Carlisle Civic Centre
| Carlisle Civic Centre | |
|
Cumberland | |
|---|---|
 Carlisle Civic Centre | |
| Type: | Town hall |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NY40155626 |
| Location: | 54°53’51"N, 2°56’5"W |
| City: | Carlisle |
| History | |
| Address: | Rickergate |
| Built 1964 | |
| By: | Charles B. Pearson and Partners |
| Town hall | |
| Information | |
Carlisle Civic Centre is an ugly municipal building on the Rickergate in Carlisle, Cumberland. It was the headquarters of Carlisle's city council from the 1960s until the aboolitio of the council in 2023, then serving as the headquarters of a new, unitary council.
History
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The civic centre was commissioned to replace the aging Town Hall in the Market Place.[1] The new building, which was designed by Charles B. Pearson and Partners in the Modernist style and built by John Laing & Son at a cost of £820,000, was completed in March 1964.[2] The design involved a tower, 144 feet high, as well as a separate two-storey octagonal building to accommodate the council chamber.[3] In 1965, a huge back-lit mural depicting local scenes, which had been painted by Trewin Copplestone, was hung in the council chamber.[4] The octagonal building was sometimes referred to as "the rotunda".
Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, visited Carlisle Civic Centre in March 1978.[5]
George Ferguson, a former President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, caused controversy when he referred to the civic centre as a "soulless office block" in an article in the Sunday Times in October 2004.[6] The council undertook a consultation on options for developing the site in 2014; the consultation generated a strong response including a petition which demonstrated that there was considerable local opposition to any proposals which involved demolition of the building.[6] The civic centre was damaged when it was completely surrounded by water during the local flooding which badly affected Carlisle and its surrounding areas in December 2015.[7]
In January 2021 The Guardian listed the Civic Centre as one of Britain's Brutalist buildings most at risk of demolition and development. It was included in Brutal North: Post-War Modernist Architecture in the North of England, Simon Phipps's photographic study of Brutalist architecture.[8]
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1218104: Old Town Hall, Carlisle (Grade I listing)
- ↑ "Carlisle Civic Centre". Skyscrapernews. http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=4649. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ "Tile Gazetteer - Cumbria". Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society. https://tilesoc.org.uk/tile-gazetteer/cumbria.html#2r. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ "Trewin Copplestone (born 1921)". Katherine House Gallery. http://www.katharinehousegallery.co.uk/art/330-. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ "Carlisle - Maundy Service, The Queen and Prince Philip in the Royal Car leaving the Civic Centre". Cumbria Archives and Local Studies Department. 23 March 1978. http://www.omnia.ie/index.php?navigation_function=2&navigation_item=%2F2022363%2Fct08638&repid=1. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Carlisle civic centre: Campaigners fight for 'soulless office block'". BBC. 11 September 2014. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-29062470. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ "Carlisle floods mean learning what it is like to be on the front line of climate change". RS21. 9 December 2015. https://www.rs21.org.uk/2015/12/09/eyewitness-carlisle-floods-mean-learning-what-it-is-like-to-be-on-the-front-line-of-climate-change/. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ↑ Lanre Bakare (3 January 2020). "Destruction of brutalist architecture in north of England prompts outcry". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jan/03/destruction-brutalist-architecture-north-england-outcry. Retrieved 3 January 2020.