picking up on there’s a former Woolworths that looks like a Burton’s that thinks it’s a Barclays Bank, and also improbably a Swag King.

1933 by FW Woolworth Construction Dept – H Wimbourne

Next an indeterminate infill with pale blue panels and central pivoting metal window frames, soon to be demolished along with its neighbours, as part of the Connected Gateway Project.

Possibly a former BHS – known as Jacey House.

Next up Park Place.

Ai says – notable features include Park Place Meats – a town centre butcher, and Park Place Shoe Repairs, which offers engraving and key-cutting services.

A Post Modern Poundland.

And last but not least a thoroughly Modern New Art Gallery.

Caruso St John Architects 1997-2000

Night on Earth – Stockport

Posted on by modernmoocher

I have always admired feature films shot at night – particularly Jules Dassin’s Night and the City

Along with Jim Jarmusch’s Night On Earth – so I stole the title and graphics for my photographs.

They were all taken within walking distance of my home in Norris Bank in September 2014.

Subsequently shown at Room at the Top in Stockport at the behest of John Cox.

I set out as the sun began to set, equipped with a tripod and a Nikon D70.

The town was largely unpopulated – save for this lone figure sat sitting on a bench outside Greggs.

Gregg’s has subsequently doubled in size, consuming Baps, Gabbotts Farm has become Sterling Foods.

Along with these two lads sat on the Plaza Steps.

And finally, this ghostly figure – who stood before me during the long exposure required, enquiring about what I was up to.

A chance encounter beneath the Asda car park ramp.

Once I had satiated her nascent curiosity, I continued unabashed with my nocturnal snapping.

This is where I went and that which I snapped.

Stockport Viaduct is still extant, Heaton Lane Car Park is no longer.

The car park at Stopford House.

One of the ninety eight bus shelters on the 192 route.

Merseyway Shopping Centre

Beneath Heron House.

My local The Magnet – I am proud to say that a copy of this photo hangs in the pub’s Vault.

My vast favourite concrete footbridge.

Covent Garden Flats are no more, social housing replaced by owner occupiers.

The Bus Station has since become a Transport Interchange.

And finally, as local lad Mike Yarwood was wont to say – This is me.

Impersonating myself in the manner of Flann O’Brien’s literary creation De Selby

Peterlee Town Centre

Posted on by modernmoocher

Once more to Peterlee having posted posts on the Apollo Pavillion, housing and housing history.

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.

Peterlee History

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.

Northern Echo

To the right is the Eden Bar and Vibe.

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.

Chronicle Live

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.

Sunderland Echo

The rear rotunda is now a derelict shell.

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. 

Sunderland Echo

© Lynda Golightly / Art UK

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.

Northern Echo

Clean-up campaigner Tidy Ted and Peterlee Mayor Councillor John Dickinson were helping youngsters to tidy up in the Peterlee Dene area in 1989.

Where are they now – when we need them most?

Stafford Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

To begin at the beginning – we arrive at Stafford Railway Station.

The current station was built in 1962, by the architect William Robert Headley, as part of the modernisation programme which saw the electrification of the West Coast Main Line.

Illustration: John Greene

On leaving the station there is an as yet partially un-let Sixties office block to let – Victoria Park House.

Onward to the County Technical College 1937 Grade II Listed – interior completed 1946.

The shell of the building was completed in 1937, after which it was used as an American army hospital during the war, then completed afterwards. 

Heavily loaded with Art Deco details.

The new £28m three-storey Skills & Innovation Centre at Stafford College, completed in August 2023, was one of the first further education college schemes to be delivered under the DfE framework and a pathfinder scheme for delivery in accordance with the Further Education Output Specification. The new Centre is equipped with cutting-edge equipment and state-of-the-art facilities for construction, engineering and hybrid / electric vehicle maintenance facilities, as well as IT rich seminar suites and open learning break-out spaces along with a 4-court sports hall, a fully-equipped gym and a flexible 300-seat auditorium.

Ellis Williams

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. 

Glancy Nicholls

On the corner a Santander Bank

Across the way an understated Burton’s.

Around the corner a somewhat neglected retail development.

And a long lost Wilko.

Amidst it all the curious time warp that is Trinity Church 1988.

It is used by Methodist and United Reformed Church congregations.

Tucked away in a minor maze of retail a piece of figurative commemorative public art by Glynis Owen Jones, entitled Stafford Faces.

Around the corner a big B&M.

Further along a brick FoB Telephone Exchange of 1959.

Adjoined by the County Records building.

Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects have been appointed by Staffordshire County Council to create a new History Centre for Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent.

The new £4m centre will be located on Eastgate Street in Stafford and will hold historical records and collections up to 1,000 years old.

The scheme will help to provide a rejuvenated service combining the existing Records Office building and William Salt Library, in Stafford and provide a welcoming destination for all of those with an interest in local history. This will include bringing on to the Stafford site the Lichfield Records Office and aspects of the County museum.

Further FoB in the Civic Building.

Close by the Staffordshire Place a civic and retail mixed use development.

Our scheme delivers 135,000 ft2 of high quality contemporary office space across two buildings linked by a new town square. The ground floor incorporates a mix of retail and leisure uses around
a sequence of smaller public spaces to maximise the amount of visible active frontage and create a natural extension to the town centre.

Sustainability issues fundamentally informed the design approach, from mitigating energy consumption to ‘future proofing’ the finished building. The building achieves a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and a European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive Rating ‘A’.

3D Reid

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.

Harris Partnership

Stafford’s £100 million Riverside development was officially launching today with two high street chains open for business on August 4th 2016.

None of this can detract from the monolithic complex Telephone Exchange.

Onwards across the main road past the Asda and up the road to Pennycrofts Court.

Featuring a split level garage facility.

The just around the corner this little corner of Vienna in Stafford – Corporation Street Flats.

Coniston, Windemere and Rydal were among the first council homes to be built in Stafford, between 1951-52, under the direction of County Architect CM Coombes.

The flats were built as a result of The Housing – Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1946, which gave subsidies to local authorities to provide social housing. The expansion of the Borough Council’s civic duties included the employment of County Architects, in this case CM Coombes FRIBA, to whom these flats are attributed. 

54 flats were built in total, to a distinctly Modernist design, and their appearance and setting are very well preserved.

Let’s head back into the town centre – to the Grade II Listed Picture House 1914

Architectural alterations made by: Captain Fred Campbell in 1930.

