A view from the Balcony of Castle House, Castle Way Southampton in the very early 70’s, St Michael’s Church and one of the liners are clearly visible.
Photo – John Fahy
Under construction.
Photo – Kim Herdman
Taken in 1963
Photo – Lutek Fitulek
April 22nd2016.
Photo – Richard Czuprynski
Entrance 1985
Photo – Miles Glendinning.
Following our visit to Wyndham Court let’s take a look at Castle House.
One thirteen -storey block containing seventy two dwellings – 1960 Eric Lyons
Wyndham Court is a block of social housing in Southampton which opened in 1970.
It was designed by Lyons Israel Ellis for Southampton City Council in 1966, ED Lyons being the partner in charge and architects Frank Linden and Aubrey Hume also assigned to the job. The structural engineers were Hajnal-Konyi and Myers and the firm of builders was G Minter.
It is located near Southampton Central station and the Mayflower Theatre. Wyndham Court includes 184 flats, three cafes or restaurants and 13 shops, and was completed in 1969.
It is built from reinforced concrete and finished with white board-marked concrete, with narrow bands painted horizontally between windows and the partition walls that separate the apartments’ balconies. Because it is built on a hill, the building has six storeys at its northern end and seven at the southern. There is an underground car park which was constructed from the basements of previous buildings on the site
This was my very first visit on my day out in Southampton having also taken a look around Nelsons Gate.
Walking around the building I was quickly engaged by two residents, emerging from their concrete clad home. Assuming that I was from the Council, I was given a lurid account of rodent infestation, faulty locks, open doors and all manner of ills. Having explained my unfortunate lack of municipal affiliation, we parted amicably as we went our respective ways.
A single bed apartment will cost you £600 PCM.
The flat itself is situated within this large purpose built block, benefits with this particular block include secure entrance system and lift access to each floor. This particular flat is found on the 4th floor and offers a private front door, as you enter the hallway leads round to a large living room which has plenty of space for dining as well, the kitchen is separate but has been cleverly designed to include an large opening hatch that creates the feeling of open plan to this area. The kitchen is clean and tidy and is supplied with the white goods including a brand new washing machine.
The main living space has lovely big windows that not only offers lots of natural light but also offers a stunning viewing, where you can see glimpses of the Cruise liners docking. The bedroom is accessible by multiple doors either from the living room or hallway, the bedroom is a great size and also features nice big windows, along with plenty of storage. Back into the hallway there are two useful storage cupboards and last but not least a fully tiled bathroom with shower and bath. Further benefits with the flat include electric heating and external storage cupboard next to the front door, the block also boosts a communal garden which is a nice place to sit and enjoy some fresh air.
The building is Grade II Listed.
Wyndham Court, ought to be as well-known as the Brunswick Centre or the Barbican, and isn’t largely because of where it is. It is a monumental, civic housing project on the grandest scale.
On arriving a Southampton Central there it is looming over Blechynden Terrace.
A big brute of a building Nelson Gate, comprised of sixteen-storey Norwich House, seven-storey Frobisher House and five-storey Grenville House.
Though it seems that for some time there are those which wish to tame the brute.
Plans for a multimillion-pound development including a hotel, homes, offices and shops in Southampton city centre have been revealed.
The Nelson Gate scheme, proposed by developer FI Real Estate Management, would also see Norwich House and Frobisher House revamped.
A public square would be created by the city’s central railway station, as well as a new pedestrian route.
A full planning application is expected be submitted later in the summer.
Chris Hammond, leader of Southampton City Council, said: “Nelson Gate is one of the gateways into the city from the station, so to see a brand new development is fantastic. It really showcases what the city has to offer for those coming in.”
Fast forward to 2025
Ellis Williams was appointed to develop designs and achieve planning permission for the redevelopment of Nelson Gate in Southampton, transforming the existing 1970’s office accommodation into an iconic residential and public space. Through positive and extensive engagement with Southampton Council, the site has been re-imaged as an arrival gateway into the city from the Central Railway Station.
The existing office buildings and car park will be transformed into 247 residential apartments, 42,000 sq ft Grade A office space, a 224 bed hotel with extensive dry leisure and 14,000sf commercial / food and beverage space fronting onto a new public realm and urban park.
Aligned with other significant investment into Southampton, Nelson Gate will create a truly unique place for people to live, work and socialise.
The scheme is expected to be delivered in two phases. The first phase, focusing on the existing buildings and their immediate surroundings, is projected for completion by September 2026. However, it is important to note that this timeline is a challenging target.
As of Tuesday May 5th 2026, all is as was.
Though there is a new mural.
It’s 2023 and Nelson Gate, renamed The Bulb, will sport the UK’s largest clean air mural, it was designed by French street artist Nerone.
Here’s what I did photograph.
San Remo Towers Sea Rd Boscombe Bournemouth BH5 1JY
Alwyn Ladell
Block of 164 flats, with penthouse and office, over basement garage. 1935-8 by Hector O Hamilton. Pale brick, with areas of render, particularly to ground and upper floors, faience tiling, and concrete floors. Flat roof behind high parapets edged with pantiles, and with pantiled roofs over staircase towers and over penthouse. Single stack serving boiler house. U-shaped plan around central courtyard, set over garage.
The flats, on five floors, are set in five blocks, with corridor access via separate residents and trade stairs and lift from each of six entrance doors – the central block C is served by the main entrance as well as its own. Through access between blocks on ground floor only. The estate office projects on the ground floor of Block C. The exterior is in a delightful Spanish mission style, with extensive use of coloured faience around doors and in window jambs. Metal casement windows with small panes, round-arched to ground and fifth floor, where coloured jambs predominate. Projecting balconies of brick and render to the larger flats, with coloured balustrades and supported on console brackets. Glass rooflights to the basement car park. The six entrances with double panelled doors, set in lively decorated surrounds of brightly coloured faience, with barley sugar engaged columns under Ionic capitals and block designation – A-E, main entrance, in faience lettering. French doors with small panes to courtyard. Attached brick retaining walls at entrance to courtyard.
