Comments on: Who should we blame for Nottingham's urban landscape architecture?

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:35:54 +0000

The aspect of the photograph which surprises me is the architectural jumble. I quite like the trees, the red brick and the bluish glass on the left side of the photograph but did the planners like it too, or did they decide that architectural design has nothing to do with town and country planning? I think they should have protected pedestrians from traffic fumes and, if the footpath gets as little use as in the photograph then they should use part of the width for a cycle path. And why not have some trees on the right side of the street?

By: Charles Boot

Charles Boot — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:33:47 +0000

And again on the other hand, walking around Nottingham’s town centre, much of it pedestrianised, on a winter’s night last year and despite the dire headlines, I felt perfectly safe and happily part of the passing crowd in the pre-Christmas market. Same again on a return this summer, when the redesigned, but essentially 18th-century space (see views by Sandby) still functions as such, though with the useful addition of a tram and cabs.

Also good parks and allotments, and lots of trees.

I am sure most UK cities could have similar photos as your illustration; presumably showing two lines of traffic and a row of parked cars (on the right) on a former industrial route? It’s certainly true we have made a mess of many of our cities, demolishing good old buildings and replacing them with shoddy new stuff, but was ever thus.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 09:26:35 +0000

Oh no, its not all bad. And there many worse cities in the UK and elsewhere. But what they should have done is read the Buchanan Report and acted upon it, as so many German cities did. When I think about the different fates of Germany and Britain since 1945, the words which most often come to mind are from Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn: 'victories are good for governments and defeats are good for the people'. In other words: I blame the political system rather than the professions, though I also blame the professions for 'going along' with the politicians instead of hold out for their beliefs.

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:59:20 +0000

It is not all bad…[ http://www.acrossthebritain.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/view-from-castle.jpg ]

There is incredible potential in the marketplace.
[ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~leveritt/42_11_Nottingham_Market_Place_1900.jpg ] and elsewhere [ http://www.nutritionsociety.org/development/files/uploads/Nottingham.jpg ]
Also
[ http://www.infobritain.co.uk/Nottingham_Castle_Gate.jpg ]

It is just a matter of putting it all together.