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.