Tag: BOAK

December 10th – If I’ve got time, when cycling to Darlaston, I like to hop onto the canal. It’s a quieter, more interesting and contemplative route, and depending how much time I have dictates where I join the towpath. Today, I was running a bit tight for time so I left it until Bridgman Street, in the industrial centre of Walsall. This is an area of small units, some old, some very new. About ten years ago, it seemed the industry here was threatened with encroaching apartments and gentrification, but the credit crunch saw to that.It’s generally a thriving, humming area with frantic commerce of the daytime being replaced by an eerie desolateness at night. 

The view from the canal bridge is quite good, if not beautiful, showing many of the architectural and development phases of Walsall. Interesting to note that you can now see St. Matthew’s Church from here, a sight impossible until the BOAK building burnt down last year.

November 8th – Walsall Station at night has an odd, other-worldly atmosphere. The view from the ramp has always been great at night, but sadly diminished since the BOAK building in Station Street was lost to arson. It’s a horrid place to wait at – particularly for those on platform one, here waiting for the Rugeley train, as usual delayed by ten minutes.  London Midland, the embattled operator of the station, have talked about removing the staff here and leaving the station unstaffed at night. If they did, I think the service would see much less use – I, personally, would not feel safe. Good old London Midland.

July 14th – A grey afternoon in Walsall. I realised at 1:30 that I had a package to collect from the central Post Office in Walsall. Taking a chance, I decided to make a dash for it. Grabbing the bike, I left at 1:35 (the office shuts at 2pm) – I was locking my bike up outside the sorting office a 1:50pm. That’s why I ride a bike.

Parcel collected, I decided to check out a new coffee shop I was hearing good things about – @coffeecomforts, in the old Tandy store underneath Tameway Tower on Bridge Street. Sadly, at 2:10pm on a Saturday, it was shut. So much for that, then…

I took mediocre tea in Costas, then explored the backstreets for a while, before heading through Caldmore, to pick up indian snacks for the week ahead at my favourite sweet centre, Harguns. On the way, I noted that the old Guildhall Mews, in Goodall Street, was quietly decaying. I remember when this was open as little shops, and you ould walk right in, around 1990. There was a CD audio specialist at the back called CDX. I don’t know how long it’s been shut, but the plant life is having a ball.

The BOAK building is still cowering, trying to look inconspicuous to the municipal arsonists, who recently torched another derelict building nearby. It’s a handsome place, and something really should be done with it. 

My eye was also caught by the White Hart, on Caldmore Green; one of the oldest buildings in Walsall I believe, and a shining example of what can be done to preserve heritage. Still can’t warm to the building though, knowing they found a petrified severed arm in the chimney. Ugh. It’s in Walsall Museum, and dubbed ‘The Hand of Glory’.