Urban trawl
City of London: Old Corruption in braced glass
The Occupy encampment makes the perfect backdrop against which to examine the City’s contrasts as Owen Hatherley’s series concludes
Belfast: a city riven with divisions
The physical barriers built to quell sectarian violence in Belfast feel disturbingly close to home
Mediocrity has been wealth’s bequest to Aberdeen
Since Aberdeen became the UK’s oil capital, its city centre has not seen a single worthwhile building
Edinburgh: A planning tradition that is the opposing force to grands projets
A process of ’conservative surgery’ has helped create an impressive city - making its low points all the less forgivable
The Valleys: some of the saddest sights in Britain
The south Wales Valleys bear the architectural scars of their brutal history
Croydon: one of London’s more surreal urban experiences
Grand ambitions and patchy execution are a recipe for urban misery in the London Borough of Croydon, the Mini-Manhattan of the South-east
Bristol feels as though it’s been asleep since 1910
Two centuries on from its heyday, Bristol presents an apathetic, scarred, yet striking face to the world
Barrow-in-Furness: kept on life support by perpetual warfare
Once dubbed ’the English Chicago’, Barrow-in-Furness has been kept alive by the nuclear arms industry
Middlesbrough: exploring the ‘least resilient’ place in the UK
Patchy attempts to revive post-industrial towns are producing unsettling results in Teeside, one of Britain’s most blighted regions
Cardiff: Baudrillard at the Eisteddfod
With two districts competing for Cardiff’s administrative crown, the result is a city confused by its architectural patchwork
Cambridge blues
Beyond its historic centre, Cambridge’s modern architectural landscape speaks of dislocation and secrecy
Woolwich gets a kick up the Arsenal
Since the closure of its munitions factories, Woolwich has become one of the most deprived parts of London. But now Witherford Watson Mann’s public realm improvements are leading a major effort to turn the area around
Manchester: Heaven knows it’s miserable now
Manchester is hailed as a flagship for successful regeneration but along the way it has lost all appetite for civic architecture
Nottingham: A notty problem
Nottingham hopes to be ‘2012 world design capital’ but the varying quality of its newer buildings exemplifies the problems of what to do with a post-industrial city
Southampton: What's next for this major port turned mega-retail park?
Southampton’s reliance on retail and leisure to counter a declining shipping industry has given it a new architectural identity
Plymouth: the architecture is palpably the work of men in their dotage
The modernised classicism of the rebuilt city centre was already tired by the 1940s, but Plymouth has other surprises
Brighton: the most seductive city of the new economy
Attractiveness and hypocrisy combine to create Brighton & Hove’s unique urban experience
The West Midlands: a mash-up of speculative tat and fearless originals
Carefully planned post-war townscapes fight with moneymaking imperatives in the UK’s largest unplanned agglomeration.
Preston: lacking the clout to challenge developers
While this Lancashire town of the industrial revolution has three first-class urban moments they sit in a sea of uncaring dross
Greenwich: Monument to Blair’s Britain
It’s 10 years since the Greenwich peninsula was at the centre of millennium celebrations, but its redevelopment has proved to be a microcosm of New Labour’s wasted opportunities
West Riding: Northern exposure
The stolid Victorian charms of Leeds and Bradford remain intact despite some horrendous redevelopment
Glasgow: Centuries of change
With its sixties blocks being reclad or demolished, Glasgow has never regained the architectural confidence it showed in the early 20th century
Fog on the Tyne
Successive waves of regeneration have landed Newcastle and Gateshead with a riot of architectural statements — yet an urban spirit born in the 19th century lives on
Sheffield: City of skeletons
Sheffield remains a unique city set in a spectacular landscape, but the gutted form of Park Hill exemplifies the efforts being spent to make it look like everywhere else
Milton Keynes: End of the space age
It’s the empty streets and lack of crowds that make Milton Keynes feel civilised — but attempts to bring density to the new town could spell the end for this unique quality
