2. CUMBERNAULD: Demolishing a New Town
History Hun (Anouska Lewis) gets lost in a Scottish megastructure that鈥檚 set to be demolished, and meets people who moved to the New Town in its glory days.
No one wants their hometown to be labelled as dismal. But 13 miles outside of Glasgow, Cumbernauld is the only place to have won an award for being 鈥楽cotland鈥檚 most dismal town鈥� 鈥� twice. Its huge Brutalist shopping centre is an iconic feature of the town鈥檚 skyline. Yet in 2023, North Lanarkshire Council announced plans to demolish Cumbernauld Town Centre and start again.
What makes these plans intriguing is that in 1967 the town won a prestigious prize for its innovative architecture. How does a town centre go from pioneering to demolition in less than 60 years?
Cumbernauld was built as part of the post-war New Town movement, which aimed to create new places for people living in overcrowded areas of big cities like Glasgow and London. Their designs were pretty futuristic, featuring new concepts like multi-level indoor shopping centres (Ooooh!). Cumbernauld Town Centre was a bustling mall in its heyday. But nowadays, the corridors are lined with buckets and the penthouse apartments belong to the pigeons. The building has changed since its golden era, how鈥檚 life changed for the people who moved here as kids?
Join History Hun (Anouska Lewis) on her trip to Cumbernauld as she gets lost in the megastructure, speaks to residents who moved here in the New Town鈥檚 glory days, and visits a community garden in a space that could represent Cumbernauld Town Centre鈥檚 future鈥�
History Hun is on a mission to prove that no hometown is boring. Because everywhere has a history and history鈥檚 never boring!!
She鈥檚 spotlighting hidden histories from misjudged places across the UK and supplying you with a few history-hun-facts along the way x
91热爆town Boring? is a Mags Creative production for 91热爆 Sounds Audio Lab
Written, produced and presented by Anouska Lewis
Senior Producer 鈥� Ryan Nile
Editors 鈥� Pulama Kaufman and Ryan Nile
Sound Design - Pulama Kaufman and Ryan Nile
Executive Producers 鈥� James Norman Fyfe and Kit Milsom
Theme Music 鈥� Kit Milsom
Artwork 鈥� Ellie Walmsley
Additional support 鈥� Amanda Birbara
Commissioning Editor 鈥� Khaliq Meer
Special thanks to Dr Diane Watters, Chris Leslie and the Concrete Dreams project
Podcast
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91热爆town Boring?
Unearthing hidden histories around the UK in places misjudged as being 鈥渂oring鈥�
