More than just concrete

A recent Historic Environment Scotland (HES) survey found 60% of people reported improved wellbeing because of visiting a HES site. Because of this, they have launched Historic Places, Breathing Spaces - a new campaign to help boost wellbeing through connection to heritage.    

At Keep Scotland Beautiful, we seek to support communities to explore and celebrate the heritage of the places they value through our programme  Our Heritage, Our Future. In this blog Caroline Noble, our new Project Officer, describes how she finds joy in some of our most unloved built heritage. 

When we think about heritage and wellbeing, the first thing that probably comes to mind is exploring grand estates, castles and ancient monuments. These are all important elements of our historic environment, and the stories they tell about Scotland’s past, present and future are also crucial.  

I’ve always been particularly interested in the heritage spaces that do not necessarily fit within this traditional narrative of what heritage is supposed to look like. Places that baffle people when you explain to them that they are important heritage spaces to you. 

This is exactly what happens when I talk about the heritage that is important to me. New Town heritage, and more specifically, Cumbernauld town centre!  

Yes – you read that correctly – Cumbernauld town centre! More specifically, what is left of the original Penthouse structure. You might be thinking, 'how can such an ugly, rundown, semi-derelict building be classed as heritage?' and I would not blame you for having this reaction. When we think about heritage, we often think about architecturally pleasing, old and grand buildings and monuments. For a long time, this was how I understood heritage too.

That changed when I completed my master’s degree a few years ago, where I explored heritage spaces and the relationships that people develop with them. It opened my eyes to the possibilities surrounding heritage and what the word means. I began to understand that heritage does not necessarily have to be universally recognised as important, beautiful or even particularly old. It can be anything that makes us feel connected to a place, object, event or even a person. Heritage can be incredibly personal, and something that means very little to one person can mean everything to another.  

This has become particularly important to me through my relationship with Cumbernauld. I have grown up and lived there my whole life. I have spent most of my adult life researching, writing about and working to improve Cumbernauld and the spaces that our communities share. It is who I am, and it is part of my identity and sense of belonging here in Scotland. Some people might laugh or scoff at the idea of being connected to Cumbernauld, but I think there is something powerful about understanding the places that matter to the people who live there, even when they might not be considered special by everyone else. 

Cumbernauld was designed during the post-war New Town era as a place where people, particularly from Glasgow, could relocate to escape the overcrowded and often unsanitary living conditions of the inner city. It was designed as a ‘Town for Tomorrow’ where people could live in well-built homes, have access to services and amenities, and where jobs could be created within the town. This reflected the wider ideas behind the New Town movement and the particular social and economic history of post-war Britain, when the welfare state and the idea of caring for communities were central to how we thought about the future.

Cumbernauld town centre was central to this vision. It was designed to be a one-stop-shop for the community, bringing together shops, pubs, restaurants, dentists, doctors, cinemas and much more. It was intended to be futuristic and innovative, representing a new way of thinking about what a town centre could look like. When I look at old photographs of the town centre, I often find myself wondering what it must have felt like to live in Cumbernauld at the time. People were moving into new houses, starting new lives and becoming part of a new community, while this town centre was being created right in the middle of them. It was a place that represented hope and new beginnings.

Of course, we know that this vision did not quite follow through. The town centre has been left to deteriorate, and a lack of investment over recent years has resulted in the space becoming a shell of its former self. When I am exploring the town centre today, I am not thinking about the buckets on the floor catching rainwater leaking through the decaying roofs; I am thinking about what the building used to represent. I think about all the people who went there to meet friends, shop, or collect their messages and the excitement that must have surrounded the building when it was new. 

This does not mean that I am blind to the current condition of the building. In fact, physically spending time there has not necessarily improved my wellbeing. Seeing what it has become can sometimes have the opposite effect. However, I think there is an important distinction between the physical experience of a heritage space and the connection we can have with it. 

For me, it is the connection that has had a positive impact on my wellbeing. It is the memories and stories associated with the town centre, the art I have created and, perhaps most importantly, the people I have met through our shared experiences and love of the building. These things have allowed me to engage with the town centre in a way that goes beyond simply being physically present with the space.  

One of the ways that I have celebrated my love of Cumbernauld, and the town centre has been through art. While studying for my master’s degree, I decided to use my love of the town to de-stress, creating artwork inspired by Cumbernauld and its architecture. Through this, I have also connected with other people who have their own experiences of the town centre. Some remember what it was like when it was busy, while others remember it being built from the ground up, and others remember going to the cinema or meeting friends. Our experiences are not necessarily the same, but there is a shared connection to the building and what it represents, and I think that is where the relationship between heritage and wellbeing becomes particularly interesting.

Enjoying heritage does not always have to mean physically visiting a heritage site. It can be looking through old photographs, researching your local area, listening to someone share their memories, creating art inspired by a place, or simply talking to someone who sees a familiar place differently. These experiences can help us develop a greater understanding of where we live and create a stronger sense of connection and belonging.  

This is one of the messages I hope to spread through my work with the Our Heritage, Our Future project. I want people to become as excited about heritage as I am, regardless of the preconceptions surrounding a particular place. I think we sometimes put too many boundaries around what we consider to be heritage, deciding that it must be old, beautiful, or architecturally significant. But heritage can be found in the everyday spaces around us. It can be a street, a housing estate, a football ground or a building that many people might consider ugly but which holds decades of memories or the people who have experienced it. 

What makes something heritage is not necessarily how impressive it looks, but the meaning we attach to it and the connections we develop with it. This is why I think it is so important that people have opportunities to explore heritage in ways that feel relevant and meaningful to them. Not everyone will want to spend their weekend exploring a castle or historic estate, and that is absolutely fine. Perhaps their connection to heritage comes through the place they grew up, the building their grandparents worked, the landscape they played in as a child or, in my case, a semi-derelict New Town shopping centre in Cumbernauld.

For me, that is the real power of heritage. It is not simply about preserving the past and protecting old buildings because we have decided they are important. It is about understanding the connections that people have with places and recognising how those connections can shape our identities, communities and hopes for the future.  

Heritage can be anything, and it can be experienced in so many different ways. It does not always have to be beautiful, ancient or universally celebrated. Sometimes it is found in the places that are overlooked, misunderstood and even disliked by others. Sometimes it is simply the place that makes you feel connected to where you come from.  

For me, that place is Cumbernauld town centre. And while it might not currently be a space that helps me breathe, my connection to it has given me something just as important: a sense of belonging, creativity, community and hope for what might come next. 

The Our Heritage, Our Future team can help your community group explore its local built, cultural and natural heritage. If you have your own version of Cumbernauld town centre, get in touch with us at communities@keepscotlandbeautiful.org to find out how we can assist you.