Sadly, I can find no pics of the wonderful "Shopping City" (now known as "Halton Lea"- Lol!) or the unusual housing schemes. Looks like nobody wants to take pics of Runcorn.

http://www.photo-digital.co.uk/england/lancashire/manchester%20ship%20canal/pics/arklow%20river%20at%20runcorn%20bridge%20210405.jpg


http://www.aidan.co.uk/md/NwHalRuncBrgAKeogh50s.jpg

http://www.bigmouserocks.co.uk/images/transporter.jpg

http://newroads.speedlimit.org.uk/images/runcornbridge.jpg

http://www.merseyside.org.uk/dbimgs/Runcorn%20Bridge%20(Belongs%20to%20HBC).jpg

http://www.mersey-gateway.org/upload/img_400/K000865.jpg

http://www.aidan.co.uk/md/NwHalRuncBrgAKeogh50s.jpg

http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/grafix/slope_gallery/runcorn_slope.jpg

http://www.northernsights.co.uk/archive/big/Dscf1002.jpg

http://www.waterways.org.uk/festivals/preston/images/Bridgewater%20Canal,%20Runcorn.JPG

www.duckworth.co.uk/ images/runcorn3.jpg

http://www.greenlibdems.org.uk/images/sites/217.160.173.25-3f0016a052c515.23380913/30.jpeg

Busway

http://www.staff.livjm.ac.uk/etmcrobe/transport/Runcorn01.jpg

http://www.staff.livjm.ac.uk/etmcrobe/transport/Runcorn09.jpg

http://www.johnmillerandpartners.co.uk/img5/hacbig.jpg

http://www.booth-muirie.co.uk/news/issue2/images/bmdawes.jpg

http://www.northernsights.co.uk/archive/big/Dscf0982.jpg

I've only been once, and I can't remember it. Too many trees, you can't see the buildings.

I think thats the idea Poli. :)

Halton Castle

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=tbn:ZC3lZ4HeOms5_M:www.halton.gov.uk/schintranet/media/castleintro.jpg

http://www2.cheshire.gov.uk/Archaeology/RCP/images/Halton%20Castle12b.jpg

Well I finally got off my fat bottom this very morning and took some picts of Runcorn's prettier sister(!) Widnes!

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/sodom.jpg

Been too lazy to set up the pictures on a thread around here, probably not in the Liverpool but the General city pictures thread, but there you go!

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/

Black and white ones, are not Widnes.

Top of the Town... Lol! Stabbing ville. Could you please go to Runcorn tomorrow and take some pics? Cheers fella.

Top of the Town... Lol! Stabbing ville. Could you please go to Runcorn tomorrow and take some pics? Cheers fella.

No thanks!

I'd rather risk Top of the Town, or the Derby! Boo-yahaka.

That said there's (was?)some increadable post war stuff there, eps. if you go by Bus, huge blocks of flats that seem to go on forever. Total nightmair of you try to walk around the place.

[QUOTE=Stephen Robinson]http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/sodom.jpg
/QUOTE]

I like the integrated flower pot, it looks sort of fortified, and the flowers sort of not real. Is there a cctv camera integrated on the top of that poll, and the flowers hide mace sprays that get triggered by fat and nasty cctv operators to blind any little fuckers who climb up to attack their camera?

You know I never noticed the flowers until I saw that picture.

In fact they've put up some nice (black!) street feature around that part of town, and some rather mature trees that the local ejiots have only managed to distroy one of, still early days.

Not many nite clubs that's made up of Terrest houses knocked together these days are there?

lovin the bridge pic that's lit up a bit. Actually got fond memories of that place as some rellies lived there, brookvale II, sanders hey close no less. Remember the 'city' well. Cheers Blabbs

Hasn't Top of the Town been swept away in the attempted 'normalisation' of Widnes?

Actually if anyone can get down there for some pics, the square bordered by the library, church, town hall and Vue Bar is potentially as good as any outside of Hamiliton Square or the downtown.

Top of the Town?

In the orginal plans yes it was to go, but they changed their minds....

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/council1.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/council.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/corner.jpg

Sorry, Can't work out how to make my Camera go cinemascope

More stuff on "The Disappointing New Towns of Great Britain" including Runcorn:

http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001971/Downie/Downie12/Downie12.html

http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001971/Downie/Downie12/Downie10.jpg

The Runcorn Thread makes me feel dirty.

The Runcorn Thread makes me feel dirty.

