The Problem with the changes

Through the eyes of someone previously unaware of Luton, the town must resemble a town full of conflict, be it through the differences in architecture creating a conflict, to the apparent conflict which appears to be rising in the local community and unfotunately manifesting itself through the arrival of extremist groups such as the English Defence League and a extremist islamic groups.

As I may have alluded to in my previous two posts well over 12 months ago now, I blame a large part of the current decline and malaise the town seems to find itself locked into on the push for modernity in the 1960s and 1970s - where a large amount of the town's history and civic pride was removed and destroyed as the town surged forward with progressive plans.

In my opinion, one of main problems of the town now is the clear lack of any sense of belonging and any sense of identity. Unfortunately for a Lutonian like myself, Luton is struggling to find a role for itself in post recession Great Britain of 2011. Is the town willing to look for its own identity and locality or is it happy to vanish and absorb characteristics as though it were merely a suburb of London? It would be naive to suggest that this in itself is the sole reason for the town's apparent identity crisis. Certainly, no identity would be down to the town not demolishing the Carnegie library and the Corn Exchange for example. As Massey (1996) stated, "no sense of place is constructed out of introverted, inward-looking history, based on delving into the past for internalized origins, translating the name from the Domesday Book."

However, aside from character and aesthetics, old buildings do provide a picture into the past and in many cases allow a town to identity with it's history, which contribute's significantly to anyone's identity. Aren't we as individuals moulded by what happened in the past? It is hard to argue otherwise that town's also need that historical input into their culture, geographic boundaries and identities.

St Mary's Church, Luton

Any adequate explanation of the current problems will have to look at the wider geography of the area surrounding Luton. Given Luton's proximity to the new town's which were built post war, such as the Garden City project and Stevenage and Hatfield, Luton was competing against town's which were offering modernity and a then futuristic model of how life and urban living should be. Luton, a town where people have been found to have settled in the area almost 250,000 years ago had to compete in order to survive. Perhaps then it is no surprise then that so many buildings were replaced as possible as the town sought to reidentify itself in order to compete.

With the evergrowing population and business attraction that Milton Keynes seems to offer, it is no surprise that yet again Luton seems to be mimicking it's nearby neighbours.

It would be nice for once, that rather than copy it's rival town's, Luton did something progressive and unqiue. Perhaps then the town may find itself in a position to look after itself and reverse it's decline.

What used to be....

Example 1

Debenhams, Market Hill, Luton

The row of shops which occupied the same site as the Debenhams department store does today. As you can see, original architecture such as the frontage of 'The Plough' pub has been lost forever underneath a bland 1970's design.

Example 2

A view of the current day site of RBS, with The Red Lion pub to the left, behind the tree.

An older view of what the above scene used to look like. You can clearly make out the bottom floor windows of the pub to the left on both pictures.

Example 3

The Mall / Arndale Extension

The Carnegie Library - despite this library becoming too small for purpose and Luton's requirements for a library, surely there is no excuse for the demolition of such an attractive building which played an integral part of Luton life for well over 50 years? Today, it could have been used as a bar, restaurant, offices or even converted to flats. Instead, we are left with a 'redevelopment' of The Mall / The Arndale (see photo of present site just above), when itself will no doubt need another renovation in 25 years when it is deemed out of date, dull, dreary and depressing.

Example 4

Park Square, Luton

Some of the buildings to the left thankfully survived the wrecking ball during the 1960's / 1970's and can be seen in the above photograph from the present day.

Example 5

Charter House, St Georges' Square, Luton

The Old Luton News building. Similar to the Carnegie Library, it too had been deemed to small for continued use with the expanding Luton News requiring larger premises. However, was it really necessary to replace it with Charter House? Surely once again, another purpose could have been found for another building which played such an important part of the town's history? You can clearly see the end of the building to the left in both pictures.

Example 6

Site of the old bus station, demolished in 2008 and now being used as an attractive surface level car park.  In the background, the replacement for the multi-story car park which used to reside over the bus station can clearly be seen nearing completion. The building of this car park is the first stage in the redevelopment of Luton' station quarter, a project which will hopefully give Luton a station that is fit for purpose and improve the immediate surroundings, especially vital considering the current first impressions of the town for visitors arriving by rail consists of a urine stained walkway and a pot holed road.

Luton Bute Street Station - The first station in Luton. Built by  the Luton, Dunstable and Welwyn Junction Railway Company before being taken over by the Great Northern, who operated it until its closure in 1965. It was later demolished. The above photograph shows the condition and use of its former site. You can see the direct contrasting style of the 1960s rebuild of Midland Luton station in the background.

Example 7

Cresta House, Luton. Situated just across the road from the above mentioned Charter House.

Backside of Cresta House, showing the aforementioned Charter House as well.

The old Cresta Ballroom and before that, The Alma Theatre used to be located on the same site.