The Picture House was closed on 30th March 1995 after a three week run of Disclosure starring Michael Douglas, there were seventy eight attending the final performance.

Cinema Treasures.

Close by the former Odeon

Architects: Roland Satchwell 1936

It was disposed of by the Rank Organisation in July 1981 and was taken over by the Hutchinson Leisure Group who re-named it Astra Cinema. In December 1981 it was tripled with 435 seats in the former stalls and two mini cinemas in the former circle seating 170 and 168.

In 1988 it was taken over by Apollo Cinemas and re-named Apollo Cinema. The downstairs cinema was closed and became a bingo club for a couple of years, during which time the two mini cinemas in the former circle remained open. The bingo operation gave way to films again in 1990 and all three screens were again open, with seating for 305, 170 and 164. In January 2014 it was taken over by the Curzon Cinemas chain and renamed Stafford Cinema.

It was closed on 18th December 2017 with Star Wars:The Last Jedi.

Cinema Treasures

Onwards but backwards to the Civic Centre.

Tiled mural by Brian Lambert 1979

Finally arriving at this lively aggregate gable.

Blackburn Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

Arriving at the Railway Station

The station was covered by twin train sheds, an architecturally detailed canopy that covered all platforms. In 2000, due to its decaying state, it was removed, changing the nature of the station in a £35 million regeneration project. A new building was built on the main island platform. The Grade II listed original entrance built in the 1880s,including the station buffet and former booking hall, was retained and refurbished.

Wikipedia

Facing the station the 2015 development of hotel and office space.

Arriving by train into Blackburn Rail Station, visitors get the full impact of this carefully planned but ambitious regeneration project. Maple Grove’s aspiration was to offer something befitting of a city centre in one of the region’s largest towns.  Cathedral Square comprises a six storey BREEAM Excellent office building, designed by BDP, a Premier Inn Hotel, restaurants and cafes positioned around a new public square that acts as a link between the rail station, cathedral and beyond to the shopping centre.

Left onto Jubilee Street where we find the Telephone Exchange.

The site was formerly occupied by the Grand Theatre – in the 1950’s, Blackburn had no fewer than fourteen cinemas.  The Grand carried on being a live venue until its closure in 1956, before finally being demolished in 1958.

Blackburn Past

Further down the road the rear of another former cinema – The Olympia

The Olympia was opened on 19th May 1909 as a roller skating rink. It was a short lived venture and closed in November 1911. It was converted into the Olympia Theatre, presenting music hall/variety, opening on 12th December 1911. Seating was provided for 2,000, many on long wooden benches. The proscenium was 32 feet wide and the stage 50 feet deep. It was soon screening films as part of the programme.

It was converted into a full time cinema in 1921, although there were still some variety acts on the programme. All the original wooden benches used for seating in the theatre were removed and replaced by regular tip-up seats, reducing the seating capacity to 1,360. During the 1940’s, the Olympia Cinema boasted a café for the convenience of its patrons and it was operated by Jacksons’ Amusements, Ltd.

The Olympia Cinema was mainly independently operated, and closed in 1957. It stood empty for two years, then in 1959, it was taken over by Mecca Ltd, and converted into the Locarno Ballroom, later becoming a Mecca Bingo Club. It later became the Golden Palms Nightclub, Jumpin’ Jax, and since 2009 it operated as a trendy nightclub named Liquid & Envy.

Cinema Treasures

By July 2018 it was known as Switch.

Across the way The Central Hall.

Previous to 1900 the site at the corner of Mincing Lane and Mill Lane had housed a temporary circus, known as Ohmy’s Circus. The New Central Hall was built and opened in April 1900, and was used as a roller skating rink until November 1909, when it was converted into the 1,000-seat Central Hall Cinema.

Altered and enlarged to 1,372 seats in 1923, it was re-named New Central Hall Cinema. The proscenium was 20 feet wide, later enlarged to 22 feet.

The Central Cinema was closed in January 1957. Then in 1974, it was renovated and was converted into a Walkers Bingo Club, which remained open until at least 1995. It recently operated as a Riley’s American Pool and Snooker Club until early 2009. In November 2009 after a refurbishment, it re-opened as the VIP Snooker Club.

Cinema Treasures

Turn right into Darwen Street along to the former Barclays Bank.

Next door Lloyd’s Bank extension.

On Astley Gate the brown tiled remains of the Shopping Centre now known as The Mall.

The shopping centre was built in three phases, with the final phase opening in 1979. The centre was refurbished in 1995, during which the lower floor of the former Co-Operative Department Store was transformed into the Ainsworth Mall.

The centre was bought by Standard Life in 1993 and its name was subsequently changed to Blackburn Shopping Centre. Standard Life sold the centre in 2003 to Reit Asset Management.

In 2004, Reit Asset Management sold the centre to The Mall Fund. The centre was sold again in 2022 to the Adhan Group from The Mall Fund for £40 million.

Wikipedia

Around the corner the Mother and Child monument, created by Welsh sculptor Robert Thomas in 1974, who used his wife and child as models.

In 1974 the statue was placed in Lord Square, removed in 2007 and placed in storage, it was placed in Cardwell Place in 2012.

The Mall has been significantly remodelled, along with the adjacent Tower Block.

Above the Mall is a dizzying array of multi storey car parks – reflecting the various stages of development.

Next to the Central Library, the former Co-op Emporium by Walter Stirrup in Town Hall Street, opened in 1930, was converted into a £1m library by BDP, it opened on September 1st 1975.

Onward to 10 Duke Street – home to council offices and the NHS, the Tower Block is now no longer in use.

Blackburn’s former town hall tower block has over the years become one of our most recognisable buildings.  Sadly it is now starting to be given derogatory names, such as the ‘Big Empty’ and ‘Mothballed Monolith’.  But compared to how it looked some years ago, before being reclad in today’s design, it still impresses many visitors to our town.  Wouldn’t it be great if Blackburn’s ‘Big Empty’ could become full again.

Roving Mick

These tower blocks were the flats at Queens Park and in the background you can see the co-called ‘deck-access’ flats at Shadsworth.

Bowland House was one of three tower blocks built in 1963 and the only one still standing after the others, Ribble and Pendle, were torn down in 2001 to be replaced by homes.

In 2022 Bowland House was refurbished.

Former four-time World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty was the guest of honour as Great Places’ Bowland House in Blackburn was officially unveiled.

Lancs Live

On the approach to Birley Street we walk through a mixed development of low rise housing, set in grassed and pedestrianised areas.

