The headline in the East Anglian Daily Times said Colchester: Iconic Jumbo water tower could be turned into flats and restaurant. You might not know that Colchester has an iconic water tower. It was built in 1883 in Italianate style out of red brick, and is tall and high up, as you would expect a water tower to be, so you can see it from round about. I'm quite fond of it. It is especially useful if you are on the train and have dozed off, or were not paying attention, so that when the brakes go on and you realise you are approaching a stop you can see at once that it is Colchester, and you aren't still at Chelmsford or Witham. A friend who lived in the cosmopolitan centre that is East Finchley found the idea that one of Colchester's most significant buildings was a water tower faintly risible, but there you go. We have to take our amusements as we find them in the provinces.
Jumbo, or the Balkerne Water Tower as it is more correctly known, is Grade II listed, and has been shuffled from one owner to another without being used for anything since it ceased to function as a water tower in 1984. It is now rather sad, boarded off all round the bottom, with pigeons on it. The current owner, who bought it for £330,000 back in 2000, wants to turn it into offices, flats and a restaurant. The planners at Colchester Borough Council have said that this would be OK.
It turns out there is a Balkerne Tower Trust. They don't actually own Jumbo, and as far as I know haven't been campaigning with popular local support to buy it, but they are opposed to the development plans of the man who does own it. Their chairman says that 'Jumbo should be a major heritage attraction of which Colchester can be proud', and that Colchester already has enough offices, flats and restaurants around there, and that the scheme will lose money.
It is very kind and concerned of the Balkerne Tower Trust to seek to save a commercial developer from losing money in an ill-thought venture, but I'm not sure it is any of their business. Still less am I convinced that Jumbo has a viable financial future as a major heritage attraction. It is a brick tower with a water tank on the top. What are people supposed to do? Pose in front of it for their photos as if it were the leaning tower of Pisa, before climbing up the equivalent of about ten storeys to admire the view? From the top, assuming the Balkerne Tower Trust are OK about cutting holes in the sides of the tank, or putting an extra platform over it, you ought to able to see, oh I don't know, the top of William and Griffin's roof, the inner ring road, the postwar main railway station and the big new housing estate stretching up towards the hospital. I really can't see the gate money coming close to meeting the staffing costs and running expenses.
Colchester already possesses a beautiful fifteenth century grade II* listed timber framed house with a much-loved small garden called Tymperleys, which was given to the town by its previous owner, a local businessman, after he had funded its restoration. Tymperleys is currently closed, its future uncertain, and its collection of clocks moved to another museum (Hollytrees), because the council can't afford to run it, and doesn't know what to do with it. The new firstsite development is nearing completion, late, over budget and having attracted a storm of local controversy. It is 'committed to delivering a world-class centre for the visual arts and a fantastic community facility for all our residents to enjoy, free of charge.' The Mercury Theatre and the Arts Centre have both seen their funding cut, and their devotees (which includes us) are nervous that further cuts could make them unviable a few years hence. Oh, and Colchester has a delightful free entry art gallery and garden in The Minories, and there is already a town museum. With all of these buildings, which were actually designed as buildings for people to go into, not as a structure to hold up a big lump of water, providing ample space for static displays and performances and competing for public funds and private support, I'm not convinced that a Victorian water tower is going to cut the mustard as a major heritage attraction.
If Jumbo can be redeveloped commercially, and continue to sit in its familiar place on Colchester's skyline, then I say good luck to the developer, and to the businesses in the offices, and the people living in the flats, and the restaurant. You never know, a nice civilised eaterie that offered a pre-theatre menu, in-at-six-out-by-ten-past seven, slick service, food not too salty so you don't get wildly thirsty midway through the first half, understated minimalist decor, no loud music or shouty young people, bang opposite the Mercury Theatre, might even persuade some of the grey pound that you see pouring out of their cars in the multi-storey twenty minutes before curtain-up to make an evening of it and go for a pre-performance supper first, instead of having a snack in the kitchen before going out like we do.
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