Postcards from Swansea

Obliquely beginning with a postcard to Swansea

A Swansea man has been left scratching his head after receiving a postcard from Spain 29 years after it was sent.

The card, dated September 25 1986, dropped through the letterbox of Gethin Davies from Bonymaen.

Bearing two 1980s Spanish stamps and a British second-class stamp, it was sent by someone called Phyl, to a Mrs E Leon.

Mr Davies now hopes to reunite it with the person it was intended for.

Princess of Wales Court

In his postcard, Phyl writes that the weather is nice, he has a self-catering apartment near a pond, but complains about the expensive cost of Spanish bread at £1 a loaf. 

Although it was delivered to the right address on the card, Mr Davies said he has no clue who either Phyl or Mrs Leon could be.

I’ve been baffled by it really.

I suppose Mrs Leon once lived in my flat, but I’ve asked around neighbours who have lived here twenty or thirty years, and none of them have ever heard of her.

The Post Office say they have no idea what could have happened to the postcard for twenty nine years, may be it got stuck in a sorting machine, may be given that it’s got both British and Spanish stamps on it, someone found it and posted it on.

Really I’d just like to find out who either Phyl or Mrs Leon are, so I could finally give it to them after all this time.

Curiously the story does not reproduce the picture of the picture postcard.

Dear Eddie, this is a very pleasant place and the weather is just right. The food is very expensive though over £1 for a loaf of bread! We have a self catering little apartment by the side of a pond complete with ducks.

Love Phil xxx

September 25th 1986

BBC Wales

My interest is in both sides of the subject – the choice of picture and the carefully composed message on the obverse.

I have written concerning shopping precincts and shopping precinct postcards and often make reference to postcards when compiling posts about places.

There is something very poignant about the handwritten reportage of holidays past and also a sadness attached to the blank other side -sentiments forever unsent.

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all

We are all going somewhere or nowhere or other – we report back.

Having a nice relaxing holiday. Not had good weather. Got caught in rain on Friday have lost my voice. Uncle Jim laughing

Auntie Ethel & Jim

Hope Leslies finger is coming on alright

20th August 1968

Hello Sharon, hope you are as happy as can be. Sorry I can’t tell you anything about your country, as I’ve never been; not yet anyway.

Bye Don

23rd April 1979

Dear Rita, here we are enjoying our holiday with Frank, Jacky & Stuart. The weather has been very poor, but there is an improvement today. Hope all is well with you. Lynn her husband and the little ones are visiting on thursday, so we shall have a real tea-party.

Everyone joins in sending love to you.

Frank & Irene

July 23rd 1985

David, Best Wishes

From

Steve

Swansea University

Wish we were there?

Moston Miners Community Arts and Music Centre

63 Teddington Rd Moston Manchester M40 0DJ

The building began life as a pit-head bath for Moston Colliery.

Several years ago I visited the listed baths at Lynemouth

NMRS

It later became a working mans’ club.

More recently it has had a renaissance under the stewardship of local lad Louis Beckett.

The community centre now provides space for local bands to rehearse, local artists to exhibit their work, a community cafe and larger function rooms that are available for events. 

A wide range of events takes place here through the year including live gigs, pantomines, Halloween parties, cabaret nights and art exhibitions, and since 2012 it’s been home to the Moston Small Cinema which screens a range of films and sporting events.

The Skinny

I popped by a couple of weeks ago and was given a terrific tour by Paula and Lou, along with a competitively priced tasty brew and breakfast.

Work was underway for the current Art Show and evidence of the club’s affable affiliation with FC United of Manchester, along with the results of the previous week’s art activities for the local youngsters.

Let’s take a look around outside and in.

Keep an eye and ear out for forthcoming events – get y’self up there soon!

Prifysgol Abertawe – Swansea University

Campws Parc Singleton – Singleton Park campus

Whilst visiting the city for the launch of the Swansea Modernist’s book Abertawe Fodernaidd – it seemed only fitting to visit some Swansea Modernism.

Two weeks previously I had found myself at Aberystwyth University.

So I walked along the edge of the bay and cut up through the park to the University.

Singleton Park, and the Abbey, in which the university sits, were given to the borough of Swansea by John Henry Vivian, the 19th century Swansea copper magnate. The abbey was given to the university in 1923, but other campus developments, by and large, had to wait until after WW2, when a significant building programme was undertaken

The University’s foundation stone was laid by King George V on 19 July 1920 and 89 students (including eight female students) enrolled that same year. By September 1939, there were 65 staff and 485 students.

In 1947 there were just two permanent buildings on campus: Singleton Abbey and the library. The Principal, J S Fulton, recognised the need to expand the estate and had a vision of a self-contained community, with residential, social and academic facilities on a single site. His vision was to become the first university campus in the UK.