Birley Street Tower Blocks

Three thirteen-storey slab blocks built as public housing using the Sectra industrialised building system. The blocks contain 183 dwellings in total, consisting of 72 one-bedroom flats and 111 two-bedroom flats. The blocks are of storiform construction clad with precast concrete panels. The panels are faced with exposed white Cornish aggregate. Spandrel panels set with black Shap granite aggregate are used under the gable kitchen windows. The blocks were designed by the Borough architect in association with Sydney Greenwood. Construction was approved by committee in 1966.

Pastscape

1987 view of Birley Street development, with Trinity Court in the foreground: Tower Block

Back now into the centre – passing the now empty site of Thwaites Brewery, demolished in 2019.

Also missing in action is the 1960’s Market Hall – architect Tom Brennan.

The new Bus Station designed by Capita Symonds – replacing the old bus station.

The outward facing elements of the building are flat and orthogonal. In contrast, the underside of the canopy is free flowing and consists of a number of glazed slots cut in the canopy to allow daylight to penetrate onto the concourse area. Directly below each of the slots is a hanging loop which appears to be pulled down from the canopy to reveal a glazed opening. The composition of these draws inspiration from the cotton weaving looms, and drying cotton bundles, a reference to the town’s industrial past.

There are four loop types (A, B, C & D) which are arranged to alter the scale of the concourse and create a rhythm of peaks and troughs along its length. Loop A is designed to provide support to the whole canopy allowing the canopy to appear as one floating unified element.

Archello

Tucked away this mosaic panorama of the town.

Newspaper House – once the home to the Lancashire Telegraph, converted to apartments in 2017.

Finally to the Garde II* listed Blackburn Cathedral church – since 1926, formerly parish church, 1820-6 by John Palmer of Manchester.

Central concrete corona by Lawrence King 1961 – it was rebuilt in stone by Brian Lowe in 1998.

The Healing of Nations in steel and copper by Mark Jalland 2001.

It is a reflection on the opening of chapter 22 of the book of Revelation, new Jerusalem, and ‘the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations’.

Traditionally a stained-glass window at the east end of a cathedral would reflect a spectrum of light into the building but this sculpture projects the light out in a kaleidoscope of colour reminding us of Jesus the light of the world and the hope that we have in him. 

Annunciation and Christ in Majesty sculptures by Siegfried Pietsch 1965.

Crown of Thorns by John Hayward.

Lantern stained glass 1999 by Linda Hadfield, formerly Walton.

Further work by John Hayward.

Josefina de Vasconcellos

Tram Trip To Bury

Posted on by modernmoocher

I was cordially requested to produce tram based walk, by the good folk at the modernist – travelling from Victoria Station to Bury. Alighting at each stop and seeing what could be seen, by way of modern buildings along the byways.

By the way, I do have previous experience, having undertaken a similar task travelling to Ashton.

So I set off as instructed, clutching my GMPTE senior concessionary travel pass.

Queens Road

Turn right on leaving the station, right then left – you have reached The Vine.

Glendower Dr, Manchester, Greater Manchester M40 7TD.

Head for Rochdale Road and turn right back toward the city centre, you have reached Eastford Square.

Manchester M40 7QT

Formerly home to homes and shops – currently home to the William Mitchell Totem.

Abraham Moss

Head toward where you will find St Annes RC Church – Architect: Greenhalgh & Williams 1958

Crescent Rd, Crumpsall, Manchester M8 5UE

Crumpsall

Turn right out of the station onto Crumpsall Lane

Former District Bank latterly Nat West – decorative relief and door.

Currently Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit

1 Delaunays Rd, Crumpsall, Manchester M8 4QS

Carmel Court

Turn back along Crumpsall Lane past the station until you reach Holland Road on your right.

14 Holland Rd, Crumpsall, Manchester M8 4NP

Onto Middleton Road and turn left where you will find the Telephone Exchange.

Middleton Road, Manchester. M8 5DS

Back track along Middleton Road toward Bowker Vale station.

There are several post-war residential low rise block along the route.

Haversham Court

Middleton Rd, Crumpsall, Manchester M8 4JY

Hilltop Court – just off to the left of Middleton Road.

Brooklands Road, Crumpsall, Manchester M8 4JH

Bowker Vale

Heaton Park

A good twenty minute walk from the station to Heaton Park Pumping Station.

Turn left from the station along Bury Old Road until you reach Heywood Road on your right.

Heywood Road, Prestwich, Manchester M25 2GT

1954-5 by the Manchester City Architect’s Department, Chief Architect Leonard C Howitt, for the Manchester Corporation Waterworks. Alan Atkinson, engineer. Incorporates large relief by Mitzi Cunliffe, signed and dated 1955.

Prestwich

Development by architects Leach Rhodes Walker.

Longfield Shopping Centre

Prestwich Library

Post Office

After months of public consultation, the joint venture has firmed up its proposals for the redevelopment of the Longfield Centre and is aiming to be on site before the end of the year.

Muse and Bury Council have submitted a hybrid application to transform six acres of Prestwich town centre.

Place North West

Besses o’ th‘ Barn

Whitefield

Almost directly facing the station along Bury New Road.

Morrison’s – a Celebration of Whitefield relief Steve des Landes 2009.

5 Stanley Road Whitefield Manchester M45 8QH

Community Fire Station

Bury New Rd, Unsworth, Manchester M45 7SY

Radcliffe

Turn left out of the station onto Church Street West turn right toward the town centre.

Shopping Block

Corner of Dale Street and Blackburn Street.

Former Post now Delivery Office

St Thomas Estate

By Wilson and Womersley 1968, the project architect was John Sheard.

New-towny, dense low-rise housing irregularly grouped around and over pedestrian access paths.

Pevsner 1996/2004

The Strategic Regeneration Framework is the guide that is shaping the direction of Radcliffe’s growth over the next 15 years with a series of realistic short, medium, and longer-term actions. It is also shaping the direction of future council investment, supporting bids for central governmental funding and providing certainty for third parties wanting to invest in town.

Work has begun on Strategic Regeneration Framework’s priority projects, these include:

  • A new civic hub in central Radcliffe, which will bring together a mix of functions at the heart of the town
  • Refurbishment of the market basement and the revamping of market chambers
  • New leisure facilities
  • A secondary school on the Coney Green site
  • A “whole town approach” to housing, bringing forward a comprehensive approach to residential development in Radcliffe
  • A transportation strategy, which will consider matters such as active travel and car parking

Bury Council

Bury

We undertook a Bury Walk for the first time in 2024

Arriving at and looking around the Interchange – 1980 architects: Essex Goodman & Suggitt

A view of the Market Hall 1971 – architects: Harry S Fairhurst.

