Car Park Architecture - Part 3

I think Cheltenham currently has four multi-story car parks and a new one will be coming when the recently approved North Place development becomes reality.

The Regent Arcade and Beechwood car parks are architecturally bland (as are the shopping centres they are attached to). However, the Grosvenor Terrace Car Park (for some reason not long ago re-named as  Town Centre East ?!) and the Brewery Car Park on the corner of Monson Avenue and St Margarets Road are both good looking structures.

Grosvenor Terrace Car Park or Town Centre East or TCE

I especially like the way this car park straddles the shops below on the angle and the contrast between the simple brick lift/stair block and the more decorative concrete car park exterior works well visually.

Exterior brown vertical concrete panels and blue steel corner detail.

Despite being a functional building, it seems that plenty of thought went into the design. The potential severity of three horizontal layers has been avoided by the proliferation of thin vertical panels on all sides and the trees planted along the "ring road" edge have grown up nicely to act as a partial screen between road and car park.

Trees add additional colour to the view from this side (for most of the year !)

Here is the view along the entrance side:

Entrance side

and the opposite long side...

Side street view.

Its not all right angles though and there is one satisfyingly rounded corner on the corner of Albion Street and the side street.

Curved Car Park corner.

Further round the "ring road" you would do well to ignore the godforsaken wind tunnel that is the Brewery development  and turn your eyes instead to the opposite side of the road and enjoy the much nicer multi-storey car park.

This is a great looking car park - a pleasingly low-rise structure with cream coloured rendered walls, grey steel panels and open parapet which all work together to great effect.

The Brewery Car Park

On the Dunalley Street side it gets even better with a super grey steel-clad polygonal stairwell !

The view from Dunalley Street looking towards St Margarets Road.

and not forgetting the fantastic black and yellow NCP logo against the pleasingly green-streaked wall.

NCP - Nice Car park

That is just the outside but inside there is plenty more lovely concrete and although the ceilings are very low, it still manages not to feel too oppressive due to the light colour of the concrete and reasonable lighting. The polished concrete floor also still seems to reflects light despite a number of years of continuous wear.

Inside

Still on the subject of car park interiors I thought I would finish off with a few pictures taken inside the Waitrose car park where the real interest lies in the fantastic array of suspended metal cable housings, duct  pipes and fixings covering the ceiling. 

Waitrose Car Park Ceiling, Cheltenham

This busy looking ceiling is in marked contrast to the simplicity of Brewery Car Park but both look great in their own way!

The same view with some colour adjustments!

and from a different angle...

Cheltenham Group of Artists - Spring Exhibition

The Cheltenham Group of Artists annual spring exhibition will be running from this Wednesday 17th April until Tuesday 23 April at the Gardens Gallery in Montpellier Gardens, Cheltenham. The gallery is open daily from 10.00 - 6pm

These are my two submissions for selection:

Nic Pehkonen, Orfordness, 2013, Emulsion on canvas and plywood, 75cm x 25cm    

Nic Pehkonen, Broadmead Car Park, 2013, Emulsion on canvas on plywood, 46cm x 46cm

and some relevant links...

http://www.gardensgallery.co.uk

http://cheltenhamgroupartists.org

Berkeley Boilers

On Saturday, the final two remaining boilers from the decommissioned Berkeley Nuclear Power Station began the first leg of their journey to Sweden, where they will be recycled.

Boilers leaving Berkeley (Photo:Magnox)

Two, 300+ tonne boilers on massive flatbed trucks, crawling along country roads makes for an impressive spectacle. Unfortunately, I missed it but you can see some footage that someone has kindly posted on the thisisgloucestershire website.

