Scale: A chum has pointed out the disparity between Spaghetti Junction's hugeness, and Manchester's rather more restrained interaction with the M6 (say, here, where it meets the M62, and looks from the sky like an angry Grimace-of-McDonald's fame). Such wonderful big-tech hubris from Brum's '60s civic planners.
'Lextric: My vaguely throwaway references to Doctor Who were perhaps more apposite than I had initially thought. In the Doctor's first encounter with the Daleks in 1963, they were (narratorially) powered by static electricity supplied through the floors of their city - hence they needed ramps and couldn't go up or down stairs. Daleks are, essentially, bumper cars. Bumper cars with death rays - Daleks being the early epitome of road rage. Perhaps the Dalek design tapped into some sixties fear of a wholly car-dependent way of living, of becoming trapped within a one-man vehicle. Spaghetti Junction is one manifestation of this nightmarish fantasy: a post-nuclear complex cleansed of human life, an intimidating step-free realm in which ramps allow space-age vehicles to ascend and dip between levels. We've built part of the Dalek city on Earth - and afforded the invasion fleet a route to reach Brum city centre from the motorway.
Spaghetti Junction
The Dalek city
Pundom: There's probably a joke to be made about Gravelly Hill / Aston / Aston Villa, and whether Aston is viler than Gravelly Hill. But perhaps it's not a good one.
Cliff: And finally, some amazing footage of Spaghetti Junction when it was newish, featuring Cliff Richard in a hovercraft. Skip to 45:00 for that, and some dreadful guitar/nose-flute noise.
The villain's car boiling over on Spaghetti Junction is a Lamborghini Espada.
ReplyDeleteA name as sexy as a Vauxhall Espadrille
ReplyDelete