February 19th, 2010
Building castles in the air
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An interesting proposal has been put forward to mark the western approach to Northampton’s town centre.
Local artist Chris Fiddes has produced a design for a building bridging the highway, with two portals through which traffic would pass.
Quite how recently, or how far back, the idea originates is not stated, but the drawing depicts one of Northampton’s old double-decker buses passing through the structure. Artistic license, or perhaps a clue as to how long the artist has harboured his idea?
The overall impression reminds me of paintings of bridges which had buildings constructed on them, straddling rivers, like Bath’s Pulteney Bridge, which was inspired by the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, The Ponte dei Sospiri in Venice, or the Palladian Bridge in Buckinghamshire.
The proposed building would use stone reclaimed from Northampton Castle, once the favoured residence of Richard the Lionheart and King John, as well as being the seat of Parliament for 200 years.
The castle was ordered to be destroyed by Charles II, in retaliation for the town’s support of the Parliamentarians in the Civil War and its ruins were finally removed to make way for Northampton’s railway station, known as ‘Castle Station’, in the nineteenth century.
I like the idea of reusing the castle’s original stones, but not in the way proposed. There are plans to significantly re-engineer Northampton’s railway station and I have long held the view that it would be fitting to commemorate the important historic building that once occupied the site within the modern transport hub that forms part of the regeneration plans for Northampton.
If there must be a use for the location that would have been the site of the universally-opposed ‘Needle’, why not commemorate the role of internationally-reknowned Cosworth Engineering, whose base is nearby in St. James Mill Road, in showing Northampton in a positive light?
Whatever may become of Mr. Fiddes’ proposals, it is useful to have the opportunity to debate the possibilities for the Westbridge and Black Lion Hill area in advance.









