The Herald

Architecture is being used to promote civic and national pride more consciously now than at any time since the nineteenth century. In Victorian times, local worthies and wealthy industrialists sought to wow the masses and instil this sense of pride through the elegance, scale and grandeur of public buildings. Paisley, Scotland's largest town, has more than its fair share of fine structures, many gifted by local mill owners, such as the Clark Town Hall and the Thomas Coats Memorial Church, perhaps the finest Baptist church building in Europe. Today public buildings are seen more as a catalyst for regeneration than a reflection of it. Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine what anyone in a crinoline or top hat would have made of the so-called "concrete classic" of Paisley Civic Centre.