Interiors: The residents’ staircases with jazz modern metal balustrading, those for tradesmen with stick balusters. Interiors of flats not inspected but understood to have been modernised. San Remo Towers is one of the most comprehensive seaside developments of flats to be erected in the 1930s. It was planned as early as 1935-6 by Armstrong Estates Limited of Guildford. It was opened on 1 June 1938 as ‘a magnificent block of 164 superior flats, 296-260 per annum rental, garage for 130 cars’. Facilities offered as inclusive in this price included centralised hot water and central heating, an auto vac’ cleaning system, centralised telephones, a resident manager, a porter, daily maid, boot cleaning and window cleaning services. There was a Residents’ club with a reading room card room, billiard room and library, and a children’s recreation and games room. There were kiosks in the ground-floor lobbies selling tobacco and convenience items, where the staff took orders for the local tradesmen. The fifth-floor restaurant offered a la carte meals, which could be taken at pension rates of 38s per week. A simpler dinner cost 2/6d.
Restaurant Crockery 1940
The use of an American architect, Hector O Hamilton, may be an explanation for the building’s large range of facilities, including the grand underground car park and sophisticated servicing. The residents’ club was converted to a penthouse in the 1950s, but the block retains its select tone. The elevations were described in 1940 as dignified and select and harmonise with the general surroundings. Today they are admired as for the very striking way in which they stand out from their surroundings as a piece of 19305′ exotic fantasy transported to seemly Bournemouth.
San Remo Towers is one of the most impressive seaside developments in England of its period. Source: Waycotts, San Remo Towers, 1940 letting brochure.
Following on from the nearby Boscombe Pier.
First seen in 2015 on my South Coast cycling tour, today I was on foot with time to wander around San Remo Towers.
For me it is the most charming and capricious of seaside apartment blocks – a playful symphony of faience and fancy. An exotic dose of Californian Hispanic on the Dorset coast.
Today, most of the flats have been refurbished and sold to independent buyers. In 2019, the lessees worked together to buy the building and it is now owned by San Remo Towers SRT Freehold Ltd. Not all the flats have share of freehold yet, but the option is available for any lessee who wishes to join.
Hector O. Hamilton, young New York architect, who won a share in the first prize with his design for the projected Palace of the Soviets in Moscow, announced yesterday that he would sail for Russia in a month at the invitation of the Soviet Government to aid in the construction of the building. Although persons familiar with Russia have warned that he would be paid in rubles and probably not be permitted to take the $6,000-his share in the prize money-out of the country, Americans who have worked there point out that it is the policy of the Soviet Government to pay technical men from this country in dollars. They say also that while it is against the law to take rubles out of the country this law does not apply to foreign currency.
The Boscombe Pier Company was formed in 1886 and the first pile was laid on 11th October 1888. Designed by Archibald Smith, the 600 foot pier opened on 28th July 1889.
The local council took over the pier in 1904 and erected buildings at the entrance and on the pier-head. Facilities included a busy steamer landing stage.
In 1924/5 and 1927, the head was renewed in high alumina concrete. Between 1958 and 1960, the neck was reconstructed using reinforced concrete. In 1940, the pier was breached for defence reasons.
Between 1958 and 1960, the neck was reconstructed using reinforced concrete.
A restaurant and the Mermaid Theatre were built at the pier-head in 1961 although the ‘Theatre’, in fact, opened as a covered roller-skating rink for its first two seasons. In April 1965, the leaseholder, Cleethorpes Amusements, converted it into an arcade. The council formally took over the Mermaid ‘Theatre’ in 1988 when the lease ended.
In 2008, the area around Boscombe pier underwent extensive renovation. The derelict and unsafe building at the end of the pier was demolished, and replaced by a simple viewing and fishing platform. The rest of the pier was also restored.
I was first here in 2015 cycling the South Coast – heading to Portsmouth.
Historic England’s listing notes:
However, the neck building is a design of great verve and vivacity that well demonstrates the revitalisation of the British seaside resort in the 1950s. The contemporary style associated with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses and made popular with Californian homes in the 1940s was well suited to the requirements of an architecture that combined ‘sun and fun’. The contemporary style made a feature of expressing different elements or planes of a composition with different materials, and here the combination is honest and each element well detailed. The sweep of the cantilevered, boomerang-shaped roof is a particularly joyous feature. It is a building that would have been despised as being exactly of its date until recently; now it is a building that can be celebrated for that very reason, and a rare example of pier architecture from these years.
Open seven days a week from 9am to 11pm – may be subject to change due to weather conditions.
Inside the Grade II listed building at the pier’s entrance, you’ll find a café, takeaway and a beach shop. Outside you can have a go on the bouldering walls and the slackline.
There’s no charge to go on Boscombe Pier, there’s also a viewing platform at the end of the pier.
The resident, who does not wish to be named, was walking along the seafront from Southbourne to Boscombe Pier on Thursday, March 17, at around 10.30am when he noticed strange objects in the sky.
He told the Echo:
“I noticed in the sky three bright, what looked like orange, lights approaching me head on from the west to the east quite low down. I thought they might be aircraft landing lights which seemed strange as it was blue sky and a sunny day.
It’s a sunny day in May and we begin at Warrington Bank Quay station.
The first Warrington Bank Quay station opened on 4 July 1837.
The station was rebuilt when the line was electrified in 1973, a new power signal box covering an extended area was built east of the station for the electrification.
In 2009 a new entrance hall was completed, with a travel centre/ticket office and a shop.
The buffet on the London bound platforms was modernised.
The station was once operated on a split level.
Next onwards to the Pyramid Arts extension 2002, a reworking by Studio BAAD of the former County Court and Inland Revenue Offices 1897-8 by Sir Henry Tanner.
Studio BAAD Ltd started winding up proceedings for a Creditors Voluntary Liquidation in April 2021 and the company was dissolved on 21 July 2021
The centre is currently closed – work began on the redevelopment, which has been funded by a £5 million grant from the Government, in July 2024.
