Doomed eyesore has its fans
IMPACT ... South Shields Market Place at its junction with Dean Street, before Wouldhave House was built.
SO Wouldhave House, South Shields Market Place’s own little bit of 1960s brutalism, is to come down at last.
I make no bones about having argued for this for several years now.
Yet, you know, when the subject has been raised in Cookson Country in the past, not everyone has thought the place an eyesore.
And as for folk who worked there over the years, some even retained fond memories of the building.
In fairness, when it was built, it was part of an opportunity to modernise the square that had been created by the devastation left by wartime bombing, albeit, ironically, the buildings it replaced – among them what had originally been the town’s Barbour’s store – were among the few to have survived the air raid relatively intact.
It’s what happens after it comes down that’s now crucial.
Once again, a magnificent vista of the river is going to be opened up that, like the view from Harton Staiths, people are not going to want to lose.
Even so much as a hint of putting another office block on the site will cause uproar.
Instead it should be seen as a chance to link two of the town’s major assets – a lovely riverside and a Georgian market square – in a sensitive, well thought-out manner.
* Talking about the riverside, gadding about the country in recent years, I’ve become a big fan of mill shops – you know, where you can buy discounted goods, often in the surroundings of an old, erstwhile industrial building, with cafe etc attached, and usually in a picturesque setting.
It struck me that, were it not for the impact of car parking etc on the folk living next to it, it would at least be one use for the now-redundant Garland’s building on the riverside, given that its design apparently sought to reference a mercantile warehouse.
Well at least I’m trying ...!
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Weather for South Shields
Thursday 23 February 2012
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Temperature: 7 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: West
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hueysdenise
Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 12:18 PMWouldhave House may be an eyesore, but in my opinion it is no worse than the new BT building, the latest eyesore to appear. It's strange that BT have made so many South Tyneside council workers redundant but they can afford to build themselves a new building.
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