:laugh: I know what you mean.

Thanks for that excellent link Stephen.

That busway looks like an interesting concept.

Too clever by half unfortunately Accy. I think it's expensive to maintain due to the lack of traffic on it (i.e. only buses), so public funds are hard to acquire. Same for the massive footpath network. They had considered a monorail system but besides being too expensive it wouldn't have linked well to Liverpool.

I can't decide which is sexier: Runcorn or Widnes... I always struggle to make it past the Golden Triangle :yes:

Has anyone tried to get around Runcorn.....a nightmare. It's the only place I know where you can enter a street/road/close and find the upper odd/even nos. at the beginning of the road...totally bonkers

Jets, you need to live there for a while and just know the place off by heart to know where you're going. I remember I used to always get stopped by passing motorists who couldn't work out how to reach their destination. It isn't based on a traditional grid pattern or streets and roads system. All expressways and winding avenues and closes.

I can't decide which is sexier: Runcorn or Widnes... I always struggle to make it past the Golden Triangle :yes:
Acorn

I've noticed that Runcorn is particularly hilly relative to the general flatness of the Cheshire Plain. It's very noticeable when travelling east along the M62. The castle sits atop a hill overlooking the town, doesn't it?

Actually I would have hated to live there.....architecture/build standard not that bad but there is something quite queezy about it. No sense of community at all to the point of eeriness, which is quite a feat. Ironically Kirkby, which had a terrible reputation in the 60's has settled down to quite an OK place to live, with its traditional patterns and is now attracting a lot of private new build. Don't want to overstate Kirkby's attractions but Runcorn still seems stuck in 'something'

Congratulations on your 2500 post, Blabbersmoke.

Runcorn is fucked IMO. It's central shopping mall is far bigger and sophisticated than any built in the other new towns. But it is too monolithic and difficult to modify. The local centres are the same really. It is a highly planned physical environment and that limits the human potential to be dynamic and make money. Most new development in the last 15 years has been around the edges in east Runcorn and has diverted completely from the original principles (i.e. every home x yards from bus way, x yards from local centres with shops, dentist, chemist, school, etc.)

Although I think its industrial/business zones work well for larger scale distribution etc, due to its transport links and distances from homes etc.

Cheers Jets,

I just read your last post. A lot of the housing schemes worked very well. Built around landscaped closes with lots of trees and safety from busy roads. They were designed to limit the car. Where I grew up the sense of community was very strong- all the kids played together in the close and everybpdy would stop and chat as you couldn't avoid people. Maybe in the Mainsonette housing developments things have been different. It's far better than Kirkby- in every way. Apart from being further from town. Kirkby's fucking awful.

Runcorn is very hilly. Just as well really as it adds some interest to the drab maisonette developments.

Runcorn's hills are part of a chain of different sandstone hills which disect the Mersey Basin area roughly North-south and were created during the last ice age. There are two chains on the Wirral; one running from West Kirby to Neston, the other from New Brighton as far as Chester. In Liverpool there is a few ridges including Everton and the Anglican Cathedral. Runcorn lies roughly on a Chain which also includes the very attractive Mid Cheshire Ridge (Frodsham Hill, Helsby Hill, and Beeston Castle etc.). The Cheshire Plain is infact two Cheshire Plains (one to the west and one to the east of the Ridge).. I'm full o'crap me....

I remember trying to walk back to Widnes from the old town, but even though I'd done it before I couldn't work out the maze of roads/walkways to get to the Bridge, and as for the New town bit, the ground floor access to Shopping City is non-excitant, even if you lived nearby to get there by car would be complicated, possibly requiring driving out to go onto the entrance approaches. And access by foot would be uncomfortable too, it's just your bog standard ruined 60s motorway express/we know how you should travel town.

Eeeek! Runcorn. Know it well. Have family there and have spent many a journey on the busway. Those ramps up to and down from Shopping City are a scream. Overall the place is a hole of the worst variety.

Ditto Widness.

Can't think of the name of the estate (now demolished) next to Shopping City with the houses that looked like tin cans. Southfields rings a bell.

Castlefields?

Widnes is no where near Runcorn in terms of 'orribleness.

Ok here we go. Southfields, Runcorn 1987 (pics by sjwmoore)

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6500/ftfps79pb.jpg

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1060/ftfpqt0uf.jpg

you know, ive had these pics for years and never noticed you can see the same dog on both these pics!

