Back in the day when I had a “real” job, I worked near Oxford Circus in London, and I lived for the lunch hour when I could go out walking and explore the neighborhood. And I was always struck by a building in Welbeck Street, which I knew nothing about, but thought it was just great. It’s a multistory car park but I felt it could have been almost anything. Maybe a spy headquarters. I even took a picture:
Westminster Council has now approved its demolition, and it’ll be replaced by a fancy, ten-story hotel, which I suppose will have a car park of its own. Demolition of the existing structure presumably won’t be too hard since it's made of prefabricated concrete sections. Maybe they can even be recycled.
At the time I first admired that Welbeck Street building I’m not sure I’d even heard the word Brutalism, which is how it’s been described by people who object to the demolition, because I suppose Brutalism is now thought as a good thing. Frankly I think it seems a bit too light and ornate to be truly Brutalist. Can you have Brutalism-lite? But I’m not going to fight about definitions. Compare and contrast the Welbeck Street car park with the American Cement Building in LA; now being converted into lofts:
Before I lived in London, I was in Sheffield and I often used to walk by this monster in Sheffield, brutal in every way.
I loved it, but at the time I didn’t even think to question what it was. I was young and my sense of curiosity hadn’t been fully developed. Now I know it’s an electricity substation – and good luck trying to demolish that thing.
Last week was Concrete Week in the Guardian and Jonathan Watts, among others, has been telling us that concrete is a terrible, terrible thing - which is to say just one more damn thing to worry about. Watts comes up with some extraordinary, if not fully explained, statistics. Concrete is apparently responsible for up to 8% per cent of the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide, more than any material after fossil fuels. Not sure why it’s only “up to” 8 per cent – other sources put it at 5%. Concrete also uses a lot of water, 10 per cent of the global industrial water usage, which actually doesn’t seem all that much when you read another statistic, that about ten billion tons of concrete are produced and used every year, and currently half of that is in China.
Then again, other sources will tell you that concrete has some has some environmental advantages. Trucks get better mileage on concrete roads than on tarmac, and concrete reflects light rather than absorbing it, which reduces the temperature in major cities by (here it is again) “up to” 7%.
I have no dog in this fight. I’m all for the survival of the planet. I just like concrete buildings, and car parks, including this one I discovered while wandering between Victoria and Sloane Square, which is “greener” than some.
It’s a multistory car park in Rysback Street, in London. It’s not an especially attractive building, and it’s only borderline Brutalist (if you ask me). However there’s some water leakage which has created ideal conditions for moss to grow. Green enough to be getting on with for a (very short) while.