The project aims to make the building more modern, accessible and fit for the future.
The redevelopment includes the addition of a new café and bar area while the Exhibition Hall will become a bigger capacity venue.
Across the way the Masonic Hall 1932-33 Albert Warburton.
Further along to Hilden House a former Department of Works and Pension building, currently undergoing a transformation into a residential block.
The £18m office to residential reset of the 52,400 sq ft building will offer a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments in plans now approved by the local authority.
Caro Developments, working in tandem with architect Falconer Chester Hall, hopes to start construction later this year.
According to a planning statement submitted on the developer’s behalf by Savills, once complete, the five-storey block will offer residents a concierge service, a gym and wellness facility, a resident’s lounge, and a co-working area.
Way out of period but a notable Warrington landmark are the Golden Gates designed in 1862.
The gates were made for the International Exhibition of 1862, and then intended for Queen Victoria’s Sandringham home in Norfolk. Coalbrookdale found it hard to find a buyer for such grand gates, so Frederick Monks, one of the town’s earliest councillors, was able to buy and bring them to Warrington to stand at the front of the town hall lawn. Monks also presented the cast iron Cromwell statue, designed by John Bell, to Warrington in 1899.
The Golden Gates are Grade II* Listed, along with the gate piers and the lamps which line the driveways at either side of the town hall
Up the road now to the Soap Works – first views from across the railway tracks.
Then over the bridge.
Joseph Crosfield was born in Warrington, the fourth son of George Crosfield and his wife Ann née Key. In 1814, Joseph’s apprenticeship having finished, at the age of 21 he decided to establish his own soap making business in Warrington.
In 1911 the company was purchased by Brunner, Mond & Company and 1919 it was absorbed into Lever Brothers. From 1929 Crosfield was a subsidiary of Unilever. In 1997 its Warrington speciality chemicals division that made ingredients for detergents and toothpastes was acquired by ICI and in 2001, Ineos Capital purchased the company. The name Crosfield was finally lost as it was renamed Ineos Silicas. In 2008 Ineos Silicas was merged with PQ Corporation, with the new company retaining the name of PQ Corporation.
The Crosfield’s factory closed for good in October 2020.
Dante FS Group formally acquired four acres of the site this month for an undisclosed fee from EcoVyst.
The latter firm will continue to operate from sections of the site, as will PQ Corporation, with Dante buying land closest to the train station, including the visible blue buildings and white Unilever tanks.
Renamed Platform at Bank Quay, the ‘next-generation, state-of-the-art modular data centre’ is ‘set to power the UK’s growing AI economy’ and bring high-tech jobs to the town.
Across the way the Scared Heart RC Church 1894 Sinnott Sinnott and Powell.
We now approach the Pink Eye roundabout where we may view the Pink Eye Silo.
Middle right this Aero Photo of 1928 shows a much larger mill complex.
Also the site of an older bridge – later replaced by a pipe carrying structure.
We then follow the riverside green line path twixt Soap works and Mersey, heading toward the Transporter Bridge.
The route explained by the indispensable Friends of the Warrington Transporter Bridge.
Warrington Transporter Bridge aka Bank Quay Transporter Bridge or Crosfield’s Transporter Bridge across the River Mersey is a structural steel transporter bridge with a span of 200 feet.
It is 30 feet wide and 76 feet above high water level, with an overall length of 339 feet.
It was commissioned in 1916 and, although it has been out of use since about 1964, it is still standing. It was designed by William Henry Hunter and built by William Arrol and Co.
The Transporter Bridge was built to despatch finished product from the cement plant that had been built on the peninsula. It was originally designed to carry rail vehicles up to eighteen tons loaded weight.
The bridge was converted for road vehicles in 1940, and was certified to carry loads of up to thirty tons in 1953.
This was my first visit in 2017 – recorded on Modern Mooch.
Highlight on any day out anywhere is the discovery of arcane British Rail typography.
There’s a brief history of Freightliner history right here.
Back now to Bank Quay and off to the Telephone Exchange.
This is the 1969 building designed by the MODBW, Reginald Norman Dixon with lead architect P Clinton.
Linked to the 1955 building designed by John Onslow Stevens.
Biggest thanks to Lisa Kinch who can be found over on Instagram, for all her informative research into telephone exchanges.
Toward the town centre and we pass the Bold Street Methodists Church – 1973-75.
Currently closed and for sale.
Thence to the Block 1 nightclub.
Medicine night club early 2000s.
Originally a Tetley’s house named The Woolpack.
Got served my first pint in there, I was only 14.
Karl Beckett
Coming down those stairs, I slipped and the heel came off my boot, I’d only had one drink – loved those boots.
Sue Duncan
This was the original Woolpack on the site.
Much of the town centre is dominated by the Golden Square shopping centre.
Designed in 1974 by Ardin and Brookes and Partners, since enlarged.
There is also extensive pedestrianisation and hard landscaping on the surrounding streets, carried out in 2002 by Landscape Design Associates with sculptural works by Howard Ben Tre.
Finally to the Bus Station which used to look like this:
Until it became an Interchange and looks a lot like this.
Warrington’s new bus interchange was opened on 21 August 2006. From 1979, bus users travelled from a facility on Golborne Street, but it was very unpopular due to its very dreary appearance.
Though the final word must go to an absent friend.
Where once the New Town House stood.
Built in 1976 to house the Warrington & Runcorn Development Corporation.
Visited by myself the Modern Mooch in 2021
Nobody actually likes brutalist buildings.
They just pretend to like them to make themselves look cool, it’s like craft beer and food that comes in tiny portions.
Having previously visited Barnsley to construct a Barnsley Walk, I returned to take the Modernists on the walk.
Previously puzzled by this mosaic clad Festival of Britain facade.
Subsequent observation and research revealed it to be an extension to a group of Barnsley Co-operative buildings.
I should have noted that the building of 1910, was the work of architect Arthur Walshingham, the terracotta and green faience, very much in the style of Northmoor Road.
And also his work here in Pendleton.