Unitarian Church.

The new church was designed and constructed by local architects James T Ratcliffe.

That’s the end of the line.

Walking – Talking

Posted on by modernmoocher

I began walking when quite young, then like Felix, I kept on walking, walking still.

The photograph was taking during the Whit Walks in 1958 – aged three, I was engaged in religious pilgrimage, as we know there are many reasons for walking, this is but one.

I was fortunate to grow up at a time when youngsters were permitted to roam freely, less traffic, less anxiety, gave me access to a wider axis of exploration.

The photograph would have been taken I assume, by my mam, on the Brownie 127. When aged nine I wandered alone through the local woods and exposed twelve frames of 44mm 127 film, the prints are long gone, yet I remember each of the photographs and locations clearly.

I went to school, then I didn’t, then I went to Art School, eventually becoming a teenage Constructivist, tutored by Jeffrey Steele, a leading light in the British Systems movement.

The rigidity of the grid, symmetry and orthogonal framing have stayed with me.

Then I went to work for a very long time indeed, then all of a sudden I didn’t. Taking early retirement aged 59 some ten years ago, subsequently taking to the roads, streets and hills of Britain in search of nothing in particular.

In recent years there has been a rapid development in the culture of walking, theories, films, guides, songs and literature. I am fully cognisant of such, yet believe at heart that walking can be free of such baggage, we can stride unhindered, atavistic and carefree/less.

Walk tall, walk straight and look the world right in the eye.

Getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.

In my own small way, I have become part of that baggage, having been asked to lead a walk around Stockport by the the modernist neé Manchester Modernist Society.

The photograph depicts Alan Boyson’s concrete screen wall, attached to the former Cooperative super store designed by Philip Andrew. The two worked to gather on the Hull Cooperative store, which is adorned by Alan’s huge Three Ships mosaic.

Philip was a childhood friend of Alan Boyson and it was Alan’s father, manager of the Marple Co-operative Society, that recommended Philip for an apprenticeship job in 1951 to the chief architect at the CWS in Manchester HQ.

Ships in the Sky

In preparation for the tour, I visited the town’s Local Heritage Library and read extensively from serendipitous charity shop finds.

The two hour route was designed around an economy of distance and elevation, allowing time for others to take in, what may be for them unfamiliar surroundings. A group of around twenty or so folk became sociable and engaged, with a suitably concise and apposite contribution from myself. There are those who busied themselves taking snaps along the way, chatting amiably or simply gazing in amazement.

The service building above the former Debenham’s store.

Beneath the spiral ramp which leads to the Red Rock car park.

The architects for the scheme were BDP – the building was not well received as it was awarded the Carbuncle of the Year 2018.

Stockport’s Town Hall extension Stopford House.

Famed as an imaginary TV police station, this civic building is a civic building I simply can’t resist. I return on a regular basis to wander and snap. This is an open public space that seems little loved and has few visitors.

From then onwards I have been taking folks on Modernist Mooches on a regular basis, two or so a month, during the less inclement times of year.

At about the same time I was asked to exhibit my photographs in Stockport, I chose to mooch about at night. Walking around an almost deserted town, avoiding the glare of streetlights, there is a mild frisson to be about when nobody else is about. The air feels different, exposures are longer, the almost waking world feels arrested, by the low available light.

Merseyway Shopping Centre designed by Bernard Engle and Partners, opened in 1965.

My local shopping centre and as such part of my weekly walking and shopping life.

NCP Car Park located on Stockport Station approach.

Regent House

Asda superstore

I found a copy of Charlie Meecham’s book Oldham Road in a charity shop.

Inspiring me in 2014, to walk in mostly straight lines, though often as not zig zagging along the main arterial roads of Manchester.

Taking pictures on Sunday mornings, in order to avoid traffic, mildly amused to be ignoring the primary function of the routes.

This is one of the more familiar roads, having walked up and down several times over several years. It was to have been an extension of the Mancunian Way, forming a trans-pennine motorway. Much of the property lining the route was cleared in preparation, it was never built, and for years a strange semi-deserted ambience hung over the A57.

Bus Depot

Railway Bridge

The car showrooms which later became an African Evangalist church.

Having cleared away both Victorian and Sixties housing, new architectural forms arose in West Gorton.

Where there were once dozens of pubs, often there are now none.

The Belle Vue Granada Bowl became a Bingo Hall then became nothing.

The 192 bus runs between Manchester Piccadilly and hazel Grove, I often ride between Stockport and town, and back.

I decided to walk the route, photographing each of the ninety eight bus stops along the way.

Piccadilly Station

UMIST Retaining Wall

Ardwick Post Office

Levenshulme

A book published by the modernist – literally eight launderettes.

Which became the first modernist calendar.

Now, everywhere I go, I see launderettes – so arriving in Hanley with time on my hands, wandering around I found this exemplary example.

Having a blog entitled Manchester Estate Pubs, the national media became interested in my photographs. I had spent quite some time, wandering around in search of this endangered architectural typology.

This was Billy Greens in Collyhurst, named for a local boxer, now demolished.

Which in turn became the second modernist calendar.

Followed the following year by fish and chip shops.

So building a vocabulary for my mooching, discovering yet another chippy, laundry, pub, Burton’s, telephone exchange, glazed stairway or underpass.

These things find you, yearning for some small amount of attention and affection.

The Trawl – my favourite peg board menu, my favourite Bridlington chippy.

We are now coming to the end of the car park year – seen here on the wall of my command centre.

The calendar was an adjunct to a walk – Twelve Car Parks.

Here we all are at Circle Square – Fielden Clegg Bradley were concept architects while Leach Rhodes Walker were delivery architects.

In September we walked around Newcastle for a weekend away – taking in Eldon Square, ably guided by local modernist Euan Lynn.

Ending our tour at Manors Car Park.

Following an urban river – the River Irk, an excellent way to devise a linear walk.

The river enclosed in blue engineers brick as it passes under the railway.

A long neglected are is now the scene of mass regeneration – rebranded Victoria North.

The former Traveller’s homes are now rubble.

Rushing miles ahead to Blackley the home of Richard Siefert’s ICI Tower.