The estate was called Southgate, and was demolished about 16 years ago. It was designed by the famous architect, James Stirling, who thought that the development should reflect the maritime history and culture of the scousers moving there. Hence all the round windows (port holes) and ship-like qualities of the maisonettes.

To some extent, his designs were spoiled by funding limitations. But on the whole it was a fucking ugly disaster story. I can't believe they used colourful plastic on the houses. Also, there was (in this case a very pretty) oil power plant that provided the communal heating for the estate. Unfortunately, they weren't to know that oil prices were going to shut up after the late 70s, or that it would create black matter on peoples balconies.

I suppose some of the scum who lived there didn't help either. I know some really good people who lived therre when the town was first built and they loved them becuase they were so spacious and modern- and were connected to the shopping city by 'streets in the sky.'

It is now a traditional looking housing estate.

It might be crap on the ground, but I still think it looks "futuristic" on a map

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1945/runcorn3zr.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Reinstate the Halton curve!

http://www2.halton.gov.uk/images/main/brindleyheader

http://www.thebrindley.org.uk/

edited to add, the Awarding winning Brindley Art Centre!
http://www.architecture.com/go/Architecture/Also/Awards_4647.html

http://www2.halton.gov.uk/images/main/brindleyheader

http://www.thebrindley.org.uk/

edited to add, the Awarding winning Brindley Art Centre!
http://www.architecture.com/go/Architecture/Also/Awards_4647.html

I didn`t actually know what this complex was when it appeared on the post from Blabs.

I think it`s really attractive and must mark a turning point for Runcorn adding very desirable facilities.

Cheers both!

I know i dont have to live there but in many respects Runcorn really works well and is not wholly unpleasant.
From a purely academic town, planning point of view Runcorn is very interesting and has many positive points.
Its hardly Utopia but it tries to be!

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f85/garybaldy/runcshop2.jpg

The Stirling houses

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f85/garybaldy/stirling.jpg

Widnes' best building - the Kingsway Health centre

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f85/garybaldy/kmc1.jpg

Dont know if this has been posted already but the renaissance of Runcorn continues!

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) has won the competition to regenerate Runcorn’s Canal Quarter. The practice saw off a number of the country’s biggest architects in the contest – run by developer Urban Splash – to transform the 4ha site in the Cheshire town.

Wow! Thanks for those pics Longford. There is hardly anything available on the web. The first one looks like an early model of the Shopping City- that connected up with those networked flats in the second pic. They're now gone.

A lot of the housing in Runcorn (the new town stuff) is nothing like these grand schemes at Southgate and Castlefields. They were very mucn in line with Ebonezer Howard's Garden City, with traditional-rational housing arranged around closes with lots of trees and greenery. And all within a short walking distance of shops, a pub, dentist and primary school, and bus stop. These still work very well and have retained most of the decent families who moved into them in thge 60s and 70s. They are great for kids to grow up in as they designed-out dangerous roads and there are lots of parks and woods and things.

I grew up in (absurdly named) Palace Fields, and there are loads of footy fields, woods, parks, and closes. very leafy- in a working class, new town looking kind of way. Unfortunately, there are a few areas that seemed to attract more scum, and weren't planned so well. I agree, it's very interesting from a planning point of view.

Organised an architectural tour in Runcorn, Widnes and St helens last year so really got to know the place.
Lots of things really impressed me - all of which i wont bore you with but collected lots of visual material which i'll be glad to share with you.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f85/garybaldy/runcshop.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f85/garybaldy/runcdia2.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f85/garybaldy/runcair.jpg

Yo de man! Did you scan those pics in?

Please feel free to post up piccies and 'bore' me with info- That's why I started the thread. I'm into my planning/new town/architecture stuff too. There is a good link further down that Stephen posted up on British new towns.

Incidentally, there is a lot of info in the Shopping City library on the new town's history. They keep it in a cabinet and has all the original master plan by Arthur Ling, and colourful brochures n stuff. Quite fascinating actually. And this 1970 newspaper that has a big pic of the shopping city and says "Welcome to the Space Age!" It really seemed like they were embarking on some amazing experiment. Bob Monkhouse opened the Tesco!

Cheers again for the stuff.

Ive got a copy of the original Runcorn New Town Plan and some contemporary articles about the Schreiber factory, Ling Loop etc
Not tonight but i'll dig them out at some stage and scan some of the juicer visuals.
Runcorn really pioneered many things that were later 'perfected' at places like Milton Keynes.
I suspect the conservation officer at Runcorn had something to do with that library exhibit - he is only young but he is really proud of Runcorn and is really keen to promote the good things about the place - of which there are many!

