Burslem Part 1: From Mother Town to Ghost Town?...Not a Good Start...Follies...

From Mother Town to Ghost Town?

Burslem, Boslem to Potters, is the Mother Town of the Potteries. It is the birthplace of Josiah Wedgwood, and the place where he made it Big. Burslem was the hometown of Arnold Bennett, one of the country's biggest literary names but under-appreciated here in the Six Towns, who christened the town 'Bursley', one of his 'five towns'. Though hailing from Tunstall, Burslem is the town most associated with teeny bopper superstar Robbie Williams. Darts is frowned upon by many - to those who prattle on about it being a pub game and not a sport, kiss my Potteries arse - but it is in Burslem where Phil Taylor learned his trade and became one of the greatest sportsmen of all time.

It is thought that Burslem may have originated from Saxon times, but it is first named as a settlement in the Domesday Book. Burslem was mainly a small community of struggling farmers, who struggled to earn a living from agriculture due to the poor quality of the soil in the area. A number of the locals topped-up their poor earnings by taking advantage of abundant clay in the village to make butter pots.

An early pottery (from Plott's Natural History of Staffordshire)

During the seventeenth century, it became fashionable to partake in a cup of tea, and demand for ceramic wares in which to enjoy what was to become the nation's most enjoyed beverage rocketed. At the same time, Burslem's frustrated farmers discovered a rich seam of fast-burning coal, and coupled with the locally available clay, found themselves with the means to create an industry to capitalise on global trends. Hence Burslem grew to become an urban centre, world famous for tableware.

The town attracted entrepreneurs and artists, and was the home for some of the biggest names in ceramics: Wedgwood, Doulton, Price, Midwinter and Wood all based themselves in the Mother Town and its surrounding communities, and the likes of Susie Cooper and Clarice Cliff produced their magic in Burslem potworks, turning utilitarian products into works of art.

Once upon a time, Burslem was a Boom Town, and as with neighbouring Tunstall, probably peaked during the 1960s and 70s, when local potworks and factories employed thousands of local people who flooded the streets to spend their money in local shops and pubs. But as with Tunstall, the town spun into a spiral of decline from the 1980s, with dozens of firms closing their doors, with the dismal side effect of bringing down many other small local businesses who relied on the potters and their workers for trade.

The biggest blow of all to the Mother Town probably came when Royal Doulton closed the Nile Street works in 2005, a blow from which the town has not yet recovered.

Thanks to the town's once wealthy status, Burslem is blessed with a rich architectural legacy, from Wedgwood's Big House, to the various municipal and civic gifts such as the School of Art, the Wedgwood Memorial Institute, and the town's two town halls, and numerous commercial buildings that contribute positively to the town's built environment. The one striking feature of the town's architecture is that of continuity: many different styles and materials that span the town's two hundred and fifty years as the heart of the pottery industry.

However, although Burslem is probably the Potteries' finest town centre, the town's built fabric is in decline (although the City Council has made great efforts to reverse this), and many buildings are either empty, or vastly under utilised. A friend of mine that hails from the People's Republic of Yorkshire is a big fan of the town, its history, and its architecture, and brought his father over to the Potteries to spend a day in Burslem; he claims he had a conversation with his father that went something like this:

          "So then dad, Burslem, what do you think?"

          "Is it a film set?"

          "A film set? What are you on about?"

          "Where are all the people son?"

Over the years, the City Council have pursued a strategy to attract visitors and tourists to Burslem, on the back of the town's ceramics heritage and attractions (big names Burleigh, Moorcroft and Steelite are still local), and its rich architectural heritage. Sometimes they have got things right: a number of grant schemes to support the renovation and reuse of town centre buildings, and the promotion of small creative industries. But sometimes they have got things wrong: the disastrous business plan that underpinned Ceramica, the Millennium Project designed to regenerate the town; their continued neglect of the Wedgwood Memorial Institute; and their failure to push St Modwen into redeveloping the Nile Street works, almost a decade after they acquired it.

The big frustration with Burslem is that you can see and feel the town's potential; the town has soul, and could be a fantastic, attractive and vibrant place. But at the moment it isn't.

The Sheriff and I set off for a trawl around Burslem, and neighbouring Middleport and Cobridge on a warm and sunny June afternoon. The weather was glorious, but to reinforce my friend's father's film set jibe, there was no one around. Burslem was a ghost town.

