Aldeburgh is being diminished by poor Council led design decisions
Posted Nov 20, 2007 10:09 AM
Dear Chair,
As I am one of those typical time starved Londoners with a second home in Aldeburgh, please forgive me for the brevity of this note. Although a second homer, my family does actually manage to spend about 1/3 of the year in Aldeburgh. We have had our house (at 23 Crag Path) for just over 8 years now and I wanted to write to someone with an interest - and hopefully some influence - about the deterioration of design in the town as a result of Council actions over the last couple of years.
1. The recent concrete paving of the High Street does no credit to the overall aesthetic experience. The High Street has much character and deserves a rather more elegant solution than poured concrete which looks cheap; was this issue ever discussed with the Society?
2. The new developments on the High Street (the former Reade building and the former petrol station) are second rate pieces of architectural pastiche. This is the kind of architecture that is aimed at ‘fitting in’ but ends up being bland and characterless. It worries me enormously that we might end up with yet another poor building when the current Elizabeth Court is sold and demolished; then our High Street will really have lost much of its character. Incidentally, I am not one who merely craves the maintenance of the status quo; it is perfectly possible to introduce modern buildings in a historic setting. The art is for them to be very well designed and for the planners to hold the line against cheap materials. The Reade building, former petrol station and Elizabeth Court are all significant structures and to lose them to poor design is a real tragedy for Aldeburgh and one from which we will all suffer in the years to come.
3. There has been graffiti on building walls and installations (e.g. phone boxes) which should have been removed within weeks – as we who suffer regular graffiti abuse in London know, the only way to stop it from spreading is to clear it up quickly. And yet, the Council has allowed these horrible visual marks to just sit there.
4. The reinstatement of the shelter next to the Brudenell hotel is a real shocker; it looks truly awful. Why on earth does it have bollards in front of it which are so unsightly? Also, could the Council not have tried to put in just a little bit of design flair in the materials used?
5. Asphalting the walk way on Crag Path may be cheap and quick, but as we could see from the recent stretch from the boat pond onwards, it looks horrible. By contrast, the walking path behind the allotments towards the Kings field show that stamped and bonded gravel is a far more elegant and pleasing solution; was this ever considered for our walking paths along the sea?
6. And finally, there are the Scallops which continue to disfigure what was once the most beautiful, clear and uninterrupted sweep of seascape I have come across in the UK. I know this is a personal view, but frankly set against the concerns expressed above it merely forms another example of municipal design decisions which have no regard for the long-term consequences on the built environment. The Scallops should be moved in town where they would do less visual damage.
I could go on; every so many months a new Council-led design intervention sets the clock back for what was once a delightful town.
I hope you won’t mind me sending you my list of grievances in this undiluted form, but as you can probably tell, my concerns are borne out of a genuine frustration that a place I love is slowly being diminished by the poor quality of care from those whose task it is to look after our built environment. The results are deplorable.
Is there anything more you could suggest I do to air these issues? Will your society be able to champion these concerns in the future and if not, who can? How can I get involved in helping you and others ensure that our town doesn’t lose out further?