According to author Lynn Pearson:
The building housed grocery and footwear shops, an elegant marble floored entrance hall, a restaurant and assembly room. Its original shopfronts were mahogany with metal sills on a granite base, the windows were divided by columns with green faience shafts.
England’s Cooperative movement – an Architectural History.
The Barnsley building is loaded with decorative details.
Sadly the columns mentioned above were replaced, the mosaic from the later extension extended to give a misplaced sense of cohesion to the pairing.
The extension has a charm of its own – with an upper tier terrace bordered by a metal fence.
A concrete relief to the side.
The adjacent buildings were the 1885 central offices of the Barnsley British Cooperative Society.
The building is Grade II Listed.
In 2016 the Barnsley British Co-operative building, sited opposite the existing buildings, suffered a large fire and unfortunately had to be demolished due to safety concerns.
For more than a century it had been considered the place to shop in town. Many will recall it as the Co-op’s toy department where, every year, excited children would queue with mums and dads to meet Santa in his grotto at Christmas.
It closed in the 1980s.
In 1993 the plan was to turn the imposing Victorian Grade II listed building into a ’high class’ venue which it was anticipated would be aimed at a clientele in the 25-plus age group.
Barnsley Chronicle.
The name Walsall is derived from Walh halh, meaning valley of the Welsh, referring to the British who first lived in the area. Later, it is believed that a manor was held here by William FitzAnsculf, who held numerous manors in the Midlands. By the first part of the 13th century, Walsall was a small market town with a manor house; the weekly market was introduced in 1220 and held on Tuesdays. The mayor of Walsall was created as a political position in the 14th century.
Significant developments also took place nearer to the town centre, particularly during the 1960s when a host of tower blocks were built around the town centre; however, most of these had been demolished by 2010.
The Memorial Gardens opened in 1952, in honour of the town’s fallen combatants of the two world wars. The Old Square Shopping Centre, a modern indoor shopping complex featuring many big retail names, opened in 1969.
Much of the reconstruction of the post-war period was quickly reconsidered as ugly and having blighted the town. In 1959, John Betjeman advised that with sensitive restoration the old buildings of the High Street could become:
One of the most attractive streets in England.
Instead, almost every building was demolished.
There is to be further demolition on the High Street, to open up the vista between the Bus and Railway stations.
In 2021 Walsall secured funding of £11.4m from the Future High Street Fund. With further investment from Walsall Council we are now delivering the early phases of the Town Centre Masterplan, through the Walsall Connected Gateway Project.
Approval has been granted to remodel the Saddlers Centre to create a more open and attractive arrival experience for train passengers whilst also opening up Park Street. Butler’s Passage, which has in the past been the centre of antisocial behaviour, will disappear as some of the buildings are removed to create a large open walkway, connecting the rail and bus hubs.
Former Railway station 4th March 1978 – photo by Walsall 1955
The station was about to be closed, demolished and replaced by a new Marks & Spencers and the Saddlers Centre.
The existing entrance to the railway station on Station Street.
Let’s begin at the St Paul’s bus station or Hub – if you will, complete in September 2000.
The 1936 St Pauls Street bus station closed in February 1975, and was completely demolished, rebuilt and opened in August 1975.
Photo by: Walsall 1955
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris designed the building for Centro. The structural engineers were Atelier One, Shepherd Construction Ltd were the contractors, Watkins Dally were the landscape architects and Clark Smith Partnership were the civil engineers.
The project cost £6.5 million.
Next, a glimpse of Hatherton Road multi-storey car park.
Though it appears to be closed.
Adjacent to Enoch Evans Solicitors, their offices housed in one of the many imperious inter-war buildings dotted around the town.
Which faces onto the back of the Civic Centre.
Following the formation of the Metropolitan Borough, the new Civic Centre in Darwall Street opened in 1976, architect Stanley W Bradford Walsall MBC Director of Architecture.
Central roof garden.
Leaving the Civic Quarter on the left is the Imperial
The Imperial started life as an agricultural hall, constructed in 1868-69, and designed by the architect GB Nichols of West Bromwich. At that time, it was used for a variety of community activities including shows and dancing, it was also hired out to travelling film showmen. The main feature of the early building was a principal ground floor hall.
In June 1914, the Imperial was closed to allow for conversion to a cinema, designed by West Midlands-based architects Hickton & Farmer.
The Imperial was converted to a bingo club in 1968, and in 1996 it was converted into a pub, which closed in 2016.
Next to the TSB Bank.
At the end of the otherwise period correct Victorian Arcade is a space age Pound Bakery.
Across the way a former Barclays Bank architects: John HD Madin & Partners.
Next door an anomalous disco themed fascia.
From here up the hill to the Old Square.
Sainsbury’s Old Square store in the early 1970s photo Will Parker.
The majority of the Shopping Centre was demolished in 2014.
I remember when I was about fifteen in 1990, Coca-Cola were doing these yo-yos and if you went upstairs by the cafe, I think it was you could earn a gold coloured yo-yo. You just had to perform three tricks with it to earn one. I did walk the dog, the sleeper and I think it was around the world! Proud as punch with that I was. I know my uncle was Father Christmas for a few years on the bounce as well, when they used to have a grotto.
Dan Bracknall
These are the remnants.
Ascending to the dizzy heights of the Grade II Listed Memorial Gardens 1953 by Geoffrey Jellicoe designed as a memorial to the dead of the two World Wars and said to mark a significant stage in the evolution of his principles of design.
Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe was one of the century’s greatest landscape architects. His contribution to landscape design has been described as equal to the 18th-century gardener Capability Brown. He was educated at Cheltenham College and then trained to be an architect at the Architectural Association. It was while at the AA that his interest in landscape was first kindled.
The second phase, comprising the building of the memorial chapel in the Memorial Garden, and the flats and Brotherhood or Church Hall to the south of the open space known as St Matthew’s Close, was completed c 1960
Photo: History of Walsall
Of back down the hill onward to the Walsall School of Art.
