Coming up to Week 4 of Semester 1 on Monday and it was time to get out and carry out a shoot in the Black Country. Where to go? I had done some research into Brutalism in the Black Country and Dudley was highlighted as a location of some concrete structures that were of interest to me. It was a Saturday so I loaded my M6 and three films as well as my Q3 into my bag and set off out for the day.
What Chores?
On the way I would have to get my Mum a newspaper as she has to have the Daily Mirror TV Guide on a saturday. I stopped up at Telford Estate and saw that Ron’s barber shop was not busy so called in for a quick buzz cut. Number 1 all over I said to the stylist and that’s what I got. She even paid attention to the hairs that grow from the top of my ears, weird isn’t it?
After the haircut I was talking to Emily, another stylist who is an arty person and the person who recommended my recent trip to Jodrell Bank. She was showing me some of her images of the Northern Lights from a cracking display on Thursday night. It seems that everyone was out looking at the aurora and I chose to not return to the Ratcliffe on Soar power station where I had been earlier in the evening, I guess that would have been a good picture or two…
My mum was happy with the latest edition of the Mirror and I was in the car on the way to Dudley with no real plans but to have a look around. I was going to look at the front of an attraction that showed up in the searches as well as carrying out some street photography in the town that is mentioned in many articles describing where the Black Country is “Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.”
Dudley Arrival
As I got into the town centre I saw no signs for parking so googled it and had directions to some parking near The Malt Shovel pub. As I came around one corner to the left I could see down a hill to my right an old cinema/theatre looking building that I would walk back to and take a look. It reminded me, well the top corner of it did, of the newly painted old cinema (Odeon in Skinner Street, opened in 1937) in the centre of Wolverhampton.
Alighting from the car and paying for the day on the RingGo app I left my DJI Mini 3 Pro in the boot in case it was needed later and loaded a roll of Kodak TMAX 3200 into my M6 before strapping my Q3 to my wrist using the Peak Design Cuff strap. Then it was time to lock the car and go find the wonderful looking old building.
Film Mishap
As I write this I just realise a huge mistake I’ve made. I typed in TMAX3200 above and remembered that I didn’t change the ISO speed on the rear of the camera, so it means I’ve likely over-exposed the film. This means that I will now need to develop the film using a Pull method, where I change the time of the developing process to allow for the overexposure. As an analogy of a sort, I need to take it out of the oven (developer fluid) earlier than usual as it will cook (develop) in less time than normal. If I had exposed it with the camera set to ISO3200 I’d need to develop for 14 minutes in stock D-76 developer at 20°C, but as I shot it at ISO 400 it means that it would be three stops overexposed if I developed for that amount of time. Removing it from the developer at 10 minutes 30 seconds (according to the Massive Dev Chart) should develop the film to be three stops less time. I guess I’ll have to try it out tomorrow if I have time in the processing room. There will be some notes in a future post on this..
Multiple Odeons
Getting back to the town visit again, I strolled down the hill past a casino and then saw a lot of dressed up people heading into the old cinema/theatre building that was similar to the Art Deco Wolverhampton Odeon style. As I got closer I could see a security guard standing at the front door and allowing people in. They were heading through the old style doors you see on the front of the theatres in the West End, London and I carried on taking some photos of the front of the building. Only when I got to the other end of the frontage did it begin to make sense. It has been changed into a Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. This building was also built in 1937 according to the Modernist Britain website and designed by Harry Weedon who also designed the Wolverhampton equivalent. It’s odd that I had pieced this together by comparing the two styles against each other and this has some about from my looking further into the styles of buildings as part of my degree studies, and taking note of details that catch my eye. The black and white details take me back to imagine the scene in the 1930s when the people of the town would get dressed up to go and watch a proper movie. There would have been no television until much later so this would have been a very visually stimulating location.
It is a lovely building and a few photos of it can be seen here as I was stood on the central reservation of the main road (Castle Hill) looking at it. As I was thinking about crossing the road to get further away for my 28mm Q3 lens to get a wider view I turned to look at the other side of the road, and there was the brutalist icon I had come to see.
