Editorial
Civic Day
Civic Voice, the national organisation representing civic societies, is organising an event on 25th June called Civic Day, when as many as possible affiliated societies have signed up to organise local events (details can be found on www.civicday.org.uk). At our recent Membership and Marketing Committee it was suggested that some form of photographic event would be appropriate. In order to discover what positive opinions members might have regarding ‘contemporary design’ in the area, we are encouraging the submission of photographs of favourite ‘contemporary’ buildings. The subjects should have been constructed since the turn of the millennium and the photographs be submitted to the secretary (either electronically or as prints) along with a short paragraph explaining the reasons for their choice. The editor will then publish a selection of the illustrations along with the accompanying text in subsequent issues of City and County. Please have fun and be positive! We look forward to a flood of submissions.
Red Telephone Boxes
The original classic design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was the result of a limited competition held by the Royal Fine Art Commission and his chosen colour was silver. The choice of red was presumably to improve visibility and match the corporate colour of the Post Office. The K6 design of 1935 was the first red telephone kiosk to be used extensively outside of London, and many thousands were deployed in virtually every town and city, replacing most of the existing kiosks and establishing thousands of new sites. It has become a British icon, although it was not universally loved at the start. The red colour caused particular local difficulties and there were many requests for less visible colours. The red that is now much loved was then anything but, and the Post Office was forced into allowing a less strident grey with red glazing bars scheme for areas of natural and architectural beauty. Ironically, some of these areas that have preserved their telephone boxes have now painted them red. In March 2006, as part of a competition organised by the Design Museum and BBC Television to find Britain’s favourite design icon since 1900, the Telephone Box was placed in the top ten by the British public. Will the most recent design, which appeared in Northumberland in the early eighties, ever become such a design icon, I wonder? (See article from August 2010 City and County for information about Red Telephone Box at Glanton)
Ewartly Shank
The article by Robin Dower in the last issue and a subsequent letter from The Venerable W. J. Thomas prompted me to visit Ewartly Shank on my mountain bike recently (quite a climb!) to discover that the old house has now been demolished and a stack yard is replacing it. The modern bungalow is very much lived in and apparently occupied by a shepherd and his young family as tenants of the Duke of Northumberland. I did note that an even older house? still remains on the site, which has an extremely quaint appearance. The monument also makes mention that it was erected by the National Park and the Mountain Rescue Team.
Cut The Clutter
Hexham Civic Society have recently hosted a lecture by Ben Hamilton-Ballie entitled 'Adapting Market Towns to the Needs of the 21st Century.' Ben is one of the leading exponents of integrated street design in the UK. He worked with the late Hans Monderman on shared space and is working with Northumberland County Council in Bamburgh, Hexham and Morpeth. He also advises CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environments) on street design and helped English Heritage produce the regional ‘Streets for All’. An article and/or a talk from Ben would perhaps inspire us to greater efforts in this area? More information about Ben’s work can be found on www.hamiltonbaillie.co.uk
City and County
May 2011
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