Continuing our series exploring threatened or underappreciated buildings and architects, this week we look at Stevenage Town Centre. Stevenage Town Council have put forward plans to regenerate the new town’s original town centre; designed by Leonard Vincent, chief architect to the Stevenage development Corporation; and built between 1956 and 1963. Vincent, alongside Clifford Holliday, based the new town centre on the centre of Rotterdam, known as the Ljinbaan. The Ljinbaan had been completed in 1953, replacing the old town centre destroyed by the Luftwaffe. The Dutch architects, Jo van den Broek and Jacob Bacema, designed the town centre as a traffic free zone, allowing pedestrians to shop without having to cross traffic. The town centre in Stevenage is arranged in an irregular grid with pedestrian only access, and a ring road and parking around the centre for cars. The main shopping street, Queensway, runs north to south, with other smaller streets running east to west. Public transport has access to the centre, with a bus station just off the central square. Vincent and Holliday also provided covered walkways to protect shoppers from the vicissitudes of the Hertfordshire weather. The construction of the town centre began in 1956, with the first phase of shops opening in 1958. The town centre was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in May 1959, and the second phase of shops opened in 1963. The main buildings of the town centre area are plain looking two and three storey rows of shops, with offices and flats above. To liven up this rather austere looking area, a number of artworks and decorative finishes have been applied. Most prominent in the town centre is the Clock Tower by Vincent, now Grade II listed, with two fountain pools at the base. It is constructed of a concrete frame and clad in black Brazilian granite, with open panels above a commemorative plaque recording the Queen’s 1959 visit, a map of the new town and a relief of Lewis Silkin, Minister of Town & Country Planning. On a platform opposite the clock tower is the sculpture “Joy Ride” by Franta Belsky (1959). The sculpture was commissioned by the Development Corporation to symbolise the arrival of a new generation of families to the New Town. Elsewhere around the town centre is a sculpture by Jose di Alberdi and a mural by G. Baijo. One of the underpasses leading out of the town centre features a mural by William Mitchell, who also designed mosaic for one of the town centre pubs, The Long Ship. Unfortunately pub and mosaic are both long gone. Aside from the shopping buildings, there are a few other buildings of interest in the town centre. The curtain walled Development Corporation Headquarters (known as Daneshill House), designed by Vincent sits on Danestrete, next to the former Lorcano Dance Hall (1962), also by Vincent. Another Vincent building sits just to the west, the Arts and Sports Centre from 1976. This was designed with partner Raymond Gorbling, after they had both left the Development Corporation and set up in private practice, with a more horizontal emphasis than their earlier buildings. Like the Swimming Pool on the east side of the town centre, the Arts and Sports Centre has now been clad in white panelling. As well as the Arts Centre, the third phase of construction that took place post 1969 bought a number of supermarkets and a cinema to the town centre.To the south of the town centre are the Danestrete Health Centre and Central Library (both 1961) by the Development Corporation, opened together by writer Cecil Day-Lewis. Around the perimeter of the ring road are a few other buildings of interest. The most prominent of these is the Grade II listed St. George’s Church by Seely & Paget (1956), featuring an open campanile, concrete parabolic arches and flint faced wall panels. North of this are two other buildings by Vincent, the Bowes Lyon Youth Centre (1964), featuring a concrete mural by P.J. Ellis, and the town’s Swimming Pool (1963), now unfortunately clad in white and blue panels. Aside from the underpasses mentioned earlier, the other exit from the town centre by foot are the wonderful concrete footbridges designed by chief engineer to the town, EC Claxton (1972). Claxton also designed the innovative cycle way that links the town centre to the various neighbourhoods. Like the other new town centres at Hatfield and Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage is in the process of redevelopment. Its status as the first modern fully pedestrian town centre is something that should be celebrated and, as much as possible, preserved. Obviously times have moved on, and the town centre of 60 years ago needs updating for the 21st century. But Stevenage’s wholly pedestrianised town centre, which helped launch a thousand others around Britain and Europe, was designed as a balance between civic and commerce, leisure and work. Hopefully the town centres 21st century custodians remember that. References
Hertfordshire- Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry The New Towns: The Answer to Megalopolis- FJ Osborn and Arnold Whittick Stevenage 1946-1986: Images of the First New Town- Timothy Collings
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorExploring modernism in the garden cities and new towns of Hertfordshire. Archives
March 2020
Categories |