Brutal Watford

Brutalism divides opinions. Many of our best brutalist buildings have been, or are threatened with being demolished. Yet nothing is being built these days that is quite like this bold, geometric, concrete, future-facing architecture. It can be found in many, if not most town and city centres, and every building is pretty much unique.

Watford, where I live, is no exception; several of the multi-storey car-parks have spiral exit ramps reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim museum in New York City, and the old Telephone Exchange, built in the 1950s, has recessed windows of varying shapes whose angled surrounds catch the light in different ways to add texture to the grey walls.

Today I took a walk around the town centre with my 70-200mm lens and visited some of these often overlooked gems. Only once was I approached by a suspicious member of staff, but once I explained what I was doing he was affable enough. For the full set, go to nickminers.com/brutal_watford (or, if you’re based in the USA and want to buy a print, use nickminers.com/brutal_watford_usa to avoid expensive transatlantic shipping fees).