Animals and Concrete
The front entrance to Dudley Zoo and Castle. Strange how my luck just rolls like this sometimes. I would have looked at google maps to find out where the zoo was in the end but it is odd that it presented itself to me like this.
The front entrance of the zoo is a set of concrete waves on the top of the entrance turnstiles that are no longer used for the general entry. To get into the site you have to walk down to a building site opposite the Station pub and then walk up the windy path to the concrete building housing the shop.
Before heading for the entry and the buildings beyond, I made sure to capture some photos of the entrance and the large Z and Os that adorn the front, and have done ever since it was designed and built in 1937, the same year as both of the Odeon cinemas already mentioned. What a busy year for Dudley’s construction teams. The waves of concrete here are designed by Berthold Lubetkin and his Tecton group and these along with the other 11 structures inside the zoo are the largest remaining group of structures from the Tecton group. According to the Sophie Campbell, Daily Telegraph, 14/11/2009. (https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/save-tectons-thirties-buildings-dudley-zoo-are/docview/321720351/se-2?accountid=14685)
Tecton Plates
When I chose Dudley as a destination I wanted to see the entrance, but now I was here I wanted to see the remainder of the Tecton structures inside the zoo. Into the shop, used my Student Art Pass to get a £3 discount (£19) and then headed out into the park. The Dudley Zoo website (https://www.dudleyzoo.org.uk/tectons/) has more info on the Tecton buildings but I didn’t have this as I wandered around getting strange looks from other zoo patrons.
The entrance building and shop is one of the structures that are pretty nondescript but features such as the holes in the roof and a superfluous concrete bar across the front edge make it noteworthy and obviously a choice made by the designers.
After the entrance and checking the cameras were all working I followed the map and headed up the hill, past the rear of the main entrance waves and turnstiles. The do look old school from this angle and you can see that money has been spent on keeping them in as good condition as they can be. It is a listed building after all.
Not here to see the animals really, but there are a lot of people here to see the animals so if I want to take some photos of Black Country folk then it’s as good a place as any. Listening to the accents of the visitors it was clear that many of them are locals with their grandchildren and it was good to know that these kids are going to see similar sights as their grandparents most likely did when they were growing up. The Dudley Zoo website says that over 30 million visitors have passed through the gates, an astonishing number.
First animals with people flocking to see them were the Flamingos in their enclosure and whilst it is nice to see them, they were a bit cooped up and it felt a bit of a tight space, but I was here to snap people not Pink Birds. Silhouettes of people coming in via the plastic curtains were also fun here
After the Spider monkeys, Tortoises, Geladas, Owls and Kookaburras was the enclosure for the the Wolverines. No, not Huge Action (Hugh Jackman) but the actual creatures. They were set up in a large enclosure on the side of what would have been the polar bear enclosure originally. The concrete structures that make up this area are well put together and look like they have no place being in a zoo, but should be part of some Lido with swimmers diving in from the side on a sunny day.
Opposite this Wolverine pen was also one of the two Kiosk Concession Stands that were originally designed to serve refreshments to the guests, but according to the Dudley Zoo website, Health and Safety standards means they can no longer be used fo rthis purpose. I got a few funny looks whilst taking photos of the Kiosk building here and it’s ovoid shaped concrete covering slab. I turned around to take some photos of the Wolverine enclosure too as there were families walking past this wonderful architecture, not paying any attention to anything other than the furry beasts in the depths of the pit.
This Wolverine pit was the right hand side of the enclosure that originally featured the mighty Polar Bear and it is a huge circular arena with balconies, now off limits, that allow the guests to peer in and witness the captive behaviour of a group of Arctic Foxes.
The lines and features of this circular enclosure look to the animal focussed eye to be a large load of concrete in no discernible reason other than to keep a group of animals from escaping. The truth is though that the architecture that goes into this structure is extraordinarily well designed from reinforced concrete and has been there for 87 years. Guests are not allowed up and over the balcony areas today, I don’t know why but it’s probably to reduce stress for the animals held in captivity there.