Walsall’s art school’s history is a story of gradual growth and change, evolving from evening classes in a chapel to a modern art college. The Walsall School of Design and Ornamental Art, founded in 1854 as an evening class, operated from 1861 at the Goodall Street Baptist Chapel and eventually became the Walsall College of Art.
To celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, the Walsall Science and Art Institute was opened in 1888 at Bradford Place. In 1897, it was transferred to the Town Council and renamed the Walsall Municipal Science & Art Institute. In 1926, the institute was renamed Walsall Technical College. Post-war demand led to the establishment of the Walsall and Staffordshire Technical College at Wisemore – now St Paul’s Street, in 1952. The Walsall College of Art officially merged with the College of Technology in 1992 to form Walsall College of Arts and Technology – now simply Walsall College. The college maintains strong historical ties to local industries, such as the leather trade.
Further on there’s an enormous Telephone Exchange comprising fifties and seventies buildings.
Across the way a large system built block on a podium base.
Standing on the corner where it has always stood the Silver Knight Garage.
Heading back into the town centre, picking up on there’s a former Woolworths that looks like a Burton’s that thinks it’s a Barclays Bank, and also improbably a Swag King.
1933 by FW Woolworth Construction Dept – H Wimbourne
Next an indeterminate infill with pale blue panels and central pivoting metal window frames, soon to be demolished along with its neighbours, as part of the Connected Gateway Project.
Possibly a former BHS – known as Jacey House.
Next up Park Place.
Ai says – notable features include Park Place Meats – a town centre butcher, and Park Place Shoe Repairs, which offers engraving and key-cutting services.
A Post Modern Poundland.
And last but not least a thoroughly Modern New Art Gallery.
Caruso St John Architects 1997-2000
It’s 1892 and the Twentieth Century is about to overwrite the expansive green sward of Northstead and Newlands.
The Manor of Northstead consisted of a medieval manor house surrounded by fields and farms in the parish of Scalby in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The estate originally bordered the northern side of the ancient boundary of the Borough of Scarborough, following the line of Peasholm Beck. The estate passed into the ownership of the Crown during the reign of King Richard III. By 1600, the manor house had fallen into disrepair, being latterly occupied by Sir Richard Cholmeley’s shepherd until it finally collapsed
Fast forward to 1939 and the building has begun.
And here we are today give a take a day or two.
Walking the streets on a sunny Scarborough day, I was struck by the capricious cornucopia of interwar and postwar architectural styles. These are well kept well behaved homes, many of which were built as imposing apartment blocks, possibly for the seaside retirees, or the transient tourist.
The coast encourages a playful sense of design, referencing vernacular styles and including several decorative devices.
So let’s take a wander around, see what we can see.
It is with deepest regret that despite the best efforts of everyone involved, it has now been confirmed that Lynwood Convalescent Home will close at the end of 2025. Whilst it was previously hoped that Lynwood could remain open for a further period, unfortunately, there are insufficient funds required to keep the Home operating and a sale of the building is progressing.
The Yorkshire Miners’ Welfare Convalescence Home charity who owns the home is continuing to support beneficiaries and staff during this difficult period. The trustees of the Home are currently discussing how the charity will use the funds from the property sale to support beneficiaries going forward and plans will be communicated in the coming weeks and months.
We fully understand the disappointment and impact this decision will have on our beneficiaries and staff. Please be assured that the trustees remain committed to keeping all stakeholders informed about the future of the charity.
22nd December 2025 for sale – offers over £630,000
Hi, there are a few point that we feel need addressing, the WiFi kept going off. Both shower heads were very high and we could not adjust them. The grouting in the bathroom floor was broken, which made the tiles loose and needs attention. The toilet in the bathroom was loose and felt insecure. The cooker was not properly secured to the housing, it felt loose in the housing. The TV kept loosing signal and the picture would break up – thank God for youtube, as that was pretty good
Apart from the points mentioned the apartment was clean and tidy and very nice.
We have previously stayed at Manor Heath on four occasions and always enjoy it and look forward to our next visit. We stayed in apartment two, which was very comfortable, but would benefit from a coffee table or nest of tablets, so you could relax and put your drinks on it
Reviewed by Sharon 5.0 ★
Seaside Hideaway combines a fantastic North Bay location with comfortable rooms, delicious breakfasts and a warm personal welcome from your hosts, Jim and Sarah.
If you’re thinking about a spring break by the coast, take a look at our spring breaks in Scarborough guide for ideas on where to stay and what to do.
Penrhyn Bay is a peaceful seaside town and residential suburb of Llandudno in Conwy County, North Wales, known for its scenic sand-and-shingle beach. Located east of the Little Orme, it offers coastal walks, rock pooling, and a quiet alternative to nearby bustling resorts. The area is popular for its local community feel, nearby seal spotting, and easy access to North Wales attractions.
Like a moth to a flame, I’m here again.
Following several recent suburban posts in my local area, I decided to take a train to Colwyn Bay, in order to revisit an old friend, last seen in 2023.
The quality of light and the well behaved deportment of the houses and owners, exuded the demeanour of a model village.
There are new model cars, extensions, impressed drives, garden ornamentation, quirkily rendered reliefs and cladding.
Take a look.
Here we are again, following visits in 2020 and 2023.
There has been some low level maintenance undertaken to almost secure the site, and someone from the Corporation has given the walls a coat of paint, subsequently undone by the local scrawlers.
Who knows what fate awaits them?
I shall endeavour to keep you posted with further posts.
Walking the streets of Liverpool?
Time on your hands wondering what to do?
Take a look at the work of William Mitchell!
Sculptor and designer, born in London 1925, where he continued to live. Studied at Southern College of Art in Portsmouth, at Royal College of Art and at British School in Rome; was an Abbey Award-winner. Went on to lecture widely and was a member of the design advisory board, Hammersmith College of Art and Trent Polytechnic. Also did work for Concrete Society and completed a frieze for Swiss Cottage Library.
First stop is 29 Hope street – where we have been before – william-mitchell-liverpool.
Federation House – 1965-66 Gilling Dodd & Partners
Originally home to the National Federation of Building Employees Investments.
