A Green and Civic Space…

The Civic Centre

The Civic Centre, as proposed 1948, from the City's Development Model.

(This does not show smaller buildings which would have remained )

 

Three new civic buildings were proposed in the 1948 plan, echoing around Clifford's Tower the arrangement of the three C18 buildings around the Eye of Yorkshire. To respect the Tower, they would be low; and to be seen as an ensemble around it, they would be long.

One was "a new City Hall to house the scattered corporation departments" between Tower Street and the Ouse, north of Tower Gardens. This would be around an open quadrangle. It would be seen to advantage along Clifford Street and would present a main face to the Tower.

Between Clfford Street and Castlegate, on the deep site of a garage, there would be "a large Concert Hall".

The ensemble would be completed with "a Cultural Centre in conjunction with the Castle Museum". This would be built over the foundations of the clinics and municipal offices of the 30's. These were never completed.

Today the City's offices remain scattered, and perhaps this does not matter in a computer age. The first large concert hall was to be the University's Central Hall, and it has since been followed by a large auditorium at the Barbican Centre. The Cultural Centre, which would have given the City's art collection proper space, was never built. Commercial development is currently proposed for its site - part of Coppergate Riverside.