By 1960 a large-scale development programme was underway that would see the construction of new halls of residence, the Maths and Science Tower, and College House – later renamed Fulton House. The 1960s also saw the development of the “finite element method” by Professor Olek Zienkiewicz. His technique revolutionised the design and engineering of manufactured products, and Swansea was starting to stake its claim as an institution that demanded to be taken seriously.

Work began on the student village at Hendrefoelan in 1971, the South Wales Miners’ Library was established in 1973 and the Taliesin Arts Centre opened on campus in 1984. The Regional Schools of Nursing transferred to Swansea in 1992, and the College of Medicine opened in 2001. Technium Digital was completed in 2005 and, barely two years later, the University opened its Institute of Life Science, which commercialises the results of research undertaken in the Swansea University Medical School. Work commenced on a second Institute of Life Science in 2009.

In 2012 we began an ambitious campus expansion and development project, including the opening of our Bay Campus in 2015; which is home to the College of Engineering and the School of Management. In 2018 we opened the doors to two further projects, The College; Swansea University’s joint venture with Navitas (The International College Wales Swansea, ICWS) and the Computational Foundry; the home of the College of Science’s departments of Computer Science and Mathematics. 

Swansea.ac.uk

Before we get to the academic buildings here’s the Finance Building.

Formerly the School of Social Studies Building – Architects: Percy Thomas & Son 1960

RIBApix

Having been gifted the Singleton Abbey – the 1937 Library was the first new build on the site.

A competition was held in 1934 to find an architect to design a new library building.

The winner was Verner Owen Rees, a London architect with Welsh heritage. The Library opened in the autumn of 1937 and was known as the ‘New Library’, and has later become known as the ‘1937’ or ‘Law’ Library.  Miss Olive Busby, who had been the University’s librarian since 1920, moved to this new building and was famous for patrolling it for the next twenty years, ensuring everyone was being quiet!

Swansea.ac.uk

RIBApix

Around the corner is the building is The Mosque.

Next we encounter the Library and Information Building – Architects: Sir Percy Thomas & Son 1963

RIBApix

Onward to the Talbot Building

Then a swift right into the lea of the Faraday Building.

Walking beneath the Faraday Tower and looking back.

To our right Fulton House – This was built 1958-62 by Sir Percy Thomas & Son – design partner Norman Thomas. The decorative scheme in the main hall is by Misha Black; the panels of The Rape of Europa by Ceri Richards are an addition of 1970.

Fulton House, which was called College House from when it first opened in 1961 until 1986, is one of the most historically significant buildings on the Singleton Campus. Throughout the early 1950s, extensive plans were put in place to expand the Singleton site. At the core of this vision was a large building that could act as a meeting place, and a social and academic hub. This is what it became after 1961. The building contained common rooms, a music room, a coffee lounge, an extra library, a book shop and a barber’s shop.

Swansea.ac.uk

Photo: John Maltby

The building has a fine array of stairways.

And decorative details.

A recent addition Lifelines by Glyn Jones 1979.

This large wall hanging measuring H305cm x W620cm hangs on the wall opposite the Ceri Richards paintings. The hangings were very dusty and the nails holding the piece up were rusty. We were able to interview the artist to find out more about how the hanging was made. Glyn Jones used a blow torch to apply pitch and PVA medium to canvas and skrim fabric that he then attached to a geometric rope structure. Gouache paint was used and a solvent fixative spray allowed the colours to become imbibed into the PVA film. The hanging was made in six panels and then the horizontal rope ends glued together on site. These glued attachments had failed several times in the past and Jones had fixed them. With his permission we decided to come up with a new approach to these fixings. After cleaning the panels, we adhered magnets into the ends of the ropes so that they would click together easily. We reinforced the vertical ropes between the sections with nylon thread. Strong polyester was attached to the back of the top edge allowing a new hanging system where the strips were screwed into the wooden fixing battens. The hanging now looks much brighter and more colourful and detaching rope problem has been permanently resolved.

International Fine Art Conservation Studios

This generously spaced mural in the form of three splendid green, red, and blue shields in glazed plastic material and black cording is a creation in which the artist, Mr Glyn Jones symbolically portrays the Holy Trinity 

The centre shield, in green, represents God the Father as creator and sustainer.

On the right of the centre shield, that is on the right hand of God the Father, is the red shield which represents our Lord and Saviour.

On the left of the centre shield, that is, on the left hand of God the Father, is the blue shield which represents the Holy Spirit.

In other ways the mural is modern in its abstract technique. Its basic symbolism is simple: a shield is for protection and green fertility sustains all life. Mr Glyn Jones is to be congratulated on a study which appealingly and joyfully presents the Holy Trinity as a protective and creative life-force that is yet associated with the Cross. His is a new and attractive achievement in the artistic tradition of Celtic Christianity.

