The Centre Cumbernauld

The Centre Cumbernauld (formerly Cumbernauld town centre) is the commercial centre of the new town of Cumbernauld, Scotland. It was designed in the 1950s—as what became known as a megastructure—to be a town centre consisting of "one huge multi-storey building," according to its preliminary planning report, housing shops, apartments, a hotel, ice rink, police station and other amenities. The building was designed to be expanded upon after its initial construction. Each time the building floorplan was modified the building was said to be in a new "phase", with Phase 1 being the original floorplan. Phase 1 was completed between 1963 and 1967, and the centre was opened by Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon in May 1967. It was expanded several times, including in 2007 by the addition of the Antonine Centre, a shopping centre that is linked to the older structure by walkways and lifts. The development, promotion, and management of The Centre Cumbernauld was undertaken by the Cumbernauld Development Corporation (CDC), until the dissolution of the CDC by government order in 1996. The facility has been subject to harsh criticism over the years. It was voted "Britain's most hated building" in 2005, in a poll organised by Channel 4's programme Demolition, and was twice named Scotland's worst town centre by the Carbuncle Awards. The brutalist structure was called "a rabbit warren on stilts" by the 2001 Carbuncle judging panel. The top section of the building has been dubbed by writers including author Caro Ramsay as the "Alien's Head", due to local people observing a resemblance to fictional character E.T. In March 2022, North Lanarkshire Council announced plans to demolish the building.

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Antonine Centre

The Antonine Centre is a shopping centre in the Scottish New Town of Cumbernauld. The centre has 350,000 sq ft (33,000 m2) of retail space including a 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) Tesco Extra (in a separate building to the main centre, attached by walkways) and a 43,000 sq ft (4,000 m2) Dunnes which closed in 2018. This was replaced by a TJ Hughes in 2019 which was permanently closed in 2024.The centre was expected to open sometime in May 2007, but instead opened on 6 June 2007, following delays caused by planning disputed over the pedestrian walkways connecting the complex to existing buildings. The name is a reference to the Roman Antonine Wall, which passed through nearby Westerwood.

Cumbernauld

Cumbernauld (; Scottish Gaelic: Comar nan Allt, lit. 'meeting of the streams') is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated town in North Lanarkshire, positioned in the centre of Scotland's Central Belt. Geographically, Cumbernauld sits between east and west, being on the Scottish watershed between the Forth and the Clyde; however, it is culturally more weighted towards Glasgow and the New Town's planners aimed to fill 80% of its houses from Scotland's largest city to reduce housing pressure there. Traces of Roman occupation are still visible, for example at Westerwood and, less conspicuously, north of the M80 where the legionaries surfaced the Via Flavii, later called the "Auld Cley Road". This is acknowledged in Cumbernauld Community Park, also site of Scotland's only visible open-air Roman altar, in the shadow of the imposing Carrickstone Water Tower. For many years Cumbernauld was chiefly populated around what is now called The Village with the medieval castle a short walk away surrounded by its own park grounds. The Great House Prach Led by Lord Marek Prach was known for controlling these lands during the Medieval Era The castle frequently hosted visiting royalty and the grounds were famous for their white cattle which were hunted in the oak forest. The town began to enlarge as the weaving industry of the village was supplemented by mining and quarrying as travel across Scotland became easier due to the Forth and Clyde Canal and the railways being constructed. Cumbernauld railway station, though some distance from the village, improved communications with Glasgow, Falkirk and Stirling. Cumbernauld was designated as the site for a New Town on 9 December 1955. This led to rapid expansion and building for about 40 years until the town became established as the largest in North Lanarkshire. At the UK census in 2011, the population of Cumbernauld was approximately 52,000, housed in more than a dozen residential areas. Cumbernauld's economy is a mixture of some manufacturing, mainly on its industrial estates, as well as service industries in the town centre and in sites close to the M80. Cumbernauld was featured in Our World, the first live multinational multi-satellite television production.