Now how in part to The Shandon Bells – named for the chimes of St. Anne’s Church in Cork.
The church is noted for its eight bells, immortalised in the song The Bells of Shandon by Francis Sylvester Mahony. The largest weighs a little over one and a half tons and was originally cast by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester.
They first rang on 7 December 1752.
Curiously for an Irish themed pseudo-pub the exterior fascia is modelled on the Design Research Unit’s Watneys identity.
Here are some interiors of the then Coffee Moose from 2022
Next we’re off to liverpool-metropolitan-cathedral-of-christ-the-king.
The cathedral’s architect, Frederick Gibberd, was the winner of a worldwide design competition.
Construction began in 1962 and was completed in 1967.
William Mitchell designed the concrete relief below the bell, two front and two side doors.
Before the fire.
A woman has been charged with arson following a fire at a cathedral.
The blaze damaged doors and the gallery at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral on Mount Pleasant in the early hours of 29 May 2022.
A 35-year-old woman was charged with arson and possession of a controlled drug and remanded in custody, Merseyside Police said.
The blaze did not enter the main part of the cathedral but caused smoke damage inside the building.
There were no injuries in the fire.
BBC
Rendall Building by Bryan & Norman Westwood, Piet & Partners 1964-6
Named after Gerald Henry Rendall who was an English educator and college administrator.
He was principal of University College Liverpool.
We have been here before at liverpool-university, exploring the space betwixt and between the two cathedrals.
On this occasion, I wish to draw attention to this relatively small but perfectly formed building – #432 on your maps.
Westwood, Piet & Partners were well-known architects during the post-war period in Britain and built a body of varied work including army barracks, retail and theatre design. An example of their work is the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne – Grade II* listed.
Photo Theolimeister
Originally built to accommodate the arts library and lecture rooms on the south campus as the University grew to accommodate larger numbers of students.
The current use as lecture and seminar rooms maintains the building’s use as a key learning space on campus.
Located in an area of the southern campus where Westwood, Piet & Partners designed four blocks resulting in a group which Pevsner described as the
Most coherent and satisfying part of the precinct. The massing and materiality of the external is complementary and respectful to the surrounding Georgian buildings.
Sculptural concrete panels above a brick base.
Between the concrete is ‘dalle de verre’ stained glass by Gillian Rees-Thomas.
she was also responsible for the side chapel windows at St Mark’s Broomhill Sheffield.
The courtyard contains a sculpture by Mitzi Solomon Cunliffe – The Quickening previously located behind the School of Architecture.
Somebody at the University of Liverpool saw Mitzi’s work at the Festival of Britain and took note. She was immediately commissioned to create three items for the University: a public sculpture to go in the courtyard of the School of Civic Design’s new building, a decorative sculpture for the inside the building and the handles for its front-door.
The public sculpture, is in the form of a hand gently holding a dove. It stood in its original position for sixty-nine years until sent away for conservation and then relocated across campus in 2020, to outside the Rendall Building.
The other sculpture that Mitzi created for the building is easily the spikiest thing in our art collection. ‘Loosestrife’ is a number of tentacle-like arms that intertwine and project outwards. For many it looks like an assemblage of golden deer antlers but it may be based on spires of the flower called loosestrife.
Currently on display in the Victoria Gallery & Museum
‘Loosestrife’ had been recorded on its arrival as being made of bronze and had turned completely black over the years, probably because it was hung in an area where students smoked back in the day. When it was removed from the School of Civic Design building in 2018 and sent for cleaning, it was revealed to actually be made of brass. It is very heavy and takes four technicians with lifting gear to hang it for display.
mitzi-cunliffe-behind-the-mask
Mitzi was also responsible for the door handles across the way at the School of Civic Design.
38 Mount Pleasant Liverpool L3 5TB
Excellent price – max £4 for whole day. Awkward to exit on foot, it needs more signage, but worth a bit of faffing around for the very reasonable cost. Really easy to pay by phone, although it costs an extra 20p to do this. As other have said, it closes at 8pm, but great for daytime adventures!
2017
Open 24 hours, no lifts but cheap. Always managed to find a space.
2023
Parkopedia
Crosville buses DVG279 and ENL826 head out of Liverpool past the multi-storey car park and AUEW offices in Mount Pleasant.
One of Liverpool’s traditional “Freddie Boswell” street sweepers is going down the hill with his dustcart.
Photo 1985 Chris Palmer
On my way somewhere else, took a left off Lime Street to walk around and about this monumental concrete car park.
I was on my way to see Ed Ruscha amongst other things.
I think he would have admired the view.
No fancy cladding and a limited pedestrian access, should you happen to be sans auto.
Attached to the car park is the 051 Complex – made for the Liverpool dialling code.
Club 051, ofiveone, The 05’…
Whatever you wish to call it, this iconic venue has touched the hearts of literally hundreds of thousands of clubbers spanning its illustrious history. Those infamous stairs down to the dance floor are truly part of clubbing folklore for those who have walked them, and now because of a team of people who dared to dream, you can once again enjoy the spine chilling ofiveone experience!
Because dreams can come true
Are You 051 Enough?
Further adventures in suburban housing.
Here is my first day’s findings in the West Heatons – followed by the next day in the West Heatons, the next and the West Heatons Cul de Sacs.
And my startling evocation of Suburbia.
1892-1914
For my part I cannot help bur recall the TV show Green Acres whenever I pass by Green Pastures.
Eva Gabor preferring the glamour of Manhattan.
To the rural life.
Culturally and stylistically, Green Pastures sits somewhere betwixt and between.
In reality the fictional life of Green Pastures became Mulberry Close, in the hit TV show Inside No. Nine
Vinette Robinson, Reece Shearsmith, Adrian Scarborough, Steve Pemberton and Dorothy Atkinson.
So much for the scriptwriters wild imaginings, what does the road look like?
A broad sweeping swathe of tarmac, with a range of 70s housing typologies – wall less gardens, where grass becomes easily impressed concrete, gravel and artfully paved car parks.