Steve Williams

Cutting back to the Digital Technium

Controversially plans for a £30 million Student Activity Centre at Swansea University’s Singleton campus have been revealed.

Bosses say the centre will form part of a new Student Precinct and, subject to planning permission, will replace the former Digital Technium building which was built in 2003 at a cost of £9.5million.

The scheme will replace the existing Digital Technium building and will be linked to the adjacent Grade II listed Fulton House, which will also be refurbished. Together, they will form the core of the new Student Precinct. Designs to resolve the surrounding streetscape and provide new access routes across the campus are also included.

Stridetreglown

Next to the Taliesin Arts Centre Architects: The Peter Moro Partnership 1984

Peter Moro is the forgotten co-designer of the Royal Festival Hall. A German émigré who had worked with Berthold Lubetkin’s famed practice, Tecton, in the 1930s, Moro was drafted in to help realise the Festival Hall in just two short years, in time for the Festival of Britain in 1951. With a team of his former students, he created many of the interiors we see today. For Moro, the Festival Hall was a stepping-stone to a career designing many of Britain’s finest post-war theatres, particularly Nottingham Playhouse, Plymouth Theatre Royal, and the renovated Bristol Old Vic. He and his colleagues also designed some exceptional one-off houses, as well as exhibitions, university buildings, schools, and council housing, collaborating with leading talents such as the designer Robin Day.

docomomo

Also notably the Gulbenkian Theatre at the University of Hull

Set in the heart of Swansea University’s Singleton campus we exist to enrich the cultural lives of individuals and communities across the region,  presenting arts experiences for audiences in our spaces and on the streets of Swansea.

Recently reshaped internally by Rio Architects.

Carl Cozier aka Holy Moly has added decorative details to the site.

Next door the Keir Hardie Building and its Neighbour the James Callaghan Building.

Heading back on ourselves toward the Wallace Building.

Percy Thomas was commissioned to design new buildings for science and engineering, but these plans were thwarted by cost constraints. However, following the appointment of John Fulton as principal in 1947, Thomas was re-engaged to prepare a new development plan.

British Listed Buildings

Of particular note are the cast panels forming a horizontal band along the elevation.

The entrance porch has a fine ceiling.

Along with etched glass window detailing.

Echoed in the stairway’s glass infill.

Opposite we find the Grove Building.

Alongside the Glyndŵr Building.

Heading now to the student residences the rear of Fulton House to the right

Swansea University Alumni Network

The earliest halls can be seen at the centre of this postcard.

Also to the left of this later postcard.

This card shows the Singleton campus of Swansea University. Top right, the abbey which was the university’s original building; beyond that the houses around St Helens – the sports ground where in August 1968 Sir Gary Sobers scored six sixes in an over for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan.

wonkhe

Charlestown Towers

We have previously taken a look at Deepdale Court.

I returned last week to look at the remaining blocks.

Cartmel, Rusland and Somerton are all social housing.

Kentmere and Whitebeck have been adapted for senior citizens managed by Northwards Housing.

Freshfields formerly Grisedale is owned by private developers LPC Living and converted into a block of one, two and three bedroom homes.

Now, they boast floor-to-ceiling windows in the living spaces, modern fitted kitchens, and light wood-effect floors. Some also come with balconies.

A penthouse apartment, sold for £135,000 in 2008, even has a wrap-around outdoor terrace.

Manchester Evening News

The circular tiles within Grisedale’s entrance have been covered or removed.

Tower Block – 1987

Tunstall Court and Skelton Court have been demolished.

Let’s take a look back at the building of Victoria Avenue East – seen here in 1922.

The demands of an expanding industrial base and population created the need for new roads and housing.

There was subsequent development of inter-war semi-detached homes.

The urgent post-war need for temporary accommodation – was met by prefabricated structures.

Manchester City Council agreed to use the Phoenix model for their prefab estates.

A total of 43,206 Phoenix prefabs were built across the country, each one designed by the John Laing Group.

The Phoenix, designed by Laing and built by themselves as well as partners McAlpine and Henry Boot, looked much like an AIROH with a central front door. It was a two-bedroom in-situ preform design with steel frame, asbestos clad walls and an innovative roof of tubular steel poles with steel panels attached. Like all designs, it came pre-painted in magnolia, with green highlights on frames and skirting.

Phoenix prefabs cost £1,200 each constructed onsite, while the specially insulated version designed for use on the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides cost £2,000.

Wikipedia

The prefabs were eventually demolished and along came the tower blocks – Architect J Austen Bent, whose work we have seen on the Wythenshawe Walk

In the distance Chadderton Power Station – demolished in 1986.

