Dark realities on the way

For anybody who really does want to take the council's advice to heart and leave the car behind for getting around Colchester, a dark reality lurks in the way of most journeys: pedestrian subways. While motorists pass comfortably overhead in broad daylight, walkers (and cyclists) are forced down smelly, litter-strewn, dark holes at key points around the town. Every passage feels threatening; many are nauseating. And in winter, it all seems doubly awful.

It's no wonder so many people drive to school, work, or out-of-town retail parks; the alternative is too depressing. For those without cars, however, there is no choice. Part of any plan to reduce motor traffic must include making walking about town pleasant, sociable and preferable. When "vibrant new quarters" are being planned for the town, it would be gratifying to learn that the threatening and nauseating old bits are being removed. More nasty pics here.

Ash Sakula/Garbe chosen to develop cultural quarter

Following an international competition to find a development partner to create Colchester’s cultural (St Botolph's) quarter, Colchester Cabinet selected (Wednesday 11 July) Ash Sakula/Garbe Group as the preferred development team to create a "vibrant new area for the town". Read more from the council's press release, and see some drawings at bdonline. See also Ash Sakula's website. In Poncrinator's view, these people have done some good work.

Plannerrhoids: a Colchester disease

They have become so prevalent in Colchester that one begins to forget that they are there, infesting the skyline, or sprouting up in redundant spaces between buildings. They come in many shapes, sizes and materials, but what they have in common is that they have no purpose, no function, no value. They are plannerrhoids, and they are a symptom of a dysfunctional and afflicted body civic. Whereas haemorrhoids are caused, I understand, by too much straining, plannerrhoids occur through an absence of effort, a paucity of thinking and a loss of integrity. Expect more plannerrhoids around town, because this distemper is far from played out. What is curious, however, is that some buildings don’t have them at all. Why aren’t there any on the Mercury Theatre, the Town Hall, Holly Trees Museum, Temperleys, the new firstsite building, the new university lecture hall, or the University Quays buildings? Are these somehow disease-resistant designs? Perhaps the planners should investigate.

Pevsner's Essex – updated and enlarged by James Bettley

Between 1951 and 1974, Penguin published a monumental series of books describing the buildings of England. They were written by architectural and design historian, Sir Niklaus Pevsner. The volume for Essex was published in 1954 and, despite the changes of half-a-century, it has remained the sole definitive guide to the county's most important buildings. Until this year that is, when the great work was republished by Yale University Press, updated and enlarged by Essex historian James Bettley. It is worth buying for the 50 magnificent pages on Colchester alone. See a review at the Real Essex website.

Colchester Architecural Tours

Firstsite are again running their summer programme of Colchester architectural tours, every Sunday from July-September. More details are available at this page on Visit Colchester's website. Above: detail of Town Hall, built 1897-1902, architect: John Belcher.

New Aldi's on Magdalen Street

Last month, the new Aldi store in Magdalen Street opened with a bit of a fanfare – and mixed feelings in the mind of Poncrinator. It‘s good to have a new shopping area to which people can walk from local homes: much more of this is needed in Colchester, which has polarized into town centre shops versus edge-of-town superstores, causing car journeys for every shopping trip, and isolation for the old and poor. The creation of pedestrian access at the back of the site into the New Town area is a good move. Architecturally, however, this is just one more "backing into the future" building for Magdalen Street and Colchester.


It is evident that there have been attempts to give the street-face of the building some variety and rhythm but, in reality, the features are just stick-on nostalgia bits. These presumably please the planners as, except for a few notable exceptions (mainly around the Hythe), Colchester is becoming overwhelmed with similarly poor stuff.