And around the corner, these delightful reliefs attached to the Tower Blocks.

I was asked to assist in putting together an exhibition for Collyhurst Voices – walking through the memories of a community under threat.

Walking in the footsteps of Dennis Hussey’s Collyhurst Cowboy – looking toward Dalton Street

Then uphill to Eastford Square and the long lost homes.

Home to William Mitchell’s Totem, the homes long gone and the Council pledged to move the totem too.

The state of play this week, the detritus removed and the base filled in, repaved and safe for a while.

Off now to the Weaver Valley another day another river, passing under Weaver Viaduct

The looking toward Koura Global – leader in the development, manufacture, and supply of fluoro products and technologies, opened a new HFA 152a production facility at their Runcorn site in the UK.

Further rural Modernism as we pass under and traverse the M62, whilst walking around the Piethorn Valley

Then recently visiting several Yorkshire Reservoirs – here we are at Scammonden.

The newest of the Modernist Mooches was to Burnley where we visited the Keirby Hotel.

The former GUS Offices with a mural by Diane and William Morris.

Plus the Charles Anderson concrete relief at the Crow Wood Hotel.

Finally a little light relief – a visit to the Boots factory in Nottingham.

Having innocently board a bus outside the station with a Boots head code , I alighted within the factory gates. Then innocently walking around taking snaps, unheeded until the men in the van stopped me in my tracks.

Who are you, what are you doing?

I am the Modern Moocher going about my business – well it turns out this was not permitted and I was red carded by the earnest security guards and asked to leave forthwith. Suitably rebuked, I politely bade them farewell and headed for the gates.

Bury Walk

Posted on by modernmoocher

Arriving at and looking around the Interchange – 1980 architects: Essex Goodman & Suggitt

It is the northern terminus of the Manchester Metrolink’s Bury Line, which prior to 1992 was a heavy-rail line.

A new short spur line was constructed to connect the new station. The railway had originally run into Bury Bolton Street which was further away from the town centre, and was closed by British Rail on the same day that Bury Interchange opened.

It also incorporates a bus station.

Bury Interchange replaced the bus termini scattered around Bury town centre, notably around Kay Gardens.

Wikipedia

Image courtesy of Roy Banks

An £80m transformation is coming to the Bury Interchange, which will see step-free access at the Metrolink, a “vertical circulation core” to better connect the Metrolink with the bus facility, and an integrated travel hub with spaces for cycle storage.

The work is much-needed, explained Transport for Greater Manchester’s Alan Lowe, he said that the interchange was built in the 1980s and very much is of its time.

Onward to the Art Picture House which is Grade II Listed – currently operating as a Wetherspoons.

The Art Picture Palace was a 1923 rebuild of the earlier Art Picture Hall both designed by architect Albert Winstanley. The Art Picture Palace was opened on 26th January 1923. A remarkably complete survivor of a 1920’s cine-variety house executed in an elaborate style.

Films ceased in February 1965 and it became a bingo club. Later converted into a billiard hall until 19th May 1991 when it became a bingo club again, it later became a Chicago Rock Cafe.

Cinema Treasures

Next door a typical steel glass and brick banded office block Maple House.

Around the corner and over the road to the Town Hall 1939-40 architects: Reginald Edmonds of Jackson & Edmonds then 1947-54.

Large and Dull – Niklaus Pevsner.

Back through the Interchange to the former Cooperative Store of the 1930’s.

The Portland Stone towers still visible – the elevation largely retro-clad in glass.

Passing through the Millgate Shopping Centre of the 1980’s.

Unambitious but successful, the floors cheerfully tiled – Niklaus Pevsner.

Down in the subway at midday.

The better to get a view of the Market Hall 1971 – architects: Harry S Fairhurst.

The Indoor Market Hall is currently closed due to the discovery of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete – within the building structure. RAAC is a lightweight type of building material that was used between the 1950s and 1990s.

Back under the road – where we find a delightful Telephone Exchange.

With an adjacent Multi Story Car Park.

Around the bend to The Rock.

The Rock is a vibrant retail and leisure centre which is home to a range of high street fashion brands, independent retailers, tantalising eateries and fantastic entertainment – it’s the perfect place to visit any day of the week. 

It is the work of architects BDP – completed in 2010 at a cost of £350 million.

Our masterplan for The Rock took into account the historical street pattern and public realm context to give the scheme its own identity, and make visual connections to local landmarks.

The retail and leisure scheme brings many exciting brands to Bury for the first time.

New pedestrian streets rejuvenate and improve connections to adjacent areas stitching the town back together.

The development will also contain 408 one and two-bedroom apartments.

Back to basics at a former Burton’s hiding its faience facade.

Typical inter-war infill on our crazy mixed up mongrel high streets.

Ribblesdale House

Application by Shop and Store Developments Ltd submitted August 1965. Architect on application was Samuel Jackson and Son of Ocean Chambers in Bradford but during the application process this changed to John Brunton & Partners – Brunton was a partner in Jackson’s firm, at the same address. It had a restaurant and shops on the first floor.

Off now to the Bury Bolton Street Station – currently home to the East Lancashire Railway.

The street level buildings were destroyed by fire on 14 May 1947 and were replaced with a new brick and concrete entrance and footbridge in 1952. 

British Rail closed the station on 17 March 1980, when it was replaced by a new bus/rail interchange station further east into the town centre. Bury Interchange railway station served up until 1991 before the entire Bury Line was converted to light rail operation. It reopened in 1992 for Metrolink operation.

Bury was once the centre of multiple train links and the lost station of Knowsley Street.

Over the road the former Temperance Billiard Hall 1910 architect Norman Evans.

Down the side and up the steps to the Unitarian Church.

The new church was designed and constructed by local architects James T Ratcliffe.

The church was opened in 1974, with a service of dedication on Saturday, 9th March. The total cost, including furnishings, was £85,000.

The People Praising by Elizabeth Mulchinock is a 12 foot high original sculpture at the front of the church which represents the family of the church.

Her work can also be seen at Sainsbury’s in West Ealing and Reading.

Next door is the former Trustee Saving Bank.

Planning application January 1965 – work started in June 1965. The architectural firm was Richard Byrom, Hill and partners. Richard Byrom was submitting building applications in the 1930s in Bury and locally.

The rendering on the building is original but the windows have been changed. The Job Centre took over the building in 1993. It is in a conservation area and the Civic Trust had some concerns!

Many thanks to David French for the above information.

