The Centre Cumbernauld

The Centre Cumbernauld
photograph
The Centre Cumbernauld, 2023
map
map
Location within Scotland
General information
Architectural styleBrutalism[1] (formerly)
LocationCumbernauld, Scotland
Current tenants75 tenants[3]
Construction started1963
Opened25 May 1967[2]
OwnerBelgate Estates, Glasgow[3][4]
LandlordGatehouse Property Management, Glasgow[5]
Technical details
Floor countEight[6]
Floor area270,000 sq ft[3]
Design and construction
Architecture firmLeslie Hugh Wilson, Dudley Roberts Leaker[1] Geoffrey Copcutt, Philip Aitken, Neil Dadge[7]
Main contractorCumbernauld Development Corporation[1]
Website
www.thecentrecumbernauld.com

The Centre Cumbernauld (formerly Cumbernauld town centre) is the commercial centre of the new town of Cumbernauld, Scotland. It was designed in the 1950s—as what became known as a megastructure—to be a town centre consisting of "one huge multi-storey building," according to its preliminary planning report, housing shops, apartments, a hotel, ice rink, police station and other amenities.[8] The building was designed to be expanded upon after its initial construction. Each time the building floorplan was modified the building was said to be in a new "phase", with Phase 1 being the original floorplan.

Phase 1 was completed between 1963 and 1967,[7] and the centre was opened by Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon in May 1967.[2] It was expanded several times, including in 2007 by the addition of the Antonine Centre, a shopping centre that is linked to the older structure by walkways and lifts.

The development, promotion, and management of The Centre Cumbernauld was undertaken by the Cumbernauld Development Corporation (CDC), until the dissolution of the CDC by government order in 1996.[9]

The facility has been subject to harsh criticism over the years. It was voted "Britain's most hated building" in 2005, in a poll organised by Channel 4's programme Demolition,[6] and was twice named Scotland's worst town centre by the Carbuncle Awards.[10] The brutalist structure was called "a rabbit warren on stilts" by the 2001 Carbuncle judging panel.[11] The top section of the building has been dubbed by writers including author Caro Ramsay as the "Alien's Head", due to local people observing a resemblance to fictional character E.T.[a]

In March 2022, North Lanarkshire Council announced plans to demolish the building.[17]

Design and initial construction

See also: Megastructure (planning concept) and New towns in the United Kingdom

Cumbernauld was designated as a New Town in December 1955[18] under the New Towns Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68), as part of a plan to move 550,000 people out of Glasgow and into nearby planned or redeveloped towns to solve the city's overcrowding.[19][b] The idea behind the Cumbernauld town centre was to create a singular megastructure, in the brutalist style, to "accommodate all the retail, municipal, and leisure needs" needs of a town of 50,000–80,000 people[24] (although architecture historian John R. Gold notes that the term megastructure was first coined in 1964[25]).

Regarded at the time as a "milestone in urban design,"[26] the town centre was intended to be surrounded by high-density housing without shops or other amenities, with each neighbourhood connected to the structure by pathways so that residents could easily walk there. This centralization of amenities was unlike other New Town developments, which typically built retail spaces within each new neighbourhood.[24] Architectural critic Wolf von Eckardt wrote in Harper's in 1965:

Leonardo da Vinci, nearly five hundred years ago, envisioned a city where all the vehicles move underground, leaving man to move freely in the sun. Leonardo might also have sketched Cumbernauld's town center, a soaring citadel surrounded by meadow."[27]

Construction of the town centre began under contractors Duncan Logan, chief architect Leslie Hugh Wilson and architect Geoffrey Copcutt (until 1962 and 1963), and later Dudley Roberts Leaker, Philip Aitken and Neil Dadge.[1][7] The construction of Phase 1 lasted from 1963 to 1967.[7] Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden opened the centre on 25 May 1967.[2] Built over a dual carriageway,[24] it housed shops, a hotel, ice rink, bowling alley, health centre and penthouse apartments, as well as police, fire and ambulance stations. There was also a library and technical college. Historian Rosemary Wakeman called it a "colossal living vessel" intended to "elicit new codes of community behavior."[28] According to an Open University article, it was a "strange tribute to a moment when it was thought that old cities, with their narrow streets, haphazard layout, and confused, illogical centres were a thing of the past."[24] Open University also claims the town centre was "Britain's first indoor shopping mall".[24]

Further developments

Cumbernauld town centre, 2006

By 1971 the town centre contained the largest supermarket in Scotland, and work on Phase 2 had begun.

