[Archived] Yesterday I Went Down The Range

[thenodrog]

Forget the religious rubbish, the point is classic buildings should be preserved, if a new churh is built today it has no class, just like the mosques that are built in the UK concrete with a bright green balloon on the roof. I remember when I was a lad in Blackburn there used to be a classic Victorian Arcade in the centre with a snooker hall beneath it, the last time I visited Blackburn it was covered by a giant concrete toilet or as the locals call it a shopping centre!

Indeed its common concensus that the Thwaites Arcade and the Market Hall should never have been demolished so it appears to be the thin end of the wedge again.

The Cathedral is rarely full nowadays.... how long before that shares the same fate?

[Flopsy]

So we should keep all old buildings, even if they arent used and no use to the community?

Not going to argue with the Blackburn Shopping Centre, its what happens when you let Architects play with concrete and only concrete.

You'll be pleased to know that that kind of architecture will probably never happen again due to the newmaterials and building techniques so you get centres like The Bullring or the Trafford Centre instead of the dark confined spaces like Blackburn shopping Centre or the St Georges Centre in Preston.

In regards to Blackburn Cathedral, nah they dont need to knock it down they can turn it into a multiplex cinema with bowling alley

Was it ever regularly full?

[broadsword]

Shall we get rid of stonehenge as well, it's only used for Summer Solstice?

[Flopsy]

nah, got to keep the hippy freaks occupied or they might start causing trouble

[Friarsnig]

nah, got to keep the hippy freaks occupied or they might start causing trouble

I'm assuming that's tongue in cheek. Is it?

[Paul]

Forget the religious rubbish, the point is classic buildings should be preserved,

Yes obviously but do you really think Whalley Range United Reform Church qualifies as a classic building?

[Alan75]

You'll be pleased to know that that kind of architecture will probably never happen again due to the newmaterials and building techniques so you get centres like The Bullring or the Trafford Centre instead of the dark confined spaces like Blackburn shopping Centre or the St Georges Centre in Preston.

Do you really believe that.

[Flopsy]

Actually I do, people will not go to some concrete crap hole but will go to a shopping centre that is open, light and well designed.

Which is why peoples moth like attraction to the Selfridges in the Bullring baffles me. I mean, I cant think of a more badly laid out shop in this country.

[Paul]

Actually I do, people will not go to some concrete crap hole but will go to a shopping centre that is open, light and well designed.

I'd agree people will go to well planned, pleasant shopping centres but why on earth did you use the Trafford Centre as an example? If there is one style of modern or current development that exemplifies everything one shouold NOT do in a retail centre it has to be the hell on earth demonstrated by the Trafford Centre.

I'm not trying to have a go at you Flopsy but can you point out one, just one, interesting, pleasant or consumer friendly aspect of the Trafford Centre? It has to be the finest example of a concrete crap hole in the UK.

[Flopsy]

Are we talking about the same thing? Large open concourse, high roof, wide boulevard and lots of natural light.

It might not be perfect but its far superior to the St Georges Centre

[Paul]

Probably not Difficult to access. Easy to get lost in car parks. Nightmare traffic. Poor signage. Garish cheap "blackpool on speed" architecture. Hot, overcrowded, few shops with style, noisy, piped music........"Do they know it's Christmas" pouring from every conceivable outlet.

Having said that I never go to the St Georges centre because Preston town centre is too busy.

[thenodrog]

Yes obviously but do you really think Whalley Range United Reform Church qualifies as a classic building?

Audley Range.

I know it's an easy mistake for non locals but please be aware Paul that we do not have only one ghetto in Blackburn. Our 'immigrant quarter' is now a half!

[Paul]

Audley Range.

I know it's an easy mistake for non locals but please be aware Paul that we do not have only one ghetto in Blackburn. Our 'immigrant quarter' is now a half!

Thanks for correcting me. I do know the difference, it was early. After living longer in Lancashire, just 5 miles outside of Blackburn, than anywhere else I think I can consider myself local.........if not indigenous!

[USABlue]

Shall we get rid of stonehenge as well, it's only used for Summer Solstice?

Nah! Let's wait till a couple of Muslims deem it offensive, then tear down the thing.

[Alan75]

Actually I do, people will not go to some concrete crap hole but will go to a shopping centre that is open, light and well designed.

Which is why peoples moth like attraction to the Selfridges in the Bullring baffles me. I mean, I cant think of a more badly laid out shop in this country.

Sorry flops, I cant agree with you, an architect designs a building based on asthetics and not function. They are given a brief that the developer want x in so much sq feet, and the architect by supplying a fancy drawing and scale model.

Yes they may use modern materials that increase light, but they dont fully apprteciate end user requirements or maintenance.

The current vogue of out of town shopping centres are prime examples.

Twin level arcades, with glass lifts hardly capable of housing a family of 4 when there is a push chair involved. Ramps that become ice rinks when wet, despite carbonandum strips. Try holding back a wheelchair on one of them ramps.

Walkways not wide enough to accomodate traffic flows during main periods, ie lunch time when people are trying to do everything in 1 hour.

Open light wells with no access to clean the glass without resulting to scaffolding. I could go on for ages.

Architects have a saying.....make it look pretty and you'll sell it. Slap in a water feature and your quids in.

[blue phil]

Most Victorian churches were built to order (a sort of B & Q kitchen of today) and very few of them have any architecturally redeeming features. If they had, then English Heritage would get them listed and preserved.

