davidould.net

non angelus, sed anglus!

the end of a cultural era

The BBC are reporting that 2 giant cooling towers in Sheffield, where I grew up, are going to be demolished on Sunday.
intrinsically beautiful?

For many visitors to Sheffield, their first glimpse of the city involves two disused cooling towers that overshadow the M1 motorway.

Known locally as “the salt and pepper pots”, the famous Tinsley towers were originally part of a power station that closed down in the 1970s.

They have been described as “intrinsically beautiful” and a “massive icon” for the city.

But despite campaigns to save them, the towers will be demolished on Sunday.

Energy giant E.ON, which owns the towers, says they need to be knocked down as they are unsafe.

The company has been granted permission for a Â£60m biomass power station on the site.

hmmmm… “massive icon” maybe, but “intrinsically beautiful”? It gets better:

Thousands of people signed petitions as part of a campaign to save the towers, and world-famous sculptor Antony Gormley stepped into the controversy.

Mr Gormley, creator of the Angel of the North, said it would be an “act of cultural vandalism” to knock them down.

He said: “They are to the industrial revolution what cathedrals were to the medieval world.“

He said the towers were “absolutely unique” in their shape and acoustic capabilities and could be used as a concert hall or recording studio.

“I could see a choir singing specially-composed music in the centre, with the audience sitting in a circle round them.“

Sheffield Attercliffe MP Clive Betts agreed that the move was “an act of historical vandalism”.

Now look they’re something else, there’s not doubt about that, and have an intrinsic charm. But “cultural vandalism”?

He said the towers were the oldest surviving parabolic cooling towers in the UK and had huge historic industrial value.

“In fact, for millions of people, arriving at the Tinsley cooling towers has meant ‘thank goodness, we’re back in the north’,“ he said.

“Southerners have always had ridiculous arguments about whether the north began at Watford or Watford Gap.

“To those in the know, the north has always started at Tinsley. With the towers gone, these will be an urgent need to find a replacement for their massive symbolism”.

Yes, that’s always what coursed through my mind as I drove past - “thank goodness, we’re back in the north”. I think, if locals are more honest, it would be “thank goodness that Meadowhall Shopping Centre is nearby”.

BBC South Yorkshire have a page devoted to the dispute.

You can also check it out on google maps here (Meadowhall is that big complex to the SouthWest):

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Posted by on 08/22 at 01:02 PM

So that’s where the idea for Daleks came from! Or was it the other way round?

Posted by Gordon Cheng on 08/22 at 02:31 PM

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