High Wycombe's in-town shopping centre is called Eden. This offends
me, but perhaps not in the obvious way.
The name was chosen by a consultancy and has nothing to do with
High Wycombe's history, either regarding the town as a whole or
recalling what was in that space before the site was rebuilt.
Something relating to wood-turning or paper-making might have been
more appropriate. But that's not it.
There's the religious connection. As a non-religious person I am
generally not in favour of the use of religious symbolism outside its
appropriate context. But that's not really it either.
No, it's that it is meaningless. Eden has nothing to do with
re-birth, which was the nominal point of the project, renewing the
city centre which had been destroyed by the previous generation of
developers. Indeed, one of the few things that distinguishes the place
from any of the dozens of other malls within easy reach here in the
home counties is that parts of it are still open to the sky (re-using
the old street plan), so you are not completely isolated from the real
world while you're being bombarded with exhortations to buy now.
(Victor Gruen would not approve.)
"Eden" is used simply because it is a word with vaguely positive
connotations: if not the Garden of Eden, the Eden Project in Cornwall.
You could call the place "purity" or "style" or "luxury" and it would
be just as devoid of significance. And that offends me.
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