I first came across Ian Nairn when the BBC had a retrospective of the shows he did for them in the early 90s.
Nairn was an architectural critic who unlike Prince Charles was not enamoured with just neoclassical buildings with everything else being a carbuncle. He saw beauty in what looked plain and ordinary. He saw the beauty in what is now called brutalist architecture. He would rather see a quirky building in a purpose built shopping centre than some boring statue or monument. Follies are in.
In Nairn Across Britain he travels by car from London to Manchester. Avoiding motorways where he could. Even in some drab towns he sees some beauty. In Northampton he saw The Emporium Arcade as something worth preserving. The council knocked it down as soon as he left.
In Manchester, Nairn observes how the slums were knocked down en masse, with the residents dispersed all over Manchester. The businesses also having to move out. He observes that it could had been done in smaller stages.
Nairn uses the term plugged in repeatedly in these programs. Stockport is plugged in. Their shopping centre meshes in with its surroundings. Piccadilly Gardens is not plugged in. It just seems incongruous with its surroundings. A green open space that does not fit in. Since the show was made, Piccadilly Gardens has been redeveloped. If Nairn was alive today, he would argue it is still not plugged in. No passerby would even want to venture to the gardens in the evening.
Burnley he argues is a drab place that is not improved with urban redevelopment. It is just wasted open space in its shopping centre. Nairn argues that maybe it needed something maze like. I would have thought something maze like would be seen as a nightmare by the police regarding crime prevention.
In the second program Nairn travels from Lancashire to Yorkshire on the canals. He certainly enjoys the canalways and sees the beauty of the northern region from the canal boat. When he arrives in Leeds he sees a city with great potential for redevelopment. A city that could be plugged in with canals, roads and railways and buildings all sharing space. Nairn certainly has more faith in council planners than I would. He thought private developers would make a mess of it. Personally it was always going to be a joint effort in getting it wrong.
The final program sees Nairn in Scotland. He likes Carlton Hill, chuckles at the attempt to copy the Parthenon and then run out of money.
What struck me was how Nairn thinks that simple things could improve your surroundings and green spaces need to be organic. Just do not have green spaces because you have run out of ideas with what to do with them. When he sees big electric pylons, he likens disguising them to hiding an elephant. You could simply just make them colourful instead of being grey. He admires some canal locks simply for having clean black and white lines.
This series was made in 1972. Towns and cities were modernising. Some places were demolished by the bombings in world war two. Others like Manchester were clearing out its slums. There was an opportunity to do something different. A chance for joint up urban redevelopment. Little of what Nairn observed in his travels even exists. I think if Nairn saw Manchester or Leeds city centre in 2020, he would be horrified.
Nairn was an architectural critic who unlike Prince Charles was not enamoured with just neoclassical buildings with everything else being a carbuncle. He saw beauty in what looked plain and ordinary. He saw the beauty in what is now called brutalist architecture. He would rather see a quirky building in a purpose built shopping centre than some boring statue or monument. Follies are in.
In Nairn Across Britain he travels by car from London to Manchester. Avoiding motorways where he could. Even in some drab towns he sees some beauty. In Northampton he saw The Emporium Arcade as something worth preserving. The council knocked it down as soon as he left.
In Manchester, Nairn observes how the slums were knocked down en masse, with the residents dispersed all over Manchester. The businesses also having to move out. He observes that it could had been done in smaller stages.
Nairn uses the term plugged in repeatedly in these programs. Stockport is plugged in. Their shopping centre meshes in with its surroundings. Piccadilly Gardens is not plugged in. It just seems incongruous with its surroundings. A green open space that does not fit in. Since the show was made, Piccadilly Gardens has been redeveloped. If Nairn was alive today, he would argue it is still not plugged in. No passerby would even want to venture to the gardens in the evening.
Burnley he argues is a drab place that is not improved with urban redevelopment. It is just wasted open space in its shopping centre. Nairn argues that maybe it needed something maze like. I would have thought something maze like would be seen as a nightmare by the police regarding crime prevention.
In the second program Nairn travels from Lancashire to Yorkshire on the canals. He certainly enjoys the canalways and sees the beauty of the northern region from the canal boat. When he arrives in Leeds he sees a city with great potential for redevelopment. A city that could be plugged in with canals, roads and railways and buildings all sharing space. Nairn certainly has more faith in council planners than I would. He thought private developers would make a mess of it. Personally it was always going to be a joint effort in getting it wrong.
The final program sees Nairn in Scotland. He likes Carlton Hill, chuckles at the attempt to copy the Parthenon and then run out of money.
What struck me was how Nairn thinks that simple things could improve your surroundings and green spaces need to be organic. Just do not have green spaces because you have run out of ideas with what to do with them. When he sees big electric pylons, he likens disguising them to hiding an elephant. You could simply just make them colourful instead of being grey. He admires some canal locks simply for having clean black and white lines.
This series was made in 1972. Towns and cities were modernising. Some places were demolished by the bombings in world war two. Others like Manchester were clearing out its slums. There was an opportunity to do something different. A chance for joint up urban redevelopment. Little of what Nairn observed in his travels even exists. I think if Nairn saw Manchester or Leeds city centre in 2020, he would be horrified.
