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Post by Noboddy aka Lord Ealing on Oct 21, 2017 12:32:48 GMT
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Post by jupu on Oct 21, 2017 12:38:29 GMT
"...our city is widely considered to be the worst example of town planning in Britain." Where on earth do you get that from?
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Post by Noboddy aka Lord Ealing on Oct 21, 2017 13:05:02 GMT
From town planning students I have known. They get told that in lectures. It states as much in the article. Perhaps only Luton rivals Worcester as the worst developed city in this country.
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Post by B*ue dragonstander on Oct 21, 2017 18:50:56 GMT
I wonder where the 1947 planned stadium was to have been built exactly?
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Post by Noboddy aka Lord Ealing on Oct 21, 2017 18:57:09 GMT
Parsonage Way?
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Post by jupu on Oct 21, 2017 22:49:03 GMT
From town planning students I have known. They get told that in lectures. It states as much in the article. Perhaps only Luton rivals Worcester as the worst developed city in this country. Sorry, that's nonsense. Worcester's reputation stems from an article published in the Guardian circa 1964 headed "The Sack of Worcester" which derided the demolition of Lich Street and what replaced it. This is what the students were probably referring to. Worcester suffered from the drive for change in the sixties just like most cities, but worse than Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Hull for example? I would like to believe that those of us who still live here think otherwise. |
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Post by Noboddy aka Lord Ealing on Oct 22, 2017 9:22:20 GMT
"Sorry, that's nonsense."
Which part? Their critique of the city's development was hardly based on one Guardian article. They were fully aware of:
The disastrous Blackfriars development (which wasn't completed until 1969 i.e. 5 years after that article).
Deansgate - a series of concrete tunnels linking areas of neglect. And we lost the Elgar family shop to build it.
The demolition of the ancient Lichgate "The Lichgate at Worcester was the last remaining example of a cathedral lichgate in England."
The destruction of a medieval tithe barn to build the Gifford Hotel.
The building of the awful Tech College on a prime riverside site.
The demolition of the Public Hall in the Cornmarket where many of Elgar's works were premiered - for a car park.
The erection of Elgar tower - a monstrosity that blocks the view of anyone arriving at Shrub Hill.
The Co-Op building St Nicholas Street - need I elaborate on that?
The City Walls road and it's effect on the Lowesmoor etc.
They also mentioned the clearances of Dolday; the Blockhouse; the Moors etc.
They seemed to know the city better than me. This reputation isn't built on a single article, it's one that's grown over decades.
Yes I agree, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Hull are disaster areas in terms design - however they were destroyed by the Luftwaffe. Worcester had no such excuse. Our city was ravaged by our own planners.
I hope Cathedral Square doesn't prove to be another blunder. There's still some delights in the city - but nowhere near as many as there should be.
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Post by Mark on Oct 22, 2017 9:44:05 GMT
Personally, I think Worcester is a beautiful City on the whole but it could have been more beautiful but for those things 'noboddy' mentions.
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Post by Noboddy aka Lord Ealing on Oct 22, 2017 10:07:14 GMT
Yes agreed, there's still plenty of plusses when it comes to the Faithful City. We just need to learn from past mistakes.
All we need now is a football ground..............
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Post by jupu on Oct 22, 2017 10:08:32 GMT
Nonsense: "Perhaps only Luton rivals Worcester as the worst developed city in this country."
Incidentally there is no part of Worcester called "Deansgate" and I've never seen or heard of a tithe barn on the site of the Giffard Hotel.
Every city progresses and with hindsight there will always be developments that are eyesores or buildings that should never have been lost. I'm sure that applies equally in Bath, Chester, York for example.
Those of us that still live in Worcester appreciate what we have here, I'm sure.
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Post by auldreekie on Oct 22, 2017 10:46:05 GMT
I am sure you could write the same about most cities in the UK. In the words of Joni Mitchell:
"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got ‘til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot."
However, go easy on the Technical College. I seem to recall a race for seats in the business studies course I was on as the seat next to the window at the far corner gave a view of the cricket at the County Ground.
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Post by B*ue dragonstander on Oct 22, 2017 13:07:50 GMT
Dolly could probably have whacked one across the river if he was using a modern bat (and had he allowed himself to play across the line).