Seafar

Seafar is an area of the town of Cumbernauld. The original Seafar sand pit and farm were in the middle of what is now the A8011. Early in the new town's history Seafar was more distinct from Ravenswood and Muirhead than it now is possibly due to the building schedule and signage on paths. Recently Seafar is more dominant, perhaps because neither Ravenswood nor Muirhead appear on road signs. Seafar is south of the M80 motorway and is bordered by Seafar wood, planted at the time of the construction of the town. The area was the second built in the new town of Cumbernauld, its many streets are named after famous Scottish artists and writers. St Mary's is its local Roman Catholic primary school. Seafar Primary School was demolished and replaced by sheltered housing in 2004. There is a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses next to St Mary's Primary school. The demolition of multistorey flats gave rise to a new housing development by Sanctuary Homes. Over a hundred new houses in Berryhill Road and Hume Road are due for completion in March 2018.

Carbrain

Carbrain /kar 'bren/ is a neighbourhood in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire in Scotland. It gets a brief mention on William Roy's eighteenth century map of the Scottish Lowlands. In the nineteenth century it was no more than a farm steading. An early map shows just a few buildings existed in 1864. By the start of the First World War it had not grown significantly, although there was a school near the railway station. It was sometimes spelled Carbrane. Even in 1956 Carbrain was mostly farmland with a small burn flowing through it. The map seems to show this flowing possibly down the Gully and eventually feeding the Red Burn in the Vault Glen. This burn isn't named so can't be identified with the Horseward Burn from historic maps. Derek Lyddon and James Latimer designed much of the housing in the 1960s. Construction of Cumbernauld began in 1963, and most areas of Carbrain were inhabited by the early 1970s. For the first several years, Carbrain was considered to be highly desirable as an escape from poor housing in the Glasgow area. As newer developments have been constructed in the Cumbernauld area, Carbrain has fallen into disrepair despite periods of renovation. For example over £70 million was spent building new houses around Beechwood Court watched over by Andy Scott's artwork Vitruvian Girl. Most recently there have been proposals to renovate Millcroft Road. Carbrain contains ten residential areas (Carbrain 1, 2, 3 & 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14), four churches (Carbrain Baptist Church, Cumbernauld Free Church, Cumbernauld United Reformed Church and St. Joseph's), two pubs (The Twa Corbies and The Jack Snipe), several local shops located throughout the site, along with a number of community buildings like the Red Cross Centre. Carbrain is supposed to have the Town Centre as its focus, so there was thought to be no need for serious scale entertainment or grocery shops. Carbrain was split into two sections: North and South. North Carbrain, which was built first, included Glenhove Road, Torbrex Road, Stonylee Road, Craigieburn Road, Beechwood Road and Glenacre Road. North Carbrain is within five minutes walking distance from the Town Centre, health centre and sports centre. South Carbrain includes Millcroft Road, Greenrigg Road, Kilbowie Road, Broomlands Road, and Sandyknowes, some of which are a five-minute walk from the train station. The town centre is approximately a ten-minute walk from South Carbrain. Carbrain was designed around pedestrians and, as such, has paths intertwining among its many streets. It is possible to get from one part of Carbrain to another using only footpaths. It was also designed so that pedestrians never had to walk alongside or cross a road. Hillcrest was never part of Carbrain although Carbrain Temporary School became, the now demolished, Hillcrest Primary in 1971. For that reason there is a community council for "Carbrain and Hillcrest" rather than just Carbrain. There were three primary schools within this area. Most children who lived in these areas would have attended Langlands Primary, St Joseph's Primary or Carbrain Primary (which celebrated its 50th birthday in 2016). These primaries were feeder schools for Cumbernauld High School, Greenfaulds High School or Our Lady's High School. St Margaret of Scotland Primary replaced St Joseph's Primary during a period of reorganisation. Carbrain Boys Club is a voluntary football club who are organising a festival in June 2017.