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Deleted member 5849
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Each time, everything is piecemeal, and disjointed. Look at the Millenium developments, Broadgate (twice!) etc.
Pre-war those beautiful tudor buildings were seen as inconvenient slums - Hitler didn't cause the regeneration of the city centre, he just widened its scope!
Now, tbf I'd need to look at what they actually plan to do around there(!) but on the image as you linked, the square area there has promise as it is (the least said about Barracks the better, however! And thank God they're pulling the tower block down round thecorner!) - there are a number of linked, interesting buildings in the city centre, that do indeed have character - often the issue is we neglect areas, let them go rank and dark and dreary - it's not *necessarily* the architecture that's the issue. I'm thinking in this respect the arcade that goes to Argos is a fine example that, tidied up, could work as-is. The circular cafe is an example of how development can work in sympathy with what's already there - originally the plans were to demolish it, but I think the lower precinct has become an excellent little space, with distinction. Before they did that development, *that* was dank and dreary.
So, I'm not saying save *everything* or preserve it in aspic, but I am saying have sympathy with whatever we already have, too.
I repeat, I don't actually know if what they're proposing around there does do that or not, in my view, so I reserve judgement, but I am sympathetic to not just starting with a clean slate every 20 years, to then knock it all down again once the next generation decide whatever we do is shitter than what was there before!