Asymmetric roof, bedroom balcony with optional infill, ever more pointless integrated garage, as the inflated automobile refuses to fit in.
The ubiquitous carriage lamp, B&Q Georgian front door and hanging basket, all head up the relentless quest to defy period integrity, in favour of a free market, free for all of undiluted historicism.
The future and the past and the houses are infinitely all extendable.
Butetown – or The Docks Tre-biwt is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose title the area was named.
Commonly known as Tiger Bay, this area became one of the UK’s first multiculturalcommunities with people from over fifty countries settled here by the outbreak of the First World War, working in the docks and allied industries. Some of the largest communities included the Somalis, Yemenis and Greeks, whose influence still lives on today.
A Greek Orthodox church still stands at the top of Bute Street.
In 1906, work began on the present-day church, which also serves the Russian Orthodox community in south Wales. Designed by local architects, James and Morgan, it is located on a site provided by the 4th Marquess of Bute, to the west of Bute Street. The modestly-sized building is of Byzantine style with a domed nave and an apse at the east end. It retains the original dedication to St Nicholas. The interior is very ornate, with a lot of carved woodwork. The dome and upper walls have painted Biblical scenes in vivid colours with gold decoration.
David Webb, Glamorgan Archives Volunteer
Photo: Richard Swingler
Loudoun Square was originally built in the mid-1850s as upmarket homes for merchants, mariners, ship brokers and the like around a central park.
Photo 1962
In the 1960s, most of the original housing was demolished including the historic Loudoun Square, the original heart of Butetown. In its place was a typical 1960s housing estate of low-rise courts and alleys, and two high-rise blocks of flats.
Between 1960 and 1966 two sixteen-storey tower blocks, Loudoun House and Nelson House, were built on the centre of Loudoun Square
The demolition of the old buildings in Bute Street gets under way in 1963.
Photo Miles Glendinning 1988.
Surveybase have undertaken detailed scanning and modelling prior to the planned post Grenfell re-cladding.
The Loudoun Square regeneration project is a collaboration between Cardiff City Council, Cardiff Community Housing Association, Cardiff Local Health Board and Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust. The site is located between Cardiff City Centre and Cardiff Bay, and was previously occupied by an existing health centre and local shops, together with a vacant area of land.
The area has been regenerated with the creation of new modern facilities to serve the local community and include a new health centre, shops, affordable homes and community facilities.
Sir Martin Evans and Tower Buildings
Lead architect Ivan Dale Owen of Sir Percy Thomas & Partners also responsible for the site’s 1960 masterplanning.
He then spent over a year working for Walter Gropius’s practice, The Architects Collaborative, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.He returned to Britain, where he became a senior architect/planner with William Holford & Partners in London, where he worked on plans for the reconstruction of London after the war.
He returned to Wales with health problems and in 1958 was hired by Percy Thomas & Son as an associate in their Cardiff office. By 1964, Percy Thomas & Son had become Sir Percy Thomas & Partners and Owen had become a partner. He changed the philosophy of the practice, transforming it with a contemporary modernist style.
1970 Internet Archive
We have previously encountered his work at both Aberystwyth, Bangor and Swansea Universities.
Rio Architects worked with Cardiff University designing visually attractive, innovative and cost-effective buildings. The Rio team are enthusiastic and dedicated, taking time to meet the client Departments at all stages of the project to ensure that an informed and good working relationship is developed and maintained the innovative design of the new podium development for the School of Bioscience incorporates hexagonal shaped glass panels was developed in conjunction with Solaglas.
Ian Lomer
Director of Estates Development, Cardiff University
Arts and Social Studies Library designed by Faulkner-Brown Hendy Watkinson Stonor 1976
RIBA pix Josephine Reid
Music Department 1971 Alex Gordon Partnership.
RIBA pix Stanley Travers
Three Obliques – Walk In is a 1968 sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. Three casts exist; two are in private collections and a third is displayed outside the Cardiff University School of Music.
It is cast in bronze on a monumental scale.
Manchester Guardian Printing Works owned by Taylor Garnett & Evans & Co. Ltd- a view of factory dated 1902.
Lithographic Printing Dept 1902.
CWS Printing Works – formerly the Guardian Print Works showing a view from the road dated 1972.
CWS Printing Works showing a rear view with canal in the foreground.
The Stockport Branch Canal was a five mile branch of the Ashton Canal from Clayton to Stockport.
An important cargo was the supply of grain to William Nelstrop & Company’s Albion Corn Mill at Stockport Basin.
In its early days there was passenger carrying on the Ashton Canal and one of the routes was between Manchester and Stockport.
Commercial carrying ceased in the 1930s but it lingered on into the 1950s’ as a barely navigable waterway. At one stage in the 1950s it was dredged but this improvement did not attract any traffic. Stockport Basin was the first section to be filled in but it was not until 1962 that the canal was officially abandoned by the British Transport Commission, who had been responsible for it since 1948.
It took many years to fill in and this was a disagreeable procedure for people living along its length.
Archive Photographs – Stockport Image Archive.
From a very lavish production, printed of course by the CWS’s own Printing Works at Reddish, is a description of the new flagship department store for the Crawley Co-operative Society that was opened in 1959. The elevations and facade are very much of their day, quite ‘Festival of Britain in style, and the store was a prominent feature of the planned New Town’s centre.
Printed in Reddish.
The wide variety of printed material which the CWS required, created a need that could not be met locally by a single source, another large print works was required in Longsight.
Craven Brothers Works 2008
1900 – Further growth prompted the construction of the Vauxhall Works at Reddish, near Stockport. The company kept the works at Osborne Street, Rochdale Road, with about 500 employees, open until 1920. The 1915 O.S. map shows Vauxhall Engineering Works with its south-east corner on Osborne Street, Collyhurst, and bounded on the north by streets of terraced houses and to the south by the L&YR Manchester-Normanton line.
