Cumbernauld Falcon Restaurant and CDC Club 4th Floor

[@bluzrokluvr]

Good one Tanya as a teenager I was in the Falcon many times, the glass wall where the pigeons were coming in and out used to be where the 10 pin bowling alley was, from memory i think it was only wide enough for one lane. Also attended Seafar PS and had my wedding reception in the Golden Eagle.

[@BAztid]

My older relatives tell me the Cumbernauld town centre was quite an exciting place around the turn of the 70s. Sadly I never knew the 'Golden Eagle' era and always perceived it as a pretty grim location.

[@bluzrokluvr]

I just remembered another nugget, Friday nights in the Falcon were the nights musical duo 'Abie and Skip' played to the punters, Skip on drums and Abie on vocals and keyboard (I think) with the occasional funny (or not) story chucked in for the assembled throng. The Abie and Skip partnership eventually broke up, with Abie ultimately having his own show as a DJ on Radio Clyde in the 80's.

[@grahamwilliamson2574]

Thanks for posting Tanya..we may disagree on brutalism and architecture..which is fine...I spent many happy days roaming the old town centre as a kid in the 70s..my aunt worked in the Falcon and the Bowling alley so we got lots of freebies.. the Abetone chippy and Barbers came to life again via your video.. your choice of music is very haunting and calming..Although long gone I still have a niave love of the place.. I think we can agree that despite polarised opinions about Cumbernauld ...its people will mostly remember it fondly ..it strive d to be the futuristic utopia, it may never have quite succeeded .. but hats off to all who tried ..at leadt they gave it a shot.....excellent video ...thanks for the walk down memory lane 👍

[@elainefleming1827]

You were very fortunate the escalator was working

[@simonjones7727]

Very sad. Somewhere within that ghastly blue and white paint number are some genuinely interesting spaces. I did not realise the upper sections were quite so derelict. What on earth is going to happen to it all? Between the burning down of the Mack library (and the now the rest of the School of Art), the abandonment to ruin of the seminary in Cardross, the dynamiting of the Basil Spence blocks in the Gorbals and what (we are all fearing) will be revealed as the loss of the galleried shopping hall in Jenners you would have to say that Scotland does not look after its post 1890 architecture very well. The plans to remove the steps from the Glasgow Concert Hall (its only architectural feature) and replace them with a massive glass void seem equally forlorn.

[@leonamstevenson9250]

So, many amazing memories for us that lived there, at the time though

[@Jockinoz]

What is the Management company that owns or runs the Centre? We lived in Seafar in the sixties. Good times in the Golden Eagle, the Falcon and the bowling alley. Being a teenager back then was awesome.

[@user-Tanya1973]

The centre is managed by north Lanarkshire council but the penthouses are privately owned by a think the swan Group based in Glasgow

[@DichardSwagBoss69]

There’s not even anything up there?! I’ve passed there so many times and wondered. God that centre sucks 😂 Thanks for the vlog!

[@martin-d4h]

I can never remember the restaurant being open, it must have shut in the 70s or very early 80s. Loved the centre as a child and as a teenager for a few laughs. If I am ever up there now you notice how empty of people and shops it is compared to past times, as your film showed, there was hardly anyone there. Heard it is earmarked for demolition, not sure when though. Wonder what they will replace it with, if they intend to replace it at all. Not sure it would be viable for more shops to be built, the other phases of the centre are not all that busy as it is. Thanks for the film, subbed.

[@martin-d4h]

@@user-Tanya1973 Thanks for your reply. As you will probably know the planners vision was for the centre to be the hub of the town, and it was for a time, but for various reasons it has declined. It is sad in a way, but it is what it is. The council signed it's death warrant by giving land and permission for the retail parks, and the tesco in eastfield within the town. Online shopping is the biggest game changer I think, as towns and high streets all over the UK are finding out. Even as a child and a young adult I cannot remember anybody moaning about the centre, or how it looked, I think people were influenced by the carbuncle awards, not to say their views were wrong, in fact they were correct, maybe it just shone a light on it for some people. What do you think they will build on the ruins of the centre ? my money would be on housing.

[@grahamwilliamson2574]

​@@martin-d4h What you said is very true..the town centre was the ultimate conundrum...both loved and mocked for various reasons..usually by outsiders but it didn't feel like a carbuncle to the people that worked lived and shopped there...I dont know if its misplaced nostalgia..I still have a niave love for the place..although I'm long gone... I had an idyllic time growing up there..but the social and geo engineer's of today would rather bulldoze the whole centre and build an Amazon distribution hub with AI bots ...at least the planners tried to build a futuristic legacy even if it was a somewhat fawed concept

[@Jimbo878]

As a 10 year old I could skateboard (a new thing back then) from the entrance to "the Too nie" at the Ravenswood end, all the way downhill, and through the underpass to Our Ladies High (OLHS). Me and my pals would go to the Toonie on a "knocking spree" (shoplifting) 😮🙈.

[@patrickelliott5858]

Thats my old primary school at the end, seafar, great times back then, the cdc was a great Friday night after work as well.

[@mritchie85]

Picture at 5:00 is interesting, it would be somewhere adjacent to the RBS branch but up on an external walkway which is probably covered by the retro fitted roofing?

[@mritchie85]

@@user-Tanya1973 Had a look, thank's for the upload, did you mention a bowling alley up at that part?

[@craigbrown9940]

I was born 1976 so just missed the Falcon, very interesting.

[@grahamhaynes3420]

I read some where that the 4th floor is so post to be haunted have any off you read or have heard of this story.

[@grahamwilliamson2574]

Haunted by the spectre of architectural neglect and dereliction...the whole town centre was a huge missed opportunity to create a spacious environment that celebrated the fusion of functionality with aesthetics harmony of nature.. brutal concrete and roughcast.devoid of innovation

[@minchmoorramblers6856]

Yes that’s true. My uncle lived up there in one of the flats and I spent the night up there a few times. There was a ghost often seen in the common hallway. 3 of the flats had problems too.

[@grahamhaynes3420]

Do you know what sort of haunting it was unusual for a modern building

[@minchmoorramblers6856]

@@grahamhaynes3420I didn’t hear a conclusive explanation really but it was a tall figure, seemingly male, with a waterproof type cagoule on, also carrying an umbrella. Odd figure. Wandering the 4th floor corridor outside the penthouse doors. It was extra eerie in those days because they had to leave the town centre open overnight for access and egress for the flats. The ghost was only seen in a certain area and some flats had rattling of doors inside and outside of the flat and loud bangs. It seemed to only affect certain flats and areas. I remember a story about a worker dying, falling from the roof during construction of the 4th floor but I can’t say if that story is linked. There’s a roof area that was behind the flats but still high up. I once seen a man standing in pouring rain and he had waterproofs and an umbrella up. I went out by going down stairs and along a passageway. There was a maze of those roofing barriers and he was looking at me and trying like fuck to reach me and waving. Couldn’t really see his face. My uncle said it was “him”. It was lonely and eerie up on that penthouse area on the 4th floor. Creepy stories aside it somehow reminded me of the Bowie albums Low and Heroes. It was the bleakness. There used to be round windows like portholes. My uncle used to get knocking on his door at night but never seen anything through the peephole. There was something off and wrong about that part of the 4th floor. Something strange. There were a lot of creepy stories going around at the time, about those flats and the 4th floor. Stories that the man had hair but no face. Just darkness.