Coatbridge - Landmarks

Landmarks

The built environment around Coatbridge's town centre is characterised by its mixture of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sandstone buildings and late twentieth-century precast concrete shops. The leafy Blairhill and Dunbeth conservation areas to the west and north of the town centre comprise detached, semi-detached and terraced sandstone residential buildings. The bulk of the remaining surrounding areas consist of various twentieth-century local authority housing buildings. Several high rise flats dominate the skyline. Due to the decline of industries, several private housing estates have been built on reclaimed land.

In 2007 Coatbridge was awarded Prospect architecture magazine’s carbuncle award for being the ‘most dismal town in Scotland’. The town was also recently described by Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle as 'like Bladerunner... without the special effects'.

Drumpellier Country Park is set around Woodend Loch. There are extensive woodlands, a visitor centre and a butterfly house. Monkland Canal runs through a section of the park. The Time Capsule is a multi-purpose leisure centre containing a swimming pool, an adventure pool set in a prehistoric environment, an ice skating facility, suana/steam room and a sports complex with gym halls and other facilities. The Showcase Leisure Park contains a 12-screen cinema, a 10-pin bowling complex and numerous restaurants.

Architecturally noteworthy landmarks in Coatbridge include:

• Coatbridge Leisure Centre – Peter Womersley 1970's brutalist, modernist cantilevered building sited on the main road into Coatbridge.
• Coatbridge Library – an Andrew Carnegie-sponsored 1905 pink sandstone structure. Imposing B-listed structure sited on Academy Street.
• St. Augustine's Church and buildings - Built in 1873 and located in the Dundyvan area. A red sandstone B listed Rowand Anderson Gothic church.
• The Quadrant Shopping Centre - Has been described in one article; '...from the set of Camberwick Green. A new clock tower, which looks as if it was designed on the back of a beer mat, marks the town centre, a throwaway gesture compounded by the addition of some appalling public art-cum street furniture'.
• St Andrew’s Church - 1839 early Victorian Gothic church by Scott Stephen & Gale in the Whitelaw hill area. Its steeple towers over the town centre.
• Coatbridge railway bridges - The B-listed 1898 bridges span Bank Street, West Canal Street and the former Monkland Canal. The bridges are currently undergoing specialist restoration.
• St Mary’s Church - B listed Gothic church in Whifflet designed by Pugin and Pugin in 1896. Contains an elaborate and ornate interior ceiling.
• the former Cattle Market Building - Erected in 1896, B listed façade of the sandstone cattle market building within the Blairhill and Dunbeth conservation area. Now part of a modern housing development.
• Summerlee Heritage Park 2008 Extension - Spaceship style glass and metal addition to existing building by North Lanarkshire Council's in-house Design Services Team. Part of a two year £5 million renovation project.