IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Market Place, STEVENAGE, SG1 1DD

The luridly-coloured roundabout makes an incongruous and thoroughly unplanned contrast with the sober 1950s new town architecture.

"The architects’ department of The Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited commissioned G. Bajio, a Hungarian artist working in its offices, to produce a piece of public art for its new building on the corner of the Town Square in 1958-9." - https://www.ourstevenage.org.uk/content/topics/stevenage_sculptures/c-w-s-mural-by-g-bajio

Only open 4 days per week. Great cafe inside.

Both walls of this underpass, which is the pedestrian crossing of St George's Way, are adorned with this bas relief. The odd look is because it has been stitched together in Adobe. There are a number of repeated features. This is only about half of the length of one side.

Shown in early morning glory.

In the New Town Shopping Precinct, approaching the Town Clock.

This shows the bottom section of Stevenage's iconic clock tower. The panel on the left commemorates Stevenage Development Corporation which had responsibility for planning and building the town between 1946 (when it was first designated as a new town, one of a number in the home counties intended to absorb London 'overspill' population) and 1980. The panel on the right has a bronze relief by Fanta Belsky of Lewis Silkin, Minister for Town and Country Planning in the Attlee government. See also Image

Stevenage was the first of a series of new towns to be designated after the Second World War; they were located in a ring around London and were designed to absorb overspill population - people displaced by slum clearance and bomb damage. The architecture is unfashionable now , but in the post-war period it was seen as cutting-edge. The pedestrianised shopping centre was built between 1957 and 1959 and opened by HM the Queen; it was the first of its kind in the country and given the name Queensway. At its heart is Town Square incorporating this iconic clock tower designed by Leonard Vincent and now grade II listed. On the lower panel, facing the camera, is a bronze relief of Lewis Silkin - Minister of Town and Country Planning in the Attlee government. In this view it is raining quite heavily - the first significant rain in south east England for several weeks.

The Co-Space Offices is a newly renovated and refurbished building designed for people to rent a space for their needs if they don’t need an entire office building for their business. Formerly known as the Town Square Chambers the building used to be a Solicitors Office including a McDonald’s on the Ground Floor and 1st Floor in a small part of the building on the corner overlooking the old Bus Station, Town Square, The Plaza and Daneshill House/Mecca Bingo opposite. In May 2019 McDonald’s and the old Solicitors Office moved out the building and in September 2019 works began to convert, renovate and refurbish the building into smart office space which was updated and upgraded for 21st Century use. The project was originally scheduled to be completed in September 2020 however due to Covid-19 the project was put on hold from March 2020 until January 2021 when works continued with a completion in August 2021 and a grand opening on Friday 3rd September 2021. The Co-Space Office Block was renamed to North Block. The other end of the building still exists as of 2023 as the Town Square Chambers which is the office space used to Parking Officers however the old non refurbished end of the building will be demolished to make way for new build apartments with new ground floor retail units.