Architectural Style
Brutalist and beautiful: 8 great old photos of the city of Durham
We’re digging through the ‘B’ picture pack in our Durham archive – all the pictures in it must have a subject beginning with B. beautiful, brutal and modern ones too…
The bus stop on North Road in March 1974. The cast iron structure was built for the British Electric Traction Company in 1927 and was demolished in January 1976.
This picture was taken in June 1964 to show the contrast in architectural styles at the South Bailey, where St Cuthbert’s Society’s 17th century headquarters were extended towards the Water Gate. The caption below the picture read “Contrast”. “Old, decent St Cuthbert’s and its rude neighbor.”
A spectacular view of the County Police Communications Tower, built on July 6, 1968. The 162-foot (49.4-metre) mast was designed by architect Ove Arup, who also founded the Kingsgate Bridge and Dunelm House student union, and was described as “a beautiful Brutalist sculpture in concrete” and the police were so proud of it that Prince Charles was sworn in in 1978. He was given a silver model when he visited However, in 2017 Durham Police were granted permission to remove the pole so that housing could be built on the site, provided they re-erect it, but in October police applied for permission to destroy the pole as it was damaged when they removed it. downloaded. Will it be allowed?
The 1960s radio mast at Durham Police headquarters, standing as a landmark in Aykley Heads. Objecting to police plans to destroy the dismantled pole, the Twentieth Century Society said of the City of Durham Trust, speaking of “the pole’s power to act as a place-making focal point for the community, potentially even as a symbol of local pride.” It was one of the city’s few 20th century assets and was “a terrific account of Durham’s involvement in cutting-edge technology” during Harold Wilson’s “white heat” era.
As the high-level Kingsgate bridge, designed by Ove Arup, began to take shape in April 1963, it was a terrific scaffolding mess at Wear.
City Courier service struggles to get up Saddler Street as a fruit and potato wagon from Sunderland gets stuck on the pavement outside the Buffalo Head bar in July 1984.
A game of cricket outside Cosin’s Hall on Palace Green in August 1965
Now, kids, get together for the history lesson. This picture gives an idea of how lives were lived from May 1976, less than 50 years ago. The man on the right in a dark suit and funny hat is a cop – you used to see cops roaming the streets. He goes to a bank branch. Surprisingly, in the days before you carried cash on your phone, most towns had five, six or more bank buildings where people could come in and out to talk to someone – that’s the National Bank of Westminster. People often carried what they called “cash” in their pockets to pay for goods with paper notes and coins. Next to him is a man with a strange thing dangling from his neck. It’s called a tie, a weird 20th century gimmick now only seen in politicians and newscasters. He has a handkerchief in his top pocket, his trousers reading a flat, broad-leaf newspaper in the seventies style. Yes, in the days before the news hit our pockets, people bought these bulky items that were too big to fold properly from a street newsstand – you can see a newsstand full of stacks of newspapers on the left of the picture. It folded over him, and people gathered to hand over their few cents of “cash” in exchange for headlines that were long out of date. Haven’t we come a long way in 47 years?
READ MORE: DURHAM IN 10 AMAZING OLD PHOTOS