Tag: Asda

February 13th – I had another stop to make on the way home – Asda. I was so bleary I got scant few of the things I was supposed to get, and if you ever want to know what a supermarket looks like after a riot, do visit Asda in Walsall late on Friday night. It was like a scene from The Day After. Complete with the walking dead – me.

I poured myself liquid down the marketplace, and the lights of the deserted Bridge snagged my attention; the night-time workers were about – posties, shopfitters, sign people – but nobody else. The light, the colour, the wet surfaces. In a moment, this place was precious.

I smiled to myself, and rode slowly, inexorably home. I remember very little of the journey, except it took me 45 minutes.

February 10th – In the same forlorn landscape stand the abandoned, decaying former Focus DIY store. A victim of the recent recession, the chain it was part of collapsed some time ago, and this site has been vacant ever since. There had been DIY stores in this spot for a long time; an older building here was host to Big K and latterly Do It All, on whose car park many local kids learned to drive. Latterly replaced by this once smart, modern building, it now rots, a testament to commercial failure.

There is a persistent rumour that Asda will move in here; the rumour endures, like a similarly untrue one about Morrisons taking over the former Blockbuster store in Brownhills because those companies bought a handful of the previous owner’s stores when they went bust. This site was of no interest to Asda, and its future is unknown, but the empty building probably won’t stand long, as it attracts antisocial behaviour and flytipping.

The golf ball was just lying there, in the car park. I have no idea where it came from, or how it got here, so I recorded it for posterity.

May 10th – Later on, back in Walsall thanks to the Sultan’s Magic Carpet that is London Midland, I cycled up Church Hill and over into Chuckery. St. Matthews was looking fine in the evening light, but the top of the market looks shabby and unloved. I still can’t get used to the architectural insensitivity of the Asda shed built nearby. A complete contrast to the fine building I passed on the corner of Bernard Street and Sutton Road. It’s one of those I’ve been passing on and off for years, but never really stopped to study. What a remarkable building, of which I know absolutely nothing. Do any readers have any information? I just love the ‘tower’…