Vocal Voices

Cannock town centre isn't the nicest of places to be and there was a particularly nasty subway linking the town to Morrisons, and the railway station a little further on. It was preferable to dodge the traffic on the dual carriageway above than to use it.

It's now been transformed into an art gallery, the work of local artists has been put into tiles. It's actually nice to walk down there now and people seem to be respecting it.
There's a BBC video here, the subway hadn't actually been completed at that point but you can get an idea of what it's like. I walked through there the other day to and from the station and thought that I really must show you.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-33667935

Brilliant - it makes such a difference when you don't have drab surroundings doesn't it

Anything that brightens up somewhere drab and brings a smile to a face is ok by me.

Downtown Digbeth has some good art/graffiti including a great Peaky Blinders one that I dragged Don to when we were over last month.

Oh now, that's great However, compared to the underpass from near the hospital in Great Western Rd, under the railway, that comes up near Gloucester station, it looks palatial That has graffiti, pools of pee, and generally a couple of poor souls begging

The council here are trying very hard to tart up the city centre, including a huge development in Kings Square (the very centre) of shops, cafe's and flats (it is currently a nasty 'Brutalist' concrete expanse) and knocking down the ugly 1960s bus station. We were talking to Mick's old rugby mate, who is a councillor, about it in Corretto's yesterday. Shame they didn't do it before the Rugby World Cup really! According to D, when she first moved here in the late 1950s the centre of Gloucester had a lively market and lots of old timbered buildings, a bit like Hereford. They knocked those down and replaced them with the concrete

It does look good and well done to Cannock for trying.

I do wonder, though, about how long it will be before the novelty wears off. These things need constant revitalising for any long-term effect to take place in my experience.

Kaz, that sounds a lot like Cannock town centre. There's a Facebook page for old photos of the area and occasionally one appears of the town pre1970s and it's heartbreaking to see how the town used to look compared to today. The town planners really did ruin it in the 70s.
There's an absolute monstrosity of a multi-storey car park, clad in white, and it can be seen for miles around as you approach the town.
The town is full of charity shops, estate agents, betting offices and nail bars. Oh, and the building which used to be the post office before it moved into WMSmiths will shortly become a needle exchange

Before the town planners got their hands on it


After, this is looking towards the right of the before photo

Ally, Tom and his camera had an hour or so around Digbeth a few weeks ago, and he loved the art in Brick Lane when he was in London. Last week in Manchester is was the Nortehrn Quarter I've told him about the murals in Glasgow

Yes, the 60s and 70s were a terrible time for architecture Jo

Kaz wrote::o Yes, the 60s and 70s were a terrible time for architecture Jo

definitely... they're in the process of tearing down quite a few of these horrid soul less concrete buildings here in London; and replacing with so much nicer modern architecture. But then in 40 years or so the people no doubt will be saying the same thing about us as we are of the 60/70's