Photographs – Local Image Collection

Here are the blocks prior to and during the current renovation programme.

Kentmere

Cartmel

Somerton

Rusland

Here are the group as of February 2023.

I was thrilled to find that each of the blocks had variants within the typology of handmade tiles.

Kentmere

Somerton

Cartmel

Rusland

There seems to be no record of attribution for these tiles – happily they are still extant.

Go and take a look.

Prifysgol Aberystwyth University

Prifysgol Aberystwyth University – Penglais Campus SY23 3AH

Led by London Welshman Hugh Owen, a small group of patriots sought from the 1850s onwards to raise enough money by public and private subscription to establish a college of university status in Wales. A project of enormous ambition, the University opened its doors in 1872 initially with a handful of teachers and just twenty five students in what was then a half-finished hotel building – the Old College on the seafront. 

The first decade presented many challenges for the University’s survival. The generosity of a few individual benefactors and organised appeals for support from the ordinary people of Wales kept the University in being, and, perhaps more importantly, deeply rooted it in the minds and the affection of the Welsh people. A matter of considerable pride is that the University has made a significant contribution to the education of women, being one of the first institutions to admit female students. 

Since those early days, Aberystwyth University has gone from strength to strength and now has more than 6,000 students and 2,000 staff. As the institution grew, its main campus moved from Old College on the seafront to Penglais Hill. This finely landscaped site enjoys spectacular views over the historic market town of Aberystwyth and the Cardigan Bay coastline. New buildings, including major arts and science developments, halls of residence, a magnificent Arts Centre and sports facilities are located here.

aber.ac

1947 and the site is developing behind the National Library of Wales.

In 2023 we closely encounter – the Visualisation Centre Mathematics and Physics Department

Opened in 2007 – designed by Boyes Rees Architects.

Sadly a Welsh architecture practice which has ceased trading under the burden of late payments, leading to the loss of forty jobs.

BBC

Its near neighbour is the Cledwyn Building – Architect: Sir Percy Thomas 1883-1969.

It has recently been Grade II listed.

In 1935 Percy Thomas prepared a plan for the layout of a new campus, and was appointed as architect for the first three buildings to be constructed – Cledwyn, Pantycelyn and the swimming bath.  This marked the beginning of the move away from the college by the sea to the college on the hill. 

Built in a simple Georgian modern style, faced with Forest of Dean stonework, the building’s main entrance features a broad architrave adorned with low reliefs of agricultural scenes, and there are decorative circular stonework emblems in between the windows of the upper floor.

The carved stone work is by David Evans.

A Manchester-born sculptor who attended the Manchester School of Art, and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. After active service in the World War I, he resumed his studies at the Royal Academy, where he was instructed by Francis Derwent Wood. In 1922, he won the Landseer Prize and later went to work in the British School at Rome. He had been exhibiting at the Royal Academy since 1921. His works from the 1920’s are mainly highly stylised religious and mythological themes. 

During his stay in the United States, he executed some significant work for public buildings in New York. The locations there included Rockefeller Center, Radio City, Brooklyn Post Office, a bank on Wall Street, St Thomas’s Church on Fifth Avenue.

Here are the four decorative panels placed higher on the building.

Liss Llewellyn

Next to the Llandinam Building

Seen here under construction in 1963

On completion in deep winter.

Tucked away at the back is this decorative concrete relief lacking attribution but gaining an ashtray.

Backtracking now to the Physical Sciences Building completed in 1962 and opened in 1963 – Sir Percy Thomas Partnership

August 1st 1962: Arthur Chater

Immortalised in this elegant educational stamp set – designed by Mr Nicholas Jenkins of the Royal College of Art 

To the right of the entrance this striking mosaic – action is ossified in the manner of a semi-permanent Pollock.

Aberystwyth Arts Centre is one of a number of campus buildings designed by Dale Owen of Percy Thomas Partnership, and completed in 1970-1972.

Built to a strongly horizontal design using grey granite aggregrate, the facade is essentially an overhanging rectangle framing of glass with an off-centre overhang. The position of the building providing unobstructed panoramic views over the main piazza style concourse and the sea beyond.

Coflein

Ribapix: Stewart Bale 1970

Let’s take a look inside the Arts Centre – to the right an exceptional collection of ceramics.

At its inception the reception area – an exemplary example of integrated interior design and architecture.

Ribapix: John Maltby 1970

David Tinker’s striking cast aluminium relief.

David began lecturing at Cardiff College of Art, later teaching and holding administrative posts at University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, retiring in 1988 as director of the department of visual art.

ARTUK

David Tinker was prominent in so many aspects of the visual arts in Wales throughout the second half of the 20th Century as a painter, sculptor, teacher, and stage designer. 

