Anniversaries in 2015

There were some significant anniversaries in 2014: the Greater London Plan of 1944; Britain's first New Brutalist building, Hunstanton Secondary Modern School, opened in 1954; and the Post Office Tower, completed in 1964. But these achievements were balanced by the rather more sobering events of 1974, which had included the trials of T. Dan Smith, that simultaneously idealistic and corrupt council leader, and John Poulson, the Pontefract-based architect who bribed everyone from the Home Secretary to officials at hospital boards across the country. The dark legacy of these men and many like them brought the postwar architecture boom to a halt, and chimed with an era of Watergate, global financial collapse and the 3 Day Week.


So, what anniversaries does 2015 have in store for us? 1945 might have seen the end of the war, but most significant plans for the rebuilding of Britain had been taken before or after this momentous year. By 1955, those plans were well advanced, and some had been put into place. Cumbernauld became the only new town designated by a Tory government, Span's development at Parkleys, Ham Common, was finished, and Hertfordshire completed their 100th prefabricated postwar school. It's also the year that Reyner Banham published his manifesto The New Brutalism, and Ian Nairn's Outrage was first printed in the Architectural Review.


There are also some significant anniversaries of 1965. There's Hugh Casson's elephant house at London Zoo, the start of vast building work for the University of Essex in Colchester, James Roberts' Rotunda in Birmingham, Sheffield University's Arts Tower, designed by Gollins, Melvin and Ward, and Richard Seifert's Space House completed in Kingsway (though, like Centre Point, it remained empty for years).


2015 itself is off to a bad start, with the announcement of demolition of John Madin's masterpiece, Birmingham Central Library. Let's hope there's better news for the preservation and celebration of the best design and architecture from this period in the year ahead, especially if that means there's more sympathy for the generous ideals of that postwar era, such as the building of more affordable housing. But with the election looming, and so many corruption scandals in the air, I can't help thinking the ghost of 1974 has not yet departed.


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