Doncaster Modernism – Revisited Again.

Posted on by modernmoocher

The third time by the banks of the Don – first time around in May 2019, subsequently in October 2020.

So much can change in so short a time, post-pandemic and every town is doing its level best to build back better.

The vision includes:

  • Ensuring the centre is a focus for business and enterprise.
  • Building on the success of the current markets and raising the aspirations and functions of the markets.
  • Recognising the city core as the heart of the economy and the borough and the place where the image of Doncaster is most clearly reflected. 
  • Enhancing green spaces and waterways to create a better setting for visitors, investments and city heritage.
  • Developing the civic and cultural quarter and reinforcing the retail and leisure core through better links and public space improvements.
  • Developing city-scale functions and assets, to become a stronger draw for business, workers, visitors and inward investment.
  • Developing and bidding for new city-wide cultural venues, a University and Research and Development facilities.
  • Rebranding Doncaster as a location of choice for regional businesses.

Masterplan

Arriving by train and ascending into the light – here’s the station lights.

The railway station has sharpened up its apron and facade.

We have transformed the station forecourt. It has become a quality gateway which delivers a great first impression for visitors arriving in Doncaster by train. This will help stimulate interest from investors and developers, helping to attract new investment and create jobs for the borough and wider region.

Doncaster.gov

Celebrating engineering, speed and connectivity and stretching forty metres in length the public art at Doncaster Station consists of forty seven monoliths which are a nod to Doncaster’s past, present and future. With a fountain and three impressive water walls, the art takes centre stage in the new public space as you step out of the train station and head into the town centre.

The concept was devised by Doncaster Council and further developed by Chris Brammall.

CB Arts manufactured and installed the piece

Typically the high and low streets of Britain’s industrial towns and cities, are an amalgam of architectural style and fashion, spanning at least two or three centuries.

Faience fronted interwar developments abound.

Neo-classical speculative shopping arcades.

Revamped Victorian pub facades.

Behind the buff faience frontage is a lovely, small two-room pub with a well preserved interior created under plans of 1934. It was remodelled by the Grimsby brewers Hewitt Brothers Ltd who were Doncaster’s biggest pub owners for many years.

Pub Heritage

Originally a Gent’s Outfitters, this deco-gem was topped off with the Nags Head Hotel.

This grade II listed pub is now in retail use, though Vision Value, are it seems, on the move.

Lost pubs project.

Of course, every town had a Burton’s – the tailor of taste.

This post war infill has that distinctive Festival of Britain feel, original metal window frames, Portland stone and blueish slate like panels.

The revamped Frenchgate Shopping Centre, officially opened on October 4th 1968, has in places an upper tier, resistant to zinc over cladding.

The centre has been the heart of the city for over 40 years and was originally called the Arndale Centre because it was built, owned and managed by the Arndale Group. It was renamed in 1988 after a change of ownership, with the new name reflecting the name of the street which passes to the east of the centre and which is one of Doncaster’s main shopping streets.

The sale of the centre came just a year after Frenchgate had undergone a £200 million facelift to transform it into the country’s first shopping centre with integrated public transport and retail interchange.

Wikipedia

There are plans to rework the shopping centre.

We propose this is fundamentally transformed though the addition of apartments that wrap along the back of the first-floor retail with a further 2.5 new storeys placed on top. We also feel additional height -up to seven or eight storeys, is justifiable to the corner of Frenchgate and Trafford Way.

TODD Architects

The Lovers were once located in the Arndale, removed to a local garden, unloved – then later reinstated in the Waterdale Centre, where we will embrace them a little later.

Turn right to take in the 1920s mosaic remake remodel of the Grade II listed Blue Building.

The Blue Building which used to be the Doncaster Design Centre and Tourist Information Centre was originally the home of John Whitaker, a wine merchant, and son of James Whitaker who was Mayor of Doncaster in 1758.

In 1925 the complete building was demolished apart from the facade which was retained and given a facing of decorative blue tiles. The intention was to build a shopping arcade from High Street to Printing Office Street. Only part of the arcade, known as the  Westminster Arcade was built. It had a number of shops, the largest being that of Woodhouse & Co Furnishers.

Doncaster Heritage Trail

Two adjacent 60s extensions – to the right a redundant post office to the left an almost redundant telephone exchange, with the earlier brick built exchange in smack dab the middle.

Turn another corner and it’s all at the Co-op now – the Grade II listed Danum Co-operativeBuilding, department store and offices: 1938-40 designed by T H Johnson & Son for the Doncaster Co-operative Society Ltd. 

Over the road a zig-zag Halifax Building Society branch, tightly contorted by its corner footprint.

To the right of the Danum, this former Boyes store, having relocated to the Wilko site, the building is ripe for residential conversion.

To the left the Colonnades Shopping Centre a fierce angular glass and brick bunker of mixed office and retail space – the sole occupant seeming to be Home Bargains.

A £3.3m makeover of the Colonnades shopping mall in Doncaster town centre was completed in 2019.

The scheme of works was co-ordinated by Doncaster Council and funded by the Sheffield City Region Local Growth Fund.

Built in the 1980s, the brick built building received a major overhaul. The investment saw the visual appearance enhanced inside and out. The five floors were transformed into the prime office space needed in the town centre and the enhancements to the retail area were also finished.

The shift in the town’s axis to the Frenchgate and Market areas, seems to have taken the wind out of its sails.

The former flicks now a redundant pale brick behemoth – no more and ABC.

Architects: C Jack Foster and Alan Morgan

Doncaster’s new £250,000 ABC cinema, part of the Golden Acres development near the town centre, was opened on May 18th 1967.

Closed in January 1981 for conversion into a triple screen it re-opened on 9th April 1981 with seating in the three screens for 477, 201 and 135.

The Cannon Group took control in the mid-1980’s and it was re-named Cannon and it closed on 18th June 1992, screening its opening film Doctor Zhivago.

Cinema Treasures

The Golden Acres development seemed to have morphed into the Waterdale Centre.

It is currently being reshaped to provide a line of desire twixt the Civic and Cultural areas, from the town centre. There are still the remnants of homes, shops and a pub amongst the demolition – almost inevitably there is new paving.

Waterdale is a well-known part of Doncaster’s town centre. During its heyday it was a bustling area with people flocking to shops and the like – it was a place you had to visit while you were in town. However, it had suffered a steady decline which continued when the southern bus station closed – Frenchgate Interchange opening, and Doncaster College moved to the Hub at the Waterfront. With limited public transport entering the area and no student population on its doorstep, less people had reason to pass through.