Tinker is perhaps best known as one of three originators of the 56 Group with Eric Malthouse and Michael Edmonds, the new generation of young artists in Wales who were interested in modernism and keen to ally themselves to the international art world. 

The 56 Group had no manifesto and for the most part they acted as an exhibiting co-operative; not all were abstract painters and their work was stylistically very different from one another, but all shared radical ideals. Their orderly revolt against the establishment was unique in the history of art in Wales. 

They championed abstraction and allied themselves to European and American modernism, at a time when painters in Wales were being commended for recording the urban, rural and industrial face of Wales and its inhabitants. 

As might be expected, the art establishment more readily accepted 56 Group avant garde works, and those artists who had been achieving some success as painters of the contemporary scene suddenly found themselves side-stepped, and labelled parochial. 

The period 1966-1974 saw in his paintings a move toward hard-edged abstraction in which Tinker employed geometry-based structures, simple arithmetical problems, colour mixed from a restricted palette, and gentle tonal gradation. 

Free Library

Huddersfield Re-walked

I have walked this way before.

More than once, though that’s no reason not to do so again – so I did.

Saying hello to Harold.

Harold saying hello to us:

Nostalgia won’t pay the bills; the world doesn’t owe us a living; and we must harness the scientific revolution to win in the years to come. This scientific revolution is making it physically possible, for the first time in human history, to conquer poverty and disease, to move towards universal literacy, and to achieve for the whole people better living standards than those enjoyed by tiny privileged classes in previous epochs.

He warned change would have to reach every corner of the country; The Britain that is going to be formed in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for the restrictive practices or for outdated methods on either side of industry.

Fabian Society

Standing sentinel over one of Nikolaus Pevsner and John Betjeman’s favourite railway station front elevations.

Through a passage darkly.

Emerging into the light of day and the demolition of the Kirklees College 1969-72 by Borough Architect Charles Edmund Aspinall.

My thanks to the Metropolitan team who invited me in beyond the barriers.

We provide safe and efficient demolition services across a broad range of projects, from the small domestic dwelling to  large scale industrial units – we offer the complete solution. With excellent communication and impeccable health and safety standards, we can project manage the decommissioning a structure on time and on budget.

Edward VII is under wraps.

Everything else is up for smash and grab – including the later concrete block immortalised by Mandy Payne.

LIDL is coming – and some homes

The final details have now been signed off by the council and work on the six-acre site – which includes the Grade II-listed original Huddersfield Royal Infirmary – can now begin.

The vandal-hit and fire-damaged late 1960s and early 1970s college buildings are to be demolished and Lidl will build a new supermarket with a 127-space car park. The store will eventually replace the store on Castlegate.

The former hospital will be retained and the site will see 229 apartments and an office complex. The apartments are expected to be for older or retired people.

Huddersfield Hub

The inter-war infirmary is also destined for an imminent demise.

Next we take a turn around the bus station.

Changes are afoot for the buses.

Huddersfield’s £20M game-changing bus station is set to be completed by the end of 2025 with a living grass roof, sixty bike cycle hub, upgraded shops and new facilities

The project between West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Kirklees Council aims to transform one of West Yorkshire’s busiest bus stations, and uplift the area that surrounds it.

Over the way this diminutive commercial building – with a distinctive rectangular stopped clock and boldly incised gold leaf heraldic device.

Architects: Ronald Ward & Partners.

The same crew were also responsible for Millbank Tower

Crossing the road to the Civic Centre and the perennially empty piazza which along with the Magistrates Courts and Police Station was the work of the Borough Architects team – led by Charles Edmund Aspinall.

Walking excitedly toward the Exsilite panels set in the stone faced columns – a brand name for a synthetic, moulded, artificial marble.

Magistrates Courts

Police Station

Dick Taverne served under Harold Wilson’s premiership in the 1960s, he served as a Home Office Minister from 1966 to 1968, Minister of State at the Treasury from 1968 to 1969 and then as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1969 to 1970.

In 1970, he helped to launch the Institute for Fiscal Studies, now an influential independent think tank and was the first Director, later chairman.

Wikipedia

A view up the road to Buxton House – Contractor J Gerrard.

J Gerrard & Sons Ltd’s tender for the contract was £146,210. 

The Queensgate Market and Piazza Centre is at the heart of redevelopment plans.

The vision is to create an inclusive space where families, residents and visitors can enjoy a vibrant mix of music, arts, food and more in one central area, overlooking a stunning new urban park.

Kirklees Together

The Market is currently closed.

The Piazza repurposed – currently housing the regeneration exhibition.

The council plans to demolish the Piazza Centre and create a new events/live music venue, a food hall, a museum and art gallery, a new library and a new multi-storey car park, all centred around a new Town Park.

