British supermarkets have clock towers. One might walk in sight of them for years, decades even, without wondering why, or noticing that the clocks are typically nonfunctional, or deducing that the towers might charitably be described as follies: buildings designed to be aesthetic rather than practical. Chris Spargo explains why.
What's up with them? Who put them there? What do they want?
It starts as an admirable exercise in honoring local vernacular architecture. But the motive was tied up in anxiety at the proliferation of American-style big box stores, and the "Essex" style of retail architecture soon became a cookie cutter, itself inappropriately stamped nationwide—and back to the U.S.
Embedded below is the South Woodham Ferrers theme song in full, it being the quintessential cultural achievement of Essex County Council. Forget the spooky forests and backwaters of Ghost Box or Scarfolk: this is hauntology.
