Redditch New Town Walking Tour
Saturday 20 April 2024
Start time/place: 11.00am/Redditch Railway Station
Finish time/place: 4.30pm/Redditch Railway Station
Redditch New Town turns 60! A walking tour led by Paul Woodville focusses on the late modernist architecture and ‘green’ urban planning history of the New Town.
In 1964, the small Worcestershire town of Redditch was designated as a New Town. The existing town and surrounding countryside went on to experience a period of rapid and dramatic change as new neighbourhoods were developed and the historic town centre was radically transformed.
Twentieth-century design highlights include the famous Eduardo Paolozzi, Mosaic Murals, 1981 located in the heart of the main shopping area, as well as John Madin’s ‘other library’ (1976). Less well-known highlights include the various housing projects skilfully adapted to Redditch’s many steeply sloping sites by the Redditch Development Corporation’s own architects, as well as Redditch’s extensive landscaping projects, with their pioneering early focus on landscape ecology and bioclimatic design – a little-known aspect of the history of Redditch that maybe offers some important lessons for the future.
Paul Woodville is a native of the Redditch area but works as an architect and urban planner in Norway where he is a partner at HRTB Architects, course leader at the University of Oslo and external examiner at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Oslo School of Architecture.
C20 Society Members: £10
Non-Members: £20
Students: £10
Two free places: send email explaining why you want a free place to c20westmidlands@gmail.com
Lunch not included.
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The Twentieth Century Society is an IHBC (Institute of Historic Building conservation) recognised CPD provider.
The Twentieth Century Society is a registered charity, no 1110244
Above: Eduardo Paolozzi mosaics, Redditch, 1983. Image: Ruth Millington