I spend quite a bit of time looking around churches both at home and abroad , the result of a hobby of an ex of mine

Architecturally and aesthetically speaking , disregarding any religious views of the observer , they are IMHO , the highest peak of artistic human achievement and make a mockery of the self regarding views of today's atheists that nothing good comes out of religious conviction and faith .

Colin is right to a certain extent that the Victorians , lacking the craftsmanship of their predecessors , tended to build to order in order to regain the artistic genius of the earlier gothic buildings , for example .

However , I would still rate their achievements a damn sight higher than any of their more modern counterparts who dare not even aspire to such greatness from what I see .

Still speaking from an aesthetic point of view , the plethora of mosques mushrooming in Blackburn are universally barren of any beauty - they really are "built to order" and , as with the many examples of churches in the past , they seem to be constructed in the mistaken view that big is beautiful . It's not - quality counts .

Oh - and if I had a pound for every marvelous building that English Heritage had failed to preserve I'd be a very rich man indeed ........

[Flopsy]

Would you believe that I agree with everything you just said.

[rebelmswar]

I spend quite a bit of time looking around churches both at home and abroad , the result of a hobby of an ex of mine

Architecturally and aesthetically speaking , disregarding any religious views of the observer , they are IMHO , the highest peak of artistic human achievement and make a mockery of the self regarding views of today's atheists that nothing good comes out of religious conviction and faith .

Colin is right to a certain extent that the Victorians , lacking the craftsmanship of their predecessors , tended to build to order in order to regain the artistic genius of the earlier gothic buildings , for example .

However , I would still rate their achievements a damn sight higher than any of their more modern counterparts who dare not even aspire to such greatness from what I see .

Still speaking from an aesthetic point of view , the plethora of mosques mushrooming in Blackburn are universally barren of any beauty - they really are "built to order" and , as with the many examples of churches in the past , they seem to be constructed in the mistaken view that big is beautiful . It's not - quality counts .

Oh - and if I had a pound for every marvelous building that English Heritage had failed to preserve I'd be a very rich man indeed ........

I agree wholeheartedly and must also add from personal experience that their structural integrity isn't worth a damn either.

[Drummer Boy]

Agreeing with Blue Phil???

Time for bed, methinks!

[SAS]

Forget the religious rubbish, the point is classic buildings should be preserved, if a new churh is built today it has no class, just like the mosques that are built in the UK concrete with a bright green balloon on the roof. I remember when I was a lad in Blackburn there used to be a classic Victorian Arcade in the centre with a snooker hall beneath it, the last time I visited Blackburn it was covered by a giant concrete toilet or as the locals call it a shopping centre!

I disagree, for example the very old police station on king street.

Just looks like an old house, been empty for 20years, boarded up, but yet people are in uproar over the plans to demolish it and put a dual carriageway through the middle to the new bridge.

The other option, for it to stay there, in disrepair, no interest in it, and a terrible road system that is supposed to be called a ring road.

Too many people i believe are backwards in coming forwards. But i bet the same people that are moaning about it being demolished are the same ones that cry about traffic and poor road systems in the town centre.

People even said that the TJ hughes building should stay, it was built in the 40`s i think, its bloody ugly and looks like a prison ffs

[Guest Dik Bleek]

An example is the Liverpool Cathedral a beautiful building which took 74 years to build compared to the Liverpool Catholic Cathedral which took only 5years to erect and that is superior to the junk that is thrown up today!

[ABBEY]

Actually I do, people will not go to some concrete crap hole but will go to a shopping centre that is open, light and well designed.

Which is why peoples moth like attraction to the Selfridges in the Bullring baffles me. I mean, I cant think of a more badly laid out shop in this country.

and this has to do with blackburn exactly

[roversmum]

'Tis about architecture and heritage, change and all that stuff, Abbey, evolved from the original subject

Just looks like an old house, been empty for 20years, boarded up, but yet people are in uproar over the plans to demolish it and put a dual carriageway through the middle to the new bridge.

The other option, for it to stay there, in disrepair, no interest in it, and a terrible road system that is supposed to be called a ring road.

Fear not, SAS, for in the dead of night there will appear a figure bearing a can of petrol and some matches and lo! come the morning the building will be no longer there, just a pile of smouldering rubble. There will be wonder as to the cause but no discovery will be made.

In time, when the moon has waxed and waned once or twice, a new highway will appear where the building once stood and it will be a distant memory.

Used to happen in Swindon all the time when there was a problem with planning permission and/or an old building got in the way of a development .

[Guest Dik Bleek]

A very sad outlook on the area, as there is very little remaining of the original town.

[thenodrog]

'Tis about architecture and heritage, change and all that stuff, Abbey, evolved from the original subject

Fear not, SAS, for in the dead of night there will appear a figure bearing a can of petrol and some matches and lo! come the morning the building will be no longer there, just a pile of smouldering rubble. There will be wonder as to the cause but no discovery will be made.

In time, when the moon has waxed and waned once or twice, a new highway will appear where the building once stood and it will be a distant memory.

Used to happen in Swindon all the time when there was a problem with planning permission and/or an old building got in the way of a development .

That could be discussed on here! If I rem correctly there is a 'Major Fire in Blackburn'thread already set up somewhere.

anyway moving on

I suspect it's more to do with Paul Rigby / Byrom Supplies compensation demands.