David Proudlove's
critique of the built environment of Stoke-on-Trent

‘The Works’
The industrial heritage of the potworks

 


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Stoke-on-Trent – the Potteries – has always had bad press. Priestley commented that the human race had yet to arrive here in the 1930s. Pevsner famously described the six towns, or five towns as both he and Bennett christened the city, an “urban tragedy”. In the swinging sixties, then Government minister Richard Crossman felt that the place ought to be abandoned and that any attempts at ‘urban renewal’ would be a huge waste of time and money. In recent times, Stoke-on-Trent has been named the worst place in the country to live. Are such views accurate, or is the place and its unique qualities simply misunderstood?

The prevailing image of the Potteries to those from farther a field is that of pits and pots, and smoke and stench, in spite of the fact that the pits have gone, the pottery industry has changed beyond all recognition, and the city now has one of the greenest urban landscapes in the country thanks to its Victorian parks and award-winning land reclamation programmes. Stoke-on-Trent has always thought to have been in need of ‘cleaning up’, and ridding the city of her smoke and grime generating potbanks has been a part of the on going clean up. Never mind the beauty of the potbanks’ products. Never mind the beauty of the buildings themselves. Never mind that reuse of existing buildings can often prove more sustainable than clearance and redevelopment.

 

Gladstone Pottery Museum: the classic potworks, and one of the first to be restored
Gladstone Pottery Museum: the classic potworks, and one of the first to be restored

 

Over the past couple of decades there has been a much greater appreciation of industrial heritage and architecture, from the huge dockland warehouses of Liverpool and the east end of London, to the famous Lancashire cotton mills. Great examples of this appreciation include the reuse of the Sir Alfred Bird’s Custard Factory in Birmingham, the resurgence of Ancoats in Manchester, and the transformation of the Great Western Railway Engineering Works in Swindon. The Potteries has its own abundance of such heritage in its potbanks, yet there has not been the emphasis on reuse and restoration as in other industrial cities. Why is this so?

 

The seeds of such apathy towards the Potteries have probably been sown by the potters themselves; in 1991, the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England published Potworks, an overview of the city’s industrial architecture, which detailed many images and descriptions of beautiful, long gone potbanks such as the Hill Pottery in Burslem, and Fenton’s Foley Potteries, pulled down by companies looking to yield value from cleared sites while moving operations to other locations in cheaper, easier to maintain buildings of little art or character, with such activity supported, and in some cases encouraged, by former and current civic dignitaries who ought to hang their heads in shame. Some of the buildings referred to in Potworks – while around at the time of publication – have long since gone.

I understand the arguments of outdated facilities, and modernisation of processes, but if the people of the Potteries cannot appreciate and respect the city’s industrial heritage and architecture, how can we expect the profit-hungry monsters of the development industry to do the same? Indeed, Stoke-on-Trent as a city is undervalued in terms of its architecture and heritage (and not just industrial architecture), with just 192 Listed Buildings. Given the city’s size in terms of population, and its rich industrial history, this is a great shame.

 

Dudson Centre, Hanover Street, Hanley
Dudson Centre, Hanover Street, Hanley

There have been some great examples of a positive approach to reuse of potbanks though.

Hulme Upright Manning of Festival Park have brilliantly restored the Dudson Pottery works on Hanover Street in Hanley, including some well executed modern interventions, to create the Dudson Centre, which houses the Dudson Museum, conference facilities, and provides office accommodation for local voluntary services.
This is arguably Hulme Upright Manning’s most impressive work in years.

The courtyard and bottle kilns of the Dudson Centre
The courtyard and bottle kilns of the Dudson Centre

 


 

The soon to be transformed Eastwood Pottery
The soon to be transformed Eastwood Pottery

-photo 1999-

The much maligned housing market renewal pathfinder, RENEW North Staffordshire, has taken a cue from other major cities, and include in their vision to rejuvenate the area, plans to reuse the Eastwood Pottery on Lichfield Street, Hanley as part of the new canalside community, City Waterside.

RENEW also plan to create much needed space for small businesses at Atlas Works in Shelton. However, cynics may suggest that this is a tokenistic gesture to pacify those accusing them of ignorance of the importance of some of the city’s housing stock.

This is the good news. Other potbanks may not be so lucky. Arguably the potbank with the finest frontage is Boundary Works on the edge of Longton. Its Grade II Listing may save it from the usual clearance approach, but unless the local authority utilises its statutory powers in terms of forcing repairs, this impressive building may yet disappear through deterioration and neglect.

The historic Spode site on Church Street in Stoke, possibly the oldest surviving largest pottery manufactory’s in the city, and a great example of a potbank that has grown organically as opposed to have been planned, could be considered ‘under threat’ from major redevelopment.

Other potbanks at risk from either ‘comprehensive regeneration’ or neglect include the former Royal Doulton site on Nile Street, Burslem (owned by ‘regeneration specialist’ St Modwen, not known as classic restoration experts), the Falcon Pottery on Old Town Road, Hanley, and Portmeirion’s Falcon Works on Sturgess Street in Stoke.

David Proudlove     12 December 2007

 

Aerial view of Spode China Works, Church Street, Stoke, 1927
Aerial view of Spode China Works, Church Street, Stoke, 1927
-click for larger picture-

Falcon Pottery of J H Weatherby & Sons, Old Town Road, Hanley
Falcon Pottery of J H Weatherby & Sons, Old Town Road, Hanley
-click for more on Weatherby-

The frontage of the Boundary Works, King Street, Longton
The frontage of the Boundary Works, King Street, Longton



next: 'Libraries gave us power' - the libraries of the six towns
previous:
‘The Shock of the New (part 1)’ Victoria Hall Extension, Hanley