When I plan a visit to a new city in the U.K. or abroad, I always spend time researching its architecture and check out whether there are any film locations worth visiting. Living in Norwich, we are lucky enough to have the most preserved Tudor street (Elm Hill), which has appeared in a few movies including ‘Stardust’ (2007) and ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’ (2020). Norwich is also lucky enough to have the first of my ‘buildings to visit’, although it is really two buildings in one place. Both of the buildings are at the University of East Anglia and the first is the Sainsbury Centre, designed by a young Norman Foster to house the art collection of Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury, which opened in 1978. You might think this building is familiar, and if you are a Marvel fan you might just recognise it as Avengers HQ. This building is high on my list, as it ticks the boxes ‘film location’ and ‘innovative modernist architecture’.The second building at the UEA is a group of student accommodation flats called the ziggurats, (also known as Norfolk and Suffolk Terraces) which were completed in 1967 and designed by Sir Denys Lasdun. I’ve always loved these Aztec looking pyramids, which also have the feel of ocean liners sailing across the park that they are set in. If you are not a fan or enthusiast of concrete this list and article is maybe not for you, but I beg you not to discount this form of architecture, as it is a very important part of architectural and design history. Yes, we are having problems with concrete buildings built in the ‘60s and ‘70s’ but this is due to the investment rather than the architecture. If you build with cheap concrete, it is not going to last.
If you are a lover of modernist architecture, then the rest of the University is also worth exploring, and is reminiscent of the Southbank in London. There is also a wonderful sculpture park set within the 350 acres of parkland featuring important works by notable artists such as Henry Moore, Elisabeth Frink, Lynn Chadwick, Liliane Lijn, and Antony Gormley.
Anglia Square is worth a visit in Norwich. Sadly rundown and awaiting demolition. It has been in this rundown state for many years, as the demolition will cost a lot of money due to a great deal of asbestos to clear. To appreciate the building of Anglia Square, you have to imagine them in their heyday.
This Odeon cinema which is part of the complex opened in 1971 and had a theatre of 1016 seats. It was an award-winning cinema. Housing a screen which struggled to be matched outside London. I saw ‘Star Wars’, ‘Jaws’ and ‘Grease’ in this cinema, and ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ over 25 times. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO) was also based at Anglia square, and its flagship Sovereign House was another grand modernist building in the complex
Number Three on my List is another Norfolk Building. The Smithdon High School, Hunstanton. This was built in 1954, and the architects were Alison (aged 21) and Peter Smithson (aged 26). Alison Smithdon coined the term ‘New brutalism’ for their idea and theory of architecture, and their work was heavily inspired by one of the pioneers of modernist design and architecture Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. I was invited to visit the school some years ago due to my interest in its architecture and took the photos below.
It was at the end of the school day, but I managed to chat to some of the pupils who had been taught about the building’s important modernist history. They said it was freezing in the winter and not a comfortable place to study. This is one problem about the modernist mantra of ‘form follows function’ coined by architect Louis Sullivan in the late 19th century. If the ‘function’ is for students to study, then it should be a comfortable place to do so. That aside, the architecture is simple, minimalist and feels like being inside a Mondrian grid painting.
The final place on this first list of modernist buildings is glass rather concrete and is in the city of Ipswich, Suffolk.
The Willis Building is another Norman Foster (and Wendy Cheesman) building built between 1970-1975 for the Insurance firm Willis Towers Watson. This is a building you should see during the day and by night. During the day the smoked glass acts as a mirror to all that surrounds it and by night it is lit inside and makes the smoked glass transparent. In 1991 this building became the newest building to gain a grade 1 listing. Originally the building contained a swimming pool for staff, but this has now been covered up (but still visible from the floor above due to the grade 1 listing).
So this is the first part of my guide to my favourite modernist buildings in the U.K. and I hope you can put some of them on your list of places to visit when you travel around the U.K. Part II will explore some of my favourite modernist buildings in Yorkshire.