May 17th – Again,in the ‘what a difference a few weeks make’ department, the cycleways of generally unremarkable Telford are returning to their leafy, shady but sun dappled summer state.
You would not know here you’re but feet from a motorway, and the colour and Arcadian effect is stunning, and a joy to ride along.
Telford faces much derision, not least from me, But some things it does really, really well. Telford, take a bow.
Mayy 22nd – A glorious summer day that found me in Telford. Taking the long way round, I went through the town centre, and reflected on the nature of urban design and town planning. It’s easy to see on a day like this what the designers of the concrete and glass monoliths were aiming for, with images of downtown Seattle springing to mind. But the pedestrian distances between these edifices are huge, and never straight. Hard work even in summer, walking in Telford on a dark evening is frightening, lonely and seems to go on forever.
Telford’s failure of town planning is that the buildings were allowed to dwarf the people, and car routes were more important than those for pedestrians. Too many dark corners, not enough sky. A direct descendent from Birmingham’s failure in the sixties, this one is more nuanced, and largely of the 70s and 80s. It’s about scale, place and ownership of space.
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