For no apparent reason at all other than the article appeared on the headline page of Wikipedia yesterday, I started reading all about Frank Lloyd Wright.
Like most children of the Sixties my introduction to his name came when I played the family’s compulsory copy of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” – it was illegal in the UK for any household not to own a copy – and the track “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright”, I wouldn’t even have known at that point that he was an architect had it not been mentioned in the lyrics.
But over time I grew to appreciate his art, that whole Bauhaus/Art Deco simplicity that influenced his work and spawned his own genre “Prairie School” movement, its simple, casual and easy on the eye so that even though most of Wrights stuff was designed 80 or so years ago it still looks very modern.
But what I didn’t know until reading the Wiki article was how much of a rogue he was, running off to Europe with a clients wife, cutting off his business interests in the USA because he was now in disgrace then returning a few years later and quietly starting to design again until his housekeeper went crazy and killed seven people in Wrights house with an axe, burning the place to the ground in the process – imagine if they’d had OK! magazine in those days.
Still not content with the dual scandals he then went and absconded with a Serbian dancer and her daughter after which her former husband ad the pair arrested for “transporting females for immoral purposes”, all this from an architect, who would have thunk it eh ?
But,
Then I looked up our very own John Poulson.
If you were involved in the building trade in the 1970’s (as I was) then you will probably have worked on or near a Poulson designed project, and I did, the Felling public housing project, or “that fooking git big slab of shite” as my Geordie friends were known to have referred to the monstrous wall of council flats.
Poulson wasn’t even an architect, in his own words he “was too busy to sit his exams” but went on to own the biggest architectural practice in Europe, yes Europe, not just the UK.
If you look up the word “Corruption” in any half decent dictionary it will merely state “John Poulson” by way of description, for John Poulson bribed everyone, cash, cars, “entertainment”, it mattered not, if you had a project that you could influence then he’d bung you and local politicians and not a few national politicians queued round the block for their wedge.
When Poulson eventually went bankrupt in 1971 the Home Secretary Reginald Maudling had to resign his post, what with he and his unqualified son having been employed as “consultants” for the Poulson organisation (a metaphor for “if I give you some money will you get me some government contracts”), however being the good politician that he was Maudling didn’t resign from government immediately, no, he resigned from Poulson organisation before the bankruptcy then a year later when the court hearing was told of the £500,000 (a considerable sum in 1972) that had been frittered away in bribes and the Metropolitan Police started to get interested, then Maudling resigned, for of course the Home Secretary is in effect in charge of the Metropolitan Police and that would be just a coincidence too far to try and explain.
Several others went to jail with Poulson including the leader of Newcastle City Council but three Members of Parliament managed to hide behind a loophole in the law that stated that they were not responsible for the public money that they were spending, which begs the question “well what the fook are you responsible for then ?”, but still…
Thirty years later and Bradford City Council have just demolished their 1970’s showpiece Forster Square Poulson designed city centre, and our Poulson landmark in Leeds, The International Swimming Pool is now closed and awaiting the wrecking ball, Newcastles Poulson designed City Hall still stands though, as do the “fooking git big slabs of shite” at Felling where, in another story, I shall relate the tale of Ray Gibson and the Felling Mafia.
Architects eh, who would have thought it ?
When did the swimming pool close Gary? Do they plan to build a new one? I remember going there many, many times in my early teens. Seems like only yesterday.
I remember the Poulson story/scandal. If my memory is correct, wasn’t there a problem with the copper roof of the pool that cost a fortune to fix and was directly attributable to Paulson’s design?
Also Gary, I believe after they built the pool, it was discovered they’d built it a few inches too short, so it could never be used for any kind of games such as the Commomwealth or European, plus no records could ever be set. Talk about a screw up.
Absolutely right with all of that – it was always sold as an “Olympic” swimming pool, 50 metres long etc, then after it was opened it was found to be not quite wide enough to have eight Olympic standard width lanes.
And the roof leaked too – I never quite understood why that was a problem though in a swimming pool
A friend of my dads was the manager there when it opened, I must dig out the story of our school and the last week at Cookridge St swimming baths…
The pool closed last year when they opened a new facility at The John Charles Sports Centre (formally the South Leeds Sports Stadia) in Hunslet near the M1, haven’t even seen it yet so I assume that this one is to the correct standards – the old one is still there but locked and boarded up waiting for redevelopment, probably as apartments.
I remember Cookridge St. baths well. It’s where I learned to swim. The place always scared me. I felt I was descending into the bowls of hell. What made it worse was when one time I swam in one direction and my trunks went in the opposite direction. I was never the same after that. My hopes for future Olympic swimming gold were forever dashed.
When Leeds Olympic pool opened, it was as if the swimming heavens had opened and I could see the light, but then again, seeing as Poulson had designed the roof, I probably could – literally.