tion>
A NEW KIND OF BLEAK
Journeys Through Urban Britain
OWEN HATHERLEY
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
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
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
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)
FROM GOVAN TO CUMBERNAULD Was the Solution Worse than the Problem?
