More Council-sanctioned vandalism

[James]

Next victims? Colston Hall and the Industrial Museum are to be replaced with "modern" featureless steel/glass flatpack identikit structures just like every other city.

What is the f***ing matter with these people??? Colston Hall is a beautiful and historic building...the care and craft that has gone into the stonework and the history behind it...that's all part of the APPEAL of the place. Same goes for the industrial museum...it's INDUSTRIAL! People WANT to see the grime, the exposed steel girders, massive doors, the Victorian look, the sheer strength and scale of it is what makes the ATMOSPHERE. No one wants an industrial museum that is clean rounded sterile white plastic. All these hideous structures will be hated and outdated in less than 5 years and then everyone will be saying "why did you destroy what was there?". They're saying they want to make the city a "centre for culture", but they're taking away everything that give it its unique identity, character, history, culture, and pride!!!

This council's/government's/country's attitude to it's historic structures is an abomination on the same level as Henry VIII's attitude to the monasteries/abbeys, or the Nazi's burning of books. They're determined to wipe out history from the map.

[madhattie]

I agree on all counts.

There was a picture of the new *cough* 'improved' Colston Hall in the Evening Post last week.

It looked awful. Not just bad, or bland, or insipid like so many of the council's other recent planning decisions, but truly jaw-hitting-the-floor-in-amazment at the sheer awfulness of the thing. It had something on the roof which I assumed was supposed to be a skateboard ramp.

The surviving bits of the docks are easily the area's best feature. The transit sheds with the cranes outside, the rails buried in the tarmac, a bit of grime here and there, boats moored alongside. The Steam Crane. Fantastic. The view in almost every direction is shite. You have The Point, a hideous monstrosity that could surely only have been built by the stuffing of pockets with cash, and now being built across the water next to the god-awful skateboard park (masquerading as the headquarters of a bank) is a god-awful bland wall of glass.

The decent views in the docks are those where the eyes fall on the old buildings. St Mary Redcliffe Church, Brandon Hill, Hotwells Road, the Mud Dock.

Building a new museum on the spot of the Industrial museum is going to tear out the guts of what's left of our heritage. The council should be ashamed.

I'd love to check out the directorships of the developers down there and compare it to a list of people on the council. It's hard to believe that a few names wouldn't match up.

[James]

So then, petition or direct action?

[madhattie]

So then, petition or direct action?

How about both.

Start with writing to the Evening Post, create an online petition and get our arses down to the Industrial Museum on a couple of weekends with a 'proper' petition?

Get Radio Bristol, BBC Bristol etc involved? Find out if it's just you and I, or if anyone else feels the same?

Hard work though! I'm tired just typing that lot out!

[James]

I think you'll find that all the people will be against it...but the council are the ones in charge.

[James]

The plans are on display at the "Approach 2 Exhibition" at the Architecture Centre on Narrow Quay from Tuesday 16 August û Sunday 18 September.

OPENING TIMES
Tue û Fri 11-5
Sat & Sun 12-5
Closed Mondays


There will also be several talks:

Tuesday 23 August, 6pm
Donald Bates of LAB Architecture Studio will be giving taking us through his approach to designing the new Museum of Bristol.

Wednesday 24 August, 12:30 û 1:30
Donald Bates of LAB Architecture Studio will conduct an Architects Walkabout at The Architecture Centre. Join LAB in the gallery space for an insight into their thought processes and proposed scheme designs for the Museum of Bristol.

Thursday 8 September, 6pm
Axel Burrough of Levitt Bernstein, lead architect of the Colston Hall redevelopment project, will give a talk on about the practice's work on buildings for music, and the developing proposals for Colston Hall. Axel will outline the architectural response to the City's brief for a centre of excellence for music and how this could be achieved through the combination of an iconic new building and the conversion of historic spaces.

...in case anyone feels like a heckle or two.

You do need to book in advance for these though, using the contact details below:

CONTACT DETAILS
The Architecture Centre
Narrow Quay
Bristol BS1 4QA
T: 0117 922 1540
F: 0117 922 1541
E-mail: info@architecturecentre.co.uk

[madhattie]

The plans are on display at the "Approach 2 Exhibition" at the Architecture Centre on Narrow Quay from Tuesday 16 August û Sunday 18 September.

Be worth going. It's really nice in the Architecture Centre.

I was just reading on the Evening Post website that the Colston Hall building will be staying, and that Colston House is the building to be demolished and replaced.

So, not -quite- as bad as I originally thought, although that doesn't deflect from the fact that the proposed new building looks like the work of five drunk children chucking Lego about.

[James]

The plans are on display at the "Approach 2 Exhibition" at the Architecture Centre on Narrow Quay from Tuesday 16 August û Sunday 18 September.

Be worth going. It's really nice in the Architecture Centre.

I was just reading on the Evening Post website that the Colston Hall building will be staying, and that Colston House is the building to be demolished and replaced.

So, not -quite- as bad as I originally thought, although that doesn't deflect from the fact that the proposed new building looks like the work of five drunk children chucking Lego about.

Yes I heard that too, and I still think it's hideous. Let's not forget that the plan is still to obliterate the Industrial Museum

[madhattie]

Do you know the McArthurs Warehouse? This is one of my favourite buildings anywhere in the docks, and is another that is about to be demolished.

And like everywhere else in the docks the replacement will be bland and sterile.

The council are slowly selling off and demolishing the very heart of the city. Someone ought to pay the bus fare to get them up to Gloucester Docks so they can see how a beautiful environment can be created by restoring old buildings rather than demolishing them.

Anyway. You can read more about it here:

http://www.b-i-a-s.org.uk/BIAS_news.html (you'll need to scroll down a bit.

[James]

I get angry, then I feel totally helpless and unempowered, and then I feel depressed...and still pissed off.

I feel like going and doing some mindless vandalism to council property and/or new developments.

[James]

Donald Bates is a Texan!!! Now it ALL makes sense...

I am so pissed off that I'm away for these talks...I seriously want to ask him face to face how destroying one of the few remaining true landmark historic industrial structures in the harbour is beneficial to Bristol's industrial heritage???

Are you going to go? Please be my voice!

[madhattie]

Are you going to go? Please be my voice!

Don't know yet.

I've been reading that a group has been set up to help protect the current Industrial Museum.

The Princes Wharf Action Group.

http://www.digitalbristol.org/members/c ... ge%205.pdf (I think these people need a website FAST!)

I don't quite understand why, if a new Museum of Bristol is needed, they can't build it behind the current sheds on the old coal yard at Wapping Wharf. If it's because this land has been sold for housing, why did they let it be sold when they need a new Museum of Bristol to be built at the docks? The planning department at B.C.C. could perhaps do with looking the word 'planning' up in a dictionary...

There's no reason why a new museum can't be built and an alternative use found for the current sheds.

[jules]

I feel like going and doing some mindless vandalism to council property and/or new developments

Why bother when you can rely on the council to do it themselves?

[madhattie]

Why bother when you can rely on the council to do it themselves?

lol! I wish I had thought of that line

[madhattie]

If you don't believe that the council should demolish the sheds that hold the Industrial Museum please take the time to sign this petition:

http://itc.napier.ac.uk/e-petition/bris ... itionID=86

This is important! Please sign it!