View into a courtyard
What was a conservatory
Glass gone
Now open to the sky…
What happened?
Age and decay
Piled up over time
Timber rotted
And fallen.
But space preserved
Repurposed
Made good
New life
In old building
Through the door
Tag: Building
How to change?
How would you improve your community?
How to improve my town? We are a bit of a post industrial area. A lot of industry has gone, mining, steel works, a tyre factory and a lot of the local potteries.
There are a lot of empty industrial buildings that have been left to rot. Our country charges less VAT on new builds than restoring old buildings, so a lot just gets left. We have recently had a spate of fires in these buildings, which is worrying and probably to the advantage of absent owners ( I have no proof they are involved I must add).
Our local government seems set on building apartments and car parks, but whether they are in the right places is open to question. Meanwhile plots of green land are threatened by the builders, and like everywhere else trees are cut down, roads are built and “levelling up” is touted as a great achievement.
But why are potholes in roads left unfilled? Why are historical buildings surrounded by fencing till they fall down, why aren’t crafts and arts, which bring a wealth of creativity into an area encouraged. This was once the centre of pottery in our country, no more? We have lost so much.
Then add trees and environmental improvements to the local canal and river and maybe people would take more pride in their surroundings. I just hope things can improve. It needs LOVE!
Reflected
I still like this photo that I made into a mirrored image, the tree is just putting out catkins as Spring comes closer. But my favourite bit is the roof on the right. It sort of looks like a fish or a strange bomb? or a plane?
Falcon Works
Old bottle oven at the falcon works in Stoke. Bushes are growing out of it and the old pottery factory next to it was damaged by fire last year. Its terrible that the industrial heritage of Stoke-on-Trent is gradually crumbling. It should be renovated and reused, but it will probably be allowed to fall down. But there is no money, there is no support, there is no hope for these buildings I think. A few years ago it was suggested it could be a museum but I think the local residents opposed it because there would be traffic issues. I wish there was a chance that the dereliction could be stopped!
The actual Chapel
Just to show you what I was trying to draw today. Dark and forbidding on the outside. Great place to hear classical music concerts on the inside. I think it was built in the 1950’s or 60’s. Part of the Keele University campus.
Boarded up
An old ruin made of pinkish grey stone. The window has a white windowledge stained with green algae caused by the wet atmosphere in the area. The window is boarded with some sort of chipboard. The lower section is sodden with damp from successive rainstorms. It must be screwed into the window frame because it is sunken into the window surround, not flush with it. A bracket of metal, almost the shape of the number ‘2’ is on one side of the window, and a thin line of stonework shaped almost like an eyebrow sits in the stone course above the boarded window. This is on the first floor of the building so it would not be easily accessible from the ground. The light on the building is grey, reflecting what the sky would look like if it was visible in the photo.
I was trying to write this in a simple descriptive way. It’s harder than I thought to be accurate!
Railings
Thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt was railings. It was posted on Wednesday night before Thursdays news. I ignored the prompt yesterday, but it became obvious what I would sketch. This is not based on reality but taken from my imagination.
The bricks….
Someone had taken off the plaster and replaced the bricks, you could see it, new mortar holding them in place. The house had been bought at auction, half refurbished, needing plasterboard and plaster. It wouldn’t take much to tidy it up ready for the rental market.
But Sam was nosey, she liked riddles, and as the wallwas double thickness and she wanted to fit an extra window, well why not put a lintle in and add the bathroom window here?
She decided to get her brother to help. They would support the top of the hole with a metal beam and then knock out the hole afterwards. They managed to get the beam in but it was late so they stopped.
Early next morning she went to the house. Picking up a sledge hammer she hit the wall where the new bricks were a couple of times, there was a crack and half a brick fell out. She could see, what? Plastic behind it. Someone had wrapped a package up and stuffed it into the gap between the layers of bricks. She hit the wall again, the bricks shattered and fell to the floor. She reached in…. A bag full of ten and twenty pound notes! What were they doing there. They were new style notes, the ones that look like plastic not paper.
Should she keep them? Should she hand them in? The phrase ‘finders keepers’ came into her mind…. Should she?
Above
What is Above? Is it only sky? I have a prompt to draw for and I’m trying to think what to do. I can start with tree branches or tall buildings towering over me. They reach up above me. Basically as I’m short anything above 5ft 6 inches is above me, so that includes kitchen cupboards! Upstairs? That too….
Then the blue sky and clouds are above us. The clouds could be white and fluffy or dark and threatening rain…but mountains can also tower above us. Even hills. The Blackpool tower?
Follow that with planes, satellites, space stations….
Asteroids, meteors, comets, planets, the moon, the sun, stars, the Oort cloud, cosmic rays, the milky way, galaxies, the universe.
I’m starting to feel rather small….
Planning application
I’ve just written a comment on our local council website to oppose planning approval for development of the historic Spode Factory site in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent.
Planning application in for Spode Site. Search on Stoke.gov.uk for details. Planning application 67906/FUL comments need to be in by 20.07.22.
I wrote :
Elanora Street and the surrounding area in Stoke Town are subject to a lot of heavy traffic. I think this proposal will have a negative effect, particularly around peak traffic flow times.
In addition, as a Studio holder based at the Acava Art Studios on the Spode site I am concerned about how my business will be affected. I need vehicular access to my studio when collecting or delivering artworks and art materials. I would want to be reassured that artists in the studios will not have there businesses restricted or inconvenienced.
Spode Site is a heritage site. It should be developed with an understanding of its historical value to the town, city, and world. But instead the city council seem to be taking the low brow option of cramming ‘apartments’ onto the site.
Like the Goodsyard proposal currently in the process of being considered, it is another uninspired use of land.
In a decade of austerity it is also a question as to whether anyone would want to buy an apartment on a brownfield site where the history has been removed!
Security on the site has been reduced due to council cuts. There have been incidents of intruders entering the site in the evening and nights. Has consideration been given to the security when the work goes ahead?
Finally I want to say I believe this proposal is ill-conceived and destructive of a historical site. The development will be detrimental to Stoke’s standing as a heritage centre. So much of our local history is being allowed into crumble into dust. The council has a short sighted bias which does not seem to want to take responsibility for Stoke-on-Trents culture
Mallaband-Brown 