Get Carter car park
Is the sixties disappearing before our eyes?
"Get Carter" Car Park
27 December 2005
I've finally caught up with the rest of the Channel 4 "Demolition" series. I'm impressed with the programme. Far from being one long rant against the sixties, it has been a balanced and fair discussion. Presenter Kevin McCloud is remarkably perceptive when he says that glass may be the new concrete - beloved by architects and designers today - it will hated by the public once identikit town centres have been built all over the country. But the high point of the programme for me was Janet Street-Porter's visit to Aylesbury Town Centre. We'd heard how the residents, save for one brave champion, hated the council building built in 1969. When Janet arrived she actually liked it! but she hated the fake Georgian building across the road from it - bland, boring - you'd never even know it was there.
My main reason for watching the series in the first place, though, was to see what they said about the multi-storey car park in Gateshead, designed by Owen Luder and built in the late sixties. It was on on the "Dirty Dozen" - number 7. It is a smaller version of the Tricorn Centre, in Portsmouth (now demolished). It's an outstanding example of Brutalist design, very typical of the latter part of the sixties. It's a stunning sculptural building, built with passion and courage. It features on the Twentieth Century Society's list of Buildings at Risk. It should be a no-brainer to list it - but it isn't listed.
However, it should be preserved for another reason aside from architectural merit. It played a pivotal role in the cult gangster film "Get Carter" (1971). See the Get Carter Location Tour for more details. Many people have travelled to Gateshead just to see this building - I did. The commercial potential of the building is immense - and yet owner Tesco can't see it. One of the building's detractors argued with Owen Luder on "Demolition" that the restaurant (on the top - you can see the windows on the picture on the left) was never opened. If they opened it today, I bet there would be a waiting list for tables. It could be Gateshead's premier tourist attraction. It is already the best building in Gateshead. Knock it down - are they mad?
Demolition
20 December 2005
It's demolition time on Channel 4 this week- the complete opposite of the BBC's Restoration Programme. Anyway, I caught Tuesday night's instalment. Tonight's victim was Cumbernauld Town Centre, apparently voted the most hated building in Britain. Cumbernauld was a new town built in the sixties and the town centre - referred to as the "Mega Structure" - a term not designed to inspire affection - was to be analysed by the group of "Demolition" experts headed by Janet Street-Porter.
I sat down and prepared myself for yet another pop at sixties' architecture. We love the cars and the music - but the buildings have yet to be appreciated.
The narrative began predictably enough - illustrated with plenty of shots of vandalised stairwells and a pretty unflattering monolithic structure that resembled a factory producing hazardous chemicals. I was certain that the panel would decide that there was no hope for Cumbernauld and vote to knock it down without leaving a trace. To be replaced by some bland modern creation, that would, no doubt, have looked the just as depressing in forty years' time.
However, something very surprising happened - the more the team looked at Cumbernauld, the more they liked it. What came out the exercise was a vision for the future that would keep the best bits - yes there are some stunning buildings there, such as the listed St Mungo's Church, and open up the centre letting in light and creating a public space with trees and open pavements at ground level. By saving most of the original structure, as it turned out, the history of the town would be preserved. No it's not that old, but at least it has some history now. The remark - on whether to demolish the whole thing - "we wouldn't even be having this conversation if this were a nineteenth century building" - sums up how attitudes seem to be slowly changing towards sixties' buildings.
So the result - some great looking plans which would give Cumbernauld the town centre it deserved. Well done "Demolition"! Sadly the Council intends to leave things as they are and build yet another closed shopping centre....hmm.. Cumbernauld was a pioneering new town in its day. It deserves better.
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