Huddersfield Hub

I do hope that the decorative panels and door handles survive.

Wandered around the University Campus as the light faded.

Barbara Hepworth Building Architects: AHR

Named after one of the Twentieth Century’s finest artists, the space nurtures a new and inspired generation of designers. Through visual and physical connection, the environment encourages students to work together, stimulating communication and ingenuity, the ingredients of successful collaboration.

Take that to the bank/s

Keep savin’, keep buildin’
That interest for our love
Take that to the bank
Keep savin’, keep buildin’
That interest for our love
Take that to the bank

Shalamar

HSBC was designed by Peter Womersley, who also designed the thoroughly modern private house, Farnley Hey, near Castle Hill, which won the RIBA Bronze Medal in 1958.

Halifax Building Society

Having walked around town for more hours than enough I sought respite in The Sportsman and a glass of Squawk multi-berry fruited sour

Deepdale Court – Blackley

Deepdale Court Northwold Drive Manchester M9 7HX

On the way betwixt somewhere and there I took time to come here.

A tower block on high ground on the edge of Blackley.

One of nine seventeen-storey blocks containing eight hundred and forty six dwellings.

Committee approval date: 1967

Building contractor: Direct Municipal Labour

The two blocks that were demolished were Tunstall Court and Skelton Court.


Freshfields as listed is the new name for Grisedale Court as was sold by council and now private flats.

There are 16 floors in each block, 15 on one side and 16 on the other side

This area is known as the Charlestown Towers.

Tower Block

1987 – Grisedale Court with circular tiles in the entrance.

Over time the balconies have been boxed in and more recently the glazing replaced.

I was particularly interested in the hand made tiles inside the entrance – very much in the style of William Mitchell.

The Ark Royal – Harpurhey

Lathbury Road Harpurhey M9 5SY

Looks to me as though the pub was launched in the 1960’s along with the surrounding houses and shops.

In 1910 Lathbury Road looked like this.

In 1968 the area was part of the Manchester slum clearance programme.

Photo: Tommy Brooks

The real Ark Royal was built by Cammel Laird at Birkenhead, completed in November 1938.

Torpedoed and subsequently sunk on 10th November 1941.

The pub closed in 2007 – here it is in 1992.

Photo: Alan Winfield

Another great looking estate pub that was on the same estate as the Hipp which it was also fairly close to.


There was the usual two rooms inside, I had a drink in the bar room which was quite busy on my Friday afternoon visit, there was also a more comfortable lounge.


The pub was a Robinsons tied house, there were two real ales on, I had a drink of Robinsons Bitter which was a nice drink, there was also Robinsons Mild on.


Another pub that was was well pleased to do.

Never Ending Pub Crawl

Here its is in 2007.

Photo: Mikey

The pub currently trades as the Pathfinder Church.

We are committed to the growth and development of individual, our local and international communities. In the interim may I use this medium to invite you to be part of the move of God in our church, the Pathfinder.

The Lord bless your richly as you navigate through in Jesus name.

Sainsbury’s Stockport

Warren Street Stockport, north of Lancashire Bridge beside the Mersey – seen here in the 1920s a mix of retail, dwellings and industry as was most of the town centre.

The river was culverted and covered as it passed through in 1936

The Merseyway Shopping Centre was completed and opened in 1965 – architects Bernard Engle and Partners

A later extension followed along Warren Street.

The Sainsbury’s building can be seen beside the river – opened 29th October 1985

The branch closed in January 2021 – the Asda is still open.

Store Images – Sainsbury’s Archive

Plans to build hundreds of new homes – including a 15-storey tower block – on a vacant Sainsbury’s site in Stockport town centre are set to get the go-ahead.

Proposals that would bring more than 500 flats and 34 townhouses to the three-acre plot, in Warren Street, are set to go before the council’s planning committee next Thursday night. The 573 homes would be spread across a trio of buildings – rising in height  from five to 15 storeys. Two of these would  also have space for a range of potential uses, ranging from shops and cafes to gyms and creches.

Manchester World

Martin Halsey, operations director at Amstone Ventures, added:

We can see that Stockport has untapped demand for quality homes within its town centre, offering a vibrant lifestyle and everything Stockport town centre has to offer, all on the doorstep.”

Took a look around the site before it’s no longer possible to look around the site.

Peter House – Manchester

Currently trading as Spaces.

Take in all the best that Manchester’s creative scene has to offer and let your imagination go wild.

In 1807 you really had to use your imagination to discover the creative scene.

The site was home to the Prince’s Theatre:

Constructed by Metcalf and Waterson at a cost of £20,000, and designed by the architect Edward Salomons. The Theatre, which had seating for 1,590, opened with a production of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ on Saturday, October the 15th 1864, under the management of Charles Calvert.

