Tag: tatty

April 10th – Passing the huge shopping complex at Merry Hill today, I realised a few things. Firstly, that although it was sold as regeneration – it was built on the site of the Round Oak Steelworks in the late 1980s – it hasn’t regenerated the area around it at all, large tracts of which are still waste and derelict. Secondly, it’s looking just a shade dated and tatty these days – but no less busy.

Thirdly, the ill-fated monorail that linked this place to the Waterfront – taken out after six years of unreliability and trouble – still has a ghost presence. Just above M&S, the black oblong prism is a former monorail station.

Oh, brave new world. What went so wrong?

October 9th – A casual observer might think I had a downer on the project to renovate and upgrade New Street Station in Birmingham. I haven’t particularly, but in my opinion the design leaves much to be desired, both functionally and aesthetically. A good example of the aesthetic horror of the design is the polished stainless steel cladding being erected on the Stephenson Place facade. Unsealed, and hanging from girder work erected on the surface of the old Pallisades centre, again, it stinks of bodge and bad taste. The mirror surface looks tatty to me; adjacent sheets  don’t always meet perfectly and where the sheets are pinned, the surface is often distorted and looks dented and cheap. 

Compared to the iconic and stunning Selfridges building, this looks like something dreamt up on a bad Saturday in the pub by a crazed Meccano fan. I dread to think what the rest of it will look like when complete…