A New Kind of Bleak. Owen Hatherley

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      London • New York

      First published by Verso 2012

      © Owen Hatherley 2012

      All rights reserved

      The moral rights of the author have been asserted

      1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

      Verso

      UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG

      US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201

       www.versobooks.com

      Verso is the imprint of New Left Books

      eISBN 978-1-84467-909-6

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Hatherley, Owen.

      A new kind of bleak : journeys through urban Britain /

      Owen Hatherley. -- 1st ed.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-1-84467-857-0 -- ISBN 978-1-84467-909-6

      (ebook)

      1. Great Britain--Social conditions--21st century.

      2. Great Britain--Economic policy--21st century.

      3. Great Britain--Politics and government--21st century. I. Title.

      HN385.5.H38 2012

      306.0941--dc23

      2012010811

      Typeset in Fournier by MJ Gavan, Truro, Cornwall

      Printed by ScandBook AB in Sweden

      …We wanted something new, and we

       Would sacrifice most anything

       (Well, decorum definitely)

       To get our gawky, sky-jostling

       Ruck with nature set in knifey

       Portland stone. Of course, I know

       Time hasn’t widened out the way

       We reckoned all those years ago.

       You plan for that, allow for that.

       I know the building might have housed

       The odd careerist democrat

       Or two, and yes, we missed

       Our chance to make a truly ideal

       Hive, a fair organic whole.

       That too was calculable.

       Facts played their usual role.

       What niggles like a buzzing clock

       Are certain Belgian sightseers,

       How they so leisurely mock

       Our bid to level with the stars,

       How smiling artisans can stare

       Me dead in the eye, ecstatically

       Perplexed when I say future.

       We wanted something new, you see.

       – Alex Niven

      Contents

       INTRODUCTION Will There Still Be Building, in the Dark Times?

       THE THAMES GATEWAY One of the Dark Places of the Earth

       TEESSIDE Infantilized Hercules

       PRESTON Nothing Great but Man

       BARROW-IN-FURNESS Diving for Pearls

       THE METROPOLITAN COUNTY OF THE WEST MIDLANDS The Patchwork Explains, the Land Is Unchanged

       BRISTOL The Tyranny of Structurelessness

       BRIGHTON AND HOVE On Parade

       CROYDON Zone 5 Strategy

       PLYMOUTH Fables of the Reconstruction

       OXFORD Quadrangle and Banlieue

       LEICESTER Another Middle England

       LINCOLN Between Two Cathedrals

       THE VALLEYS I Am a Pioneer, They Call Me Primitive

       EDINBURGH Capital (It Fails Us Now)

       ABERDEEN Where the Money Went

       FROM GOVAN TO CUMBERNAULD Was the Solution Worse than the Problem?

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