Arthur Lloyd

Sadly the Prince’s Theatre was closed in April 1940 when it was sold to ABC Cinemas who planned to build a new Cinema complex on the site, the Theatre was subsequently demolished but because of the war – the new Cinema was never built

It was replaced by Rediffusion House – later Peter House architects Ansell & Bailey.

Topped out in 1957 with a pint of Chester’s Mild.

Peter House gracefully hugs the curve of Oxford Street as it leads into St. Peter’s Square. This was one of the earliest commercial buildings to be completed post-war, which demonstrates the slow economic recovery of the region. Built on a site that had been bombed, the Portland stone seemed to marry with the material narrative established by JW Beaumont and LC Howitt in their buildings of the 1950’s and following earlier interwar commercial buildings. This scheme has more panache than the rather serious facades of the Student Union building or the Law Courts though.

The stepped massing and the articulation of the wings of the building preclude the accepted commercial norm of developing to the edge of the site and instead promote a satisfying formal interplay between the six and eleven storey elements. The building has been sensitively modified despite a lack of any listed status and remains commercially viable as offices and as retail. The continued success may be attributed to the air of quality afforded by the stone, certainly it has ensured the longevity, particularly when one considers the fate that befell the easement hugging concrete of Elizabeth House – Cruickshank & Seward, 1971 across the road; it was demolished in 2012.

Mainstream Modern

Rediffusion was the first independent commercial TV franchisee, in 1956 Associated-Rediffusion struck a very lucrative deal with Granada Television, the franchise holder for weekday broadcasts in the North of England.

The company offered a low-bandwidth cable TV and radio distribution system, provided in most United Kingdom towns. Selection of TV or radio station was by means of a rotary switch, usually mounted on a wall or window frame close to the point of entry of the cable into the home.

The Rediffusion retail chain, renting and servicing TVs, radios, VCRs and hi-fi systems, was common on high streets until it was bought by Granada Rentals in 1984.

The days of the monolithic mono-culture of the sole occupant are in decline – we live in the age of the co-working space and homes of multi-use creative scene.

Peter House prevails a pale white Portland Stone embodiment of different days and different ways.

Let’s take a walk around.

As a footnote – once in the shadow of Peter House, Tommy Ducks was demolished overnight.

Apparently, its supporters managed to arrange a preservation order for the building but, according to the excellent Pubs of Manchester website, that order expired at midnight on February 12, 1993, and the pub was literally reduced to rubble before anyone could seek a renewal on February 13th.

Glasgow Central Signal Box

Situated at the junction of Salkeld Street and Cook Street

Glasgow Central Signalling Centre, located in the vee of Bridge Street Junction, opened on 2 January 1961. It replaced signal boxes at Central Station, Bridge Street Junction, Eglinton Street Junction and Eglinton Street Station. When initially opened it was capable of handling 1,000 routes.

Glasgow Central Signalling Centre closed on 27 December 2008, when its area of control was transferred to the new West of Scotland Signalling Centre – WSSC at Cowlairs. The NX panel is to be preserved. The station is currently signalled by two Westinghouse Westlock Interlockings which are controlled via an Alstom MCS control system.

Wikipedia

Portwood – 2023

Where are we?

We once were lost, but are we saved?

A remnant from a discarded photographic album locates us in Cornwall.

The Ordnance Survey places us at the heart of the Industrial Revolution.

Now we are in the shadow of Tesco Extra and a recently opened Porsche dealership.

As of 2022, the supermarket chain had a brand value of roughly 9.91 billion US dollars.

Porsche Automobile Holding SE net worth as of January 2023 is 16.51 US dollars.

By the side of the River Tame and the M60 Motorway

The 19th-century industrial concentrations in the above-named urban areas resulted in the Tame being a much polluted waterway. As well as industrial pollution from the dyes and bleaches used in textile mills, effluent from specialised paper-making cigarette papers, engineering effluents, including base metal washings from battery manufacture, phenols from the huge coal-gas plant in Denton, rain-wash from roads and abandoned coal spoil heaps there was also the sewage effluent from the surrounding population. Up to two-thirds of the river’s flow at its confluence with the Goyt had passed through a sewage works. The anti-pollution efforts of the last thirty years of the 20th century have resulted in positive fauna distributions.

Wikipedia

There is a plot of land to the left of Porsche which remains undeveloped, I often walk around this area, what would have once been for myself and others the place of childhood high jinx.

Now it is the domain of the fly-tipper, the home of the homeless, a war zone for a species which has declared war upon itself.

A desert of detritus, interpolated with tangles of brambles, seas of teasels and the ubiquitous buddleia.