Not a Good Start

'Welcome to Burslem' booms a decorative stone on the approach to the town from Tunstall along Scotia Road, but I don't feel I've arrived in the Mother Town until I've reached the Overhouse Pottery and got to Wedgwood Place. Wedgwood...the name is synonymous with Burslem, and one of the first things you see when approaching the town from Scotia Road is the Wedgwood Printing Works, which is now an absolute wreck and a giant pigeon coop, and is clearly owned by someone who seemingly couldn't care less. The Wedgwood Printing Works has been in such a state for years. I get quite annoyed by municipal neglect, but Burslem is also blighted by private ownership of fine but neglected buildings. I accept that town centres have changed, and the economic climate is bleak, but if you do not have the vision, expertise and finance to do something with property, then stay out of it.

The Wedgwood Printing Works: a blot on the Burslem landscape

The building is constructed of a cast iron frame, wrapped in local red/brown brick with terracotta used in places, and if renovated and given a good old fashioned scrub down, the building could be spectacular. It has great potential, the buildings cast iron frame creating large open floor plans, and could clearly be put to a new use or uses. Burslem's evening economy does well these days; go to Mother Town over the weekend and it teems with people, with many traditional pubs and new modern bars doing well, and the town's restaurants busy too. It is quite easy to imagine the Wedgwood Printing Works put to use as a new funky bar or music venue. Or maybe its simply a case of one derelict building too many?

As it is, the Wedgwood Printing Works presents a poor first impression, and it is not a good start to a visit to the Mother Town.

Follies

"noun (plural follies)
1 [mass noun] lack of good sense; foolishness:
an act of sheer folly [count noun] a foolish act, idea, or practice:
the follies of youth
2 a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park"
Oxford Dictionary of English

Many towns and cities get through lots of different town halls and civic buildings. Many fall into decline and need replacing, or become obsolete over time due to technological changes. Some cities make decisions to replace buildings as a statement of intent, as a show of civic pride, a vote of confidence. And most of the time, politics is the key driver behind the decisions. Stoke-on-Trent has hit double figures when it comes to town halls, civic centres and the like. Each one has a story, some of which are bewildering and can leave you contemplating choosing a solid looking wall with which to drive your head into. Burslem has had three town halls, two of which are still with us, and stand either side of Wedgwood Place.

The Old Town Hall was Burslem's second, the Potteries' eighth, and took five years to build from 1852. It was the work of Leamington-based architect G.T. Robinson and was built on the site of the town's original town hall. The Old Town Hall is a neo-classical masterpiece, listed at Grade II*, and is one of the finest pieces of civic architecture in the Potteries, and also an inspiration for Los Angeles resident Robbie Williams who wrote 'Angels' in tribute to the Old Town Hall's angel. However, since the city's Federation in 1910, the Old Town Hall has had a worryingly varied existence, being put to use as a leisure centre, and home of the City Council's infamous Millennium project Ceramica.

The Old Town Hall is once again in search of a new use following the demise of Ceramica. The attraction closed its doors for the last time in March 2011 after the City Council finally withdrew funding in the wake of the Coalition Government's brutal cuts to local government funding. Some exhibits were transferred to other locations, with the Ceramica museum itself placed into liquidation, with Begbies Traynor handling matters.

Ceramica was one of 222 projects established throughout the country by the Millennium Commission as part of the nation's celebrations to mark the year 2000, and was designed to be a unique celebration of the ceramics industry in the Potteries. The Ceramica exhibitions and displays were housed in the Old Town Hall, and the project opened its doors in 2003 following extensive renovation works.

Ceramica stirred great debate throughout the Potteries, perceived to be a great waste of public money, views that were probably based on a fundamentally flawed business plan: the City Council estimated that the attraction would draw in 100,000 visitors a year, but the project limped along, with only 10,000 visitors a year (the majority of which were probably kids on school visits, and not the affluent tourists the council were praying for), with £150,000 of taxpayers' cash propping up day-to-day running costs. There were many reasons for the demise of Ceramica - the decline of the traditional High Street and town centres; unrealistic expectations in terms of visitor numbers; the closure of Royal Doulton on Nile Street - but the final nail in Ceramica's coffin has been the ushering in of the Era of Austerity, which has led to the City Council withdrawing its financial support. The plebs in the north are not seen as worthy of the arts and culture, and so this was probably not one of the most difficult decisions to make.

