The reality has turned out to be just as good.
Using very durable materials (including the fabric from the Eden Centre), the architects have devised a rather space-age form:
There have been some mutterings about replacing a Victorian footbridge (albeit a rather, er, pedestrian one, and one which was too small and inaccessible) with this.
I think those people are wrong. This architecture may not be fashionable for long, but as an engineering solution I think this has a lot of class -- and, hence, I suspect it will have a long life.
I'm not generally wild about whimsy in public architecture -- I prefer the values to be more about solidity and openness.
But the playfulness at Newport does not feel out of place. In fact, it feels delightful.
I rather wish this was my local station (or, rather, I mean I wish this was in London: I certainly wouldn't want this to be my local station if the price I had to pay was residency in Newport).
3 comments:
Well you said it, LeDuc! Poor grim old Newport deserves something a bit jolly and uplifting, even if, as in my view you rightly suggested, such whimsy will not prove durable as an architectural style but in this case the erection may do so. Oh dear, my mind must be wandering again!
You Londoners have more than your fair share of up to date stations and infrastructure! Let another less privileged town have a piece of the pie for a change.
Try comparing that with say, Wakefield Kirkgate station. A ruined old shell of building that hasn't seen a penny of investment, or even basic maintenance since the 1950s.
The gap between north and south is ridiculous.
Niall: there are rubbish stations everywhere, unfortunately, although, to be fair, Newport is north of London...
Rotherham is getting a new station which also looks architecturally interesting (not on a Newport scale, but still), the artist's impressions reminding me of Manchester Oxford Road. I dunno why -- they are utterly different.
Interesting to see Cameron now pushing high-speed rail as the government's key solution to the north-south gap problem. That's my view, too: it is primarily a scheme to spread economic benefit to the north, not to enrich London, and the sooner it gets further north than Birmingham, the better.
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