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.