Nothing like destroying a bit of theatre and a bit of culture and replacing it with a 1960's tower block, eh? 

Example 8

View of Market Hill, Luton

Market Hill, Luton with the old Corn Exchange towering down over proceedings. Many other towns have kept their old Corn Exchanges with them being utilised for various other uses. Some are now bars and restaurants, others are art galleries whilst others house indoor markets or shopping arcades. Why did Luton feel the need to be different?

Example 9

Mill Street, Luton. The present day photograph listed below (and taken from Google Street View) is roughly of the location of the former Theatre which used to reside on this street. Sadly, the Theatre closed to be replaced by a bingo hall which itself was destroyed by a fire in the 1980's.

Example 10


At the top of King Street, where the third building from the right is in the photograph below, King Street Congregational Church used to reside. Unfortunately, its spire was in need of repair and it wasn't deemed cost effective to rectify its problems. With the benefit of hindsight, it now seems a short sighted idea.

Additional Links

For further reading, please visit the excellent The Luton I Remember facebook group, which has an additional 600+ photographs.

Alternatively, you can also visit the equally excellent Luton Then and Now facebook group, which offers direct comparisons between present day Luton and the past.

What was lost?

The redevelopment of Luton town centre in the 1970's saw many changes, not only to the building of newer buildings but also to the street layout. Included below are two maps which illustrate the large changes in the town centre and show just how many streets and buildings disappeared in the redevelopment. The first of these maps is of Luton town centre in 1888, approximately 90 years before the construction of the Arndale Centre (currently known as The Mall Luton).

You can clearly see the route of the River Lea, marked by the black line originating from near the top left of the map before drifting out to approximately half way down along the right hand side.

Luton Town Centre 1888 - the red dot signifies a spot just outside the town hall.

The same map is again shown below but this time shows approximately the current location of Arndale/The Mall shopping centre. What is instantly noticeable is the large area of town centre which was destroyed as a result of the development. 

Luton Town Centre 1888 showing the approximate current location of the Arndale / The Mall in red and St Georges' Square in Blue.

I believe there are several reasons for the decline in Luton town centre over the years. In my opinion, the construction of the indoor shopping centre in the town centre deserves to shoulder a large portion of the responsibility. This belief will be explored later in this blog with a greater explanation as to why I deem this to be the case. I also hope to add additional photos to document these changes within Luton Town Centre, past and present.


I have also added a copy of the Google map of Luton from 2010 for comparison's sake as it includes a fairly accurate representation of the size of the Arndale / The Mall shopping centre.

Google Maps, Luton 2010

Hindsight is a wonderful thing

Looking at what town planners did to British towns between 1930 and 1980, it’s hard not to sympathise with Charlton Heston’s character at the end of Planet of the Apes. Ah, damn you! Damn you all to hell, etc. Can someone who was around at the time explain what everyone was thinking? Was everyone except John Betjeman on drugs?

In the last fifty years, local councils throughout Britain embarked upon a mission to erode our cultural history in the name of modernity. As Ed West says in his blog, "...simply put, in the twentieth century, British leaders embarked on a campaign of cultural vandalism unrivalled in our history....motivated by greed, car worship and cultural self hatred." In reference to Liverpool's rebuilding scheme, Gavin Stamp said: 'It's difficult not to conclude that, in its relentless post-war economic decline, Liverpool became consumed by a hatred of its own past."

As a result, countless buildings of priceless heritage value were demolished to make way for bland concrete buildings. A perfect example of some of the travesties carried out is highlighted by the 1960s plan to demolish the beautiful gothic station of St Pancras, a station deemed redundant. Thankfully John Betjeman saw sense and fronted a protest to prevent the station from becoming yet another victim of the wrecking ball. Unfortunately, its nearby neighbour was not so lucky as Euston station was stripped of its impressive Victorian facade.

Whilst I realise in many towns and cities there would have been at the time reasonable arguments for this progress, only a fool would argue otherwise that the modern replacements are inferior and a poor substitute for what has been lost. As a consequence, despite only being thirty to forty years old, these replacements are drab, dreary, architectural dull, cheap and uninspiring. Somewhat ironically they are also in complete need of regeneration despite only being useful for a quarter of the lifetime of their predecessors.

Luton's Carnegie Library - demolished in the 1960's

The delightful replacement for the Carnegie Library - itself only recently demolished.

This blog will focus on the large Bedfordshire town of Luton - whose various councils throughout the years have been amongst the worst offenders. And, instead of learning from their mistakes it would appear they are in danger of simply repeating themselves. In the last few years, plans have been announced which would see the indoor shopping centre expanding out towards the train station, covering much of Cheapside and Bute Street and in turn seeing some of the remaining nineteenth century buildings swept away with it.

This blog will be a vehicle to highlight these past mistakes and perhaps reminisce in what might have been.