Widnes' best building - the Kingsway Health centre

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f85/garybaldy/kmc1.jpg

Taken last week, my rubbish photo:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/artdeco1.jpg

No, you plant tree's around HORRIBLE buildings!


As you came to Widnes a while ago, you probably missed this:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/newish2.jpg

Not saying it's 'of it's time' but you got your red brick, silver bit on top, green plate, windows in asymetrical formation, in fact everything that was in fashion when it was 'designed', or maybe a computer desgined it?

Althought the intresting thing (yes, just the one)is that the building appears to have been filled by the same tootpaste as the Metro centre in Liverpool!

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/thebusinessweek/regionalnews/tm_objectid=17396662%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26headline=%2dpound%2d60m%2dplan%2daims%2dto%2drevive%2dderelict%2dmersey%2dquaysides%2d-name_page.html

£60m plan aims to revive derelict Mersey quaysides Jul 15 2006

By Bill Gleeson Business Editor, Daily Post

DERELICT quaysides at Weston Point, near Runcorn, are to be brought back into use after lying idle for three decades with a multi-million pound investment.

Westbury Property Fund has raised £60m for a series of commercial property investments that include Weston Point.

A City adviser to Westbury yesterday told the Daily Post that about one-third of the new money will be spent on regenerating Weston Point as an intermodal transport hub.

Weston Point gives access to both the Weaver Navigation Canal and the Manchester Ship Canal. It is also close to motorway and rail links.

Westbury Property Fund, which is operated by Berrington Fund Management, owns 50 acres of land at Weston Point.

Weston Point's quaysides are close to Peel Holdings Runcorn docks and Ineos Chlor chemical plant.

The new facilities will offer storage facilities, factory units and office space to local firms.

Yesterday, Ben Browne-Clayton, a fund manager at Berrington, said: "We are delighted to complete the fund raising. It's gone very well.

"We are also very excited by the opportunities at Weston Point. We have had a lot of support from local businesses and there is great regeneration opportunities.

"Our research indicates there is very strong demand for this facility. We understand that Runcorn docks are approaching full capacity.

"Weston Point gives us access to inland waterways and to the ocean."

Westbury acquired Weston Point from British Waterways in April for £10m. The site is currently used by a storage business.

Mr Browne-Clayton added: "Now that we own the freehold, we will be redeveloping the derelict buildings and building new standard industrial units.

"We have yet to finalise what we will be spending on Weston Point, but it will be a significant sum. It will be about one third of the money raised."

The Westbury Property Fund has total assets of £200m.

billgleeson@dailypost.co.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------------

It`s all helping the regeneration and it won`t be far from the LJLA Oglet `World Cargo Centre` .....

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/thebusinessweek/regionalnews/tm_objectid=17385253%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26headline=hail%2dgenetic%2dtest%2ddevice-name_page.html

Hail genetic test device Jul 14 2006

By Neil Hodgson Industry Reporter, Liverpool Echo

A LABORATORY device hailed ahead of its time was the star of this year's Merseyside Innovation Awards.

Runcorn-based Genial Genetic Solutions was named winner of the 2006 awards in yesterday's final at Liverpool's Crowne Plaza hotel for its device, which could revolutionise how genetic tests are carried out in health-care laboratories around the world.

Tests on human cells, like diagnosing problematic cancers such as leukaemia, remain a slow, laborious and costly exercise.

But the Multiprep Cell Sprint Cyto-genetic Suspension Culture Harvester makes the process quicker, cheaper and more successful, which will free up scientists' time to perform more important tasks.

The device, which costs £100,000, is the result of two years of development costing £500,000.

Managing director Lawrence Crees said: "The system we have developed is probably three to four years ahead of its time and will revolutionise the whole testing procedure.

"We have taken our first orders and have further interested parties across the UK, Europe, the Americas and even as far afield as Sri Lanka."

Had a spare 5 Minutes in Runcorn today, so:-

Nice little Bank Art-deco thing in Runcorn old town

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/Widnes/P1000295.jpg

Bank Chambers, or whatever they're calling it these days

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/Widnes/P1000296.jpg

And a picture of the Runcorn skyscraper, mosty for Butterfield

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a366/robinsonworld/Widnes/P1000293.jpg