- Location
- London
Why did they get rid of it?
What's your favourite bit of brutalist architecture?
- Thread starter Yellow Fang
- Start date
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- Location
- London
Hang on - there IS housing opposite - how accurate did they think those german bombers were?
BrumJim
Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
- Location
- Selly Oak, Birmingham
Why indeed?
Rumours were that there were structural issues that couldn't be resolved. Although similar problems at Spaghetti junction and the Tame Valley viaduct were sorted, where you can't just shut it down, and build a new one nearby.
I think certain people were hurt by the Prince Charles criticism. Birmingham once had a fine, elegant and impressive library, and decided it was going to have one again.
Whilst I love the new building (you can see it from my desk at work), I loved the people inside the old one. It had very much an attitude of "don't care what you think of the building, this is a library, not an architecture museum, and we're going to be the best library regardless of the building". Staff were very helpful there.
Bonefish Blues
Banging donk
- Location
- 52 Festive Road
More to the point, how did they get rid of it? Built like a
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
I think the idea is, if they think it's housing, it won't get bombed
Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
It was on a prime site that could be used for a prestigious office block.
- Location
- London
that's my point really - the bombers woud have had to be flying damn low to see the fake windows and think they had maybe better not. WW2 city bombing was, apart from a few very very specialist low low level raids extremely hit and miss to say the least. You/they were lucky to get within a couple of miles I think. I once went to an exhibition in an Italian city where there was a statement, which came across as very loaded, that a hospital had been hit by allied bombers despite having a red cross painted on the roof. In truth if any bomber had deliberately aimed for it they were likely to hit the submarine base or the airstrip which was used to bomb Guernica.I think the idea is, if they think it's housing, it won't get bombed
- Location
- London
is that what replaced it/some of the site.
That sort of thing is all too common in London - stuff flattened because some clever sod has done some calculations and figured that some speculative profit can be made. Nothing to do with bricks/mortar/concrete/accomodation - all to do with financial jiggery pokery.
Bonefish Blues
Banging donk
- Location
- 52 Festive Road
Not only that, but I think planes can see over walls
- Location
- London
Read most of thread - so far not seen this which rather surprises me.
Hotel Picadilly Picadilly Gardens. Manchester - first pic from 70s on greying 70s film stock, second more recent though branding of hotel has since changed again.
First time I saw it I was non too sure but now like - looks like a great big creature/robot sitting on its spindly legs over the city.
Though thank god the bigger scheme never got the go ahead:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...r-news/broken-dream-streets-sky-over-22727605
which explains why the hotel is so "up there".
Some places were lucky that the age of the rampant car was so brief and that not everywhere was redesigned around it - I love Manchester's concentration of old buildings - commercial/industrial/retail/entertainment etc - the fact that it was left to fester for so long/not flattened makes it superior to London these days I think.
Hotel Picadilly Picadilly Gardens. Manchester - first pic from 70s on greying 70s film stock, second more recent though branding of hotel has since changed again.
First time I saw it I was non too sure but now like - looks like a great big creature/robot sitting on its spindly legs over the city.
Though thank god the bigger scheme never got the go ahead:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...r-news/broken-dream-streets-sky-over-22727605
which explains why the hotel is so "up there".
Some places were lucky that the age of the rampant car was so brief and that not everywhere was redesigned around it - I love Manchester's concentration of old buildings - commercial/industrial/retail/entertainment etc - the fact that it was left to fester for so long/not flattened makes it superior to London these days I think.
Bonefish Blues
Banging donk
- Location
- 52 Festive Road
Good call /\/\
Thorn Sherpa
Über Member
- Location
- Doncaster
- Location
- London
they did at first sight look rather daunting but I came to like them - and also as a memento of an age when social housing was thought a good thing for society to be involved in.
Though much criticised as ugly by some self appointed aesthetes, it's not hard to find some very appreciative comments on Park Hill from some of the early residents.
Thorn Sherpa
Über Member
- Location
- Doncaster
Completely agree the first time I passed them I think I was on the train as a young lad going to the city centre, being originally from Doncaster i hadn't seen anything like it before! I cycled through some years back now when it was mostly empty very strange feeling
- Location
- London
cripes - Warsaw has changed - when I wandered around there (Communist era) - the Palace of Culture dominated the entire cityscape - that was the idea maybe. I wandered around inside it - in fact I think I ate in it (don't remember the food) with a polish woman I came across - as a "westerner" she seemed to think I'd be staying in a flash hotel - she was a bit bemused to find that I was staying in a small room at the sports stadium which was itself somewhat brutalist.
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