City square is ripe for redevelopment

DEBATE continues in regard to the rights and wrongs of moving the Wedgwood statue a few yards away from its present spot in Winton Square, Stoke.

I am optimistic that what will amount to an almost minor re-location will not damage the integrity of the statue or the square itself. It’s well known that the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner described the square as the finest piece of Victorian axial planning in the county.

I’m not sure whether his oft-quoted laudation hasn’t helped to stymie sensible redevelopment of the square.

I would also suggest that the square looks considerably more elegant and spacially-attractive in early 20th century photographs than it does now. The reality is that it has changed radically since being laid out in the 1840s and, indeed, since 1974, when Pevsner, right, was

writing. Ignoring the key components of the splendid railway station, hotel building and Wedgwood statue, what you presently have is a clunky, difficultto-manage parking and pick-up area that is not particularly pedestrian-friendly and which detracts from the architecture around it – all of which makes it ripe for redevelopment. A little re-structuring may enhance these features rather than be detrimental. Incidentally, the Wedgwood statue might not have been placed in Winton Square had history taken a different turn – and it may have had a different appearance. In 1859, the site of Basford Bank was suggested for the planned statue, with the proposed height of the public art being 18 feet (the statue) and 40/45 feet (the statue on its plinth).

I suspect that the figure in Winton Square will take a lot less shifting.

MERVYN EDWARDS WOLSTANTON

ON THE MOVE: The statue of Josiah Wedgwood in Winton Square and our story about its relocation being given the go-ahead. Writer Mervyn Edwards says the area is ripe for change.