Inter - change

On Entering Wolverhampton. Views, Vistas and the 'Pride of the Midlands'.



On the way to Manchester on the train recently, I looked over toward Springfield. Although the Brewery site remains mostly in stasis with only minor changes happening, activity on the adjacent site was very much underway for the new student accomodation buildings. With the Low Level Station development and the nearby new Interchange, these factors are changing the area, the activities that arise here and how they are linked to the urban landscape.

I've begun to see the importance of this area in relation to entering and exiting Wolverhampton. I'm imagining that workers delivering goods travelling to the brewery, along the rail spur that entered the site, would associate the landscape here with the wider area of Wolverhampton. The activities that would go on here, the characteristic lettering on the wall, signage and so on is very much linked to the passing of trains and narrow boats. These two elements of the canal and rail that follow each other, become very apparent and intertwine here right near the heart of the city.
The views from up high, greeting you as you enter the city are just as important as the activities on the ground. There must be an opportunity here to connect these together through new developments. Almost as if seeing 'PRIDE' on the wall at the Brewery can represent this area again, by how the landscape and its diversely related activities can weld together at this point through acknowledging and reinterpreting the past ethos of the area.
With the new Interchange development hitting the edge of Springfield, the canal corridor and rail, there's opportunities of access points to the canal from the town and vice versa, that will enable activity to penetrate this area, rather than a invisible border that cuts the city centre off at this point.

The question is, how these new developments become realised and contribute to a meaningful place, by being informed by that industrial and social identity that runs through the grain of the city. That sense of 'PRIDE' can only come through recognising the importance of the historical landscape and its past and present related activities, that can allow us to feel part of the story of the city without losing what is so strongly specific about it.


www.wolverhamptoninterchange.co.uk