As cities go Worcester is pretty good but when you don’t live there and arrive by train you are greeted by two clapped out almost dilapidated stations that throw you straight back into the 1940s. Not a very welcoming start to a trip to the city. The walk from Foregate street towards the cathedral is pretty depressing and not much is made of the Guildhall. You could easily miss it. As for crossing the roads on that route it’s a bit of a lottery. Why not simply close the whole to traffic and install a nice green walk down the middle to take you to Eddie Elgar. It would improve the experience for visitors and locals no end as would two rebuilt stations.
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Post by zeke on Oct 22, 2017 14:05:32 GMT
Plus the ģarish yellow of Yo Sushi's canopy and outside seating area is a blot on the High Street/Cathedral vista.
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Post by jupu on Oct 22, 2017 18:21:47 GMT
The new stadium site proposed in 1947 was the brickworks at Gregory's Bank. It was suggested that this should be a combined athletics and football venue - quite an unusual proposition at the time. However the Football Club purchased the freehold of St. George's Lane soon after the plan was published and - like almost every other aspect - it never happened.
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Post by jupu on Oct 23, 2017 6:55:13 GMT
In 2013 a survey revealed the following as Britain's ugliest towns:
◾1 - Hemel Hempstead
◾2 - Luton
◾3 - Slough
◾4 - Bracknell
◾5 - Birmingham
◾6 - Camberley
◾7 - Coventry
◾8 - Cumbernauld
◾9 - Hatfield
◾10 - Gateshead
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Post by Brooksiders Return!! on Oct 23, 2017 11:21:23 GMT
There is a difference between ugly, and poorly planned. Coventry's ring road is plug ugly, but in 30 years of driving around it, I've never been stuck in traffic.
Same with Hemel's magic roundabout, it works.
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Post by jupu on Oct 23, 2017 12:04:39 GMT
Agreed, but I think both the survey and the thrust of this post related to the buildings, not the roads, other than City Walls Road, which I think was necessary to relieve High Street which was the A38, and the main north-south route through the city.
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Post by Brooksiders Return!! on Oct 23, 2017 13:04:35 GMT
Ah but the buildings and their ugliness are a matter of conjecture, based on taste and time. Who'd have thought that the so called ugliest building in Slough is the one that is now most missed? And who'd have thought that the Rotunda would have remained after the redesign of Birminghams Bull Ring? Personally I find Birmingham very attractive, I like the underpasses, the Aston Expressway, Spaghetti Junction, St Philips Square, Brindley Place and the NIA. Manchester on the other hand? well someone should have reset the Germans radars, and sent them 100 miles north of Coventry, and taken out Manchester instead.
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Post by Noboddy aka Lord Ealing on Oct 23, 2017 13:38:27 GMT
I was the ugliest person in Worcester, but no one's missed me.
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Post by Brooksiders Return!! on Oct 23, 2017 14:05:09 GMT
Ah but they never used you for the opening sequence to a smash hit comedy programme! Or did they??
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Post by Noboddy aka Lord Ealing on Oct 23, 2017 21:48:29 GMT
Several.
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Post by Noboddy aka Lord Ealing on Oct 25, 2017 13:52:02 GMT
"...the opening sequence to a smash hit comedy programme!" What series was that?
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Post by Brooksiders Return!! on Oct 25, 2017 15:41:50 GMT
Slough bus station , the opening sequence to The Office.
I do believe that you were used in the opening sequence to Terry and June? In fact the character of Terry Mumford was modelled on you !
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Post by Noboddy aka Lord Ealing on Oct 25, 2017 20:43:14 GMT
Yes, but keep that quiet.
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Post by Brooksiders Return!! on Oct 25, 2017 21:24:25 GMT
Oh how we guffawed back in the day hey? THey don't make them like that anymore!
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Post by B*ue dragonstander on Oct 25, 2017 22:17:36 GMT
I believe the rear admiral has also been seen in the background at The Royal Tournament, the International Horse of the Year Show and in early epidoses of Citizen Smith as well as that Leslie Grantham classic series 99 to 1.
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