The glass and steel entrance and side of Waitrose allows you to look into the bright shop from outside.
The glass atrium at the top of Station House allows people living there to have a lounge with sunlight sunset and stars.
Yesterday evening there was a public meeting to discuss what should be done with the County Hall. Architectural drawing, were shown ,demonstrating how the undercroft could be glazed with large non reflective glass panels – inside the arches. A glass and steel lift could extend up to the upper storey and down to the basement.
There were differences of opinion, and a good discussion. The County Hall is one of 400 Grade I listed buildings that English Heritage has a duty of care to protect. Three representatives from English Heritage were there to listen to the debate. Their starting point is that they would not mind a lift going from the basement to the sessions hall (half-way up) but they would prefer it to tone in with the stone. They were not too keen on glazing in of the under croft, but were there to listen.
Some local people sided with the English Heritage view for aesthetic reasons. Others wanted better access-for-all to both a permanent Abingdon exhibition on the top floor and a changing exhibition in the sessions hall.
Opinion was also divided on glazing in, as it has been since the idea was first suggested in Victorian times, but, with advances in glass technology, some people had moved towards the idea of the undercroft being glazed in. The positive view was it could act as a show case for Abingdon and the museum. Those against were worried about spoiling the open nature, and character of the covered area, and whether the glass could withstand vandalism.
Lottery funs are soon predicted to dry up for heritage projects as the olympics takes more and more of the cash. So it is now, or …. wait ten years. A decision cannot wait … Success depend on lottery funds. and getting them depends on local people and English Heritage being behind the project.