This is the unofficial showroom for the unofficial Anthropocene Epoch – always crashing in a different car, during increasingly unseasonal weather, the superabundance of abundance.

It seems that the sun may set on us, before the sun finally sets.

Let’s take a peep at Portwood.

Game over.

Vehicle use affects our whole quality of local life. Traffic can be dangerous and intimidating, dividing communities and making street life unpleasant, whilst air pollution and traffic noise can make urban living uncomfortable.

Environmental Protection UK

The impacts of mass consumption are: Misuse of land and resources, exporting pollution and waste from rich countries to poor countries, obesity due to excessive consumption, a cycle of waste, disparities and poverty.

Global Issues

Swinton Square – Shopping Centre

Opened in 1966 along with the slightly later Lancastrian Hall and Library, the Swinton Square shopping precinct provided an integrated modern setting for shopping, living, learning and entertainment.

The late 60s and early 70s was a time of general prosperity – and the hard landscaping offered a soft option for the local folk.

This was the age of the Precinct, celebrated nationally with postcard after postcard.

My local haunt in Ashton under Lyne.

Local traders and national chains rubbed shoulders.

There was even a Job Centre opening- there was even a wide range of vacancies.

Following a challenging year, the letting reinforces Swinton Square as a pillar in the local community. Whilst retail has been heavily affected throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, footfall at the scheme has remained buoyant, with shoppers staying local, favouring the convenience and independent retailers of Swinton Square. Renovations began on the site of the new, temporary job centre at the beginning of the year and is due to be completed in May. The centre is expected to boost footfall and support for local, independent businesses.

Avison Young

Despite Swinton’s many strengths, it faces similar challenges to other towns. The shopping centre and other buildings in the town centre are dated and in need of investment. Demand for local housing has grown by 23% in the last five years, but there is a lack of high-quality family and affordable housing in the right locations in the area.

The vision is just the first step of the journey, the next is to appoint a developer partner who can take this vision and help shape it, through ongoing consultation and engagement with the community, into a framework and plan for Swinton that will guide future investment.  

Salford Gov UK

The road to Swinton is paved with good intentions – rather than gold.

Sadly I was too late for August’s Dino Crazy Golf.

Bonny Street Police Station – Blackpool 2022

I have been outside several times in 2016 again in 2020 – never inside.

Let’s take a look:

Photos – Blackpool Gazette

So whilst in town for a stroll I strolled by once again, the main block now tagged and tinned up.

Whilst the Courts are still in use, until they make their move in 2025, stasis seems to be the order of the day.

There are no signs as yet of the proposed redevelopment of the site.

Some day maybe

Councillors have approved a compulsory purchase order to complete the land assembly for the £300m Blackpool Central project but still hope to negotiate terms with property owners.

Blackpool Council’s executive unanimously agreed the recommendation towards enabling the Central Car Park to be transformed into a leisure destination boasting a flying theatre, virtual reality rides, a thrill and gaming zone, multi-media exhibition space and themed dining areas.

Lancs Live

Let’s veer off the promenade and assess the situation.

Lancastrian Hall & Central Library – Swinton

Completed in 1969 to designs by Leach Rhodes and Walker in collaboration with the Borough Engineer John Whittaker

Constructed at the tail end of the Sixties – the last gasp of Municipal Modernism in the Borough, providing education, edification and entertainment for the local population.

The fountain is gone, the building is closed – the party’s over.

The Fast Cars are history – well they were history, until I was told that they are still speeding along!

A council has spent £348,000 on a masterplan for a town centre that the public has never seen.

Consultants have been used to come up with ideas to regenerate Swinton in Salford.

The town centre is dominated by the imposing Lancastrian Hall, opened in 1969, with an adjoining shopping mall.

The hall housed a council library and was used for civic and community meetings, wedding receptions and election counts.

But it has been closed since 2015 after the library moved to the new Gateway Building on the other side of Chorley Road.

Manchester Evening News

So this magical structure of stairways, undercrofts, elevated walks and majestic concrete clad volumes is under threat.

Swinton and the Lancastrian Hall deserve much better.

Over 550 people took part in the recent visioning work, and we are grateful for their time and valuable contributions.

An overwhelming majority of those who shared their views saw Swinton as a good place to live and bring up a family – somewhere friendly, with a strong sense of community.

People valued their local green spaces, but strongly felt that there needed to be more investment in the town centre, and a plan to tackle empty buildings and shops.

Overall, people felt that Swinton needed to be a more vibrant place, with more going on – and more reasons for people to visit and spend their leisure time there.

The Swinton Vision

This is an opportunity to create tomorrow’s local centre, but that does rely on removing the Lancastrian Hall, rethinking the shopping centre, and repurposing the Civic Centre and the spaces around it. 

Another Brick In The Wall – Leeds

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