Magical Monstrosity

Carlisle’s Civic Centre, albeit a listing building, isn’t one of the cities’ most attractive sights.  It’s an angular, modernist tower which was completed in 1964 following a design competition with 200 entries.  The area formerly housed the Ricker or Northern Gate to the city and a host of houses and state owned pubs but with archetypal 1950s enthusiasm for modernisation, the land was cleared to create the site for Carlisle’s  only “tower block”.  I’m definitely not a fan of cubic design but even so, I was enthralled to see a rainbow arcing over it on a rainy day last week.

Civic Tea

Yesterday, we had tea at the Civic Centre with the Mayor of Carlisle, Cllr. Mary Stythe.  Although it sounds impressive, we’ve actually known Mary for many years so it was a lovely gesture of her to invite us and some friends to share in the celebrations during her final year of council office.  We had a tour of all the civic offices and the council chamber before Nerea and her friends tried on the official robes.  The Civic Centre building might be a hideous 60s nightmare but I’m still very much in favour of the ancient traditions of local government