BÉTON BRUT · No. 6 · THE NORTHMERE ISSUE · 50pA zine about concrete · photocopied after hours

BÉTONBRUTNo.6

FIG. 0Drag it round hold it down.
It is only a model. The real ones are heavier.

Six buildings nobody asked for and everyone now defends. Northmere new town, 1962–71. Poured in place. Argued over since.

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FIG. 1Each floor oversails the last by 3.6 m the ramp is the orange bit

1Building one of six · listed Grade II

NorthmereCivic Centre

1967 Northmere Development Corporation, Architect’s Department job architect E. M. Varley

They built it upside down on purpose. Each floor is wider than the one beneath, so Planning shades Rates and the council chamber shades everybody.

Varley said a town hall should hover over its citizens like a good question. The citizens said it looked like a filing cabinet falling over. Both are right.

Stand under it on a wet Tuesday and the whole 9,400-tonne thing floats above you on sixteen columns no thicker than a phone box. The ceremonial ramp is too steep for ceremony and perfect for skateboards. It leaks in the north-east corner. I would chain myself to it.

9,400
tonnes of concrete, in 61 pours
16
pilotis holding all of it up
212
steps to the public gallery
BÉTON BRUT · No. 6 · THE NORTHMERE ISSUE · 50p p. 2

FIG. 2Up the spring in second gear five turns, 1 in 10

2Building two of six · not listed, not safe

The Trinity RoadCar Park

1971 Borough Engineer & Surveyor’s Office H. Pask, engineer, no architect involved

Six decks and a ramp wound like a clock spring. Pask was an engineer, not an architect, which is why it is so good: nothing here is trying to be liked.

You drive up the helix with the town unrolling beside you, and at the top the best room in town has no walls. From deck six you can see the gasholder, the moor and, on clear days, your own house looking small.

Teenagers have always known this. The council calls it “underused”. It is used every evening by people watching the sun go down over the ring road, for free, which is the real complaint.

6,100
tonnes, most of it ramp
388
spaces. Eleven cars on a good day
5
full turns to reach the sky
BÉTON BRUT · No. 6 · THE NORTHMERE ISSUE · 50p p. 3

FIG. 3Seven bridges “streets with weather”

3Building three of six · I live here

HallamPoint

1969 Northmere Development Corporation, Housing Group job architect Joan Tedder

Twenty-two storeys of flats in one slab and beside it, standing apart like a chaperone, the lift tower. Bridges join the two every third floor: you ride up, cross the open air, then walk a flight up or down to your door.

Tedder called the bridges streets with weather. Residents call them “the windy bit”.

The separation is the genius. Lift noise, bins and pipes live in the tower; the slab is nothing but homes, each with windows on both sides. Yes, the wind. Yes, the lifts in 1983. But ask on the fourteenth floor who wants to move. I did. Nobody.

22
storeys, 176 flats, two aspects each
7
bridges, one every third floor
396
steps when the lift is “awaiting a part”
BÉTON BRUT · No. 6 · THE NORTHMERE ISSUE · 50p p. 4

FIG. 4The slot faces east turn the model to find it

4Building four of six · patron saint of lost causes

St Jude’sChurch

1964 Northmere Development Corporation, Churches & Halls Group L. Achterberg

A tent, folded out of concrete four inches thick, as if someone had creased the sky and propped it up. No columns. No windows a glazier would recognise.

Only the slot: one cut down the east fold, filled with slabs of coloured glass set in resin. At nine on a clear morning it lays a stripe of orange across the font, then the aisle, then the back pew, like a slow finger.

Achterberg was an atheist and said so at the consecration. The roof has never leaked, which the congregation regards as evidence. Go in. Sit down. Even the echo is board-marked.

100
millimetres of shell, and nothing else
0
columns. Also zero leaks since 1964
19
metres of slot, floor to ridge
BÉTON BRUT · No. 6 · THE NORTHMERE ISSUE · 50p p. 5

FIG. 5Reconstructed from Stott’s drawings and one photograph of a dog

5Building five of six · the one we lost

Water BoardPumping Station

1962–1998 Northmere & District Water Board, Engineer’s Drawing Office W. Stott

A drum with no windows, because water does not need a view. Twelve fins ran up the outside doing nothing structural whatsoever; Stott admitted he added them so it would look as serious as it was.

Inside, three pumps the size of delivery vans moved the town’s water uphill for thirty-six years and nobody thought about it once, which is the highest praise an engineer can get.

They knocked it down in a fortnight for a retail shed that has since also closed. I keep a piece of fin on my windowsill. It is the heaviest thing I own and I am not sorry.

0
windows. One door, painted orange
3,300
tonnes, now hardcore under a car park
14
days it took to knock down
BÉTON BRUT · No. 6 · THE NORTHMERE ISSUE · 50p p. 6

FIG. 6Ten mushrooms, one roof the 14 to Hallam Point is the orange one

6Building six of six · write to the council

QueenswayBus Station

1966 Borough Architect’s Department, Transport Group A. Krol · demolition scheduled

Ten mushrooms holding up one long roof. That is the whole building, and it is enough. Each column flares at the head so the canopy seems to rest on open hands.

The rain runs down inside the stems and you can hear it if you put your ear to the concrete, which I recommend. Five stands, a clock that is right twice a day, a kiosk that sells one kind of crisp.

The council wants it gone to “unlock the gateway site”. A gateway is a thing you pass through on the way to somewhere. This is somewhere. Write to the council. Use a stamp. Mention the mushrooms.

10
mushroom columns, drained through the stem
118
metres of canopy, one expansion joint per bay
0
steps. All of it level. In 1966
BÉTON BRUT · No. 6 · THE NORTHMERE ISSUE · 50p p. 7

Ten thingsconcrete knows

  1. Concrete is not grey. Look again: forty greys, and one of them is green.
  2. Show the plank that held the pour.If the formwork was honest, leave its fingerprints.
  3. If it needs a sign saying ENTRANCE, move the entrance.
  4. A ramp is a staircase with manners.
  5. Never clad. Cladding is a building apologising.
  6. Rain is part of the elevation.Draw the stain before the stain draws itself.
  7. A room does not need walls. See Trinity Road, deck six, about 8 p.m.
  8. Listing is love with paperwork.
  9. Demolition is an opinion you cannot take back.
  10. Write to the council. Then write again.
BÉTON BRUT · No. 6 · THE NORTHMERE ISSUE · 50p p. 8