Love it or loath it, the Bus Station will not go away.
The latest examination of 1960’s concrete art or brutalist architecture that includes PBS will feature as part of a new BBC documentary by Jonathan Meades ‘Bunkers, Brutalism, Bloody-mindedness: Concrete Poetry’.
As the Independent Arts Reviewer Christopher Beanland in a recent article about the programme commented: ” the stark civic megaliths of the 1960s’ have been reviled for decades. Now we are being seduced again by their concrete charms”
“Concrete buildings die without care, too; they’re snuffed out in their prime by councils who can’t see they’ve inherited “icons”, which could become wildly popular tourist attractions in the 2060s.“
Beanland explains that “brutalism was about bringing new life to city centres but brutalism also reeks of death….Preston Bus Station (opened in 1969) has been plagued by suicides from the top of its five storeys of curving car park decks.”
The BBC TV programme will examine why attitudes to brutalism are becoming a less hostile. Why embracing the brutalist beauty is back on the agenda and we are learning to love the rawness of the grey faceless blocks.
‘Bunkers, Brutalism, Bloodymindedness: Concrete Poetry’ will be broadcast on BBC4 next month