Demolition of the College.

The Civic and Cultural Quarter is transforming Waterdale reconnecting it to the town centre. The quality and content of the plans is raising the profile of this part of town to new levels. The carefully thought out layout and consistent building design is giving the area a clear identity. It is already becoming a big attraction that draws people in and encourages redevelopment in the neighbouring areas.

Doncaster Gov

The relocated Lovers are still in love.

The weary walker is diverted toward the Civic Quarter Car Park.

The former Civic Offices are to be demolished.

Demolition of the Central Library is well under way.

Facing the former library we find the CAST Theatre, Civic Buildings and Savoy Cinema, grouped around Sir Nigel Gresley Square.

Within the square is a frieze, salvaged from the former Gaumont Cinema, the work of sculptor Newbury Abbot Trent.

The Gaumont Palace Theatre in Hall Gate at the corner of Thorne Road, Doncaster opened on 3rd September 1934 with Jesse Matthews in Evergreen.

It was designed by architects WE Trent and W Sydney Trent.

In 1949 WH Price the Borough Surveyor produced an outline plan for the area, with a green space at its heart, it was never realised. In 1955 Frederick Gibberd produced his plan to include a ten storey Town Hall, Art School, Technical College and Civic Theatre, revised and reduced in 1963 – eventually his Police Station and Law Courts were completed in 1969.

The former NHS Clinic at the ‘T Junction’ is transformed into a day care service.

The former Museum and Art Gallery now an archive and local studies centre.

The building was designed in the office of the Doncaster Borough Architect’s Department in a team led by borough architect Mr LJ Tucker. 

The ceramic designs were a later addition when it was discovered that the large open areas of glass overheated almost everything inside, the work was undertaken by LJ Tucker and family.

The sculptural work by Franta Belsky, now has a skip for company.

As a footnote the work by Fabio Barraclough reveals a murky past.

Barraclough was born in Madrid in 1923, to a Spanish mother and Yorkshire father who founded Madrid’s Chamber of Commerce. He moved to London with his family in the 1930s as a refugee from Francoist Spain. He taught fine art and sculpture at Rugby School, where colleagues considered him “highly entertaining, a most unorthodox and highly gifted” teacher. He established himself during the 1960s and early 1970s as an authority on sculpture, publishing in academic journals and becoming a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

In 2000, it was revealed that Barraclough, while outwardly living the life of anti-apartheid activist since the 1970s, had been a paid informant of the South African state security police. The media was used to promote his image as a “brilliant, liberal artist with apparently impeccable credentials” in order to gain public trust, while he was funnelling money from anti-apartheid groups to the police. He died on 6th January 2019.

Wikipedia

Over the way faros the green sward is St Peter in Chains RC – A large and striking design by JH Langtry-Langton, incorporating important furnishings by J F Bentley from the predecessor church, along with good furnishings of the 1970s. The churches houses the modern successor to the medieval shrine of Our Lady of Doncaster.

Figurative stained glass by Patrick Feeny for Hardman in 1973 and abstract glass fitted in 2000 as part of reordering and revival of the shrine.

Further information on Taking Stock.

A special mention for the Danum Cultural Hub

Designed by architects Bond Bryan and built by main contractor Willmott Dixon, the new cultural and learning hub has been created following the restoration of four existing buildings. 

A key focal point of the scheme is the restored frontage of the Edwardian former Doncaster High School for Girls, which has been framed by Senior’s slimline SF52 aluminium curtain wall and showcased within a new steel-frame building. The glazed facade, which was fabricated and installed by Senior’s supply chain partner Chemplas, also features Senior’s aluminium commercial doors.

RIBA Journal

Where I was delighted to see Sir Nigel Gresley’s hat.

Civic Wythenshawe 2024

Posted on by modernmoocher

I wrote about the history of Civic in 2020.

Also visiting the multi-storey car park yesterday.

The work of Manchester City Architect Sydney George Besant-Roberts and his team.

Work began in the interwar years, and continued following the hiatus of 1939-45. The shopping centre named the Civic Centre was open in 1963, the actual Civic Centre containing a swimming pool, theatre, public hall and library in 1971.

Here I am again four years later, taking a look at how it looks today.

ASDA remains the anchor store, Wilko having left a Wilko sized hole in the precinct. On an overcast Friday morning there was sufficient footfall to sustain the wide variety of smaller shops and larger retail chains. As with many other towns within the central Manchester orbit, the easy proximity fills those busy trams and buses, which are leaving the area.

There are plans in place to regenerate the area, in the form of a Masterplan – which can be downloaded here.

Between 1991-2002 there have been some architectural changes, including new stores and office developments. Some of the interventions included significant adaptions which further increased retail into the existing buildings high street.

The interventions included significant adjustments to the multi-storey car park with the aim of reducing parking numbers whilst providing additional lettable space. Further Transport Hub Arrival commercial development was created to the north of the site with the construction of Etrop Court, despite there being significant commercial vacancy across other parts of the estate.

Whilst there has been significant incremental intervention, the character of the area has
not fundamentally changed from its founding concept. However the cumulative impact of the various changes have had a negative impact on the functionality and suitability of place, so much so that the centre is in many ways no longer fit- for purpose.

The site today is surrounded by surface car parks, with a total of around 2,500 car parking spaces, 1,700 of which are contained within the multi-storey car park. Many of the retail units, the upper floor office spaces along the Birtles and Hale Top, and buildings to the east are vacant.

Typically, the levels of vacancy are consistent with the changing demands of the high street, where typically modern and successful retail centres are now more diversified and focussed on creating a visitor or destination-based experience. In this sense, we anticipate a need to diversify the high street and to promote a smaller more concentrated retail core, whilst supplementing the offer with more meanwhile and permanent uses and activities based on culture, food and creative workplace.

The gateway to the Civic Centre on arrival from the Transport Interchange is very poor. Access to the high street isn’t obvious and the route through to the high street isn’t clear. Much of the site is surrounded by fencing, barrier and gates and whilst they are open during the day, they are locked at night to prevent vandalism. This barricaded aesthetic does nothing to promote an easily accessible and family friendly environment as well as preventing any opportunity to promote a much needed night- time economy.

Currently, the Civic Centre appears to only cater for those with a need to visit for a particular purpose, rather than capitalising on an opportunity to create a place to visit and dwell.