*

"I am not attracted to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman. Curves make up the entire Universe, the curved Universe of Einstein"

Oscar Niemeyer

The symbol of Ceramica is the striking new pavilion that sits next to the Old Town Hall. The pavilion actually housed the retail element of the attraction, and the building generated much debate and aroused plenty of anger in the Mother Town, with many locals believing that the pavilion failed to respect the Old Town Hall and Burslem's built heritage. Many people also believed that the new pavilion was Ceramica, not realising that the main attraction was actually located in the Old Town Hall.

Ceramica: another Mother Town folly?

Ceramica was designed and delivered by Lathams of Derby, who specialise in the conservation of historic buildings, as well as exciting modern design. They carefully re-planned and refurbished the Old Town Hall to accommodate the exhibits and educational elements, and built the new modern pavilion. According to Lathams, their design for the new pavilion was heavily influenced by the Russian artist Malevic, with the stark, modernist steel and glass structure contrasting greatly with the classicism of the Old Town Hall, but chiming loudly with the city's industrial past. The angled copper roof is supported by a slender needle which is centred on the foundations of a bottle kiln from Josiah Wedgwood's first potworks which were unearthed during excavation works for the project. Although the design of the new pavilion could best be described as Marmite Architecture - some love it, some hate it - it does fit perfectly with the Mother Town's eclectic collection of architectural styles.

The outline of the bottle kiln of Wedgwood's first potworks, the Ivy House Works

It is a real shame that most people's views on Ceramica were clouded by their views on modernist design. The attraction was absolutely superb, featuring interactive displays and videos, and exhibits from local potters such as Wade Ceramics, Dudson, Moorland Pottery, and Moorcroft.

A ten year old building stands silent

When writing about Ceramica previously, I used the above quote from Uber-modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer, suggesting that the - then - 104 year old Brazilian architectural superstar would've liked Ceramica and the new pavilion; though probably preferring the curvier elements of the Old Town Hall, he would've appreciated and recognised the principles behind Lathams' modernist design. Niemeyer then promptly expired, just days after I put pen to paper.

*

Locals who branded Ceramica a white elephant on its completion ten years ago would now probably crow, "I told you so", as the Old Town Hall and its decade old neighbour stand silent awaiting the next silver bullet, the next regenerative magic wand to save the Old Town Hall and the Mother Town. Both the Sheriff and I wandered around both buildings, marvelling at the incredible waste of public assets, and also their sad decline. The decline of the pavilion is particularly worrying given it is still very much in its infancy. But that's what happens when you lock the doors and seemingly give up; the City Council's inaction and silence speaks volumes. A historic and modern folly sitting side by side.

Still, the Ceramica pavilion had a better start to life than Burslem's third town hall, a building which was incredibly redundant before it even opened its doors. Now operated by local business man Steve Ball as the Queen's Theatre, Burslem's 'New' Town Hall was built at the time of the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, in anticipation that the Mother Town would naturally would be the civic seat of the new County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent. Stoke was also vying for this new role, and already benefited from a new, modern town hall and associated facilities. However, the local politicians - particularly pro-Federation Sydney Malkin who forced through the building of the new town hall - were not to be dissuaded, and London-based architects Russell and Cooper were employed and produced a large Classical monument to civic extravagance and largesse.

The New Town Hall: Malkin's Folly

The first meeting of the new council was held at the North Stafford Hotel, and the question of where the County Borough's municipal centre should be was one of the first major issues confronted by the new local authority. Of course, Stoke was eventually chosen, leaving the Mother Town's new town hall redundant on completion, the building known as 'Malkin's Folly'. This became a sign of things to come, and despite the city's history of failure in respect of its civic buildings and where it bases itself, the current City Council is seemingly keen to ignore the lessons from the past: Councillor Pervez and his colleagues taking the decision to abandon the Civic Centre and Stoke, and spunking over £45million on a new HQ in Hanley in the process.

In Burslem we have three follies to civic mistakes, will the new Civic Centre in Hanley become known as Pervez's Folly? That's a question the Sheriff and I will ask some other day.