The enigma of a parking lot accessible only by foot

For want only of a ramp to bring motorists to their lofty perch, a Farnborough 'car park' is a philosophical riddle in the sky

Tuesday 08 March 2016 00:20 GMT
Comments
The “Get Carter” car park in Gateshead was celebrated for the brutalism of its architecture
The “Get Carter” car park in Gateshead was celebrated for the brutalism of its architecture (Rex)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

It was the 18th-century philosopher of radical empiricism David Hume who wrote, in A Treatise of Human Nature: “All ideas, especially abstract ones, are naturally faint and obscure: the mind has but slender hold of them: they are apt to be confounded with other resembling ideas; and when we have often employed any term, though without a distinct meaning, we are apt to imagine it has a determinate idea annexed to it.”

One wonders, then, what he might have made of the application of the term and idea “car park” to the roof of a gym in Farnborough, where, we discover, there is access only on foot.

Certainly the urban planners in this unprepossessing Hampshire town may well have imagined that the term “car park” had the determinate idea “car” annexed to it, but it seems it was not to be.

As an intellect as great as Hume’s would probably not be needed to discern, they ran out of money to complete this particular civic work. For want only of a suitable ramp to bring the motorists to their lofty perch, this Farnborough car park is left as a philosophical riddle in the sky.

It could have been so different. Car parks can be challenging, even coruscating. The Parc des Celestins in Lyons is one such, the converted Art Deco Michigan Theatre in Detroit (where else?) another, while the “Get Carter” car park in Gateshead was celebrated for the brutalism both of its architecture and the scenes filmed there (it has been replaced by an unusually insipid design for a branch of Tesco Extra).

The car-park-without-cars hasn’t their presence, obviously, but it has acquired a global sense of enigma, and how many gym roofs can clam that?

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in