The concept of 'crap towns' was brought to the fore a few years ago in the publication 'The Idler', along with 'crap jobs'. Books followed on both, handily sized for the toilet library. Around the same time I remember borrowing a book from the official library, title and author long forgotten, in which the protagonist visited various provincial towns and gave them similar reviews to the sort found in 'Crap Towns' before returning to London and vowing never to visit the provinces again. On the back of the book was a cartoon of a map of the UK with a weatherman pointing his stick. The 'outlook' was steaming turds at various intervals, replacing the usual suns, clouds and occluded fronts.
'Ilivehere.co.uk' is, dare I say it, a more crap version of the original 'crap towns' stuff produced by The Idler. If you can bear to wade through the advert ridden pages and constant pop up requests to 'like' them on Facebook, you will find readers scathing reviews of towns and cities they have lived in or visited. The Idler and the forgotten crap map writer did it better. But there was always something a bit mocking patronising and smug about the concept.
'No Town is a crap town if you learn to look at it without faecally tinted spectacles', wrote Jonathan Meades. I think he's got a point. To the eye of the urban wanderer, or architectural observers like Meades or Nairn, all towns and cities have things worth 'noticing' and and have interesting things to offer, as well as things they would be better off without. Although, to be fair, Jonathan Meades and most urban wanderers are transitory and do not have to stay. For those stuck in the crappest circumstances the perspective is no doubt different. Crap circumstances - shit housing, lack of employment opportunities and poor amenities - exist in all towns and cities (and villages) to some degree, some just have less of them or are better at hiding them than others.
This brings me back to Peterborough. The city has been much maligned over the years. It can't be denied it has elements of the stereotypical crap town aplenty. A profusion of chain stores in the centre and particularly in the monolithic 1980s Queensgate Shopping Centre. Street drinkers congregate and argue at the abandoned statue plinth at the Rec before leaving behind offerings of crushed Superbock tins and fag ends. The intermittent (in the centre at least) cycle lanes/paths are ridden on badly by iffy looking blokes in hoods on crap mountain bikes. People don't smile much. But these phenomena are hardly unique to Peterborough.
In the early 80s there was an air of optimism surrounding Peterborough. Designated a New Town in the late 1960s, the city was still expanding. The Queensgate had just been opened, by Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands no less. The actor Roy Kinnear beamed cheerfully into the camera whilst dressed as a Roman Soldier during a TV ad campaign promoting the city. And in 1984 sculptor Antony Gormley was commissioned by the Peterborough Development Corporation to produce a work entitled 'Places to Be'. The title seemingly reflecting a vision of the city as a place at the cutting edge, a city of the future where life would be exemplary.
Gormleys offering to the city consisted of three human figures. One has it's arms outstretched to the sky as if praising some unseen deity (Peterborough Development Council perhaps?). The second with its hand shielding the sun from its eyes gazes into the distance, possibly towards the future (or maybe these days towards a lost future of Newtown utopia). The third, and possibly the most interesting is a walker.
The optimistic visions of The Peterborough Development Corporation, Gormley and Roy Kinnear did not quite turn out as planned. Perhaps symbolic of this was the vandalism of Gormley's three figures in 2006 when they were sited in the City's Thorpe Meadow. They were subsequently relocated out of reach on top of three buildings in Cathedral Square.
The Walker strides across the roof of Queensgate, free from the bustle inside. Heading toward and beyond the Cathedral. Maybe striding out of the city in disappointment that the Utopian New Town vision didn't quite come off and seeking to avoid further encounters with vandals. Or alternatively, a symbol of the possibilities of walking the city beyond the obvious, centrally and beyond to the outer reaches of the borders marked by the 'parkways' and cycle Green Ring. I hadn't been aware of The Walker until now, about a year after I became a commuter to Peterborough and vowed (and failed) to spend most of my lunchtimes exploring the area within a thirty minute radius of work. I'd quickly lost momentum on the project. The sight the sculpture provided a renewed optimism. There were still things unexplored and to be 'noticed'. I needed to get back out there, making the most my limited workers lunchtime. Underneath the Walker I made a New Year's resolution to get back on track. From this perspective Peterborough didn't seem such a crap town but one that requires deeper explorations.
'No Town is a crap town if you learn to look at it without faecally tinted spectacles', wrote Jonathan Meades. I think he's got a point. To the eye of the urban wanderer, or architectural observers like Meades or Nairn, all towns and cities have things worth 'noticing' and and have interesting things to offer, as well as things they would be better off without. Although, to be fair, Jonathan Meades and most urban wanderers are transitory and do not have to stay. For those stuck in the crappest circumstances the perspective is no doubt different. Crap circumstances - shit housing, lack of employment opportunities and poor amenities - exist in all towns and cities (and villages) to some degree, some just have less of them or are better at hiding them than others.
This brings me back to Peterborough. The city has been much maligned over the years. It can't be denied it has elements of the stereotypical crap town aplenty. A profusion of chain stores in the centre and particularly in the monolithic 1980s Queensgate Shopping Centre. Street drinkers congregate and argue at the abandoned statue plinth at the Rec before leaving behind offerings of crushed Superbock tins and fag ends. The intermittent (in the centre at least) cycle lanes/paths are ridden on badly by iffy looking blokes in hoods on crap mountain bikes. People don't smile much. But these phenomena are hardly unique to Peterborough.
In the early 80s there was an air of optimism surrounding Peterborough. Designated a New Town in the late 1960s, the city was still expanding. The Queensgate had just been opened, by Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands no less. The actor Roy Kinnear beamed cheerfully into the camera whilst dressed as a Roman Soldier during a TV ad campaign promoting the city. And in 1984 sculptor Antony Gormley was commissioned by the Peterborough Development Corporation to produce a work entitled 'Places to Be'. The title seemingly reflecting a vision of the city as a place at the cutting edge, a city of the future where life would be exemplary.
Gormleys offering to the city consisted of three human figures. One has it's arms outstretched to the sky as if praising some unseen deity (Peterborough Development Council perhaps?). The second with its hand shielding the sun from its eyes gazes into the distance, possibly towards the future (or maybe these days towards a lost future of Newtown utopia). The third, and possibly the most interesting is a walker.
The optimistic visions of The Peterborough Development Corporation, Gormley and Roy Kinnear did not quite turn out as planned. Perhaps symbolic of this was the vandalism of Gormley's three figures in 2006 when they were sited in the City's Thorpe Meadow. They were subsequently relocated out of reach on top of three buildings in Cathedral Square.
The Walker strides across the roof of Queensgate, free from the bustle inside. Heading toward and beyond the Cathedral. Maybe striding out of the city in disappointment that the Utopian New Town vision didn't quite come off and seeking to avoid further encounters with vandals. Or alternatively, a symbol of the possibilities of walking the city beyond the obvious, centrally and beyond to the outer reaches of the borders marked by the 'parkways' and cycle Green Ring. I hadn't been aware of The Walker until now, about a year after I became a commuter to Peterborough and vowed (and failed) to spend most of my lunchtimes exploring the area within a thirty minute radius of work. I'd quickly lost momentum on the project. The sight the sculpture provided a renewed optimism. There were still things unexplored and to be 'noticed'. I needed to get back out there, making the most my limited workers lunchtime. Underneath the Walker I made a New Year's resolution to get back on track. From this perspective Peterborough didn't seem such a crap town but one that requires deeper explorations.
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