Ferry boat could still pay its way
ANYONE having lived in Grimsby will be aware that, historically, decision makers had little understanding of a desirable built environment – Freeman Street flats for example.
Or, in these days of embodied energy awareness, dragging acres of China halfway round the world transforming Victoria Street into some funereal desert.
The current pinnacle of confusion is surely the destruction of the PS Lincoln Castle.
The reminiscing preservationists having done little for its cause, the keeping of this magnificent object has never been about it chugging up and down the Humber, at least not in the foreseeable future. Whilst one respects the recent structural survey, it is largely irrelevant when the vessel is seen in a more practical context.
On a gabbion retained dry berth, this vessel would be an indispensable architectural element in the wider Freshney site.
I would challenge readers to find me another town with greater gifts than this potential "arts quarter' – a mile of waterfront, its own beach, the definitive paddle steamer, grade two listed buildings, incrementally burning down, the fate of Grimsby's legacy of 19th and early 20th century building stock.
Should this area succumb to "grand plan" egotistical architecture, the people of Grimsby will lose one of the most desirably and productive places in the town to live, work and play.
The loss of the Lincoln Castle will herald yet another missed opportunity and be bemoaned for generations as a despicable and selfish act of vandalism by the owners.
Its proper context understood, it could even yet be saved.
Wake up Grimsby and stop this madness.
Simon Yeo, Abbey Road, Grimsby.
The Telegraph says
Coming up with ideas for the development of Grimsby are always welcomed – it's finding the right people with the right foresight and available funds which is quite another thing.
3 Comments
by Joshua, great coates
Sunday, August 29 2010, 3:20PM
“Why should the brit gov spend money on our heritage when there are more deserving people in foreign countries ?
As for not being a third world country - How do people freeze to death, 2 in Jan-2010, drugs denied to cancer pateints because they are deemed too expensive by some aborted think tank?
However the Brit Gov can still give £billions to foreign powers disguised as foreign "AID" when we all know it ends up in corrupt MP's and War Lords bank accounts.”
by Andrew, GY, not Braga at the moment!
Saturday, August 28 2010, 7:13PM
“Oh please, in terms of both relative and absolute poverty the UK is far from third world!
The destruction of the GY heritage is, however, a serious issue. There is so little of historic merit left in the town. Given the large amounts of money wasted by the council it is a pity that it cannot spend some on the Lincoln Castle and the few remaining sites of real interest.
There is potential to develop the area, Why can't we have the Lincoln Castle turned into a floating (or dry dock) art gallery and display area to complement the Heritage Centre? There is so much art etc in storage. Get it on display and help the revitalisation of the NFHC, which as a stand alone attraction has always been doomed to ultimately fail.
Can't this area be developed along the lines of the many marinas around the rest of the UK? Hull, Brighton, immediately spring to mind as areas which should be seen as models.
From my observations over the last week or so, the town is dying, and there seems little interest in bringing it back from the brink.”
by Joshua, great coates
Friday, August 27 2010, 12:58PM
“The people in the positions of power now don't even know what our Heritage is.
Thanks to the Nu-Lab of the last gov this was all but destroyed in the belief that the Amarican Way was better and cost much less.
They destroyed evrything that the UK stood for. Queen Vic must be turning in her grave. We are very quickly degenerating into a third world country”