uxbridge – Where is Phil now?

Saturday 06 April 2024 – Uxbridge, west London.

The final instalment of this ‘unofficial’ brutal day out photo walk was finding the unexpectedly wonderful Grainges and Cedars car parks; one on either side of The Pavilion shopping centre in Uxbridge.

I couldn’t find anything on the internets on the history of these car parks, though the shopping centre opened in 1973 so I guess the car parks are of a similar vintage. The twin circular approaches of the Grainges are a symphony in concrete and were a bit of an expected bonus, if there is such a thing. They were much better than I/we expected and there was a fair bit of enthused cooing over them.

They are just car parks after all so I’m not going to bang on about them too much, so will let the photos do the talking.

Grainges

Cedars

As a small bonus to the bonus there was a really nice BT building in between, annoyingly the entrance was fenced off so we couldn’t get right up close. I loved the scalloped windows.

It was a full on day and very enjoyable. I really enjoy hanging out with this group of concrete building photographer/enthusiasts and am looking forward to the next outing; to exciting Croydon, in a couple of weeks.

My next post will not feature concrete in any shape of form and will definitively be more colourful!

Saturday 06 April 2024 – Uxbridge, west London.

Uxbridge station was a surprise modernist bonus; and what a lovely station; so much better than the old, grimy and grim station at Leytonstone where I live. It would be fun to have 30 mins here without passengers wandering past wondering why five people were pointing cameras.

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Uxbridge was really busy, lots of shops and seemingly well frequented by shoppers and pedestrians, it’s too suburban and not my sort of place, but it was good to see a busy shopping area. We popped round the corner from the station to catch a bus for the 10 minute ride out to Brunel University. There nice building over the road from the bus stop was an additional treat to be had while we waited for the bus.

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The main reason for coming all the way out west was to have a look at the university’s lecture centre which is a proper brutalist masterpiece. Designed by John Heywood, the centre opened in 1971. Apparently it has had been undergoing maintenance recently so we timed it well, avoiding any lingering scaffold or hoardings. It really is a beauty; small yet perfectly formed. It, along with a couple of other Brunel buildings, particularly Tower D, feature in Stanley Kubrick’s ultra-violent dystopian ‘A Clockwork Orange’ film.

I quite liked this sculpture by Philip Whitten to celebrate the Shoreditch College’s golden jubilee in 1969.

After cooing over some lovely concrete and resting with a refreshing coffee and snack from a conveniently open student café we walked around the rest of the small campus and took a few photos of some of the other 1960s constructed buildings, including Tower D. There was a lot more of interest than we expected, which made for some very happy photographers of 60s and 70s concrete. Probably worth a proper Brutal Day Out and some stage.