Skip to main content

The Uncertain Future of Welbeck Street Car Park







Last year Welbeck Street Car Park designed by Michael Blampied & Partners in 1970 was sold to developers Shiva Hotels and since the sale it's future has been uncertain. In February this year I was asked by students of Goldsmith University to help them on a project they were making about this amazing car park. I was glad to help so on a cold winter's day we spent a few hours exploring the car park and I talked about why I loved this building so much and what draws me to photograph brutalist architecture.

While at the car park we saw signs saying the car park would be closing on the 13th March. So with only a month left of having access to the car park I started to plan a project to photograph it's last few days. On my first visit for this project I was then told it wasn't closing and might potential be open for another year!

I'm not sure if it will be open for that long, without the building being listed the Welbeck will be demolished at some point, the land is worth more then it is.

Until then the only thing I can do as a tribute to this amazing feat of architecture and engineering is show it's beauty in my photographs, a memento mori. I will continue with my project until it's untimely closure.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown13 March 2017 at 12:33

    You are producing a valuable archive Jo. Shame finance can destroy culture

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jo Underhill13 March 2017 at 13:33

    Thanks so much Nick, it is all due to money unfortunately. It won't be saved as too many people will make money from the development, shame that is more important in our society!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Work - Brutalist Playgounds

I have wanted to visit and add some brutalist playgrounds to my Beautiful Brutalism project for a long time. I remember playing on a concrete tube we called 'the saddle' at my old primary school and loved it. So have fond memories of these concrete playgrounds. Unfortunately not many have survived but last November I researched and visited a playground that was still standing down in South Clapham beneath Belgravia House tower block. This was a fantastic playground with a spiral slide and tunnels to run through the hill that housed the slide. It was great to see the playground was well maintained and looked like it was still used. I couldn't resist and have to say the slide was fantastic! The whole project can be seen here. Then earlier this year I visited the Aintree Estate playground in Fulham. The two tower blocks, Hartopp Point and Lannoy Point are due to be demolished this year so wanted to visit before access was difficult and the area the playground is sit...
1 comment
Read more

Brutalism in Photos Feature

    Oracle Time Magazine featured a lovely positive article about brutalist architecture in London in their June issue of the magazine and online.  Along with photographs from my ongoing personal project Beautiful Brutalism they also featured the work of photographers Simon Phipps and Hayley Goodwin. The online article can be read here .  
Post a Comment
Read more

Prince Street Car Park - Bristol

Over the weekend I was in the beautiful city of Bristol catching up with friends and photographing the stunning Prince Street Car Park to add to my ongoing Beautiful Brutalism project. The car park was designed by Kenneth, Wakeford, Jarram & Harris in 1966 and is very similar to the design of Welbeck St Car Park in London. It was a great building to photograph and I look forward to uploading all the images to my Beautiful Brutalism project over the next few weeks.
2 comments
Read more