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Photo-a-day 283: White swans

115 words posted by Simon on 9 October 2012

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After telling you about one interesting Killingworth building earlier, here’s another: the White Swan Centre.

This building too originally dates back to Killingworth Township’s day. It was originally a mammoth 1960s office building, but – like most of the Township buildings – was disused by the 1990s. By the late 1990s, plans were afoot to reduce it in height, give it a makeover, and move into this building all of the services – like the GP surgery and library – that were previously housed in the Township’s high-level shopping precinct.

Local schoolchildren were given the task of naming the new improved building, and took inspiration from the hundreds of residents of Killingworth Lake:

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This post was filed under: Photo-a-day 2012, , .

Photo-a-day 282: Engineering Research Centre

174 words posted by Simon on 9 October 2012

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To make up the numbers following my failure to post a picture on Sunday, here’s one taken today of the former British Gas Engineering Research Centre and Mechanical Engineering Firm in Killingworth. The arch on the right of the photo adds a touch of drama to a small entrance bridge, while the roof exhibits three water storage tanks and three Venturi formed ventilation tubes.

The building dates back to the days of Killingworth Township, which is an interesting example of a planned town. This intriguing old leaflet describes the Township, which connected residential towers to a carefully planned town centre via raised walkways, so that traffic and people never had to mix. Unfortunately, this also made life a bit claustrophobic, as well as generating a high-risk area for attacks and muggings: on high-rise walkways, there’s nowhere to run or hide if confronted. As a result of their damning unpopularity, the whole lot has now been flattened.

But the impossibly futuristic Engineering Research Centre, attracted to the Township shortly after it was built, remains.

This post was filed under: Photo-a-day 2012, , .



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