The CDC later sought the building of a department store, completed in 1975 as Phase 3. It was built for Woolco with two levels of underground parking, and was later sold to Gateway in 1986. Asda purchased the site in 1988 and maintained the "Red Balloon Cafe" that was widely implemented in Gateway stores.

In the mid-70s the Golden Eagle Hotel, which had been constructed as part of Phase 1, closed after a vehicle crashed into the building.

In 1977, the St Enoch railway station in Glasgow was demolished. The St Enoch Station Clock was sent to auction instead of being lost, and was bought by the Raymond Gillies Foundation, who gifted it to Cumbernauld during the celebration of the "New Town's 21st birthday". This donation was intended to express the connection between Glasgow and Cumbernauld.[29]: 24  The former station clock was installed in Cumbernauld Town Centre at the foot of the stairway which joined the Phase 1 upper shopping level to a walkway leading to Phase 3. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh attended the celebrations at Cumbernauld that year, as part of the queen's Silver Jubilee, unveiling a commemorative plaque for the St Enoch Clock.[29]: 24 

Phase 4 was completed in 1981.[29]: 20 

On Monday 26 July 1982, the Golden Eagle Hotel was demolished.[30]

The structure was purchased by a shopping management group in 1996 when Cumbernauld Development Corporation was wound up.

The Antonine Centre, sometimes known as Phase 5, was developed by London and Regional Properties for a cost of £40 million (2007) (equivalent to £59.12 million or US$73.48 million in 2023)[31],[32] and built on the sites of two previous phases.[29]: 23  To make way for the new development, the Phase 3 shopping center was demolished in 1996, and the rear outdoor section of Phase 1 was demolished in 2001. Construction began in 2006, and the Antonine Centre was opened on 6 June 2007 by Princess Anne,[29]: 24  containing 350,000 square feet (33,000 m2) of additional retail space. Antonine Centre is connected to the rest of The Centre Cumbernauld with internal walkways,[33] as the indoor spaces of past Phases were. The St Enoch Clock was moved when the connection between Phase 1 and Phase 3 was rebuilt (to connect Phase 1 to the Antonine Centre). The clock now faces a different direction and is mounted in a slightly different location in the same passageway.[29]: 24 [34] An Edinburgh-based firm of clock specialists who cared for the clock were the ones who performed its transfer.[33]

