Cumbernauld, Town for Tommorrow - High Quality - 1970

[JoeySchmidt74]

Saddens me to watch this and know what has become of it. All those industries are pretty much gone. To people saying that there's no pride in the town are unfortunately right, but the lack of pride stems from the lack of investment in the town that means anything.  Forget the waves or big silver wummin, get jobs in the place!

[corriegal]

At 14.16 I see the house I grew up in it is the first one in the row!. My family are still in the area but no longer in the house. I myslef live in Canada now

[hamefurgid]

I moved to Cumbernauld with my parents and baby sister in 1962. In these days people were "vetted" before being given a house and the breadwinner had to have a decent job. I remember 2 women coming to check our suitability for a new house. In these early days. Cumbernauld was a eutopia after the slums of Glasgow and I loved my childhood and teen years there. It's sad to see how it is now. My elderly mum is still there but I escaped in the late 70s as did my sister.

[Rydo182]

@hamefurgid An interesting and all too familiar anecdote about Cumbernauld. I wonder if you have any photographs of the town centre. My thoughts entirely when I have discussed this on forums, I simply cannot imagine coming from cramped dated dirty slum areas to the open modern road systems and housing of Cumbernauld. The town centre building itself with it's promise of yet more structures must have seemed like something years ahead of it's time. Not it is condemned and surely faces demolition...

[hamefurgid]

@Rydo182 No I don't have any pics of the town centre. I also remember the original temporary one which was built roughly where the fast food places are now (near the police station) My earliest memory of arriving in the town with my parents on a crisp winter day in November in deep snow, was thinking that the houses were covered in diamonds because the roughcast, being brand new was sparkling white! I was just 7 years old. We were in Torbrex road and I loved my very own bedroom! :)

[funkdrum5]

Supremely interesting, thanks for posting

[Rydo182]

@funkdrum5 No problem, be sure to check the Scottish Screen Archive it's full of stuff like this.

[SlightyDisturbedNBK]

Hopeful times long gone. Cumbernauld is a mess, but it's not only the CDC and the designers fault the town is such a mess. The massive amount of urban trash like neds and chavs are just as much to blame.

[theclivesinclair]

@SlightyDisturbedNBK I think the design is basically sound. After all, many countries sent 'delegates' to look at Cumbernaulds 'futuristic' design.

The sad thing - like many new towns, they were built around the times that Neds, Chavs, localised gangs, etc were on the increase. It matters not how well houses, towns, cities are designed. If the people who live there don't care about it......

[Rydo182]

@theclivesinclair I cannot agree more with you. The design is more than sound, it was over thought even. The architecture may not be to everyones taste, brutalist stuff has yet to reach a wide demographic of appreciation that Victorian and Art Deco stuff has. Sad as many brutalist things are being lost as a result.

The people in Cumbernauld are in a vicious cycle, not pride in the town, hence no care for the town, town gets worse (graffiti, lack of care etc), and more pride is lost. Utter shame

[Rydo182]

@SlightyDisturbedNBK The designers provide a canvas for living, they do not create the kinds of people that live there. That is what irritates me about the stick these kinds of places get.

They essentially put poor people who were already in over crowded conditions into these flats and new towns and then gradual neglect and disbanding of the powers that be (Cumbernauld Development Corporation) meant it all went to hell. Sad.