An Old Bit of Howden Park Centre

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 28 Aug 2021

Howden Park Centre is Livingston's only proper arts centre. This provides food for thought. Livingston is a newtown and therefore a micromanaged inorganic council affair. It has a population of about 60,000, higher than both Perth and Inverness. Organic settlements have only been micromanaged after things have sprung up naturally, and their ruling councils are probably used to there being lots of things there anyway. In Livingston's defence, at least it has local shops situated at sensible regular distances from people's houses. But it was designed 50 years ago and things have deteriorated since. New suburbia generally arrives with no amenities other than a playground. If sufficiently big - ie huge - they are bestowed with a sterile square, generally located close to the school and surgery, containing a small supermarket chain store, a couple of takeaways, and a hairdressers. Whilst I do see the arguments against people setting up shops in their front rooms, which is how things used to develop, I think the house builders these days are missing a trick. Instead of bunging all their legally required 'affordable homes' in a far-flung corner of the development, just spread them throughout the new scheme, located next to premises earmarked for shops and pubs which would have naturally sprung up before things got so regulated. The centre is essentially an art gallery and a 300 seat auditorium. I had a quick flick through their website and upcoming events include lots of music tribute acts, a Moulin Rouge tribute, some folk music, a couple of plays, and a magician. The site is built around the former stables and coach house of the nearby recently renovated Howden House. On a sombre note, this is the site of the first mainland Scottish deaths in World War Two. In 1940 a bomb hit the coach house, which I'm pretty sure is the central bit of this block, in between the arches, killing a woman and her granddaughter. These were the only deaths in the whole of the war in West Lothian.

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