Shopping Precincts – Once More

Posted on by modernmoocher

It all began way back when I was a raw youth living in Ashton under Lyne – the precinct was our playground, cycling and running, often against the grain, up and down the travelator.

Some sixty years later I am still enthralled by the nation’s shopping precincts – including the very local Merseyway.

There have been two previous postcard posts – Shopping Precincts – UK and Shopping Precincts – UK Again.

Plus visits to various locations Hanley, Preston, Salford, Coventry, Billingham and Swinton.

So on a wet day in May, why not trawl the internet in search of old pastures new – when the shopping world really was new.

Come with me now on an alphabetical tour of the country’s finest precinct postcards.

Sadly many of these sites may well have been subsequently remade and remodelled, or even demolished.

Andover

Blackburn

Burton on Trent

Chandlers Ford

Chester

Coventry

Cowplain

Dartford

Dunstable

Exeter

Glenrothes

Gloucester

Hanley

Jaywick

Kingwinsford

Leyland

Poole

Portishead

Solihull

Southampton

Stenhousemuir

Stevenage

Swanley

New Washington

Balmoral Car Park – Scarborough

Posted on by modernmoocher

North St Scarborough YO11 1LU

Last day of the holidays and we’re off to Balmoral!

No not that Balmoral the other Balmoral, the car park attached to the Balmoral Centre, built in 1974 – with little or no reference to the Highland baronial.

Though the old Balmoral Hotel had to be removed in 1973.

Scarborough is a beloved seaside resort and we’re pleased to have secured these well-known, popular parades, bringing them into our in-house portfolio.

We are committed to focusing our efforts on regional retail centres and neighbourhood parades where we can see there is incredible potential. The Balmoral Centre and Bar House provide us with significant opportunities to add significant value and we are already looking to identify how we can revitalise these centres further. We hope to make announcements on how we can achieve this over the next few months.

This is the Coast

The staff at this car park are always friendly and really helpful.

You can tell they take pride in their car park.

We stay in this car park every time we come to Scarborough and stay in Britannia hotels, we find it safe and secure to park your car, the staff are very helpful and polite and keep the car park in tip top condition.

We will always park here great opening and closing times also five minute walk to Royal and Grand Hotel and shops.

Parkopedia

It’s tucked in behind B&M

Don’t go up the ramp Steve, the entrance is around the corner.

Up in the lift to level six – to the East it was misty, whilst to the West it was not.

Down another level and still not a sign of any cars.

Back up to the top of the world.

Swinton Square – Shopping Centre 2024

Posted on by modernmoocher

I was last here in 2022, I returned to Swinton Square on Saturday to lead a modernist walk for the Not Quite Light Festival.

So on a light bright sunny day, I took another look around.

Salford’s town centres are important to the city’s future. They provide employment for local people, retail and leisure opportunities, homes, a sense of community, and a place for local people to interact. However, it is well known that town centres are changing and that they need to adapt and reposition themselves so that they can thrive and meet the needs of the local communities.

Despite Swinton’s many strengths, it faces similar challenges to other towns. The shopping centre and other buildings in the town centre are dated and in need of investment. Demand for local housing has grown by 23% in the last five years, but there is a lack of high-quality family and affordable housing in the right locations in the area.

The city council has identified Swinton town centre – along with Eccles, as a priority area for regeneration. On that basis, the council has engaged with the community and local stakeholders to establish a clear vision for the town that will help to guide change and future investment, whilst protecting what local people consider important for Swinton. 

The vision document can be viewed here.

Swinton Square is in private ownership and therefore not something that the council has any direct control over. It is also important to acknowledge that the issues facing Swinton precinct are not unique to Swinton and those challenges are varied but linked to changing shopping habits, decline in the retail offer, competition from out-of-town centres as well as changes in the wider economy.

We do have an open dialogue with the owners of Swinton Square, the West Bromwich Building Society, who are aware of the vision and aspiration for Swinton.  

One of the aims of the council’s events and animation programme is to encourage additional footfall and dwell time within the town centre.

Salford Gov

Eastford Square Collyhurst – William Mitchell

Posted on by modernmoocher

It was 2016 when I first stopped to snap and blog – the shops, homes and William Mitchell concrete sculpture.

By then the missing housing block was already missing.

Returning in 2018 the shops are now shut and the homes stand empty.

In 2019 there’s still nobody home, but the totem is in place.

In 2020 the undergrowth has grown over the square.

It’s 2021 and stasis is the order of the day.

Fast forward to 2023 and the shops and homes are finally demolished – the totem still still in place.

The base has been dug out and the sculpture awaits removal to the adjacent flats.

I was told that one estimate for the job was £120,000 – given its weight and location over railway tunnels.

So as of today today 26th February 2024 – ain’t nothing shaking but the weeds twixt the flags.

Manchester Arterial 2024 – A635

Posted on by modernmoocher

Having photographed the arterial roads of Manchester in 2014, I have resolved to return to the task in 2024.

Some things seem to have changed, some things seem to have stayed the same.

Westfield Estate – Sheffield

Posted on by modernmoocher

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

Speaking on behalf of the Sheffield Modernists.

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

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

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

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

Path which goes behind houses on Short Brook Close 1974

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

Wikipedia

Eastcroft Glen 1986

May Tree Lane

Archive photographs – Picture Sheffield

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

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

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

Eastford Square 2023

Posted on by modernmoocher

Here we were in 2016 – the last gasp of businesses on the square.

A hangover from the optimism of a long lost decade.

Local Image Collection

Returning in 2018 to find the shops all shut

In 2019 the grass now fills up the cracks.

April 2023 and the shops and homes are being prepared for demolition.

The company responsible for the demolition also dropped the Robert Tinker, on nearby Dalton Street.

While it is not yet clear exactly what will replace the shopping parade, work has already started nearby on other projects within the scheme. The first phase of development in Collyhurst will see 274 new homes built in the area.

MEN

The council has pledged to reinstate the William Mitchell totem nearby.

However the weight of the concrete sculpture and its base have presented unforeseen challenges.

Siting a crane above the Victorian rail tunnel is an issue, as is the cost, a quote for £100,000 was deemed excessive. So stasis is the order the day – the immovable object awaits an unstoppable force.

The sculpture is one of four around Manchester – the Hulme exemplar is long gone.

The Newton Heath and Platt Court totems are both still intact.

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.

Central Area Flats – Sunderland

Posted on by modernmoocher

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