The Developement of Reddish – quite a number of Manchester firms are prospecting the neighbourhood of Reddish, writes a correspondent, while Messrs. Heywood are about to erect electrical engineering works in Sandfold-lane, and Messrs. Rowley and Co, boiler-makers, are fitting works in the neighbourhood. Messrs. Craven Brothers, engineers, of Salford, have purchased 14-acres of land near the Reddish Station, on the estate of Mr. H. P. Greg, on which they intend to erect large engineering works.
The first sod was cut on Thursday afternoon by Mr. William Craven, in the presence of his brother directors in 1900.
Closed in 1970
ARC began in 1995 at Greek Street, Stockport under the name of MAPS and moved to the Vauxhall Industrial Estate Craven Works building in early 1997. Arts for Recovery in the Community or ‘Arc’ was then launched in 2005. The Arc Centre in its current form, including gallery servung refreshments and public programme has been running since 2016.
Of course, we are sad to say goodbye to the old Craven Brothers factory and the Reddish community as our base. We are so grateful to the local residents and businesses who have supported us for so long. Please, don’t be strangers! We made the building our own over the years and take with us many, many great memories.
Looking to the future at Wellington Mill, we will have exclusive use of several rooms on the floor accessed via the A6 and Hat Works Museum shop. This will include a large art studio, ceramics studio, offices and storage spaces. We will also share the large cafe, events and retail space with the Hat Works museums team and work together to build a bigger audience for both organisations and hopefully a Stockport town centre creative arts hub.
Demolished 2020.
And lo, it came to pass, from the onset of the Industrial Revolution to today, a whole world of work is dismantled. A transport infrastructure is literally filled in, and the former homes of industry demolished.
The CWS is no longer the global behemoth it once was, and print technology has changed beyond recognition.
With it goes a whole series of social relationships and identities bound up in shared occupations.
Our excavations at Vauxhall Industrial Estate, undertaken in advance of the redevelopment of the site by RECOM Solutions and Vauxhall Industrial Estate Ltd, revealed a number of features associated with the Craven Brothers’ Works. Two excavation areas were opened, targeted on features shown on historic mapping but no longer surviving: Area 1 in the north, targeting a small chimney and outbuildings adjacent to the machine shops; and Area 2 in the south targeting a chimney and part of the footprint of Building 3. In Area 1, the archaeological remains had been heavily truncated by the installation of chemical vats in the late 20th century after Craven Brothers closed; however, the foundations of the targeted outbuildings and the chimney were uncovered, as well as the remains of a railway track running alongside the machine shops, represented by in situ sleepers.
Archeological Research Services
What do he have now?
Vauxhall Trading Estate, formerly Vauxhall Industrial Estate, was a collection of dilapidated old industrial buildings, which have been demolished and new modern industrial units provided. RECOM provided project management services to demolish all previous buildings and prepare the site for the main contractor, achieve planning consent, enter a BAPA with Network Rail, tender and appoint the successful main contractor and then provide the Employer’s Agent service throughout the construction phase.
We worked with the design team to produce project specific Employer’s Requirements, ensuring that the client’s brief to provide high quality industrial units was delivered. We ensured the client’s interests were maintained throughout the project, making
objective decisions that aligned with the client’s goals. In order to de-risk the project prior to entering into the main contract, we advised the client on what site investigations, enabling works and surveys needed to be undertaken. As the Employer’s Agent,
we ensured that the conditions of the contract were adhered to, managing claims from the contractor,ensuring that the client’s position was protected.
Project Cost £16.1m
Partners C4 Projects Architects, SATPLAN Planning Consultant, Sixteen/DTRE Letting Agents.
Demolition works and embodied carbon created through construction works, is being offset against the sustainable energy created post occupation including: mix of air-source heat pumps and gas-fired radiant tube heating for heating and cooling, and photovoltaic solar panels installed on rooftops to generate green electricity for occupiers.
Following on from my essay on Suburbia and Part One of West Heatons Housing, here’s Part Two and Part Three
Taking in Mauldeth Road, Pinewood Close and Leegate Gardens
Mauldeth Road is lined with larger houses, Victorian and interwar villas, bijou apartments and the odd Modernist interloper.
Through the avenues and alleyways, home to those ever so tidy inter and postwar enclaves.
Where a mans gotta work out which side he’s on
Any way he chooses
Chances are he loses
No one gets to live too long
Though in my experience the converse is true, this is a mature community gently maturing, on the inside of everything.
Hiding what may possibly be hidden behind the hedge, though the privacy of privet is in retreat, replaced by bay, birch, holly and the extremely hardy laurel.
The left hand house has purposefully retained the original Crittall Windows.
High above the streets of Stockport – zooming in to a cluster of cul de sacs branching out from Tithe Barn Road.
Cul de sac translates as bottom of the bag, the French do not use the term, preferring voie sans issue, literally a dead end.
In the slums of New York City, on the East River just below the Queensboro Bridge, wealthy people live in opulent and luxurious apartments because of the picturesque views of the river, while the destitute and poor live nearby in crowded, cockroach-infested tenements.
I assume that countless civic meetings and Estate Agents’ offices eschew the terminal term – dead end, in favour of the assumed elegance of the cu de sac.
Polanski’s second English-language feature, it follows two injured gangsters who take refuge in the remote island castle of a young British couple in the North of England, spurring a series of mind games and violent altercations.
I was informed by a local resident that the streets and houses had been used by film crews, firstly for ease of access, the location being closed off, and secondly as the period architecture aligns perfectly with the current penchant for mid-century styling.
The End of the F***ing World 2017 – location unknown
Within the typology there area number of variants, bungalow, dormer bungalow, link detached, semi-detached and detached.
Very very few of the homes have retained their original features, the imperative of our age is to extend and improve.
There is a covenant in the deeds which prevents the building of border fencing – therefore the development retains its small-scale suburban American ambience.
The home below seems to have benefited from retrofitted green credentials.
Here is my first day’s findings in the West Heatons – followed by the next day in the West Heatons, and the next.
And my startling evocation of Suburbia.
Coincidentally, I wrote about Tithe Barn School some years ago.
Modern Mooch 