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/VIDEO-Monster-Magnox-boilers-Berkeley-Nuclear/story-18433530-detail/story.html#axzz2NcTibURo

And here is a link to the BBC website which has three nice photos plus a little more detail  about the operation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-21787508

Berkeley Nuclear Power Station (Photo:Magnox)

And if you feel the need for even more information, here is one final link, this time to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority website...

http://www.nda.gov.uk/stakeholders/newsletter/berkeley-sets-the-pace.cfm

Stolen: Cannondale Mountain Bike - Reward offered

Not a happy post, but you never know - it may help me get my bike back...

My Cannondale was stolen on 29th January from the car park outside Leisure@Cheltenham, sometime between 5.30 and 6.30pm.

Stolen: My 1990 Cannondale - Do you know who stole it or have you seen it?

As it was dark and raining at the time, the CCTV footage was not much use to the police other than to reveal the thief was a "large built male" who cut through the lock and then rode off on my bike. I expect I can't use expletives to say what I think about the thief if I want this to be published so I will just have to stick with the facts.

Stolen: My Cannondale SM2000. Have you seen it?

Although the bike itself is not hugely valuable in terms of £££s (probably less than £300.00 as a complete bike), I would be prepared to offer a reward (up to £100) for information leading to its safe recovery, as long as it is still good condition, the frame and forks are still true and you are not the person who stole it.

My Cannondale SM 2000. Stolen on 29th January from outside Cheltenham Leisure Centre.

I realise it could be anywhere by now (except my house and Lansdown Road Police Station) but it belongs to me - not someone else -  and I want it back!

Stolen: My 1990 Cannondale SM2000

As you can see from the photos, it has a very distinctive red frame with yellow decals. It also has yellow handlebar grips and not the orange ones as pictured. If you see it around, it will stand out!

New work in progress

Here are a couple of new paintings in progress;

Nic Pehkonen, Broadmead Multi-Storey Car Park, 2013, approx 45cm x 45cm

I have been thinking for some time about producing much smaller works on the theme of concrete architecture and these are the first experiments.

Nic Pehkonen, Orfordness, 2013, approx 70cm x 25cm

They are basically going to be collages, the plan being to stick the painted canvas cut-outs to pre-painted boards (not the boards in these photographs). I imagine I will probably use 18mm plywood, painted in solid colours to maximise the visual impact of the architectural forms.

Cheltenham Architecture - Part 3

Beyond all the Regency architecture that Cheltenham is usually associated with, there is a wealth of interesting buildings from other periods too. Here are a couple in the town centre, both on Winchcombe Street and both currently unused.

Next door to Cheltenham Cycles is an extensive Victorian building, originally constructed as a corn warehouse but more recently housed the Axiom arts centre. I recall being on the waiting list for a studio space here when it closed down. I think it was around 2000 when it sadly shut for good.

Axiom Centre - Cheltenham

It is a real shame that such a fantastic building right in the town centre has been left unused for so long and it would be great for Cheltenham if it was redeveloped once again as an arts centre. The frontage onto the street is especially good looking, with satisfying symmetry and colourful and varied brickwork. If you want to find out more about the history of this building then http://www.gsia.org.uk/reprints/2002/gi200255.pdf is a good place to start.

Detail of the fantastic brickwork.

Another pleasing but also empty building on the same street is the old Odeon cinema which closed not long after Cineworld opened as part of the horrible Brewery development.

The Odeon Cinema, Cheltenham

Like the Axiom Centre, I am not sure what the future holds for this building but even in poor condition it looks fantastic and it would be great if an imaginative use can found for it that doesn't result in it being demolished to make way for another bland, poorly designed "luxury apartment" development. What can you do with an old cinema? Perhaps it can be attached to a resurrected Axiom centre somehow to form a huge artspace etc...!!!

Detail showing the two silver painted bas-refief nymphs.

Here are some links to sites about the cinema with much more info and pictures both before and after it's closure.

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/10329-Odeon-Cinema-Cheltenham-07-03-07

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/39396-Odeon-Cheltenham-March-April-2009

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/55613-Odeon-Cinema-Cheltenham-Nov-2010

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/17447

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/17447/comments