A city steeped in history and culture; York is renowned for its stunning architecture, from the grand York Minster and the iconic city walls, to the picturesque Yorkshire Museum, set in the stunning Museum Gardens. Sadly, the University of York is not held in such high architectural esteem, with a combination of monstrous 1960s accommodation blocks, ghastly sheds which resemble something you’d find at an abandoned caravan site, and a concrete jungle on the edge of the A64. Yet none of that even comes close to comparing to the mystifying, utterly bewildering and nonsensical construction of the new Vanbrugh Bridge.
For a start, it’s ugly, so very ugly, a bridge with no character, and very few endearing features. A new set of paltry metal railings hardly justifies the time and expense spent closing the bridge – during exam time – to remove the old, ever-present scaffolding. Rather than making the construction more appealing and attractive, it has become even worse than before, not adding to the allure of the University, but detracting from it.
And don’t you dare get me started on the logistics! I would love to have explained the concept behind the idea to put the railings in the middle of what was already a relatively narrow and busy bridge. Thousands of people cross the bridge every day, yet it’s now only half the width; meaning that long queues and congestion are likely when people rush from one lecture to another. It just doesn’t make sense at all.
It’s not as if people would lean over the railings if they were on the edge of the bridge and fall into the lake, and if they really are stupid enough to want to plunge into that infested and unhygienic pool of disgusting water, then they can easily hop over the new railings and book themselves a trip to A&E to have their stomach pumped. People now have to cram into a narrow space like a huddle of penguins, whilst the useful bike lane has been removed meaning that cyclists have to dismount, adding to the chaos.
My theory is that the University wanted to create a duck lane for the many creatures with webbed feet which live on our campus. If all the ducks, geese and other wildfowl forget how to swim, or decide that the water is so polluted that even they can’t cope with it, then at least they can easily wander across Vanbrugh bridge without any risk of being squashed by speeding cyclists, angry members of YUSU or journalists who are late to report on the latest sports matches.
In truth I’m not sure which is weirder, my crazy theory or the utterly bewildering construction of the bridge; but at least we have something else to moan about now. For a decade we complained about the scaffolding that seemed to have been part of the campus for longer than any of us can remember, but now it has gone we just wish someone would bring it back, rather than the logistically pointless and frankly ridiculous new improvement: at least the ducks are happy.