The Concise Townscape

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The scene at Bremhill might be a hundred or a thousand years old. It is the archetype of meeting places, church, cross and tree. A common scene? Yet how many others can you recall and how many will there be in ten years’ time? possession and possession in move­ment we find what may be termedviscosity, the formation of groupschatting, of slow window-shoppers,people selling newspapers, flowersand so on. The overhanging blinds,the space enclosed by the portico andthe meandering character of the streetprovide the proper setting which maybe compared to the picture below.Windswept and inhospitable, itemphasizes the segregation ofoutside and inside. Seen from above the whole layout shows the outdoor room through which traffic might pass. The traffic has to slow down (a good thing) while crossing the square; the flow is not impeded otherwise. The street is more friendly, the church becomes a real place of meeting, the cross a genuine focal point and a ribbon town gains a centre. Shortly afterwards Cullen was commissioned by Erno Goldfinger to paint a mural in the reception area of Westville (now Greenside) Primary School in Shepherd’s Bush, and he also designed a ceramic mural for Coventry depicting the city’s history and its post-war regeneration (1958). When he was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in 1975 Cullen was preparing a travelling exhibition to promote visual literacy both in this country and abroad. The following year he was appointed CBE for his contribution to architecture.

How to explain? Example: the nearest to hand at the time of writing isSees cathedral near Alen'Y0n,p.I4. The Gothic builders were fascinated bythe problem of weight, how to support the culmination of their structures,the vault, and guide its weight safely down to earth. In this buildingweight has been divided into two parts. The walls are supported bysturdy cylindrical columns: the vault itself, the pride of the endeavour,appears to be supported on fantastically attenuated applied columnswhich act almost as lightning conductors .of gravity between heaven andthe solid earth. The walls are held up by man, the vault is clearly heldup by angels. 'I understand weight, I am strong', 'I have overcomeweight, I am ethereal'. 'We both spring from the same earth together, weneed each other'. Through the centuries they commune together inserenity.

‘I’ll have stories for the pub till the day I die’

to be expensive and exclusive, then this should deter­mine the character of Grosvenor Square in itsrenascent public form. The presence of the AmericanEmbassy, together with the square's wartime associa­tions as moral G.H.Q. of American troops in Eng­land, has prompted the authorities to make of it amemorial to President Roosevelt, a scheme whichhas had wide public support. Why not make Gros­venor Square a real American Corner? Not theAmerica associated in the eyes of Europeans withvulgarization; the connection is with Fifth Avenuerather than Broadway. The best American food,exclusive underground cinema, swans and fountains(but not a soda fountain). On great occasions theAmerican Embassy could hold garden parties in thesquare. A corner of London that is America for bothLondoners and Americans.

Anything that may be occupied eitherby oneself or by one's imagination,which here lifts us into a carved stoneaedicule (in Valencia), becomes tothat extent of interest a warmcolour in the greys "f the inhospitable.Porticos, balconies and terraces havethis ability to communicate. Theydraw us outwards. Coupled with enclosure (the hOllowobject) as an artifact of possession, isthe focal point, the vertical symbol ofcongregation. In the fertile streetsand market places of town and villageit is the focal point (be it column orcross) which crystallizes the situation,which confirms 'this is the Spot'.'Stop looking, it is here.' This mag­nificent clarity illuminates many acommunity but in many others thechief function of the focal point hasbeen stripped away l:.y the swirl andhazards of traffic so that it becomesmerely an indifferent piece for theantiquarian's notebook.work for its examples instead of these being culled from the past. Thishas not been done for two reasons. thought of as the Colosseum might fitmore easily into the mental climate ofthe 1900s, which put even gas holdersinto period costume, and that theEnglishman's home, below, really ishis castle. Crude as these examplesare (and we could produce otherseven more banal) they yet contain agrain of guidance for the designer. Cullen’s skill as an architectural illustrator was greatly admired and he received many illustrative commissions such as the 1943 County of London Plan; Kynoch Press’s 1940 diary and the 1955 Cambridge Christmas Book, as well as some studies of the State Apartments at Windsor Castle. The crowding together of buildingsforms a pressure, an unavoidablenearness of detail, which is in directcontrast to the wide piazza, square orpromenade, and by the use of suchnarrows it is possible to maintainenclosure without forbidding thepassage of vehicles and pedestrians.In this way the articulation of thecity into clear and well-defined partsis made more possible. In its ownright narrowness has a definite effecton the pedestrian, inducing a senseof unaccustomed constriction andpressure.