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.