A video from the 1970s has surfaced which berates the structure of County Hall in Aylesbury.
Presented by the late Bill Grundy, the video starts off with snapshots of the town before the host walks near St Mary’s Church and says, ‘this delightful street is part of an overspilled town’.
The video, which is on for seven minutes, then explains how County Hall, which was opened to the public in 1966, is ‘hideous’ due to its design and colour.
READ MORE: Restaurant that opened just before the pandemic named on the UK’s ‘one to watch' list
Mr Grundy said: “In matters of development, Aylesbury has a lot to teach other towns, but I am very much afraid that some of what have got to teach is how not to do it.
The video from 1972
“That particular horror [County Hall] is within yards of those lovely streets.
“There can be few other cases of development so badly matches to the town that it is taking place in.
“To be fair though, not everything about Aylesbury’s development is so bad: the move from the old high street to a brand new shopping centre raised a lot of local hackles but it seems to be working, at least by the number of shoppers using it is anything to go by.
“The whole scheme is the brainchild of Fred Pooley – the Bucks County architect and planning officer, who looks out over it from the 10th floor of an appalling edit list known locally as Fred’s Fort and Pooley’s Palace.
“Perhaps his smugness derives from the fact that when you’re inside the place, you can’t actually see it, which is a relief because from the outside, it’s hideous, even more so because it dominates the town.
READ MORE: 'We’re not ready to give up yet' - Petition launched to save popular pizza business
“There is simply no getting away from it with its coarse, grey, cladding panels that already look terrible and will undoubtedly look even worse as time goes on.
“But as a piece of planning, it does work as people come from all over the country to look at the way the bus station, the new shops, the county officers, the registrar’s refuge and the library, are all linked together in one massive precinct.”
The video shows snapshots of inside the shopping centre as well as Market Square, before explaining how Aylesbury played a part in the first British Civil War.
Overall, the video, which was first uploaded onto YouTube in April 2014, has been viewed nearly 30,000 times but has recently been made aware again after it was shared on social media.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here