Celebrating our unique qualities
As a child growing up in Northampton, I remember my father often remarking how fortunate we were to live in a town with such wonderful parks.
Approaching the town from most directions, one was also struck by the broad, tree-lined Victorian roads that had spread out from the town’s historic core to Abington, Dallington, Delapre and Kingsthorpe.
Like many other people, at the time, we took for granted that we also had a vibrant and attractive town centre filled with interesting buildings and shops and a maze of streets that had evolved from Saxon times.
Of course, the brutality of the 1960s and 1970s devastated the town centre, firstly the slum clearances swept aside well-established communities and replaced terraces of houses and small businesses with medium and high rise buildings. Then, the northern and western portions of the town centre were cleared to make way for the Grosvenor Centre, the bus station and a series of other unattractive buildings that contributed little, if anything, to Northampton’s built heritage, in the pursuit of growth targets.
Thirty-five years, or so, on we are again told that the town will benefit from planned growth to become a “market city” of 300,000, but surely we should be more focussed on ensuring that we cherish the unique qualities that still exist in our town and celebrating the uniqueness of Northampton?
The well-known architectural author Sir John Summerson once wrote “no English town would be worth visiting [more] than any other English town were it not for the enormous, obstinate and overwhelming legacy of the past. It is this great hinterland of architectural lumber which gives each separate town its ‘character’ ”. This is why most people prefer to visit older places for a day out, than to savour the pleasures of most of England’s new towns. The shopping centre at Milton Keynes, however, is a notable exception for some.
So why does Northampton’s town centre appear to be declining in popularity. Clearly the redevelopment of the town centre played its part in eroding the character of the town. But it also changed the socio-economic balance of the town centre, and replaced a once thriving local community that supported local businesses by a business district that was devoid of life after office hours.
In recent years that has started to change with people moving back into the town centre and a vibrant nightlife developing in certain areas.
What is now needed is a positive plan to ensure that its future development is of the highest quality and enhances Northampton’s unique qualities.
The borough council has made a positive start with its draft central area plan which contains many sensible ideas. However, it presently lacks a convincing understanding of the town’s evolution and is, therefore, unlikely to inspire potential developers and their architects to take full account of Northampton’s unique built heritage when planning and designing new buildings and developments.
The council must rise to the challenge and develop a balanced team of built environment professionals with a true understanding of the potential of civic design to compliment their existing expertise in conservation. A bold strategy needs to be implemented to link the town centre’s conservation areas together but ensuring that the roads and public spaces that connect them are brought up to conservation standard.
A well-intentioned town centre plan alone will not achieve these goals. A comprehensive urban design strategy is also needed, together with a local joint venture partnership which can then ensure the implementation of an urban renaissance.
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Weather for Northampton
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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