Praise for A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain
‘An excellent vade-mecum for the disgruntled urban flaneur.’ Keith Miller, Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year
‘An exhilarating book. Owen Hatherley brings to bear a quizzing eye, venomous wit, supple prose, refusal to curry favour, rejection of received ideas, exhaustive knowledge and all-round bolshiness. This book is as much a marker for an era as English Journey and Outrage were.’ Jonathan Meades
‘The latest heir to Ruskin … Hatherley blasts the architectural style of New Labour Britain. Whatever your pet-hate, Hatherley will probably have some enjoyably cruel words for it.’ Boyd Tonkin, Independent
‘Compendious, erudite and witty … a man to watch.’ Ken Worpole, openDemocracy.net
‘Witty, occasionally bleak but immensely readable.’ Architects’ Journal
‘This is an important book that is entirely worthy of the arguments it sets out to provoke.’ Patrick Wright, Architecture Today
‘Owen Hatherley is a fulminating critic-cum-flaneur … This is fear and loathing in Lost Albion riffed by a quainter version of Hunter S. Thompson.’ Jay Merrick, Independent
‘A gem of a book.’ Kevin Orr, Socialist Review
‘Wonderfully provocative … Intensely passionate and bitter (I was reminded at times of the thunderous laments of the Victorian sage Thomas Carlyle) … Hatherley’s book is terrifying in its exposure of the human cost of the mistakes that have been made.’ Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph
‘Hatherley is a formidable new voice … this surgical evisceration of the cityscapes of Blairism is required reading.’ Hugh Pearman, RIBA Journal
‘This is the real Britain, and Hatherley is the most informed, opinionated and acerbic guide you could wish for.’ Hugh Pearman, Sunday Times
‘Painted with a raging energy that is exhilarating ... [It’s] political, sinister, sometimes funny.’ Morning Star
‘Hatherley deserves to be widely read … he has brought a welcome freshness and honesty to architectural criticism.” Chris Hall, Icon
‘In this angry, fiercely funny book, Owen Hatherley steps forward as the Pevsner of the PFI generation, an erudite, urbane guide to the Ballardian wreckage of millennial Britain. Essential reading for anyone who ever feels their blood start to boil when they hear the word “regeneration.” ’ Hari Kunzru
OWEN HATHERLEY is the author of the acclaimed Militant Modernism, a defence of the modernist movement. He writes on architecture, urbanism and popular culture for Building Design, Frieze, the Guardian and New Statesman. He blogs on political aesthetics at nastybrutalistandshort.blogspot.com. He lives in London.
A GUIDE TO THE
NEW RUINS OF
GREAT BRITAIN
OWEN HATHERLEY
London • New York
Trumpets around the walls of the Barbican. Trumpets turning into penny whistles and then, reflected in the new shining glass, suddenly and surprisingly accompanied by a respectful and celebratory choir. —Raymond Williams
This paperback edition first published by Verso 2011
First published by Verso 2010
© Owen Hatherley 2010
All rights reserved
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
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Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201 www.versobooks.com
Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
eISBN: 978-1-84467-808-2
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Typeset by MJ Gavan, Truro, Cornwall
Printed by Scandbook AB in Sweden
Contents
INTRODUCTION The Change We See
MILTON KEYNES Buckinghamshire Alphaville
NOTTINGHAM The Banality of Aspiration
SHEFFIELD The Former Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire
MANCHESTER So Much to Answer For
TYNESIDE From Brasilia to Baltic
GLASGOW Looking for the Future in All the Wrong Places
THE WEST RIDING Instead of a Supercity
CARDIFF Manufacturing a Capital
Introduction
The Change We See
In 2009, the dying Labour government came up with one of the more amusing of its political gambits. As urban regeneration and the new public buildings of the Private Finance Initiative were so prominent and so popular, how about a campaign focusing on them, presenting the buildings that resulted as proof positive that New Labour hadn’t broken its promises, that it was the party of change, that it was rebuilding Britain, and that social programmes were at its heart? The campaign was christened ‘The Change We See’. Go to the website and you find the explanation. ‘Since 1997, we’ve changed this country—rebuilding the lives of children, older people and families. Make no mistake, this could not have happened without supporters like you. Now we face an opposition who wants to deny our successes and cut the public services we rescued. We must stand together and show how