The next enclosure, on the opposite side of the polar bear pen to the Wolverines is the Sumatran Tiger area. Where there are currently two of these magnificent beasts who wander aroudn the perimeter of the enclosure checking their territory. This is a similarly designed area and is still hosuing big cats as it was originally designed.
This photo shows the concrete structure with it’s fences, balconies and habitat, with the walked along path made by the huge cats. It feels to me, in this image, that it could be a military prison with the fences preventing POWs from escaping and seems overly imposing, especially with the CCTV camera on the fence.
They Might Be Giants
A quick wander on and I came across the Barbary Sheep enclosure which looked to be a later addition, with almost a dry stone wall effect, rather than the Tecton Concrete appearance. Next around the walk though was the Bird House, not used any longer as an aviary. Although it is in good shape it looks tired and a bit unkempt, it could do with being repurposed as something useful again I think. The circular motif and the square tiled effect ties it in with the remainder of the structures at the zoo too.
Up next was the Lemur Wood and after going through a double gate as though we’re in Jurassic Park, it was time to “Move it move it” with the stripy little devils. It was remarkable how close you could get to these funny looking beasties but there were many notes and signs to not touch them. I imagine that they could make a bit of a chomp mark in a finger if it got too close.
No real Tecton concrete in this area but too cute to not take any photos of.
Decay Away
Leaving the Lemurs and heading further around the course up to the castle I walked past the back of an enclosure set of buildings obviously made of concrete at the same time as the main facilities but the presence of ivy or another climbing plant had taken its toll on the paint and the overall appearance. It must cost a lot of money to keep these buildings in a condition that slows down the gradual decay.
Next bit of Tecton was the Sealion Pool, which was a lower height set of features but obviously of the same period as the other pens and entrances etc.
The quality of these structures did look old and past their best, giving an air of not being cared for, but I guess it’s difficult to do a lot with a listed building and keep it as close to original as it should be.
From up here I could also peer down into the Orangutan enclosure where I’d heard some of the keeper’s talk earlier. The concrete walls here look to be something akin to a military style pistol range that one might find at Bisley rifle shooting camp in Surrey,
Reaching the end of the animal trail, it was a quick walk around in the Castle and the small animals held within there, Black Rats and Mice as well as snails and bats. sounds like a witch’s brew recipe.
After a quick session of bein goverpowered by the honking stench of the bats it was a jaunt on the cable chair lift back down to the entrance and a walk around the shop. On the chair lift I could see the old Odeon cinema and looked out over the parts of Dudley that I probably wouldn’t get to today.
Once in the shop I looked around for some souvenir of the Tecton architecture, I’d normally buy a book or postcard if I go somewhere like this. Nothing visible and a quick chat with the young lady behind the till finalised the chance of getting something featuring the buildings, no chance. She ooked puzzled that someone might want a postcard of the concrete buildings, and not the castle. Never mind, at least I have some photos.
Zoolook
To summarise the trip to the Zoo, I think that the architecture in the zoo is far more interesting and less controversial than the animals bein gheld captive there. I’m not an animal rights activist and I understand the benefits of conservation provided by zoos and other breeding programmes but i do feel a bit uncomfortable looking at these animals being kept away from their natural habitat. (Even though most have never likely been in their natural habitat).
The concrete buildings are mentioned on the website but I do think that they are missing out on publicising it more for those with interest in the subject. The condition of the buildings is good also, with some big money having been spent on it over the last 20 years according to the Dudley People’s Archive. I loved seeing a whole collection of tied together buildings in the same place and it is wonderful that they’ll likely be kept for a good number of years yet.
Next Post
The rest of the journey to Dudley and a diversion on the way home will come in the next post on my blog so feel free to come back to see how I get on taking photos of people and places in the town centre of Dudley and another Black Country town…
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