Demolition plans

In March 2022, North Lanarkshire Council announced that they had reached a deal with the building's owners to purchase and demolish it in the future.[17] Eight months later, Historic Environment Scotland confirmed that the centre had been nominated and assessed[35] for listed status[c] and would have met their special interest criteria, but the decision had been taken not to list it due to the advanced stage of the redevelopment plans.[36] North Lanarkshire Council successfully purchased The Centre Cumbernauld in June of 2023.[37]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ See: [12][13][14][15][16]
  2. ^ Other new towns were East Kilbride (1947),[20] Glenrothes (1948),[21] Livingston (1962)[22] and Irvine (1966).[23]
  3. ^ Listed status would have conferred protections from demolition.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Town centre, Cumbernauld New Town: close-up of the megastructure facade", Royal Institute of British Architects.
  2. ^ a b c "Princess Margaret In Cumbernauld 1967", British Pathé.
  3. ^ a b c "Cumbernauld Town Centre, Cumbernauld", Belgate Estates.
  4. ^ "Cumbernauld shopping complex under threat as rivals claim it derails vision", Evening Times (Glasgow), 12 July 2016.
  5. ^ "Westfield retail park hits unexpected snag after town centre bosses get tough", Cumbernauld News, 28 July 2016.
  6. ^ a b "Cumbernauld tops demolition poll". BBC News. 11 December 2005.
  7. ^ a b c d John R. Gold, "The making of a megastructure: architectural modernism, town planning and Cumbernauld’s central area, 1955-75", Planning Perspectives, 21, April 2006 (109–131), 121–122. doi:10.1080/02665430600555255
  8. ^ John R. Gold, The Practice of Modernism: Modern Architects and Urban Transformation, 1954–1972, Routledge, 2007, 173.
  9. ^ The New Town (Cumbernauld) (Transfer of Property, Rights and Liabilities) (No.2) Order 1996. Scottish Office. 31 December 1996. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  10. ^ Cumbernauld, BBC News, 25 May 2012.
  11. ^ Hall, Tim (12 December 2005). "First shopping mall named the nation's ugliest building". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
  12. ^ "What's it called? Carbuncle-nauld". Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser. 21 November 2001. [T]he centre is topped by a rather unsightly block... Cumbernauld residents dubbed [it] the 'Alien's Head', in homage to ET.
  13. ^ Caro Ramsay (6 December 2013). "What's it called? Cumbernauld!". Murder is Everywhere. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  14. ^ Kalder, Daniel (28 March 2022). "The heroic failure of Cumbernauld". UnHerd. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  15. ^ Moss, Chris (13 April 2022). "Where tourists seldom tread, part 2: five great UK towns left out of the guidebooks". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  16. ^ Moss, Chris (26 May 2024). "Britain's best (and worst) new towns". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
  17. ^ a b David Leask (10 March 2022). "Cumbernauld's notorious town centre to be demolished and replaced". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  18. ^ "No. 17351". The Edinburgh Gazette. 13 December 1955. p. 746.
  19. ^ Gold 2006.
  20. ^ "No. 16436". The Edinburgh Gazette. 9 May 1947. p. 189.
  21. ^ "No. 16556". The Edinburgh Gazette. 2 July 1948. pp. 299–300.
  22. ^ "No. 18025". The Edinburgh Gazette. 17 April 1962. pp. 236–237.
  23. ^ "No. 18509". The Edinburgh Gazette. 11 November 1966. p. 846.
  24. ^ a b c d e "Cumbernauld Town Centre". The Open University. 26 November 2001. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  25. ^ Gold 2007, 172.
  26. ^ Rosemary Wakeman, Practicing Utopia: An Intellectual History of the New Town Movement, University of Chicago Press, 2016, 271.
  27. ^ Wolf von Eckardt, "The Case for Building 350 New Towns," Harper's Magazine, December 1965, 93, cited in Wakeman 2016, 271.
  28. ^ Wakeman 2016, 272.
  29. ^ a b c d e f Swanston, Frances; Albessard, Aidan Ball; Iceni Projects (August 2022). Cumbernauld Town Centre: Listing Assessment Report 2022 (PDF) (Report). Historic Environment Scotland. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 December 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  30. ^ Cumbernauld News and Kilsyth Chronicle. Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, Scotland. 29 July 1982 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005294/19820729/327/0013. Retrieved 11 August 2025 – via The British Newspaper Archive. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  31. ^ United Kingdom Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2024). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  32. ^ "Shopfitting begins at Cumbernauld's Antonine Shopping Centre". Commercial Property News. 7 February 2007. Archived from the original on 24 May 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  33. ^ a b "Time Drags On for Centre". Cumbernauld Today. 2 May 2007. Archived from the original on 14 May 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  34. ^ "Memories: St Enoch Station clock in 1978". Glasgow Times. Newsquest Media Group Ltd. 4 May 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  35. ^ Share your views on Cumbernauld Town Centre, Historic Environment Scotland, 12 May 2022
  36. ^ Cumbernauld Town Centre decision, Historic Environment Scotland, 23 November 2022
  37. ^ "Cumbernauld town centre regeneration". North Lanarkshire, Scotland: North Lanarkshire Council. 9 July 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
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