It’s been a rich year for anniversaries, ranging from Rembrandt’s to the 70^th birthday of first-generation new towns. The latter is an overdue reminder to flag up and celebrate the post-war British achievement that they mark (one admired, please note, around the world) and to examine the bumpy road they are facing.

Basildon started its own architectural festivities with a lot of demolition. Rising above the rubble, still eye-catching and energised by its striding V-shaped pilotis and its triangular, canted windows, is Brooke House, completed in 1962 and listed some 20 years ago. As intended, it provides the visual and social key to the town centre, pinioning the core of the new town, in particular East Square – its apron stage.

The development corporation team and their consultant Basil Spence agonised over this key area, starting with a piecemeal effort in 1956 – “pedestrian in more senses than one” wrote Kenneth Browne as he praised its replacement, this new version, in the Architectural Review in November 1962. As he wrote, “One of the major problems in creating a town centre from scratch is how to make it immediately recognisable as such.”

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