Tag: change

#365daysofbiking Change is continual

July 11th – Returning to Birmingham, I had another meeting, but found time to have a look at the new Centenery Square water feature, the perennially unfinished Paradise Circus project and just marvel at the pace of change.

Arriving at Snow Hill I remain fascinated by the decay of the old metro stop there: Bypassed and left unused by the city centre extension,  it remains closed off and inaccessible, gently being reclaimed by nature. I remember when that stop and the line was new. What a revolution it was, but I forget that was nearly 20 years ago.

The line extension to Five Ways looks to be coming on well, and the formerly busy Paradise Circus – romanticised and cherished by Stephen Duffy so beautifully – is completely changed, and free of traffic. The views are currently opened up and it’s fascinating to be able to appreciate the city architecture without traffic.

Birmingham is doing what it does best – changing. I’m only a casual, occasional observer these days, but it still feels like home, and a city doing it’s damnedest to move with the times.

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#365daysofbiking Waiting for a train

June 13th – It was drier in the morning, with ha hint, just a hint of sun when I headed to Telford. My jacket hood was down for the first time in a week. I could see where I was going.

Could this be the end of the rain for a while?

Lulled into a false sense of security, a flash shower caught me on the way back to the station.

Thankfully, by the time the train got to Wolverhampton the rain had been left behind.

Just one blessed day without rain, please? It’s not too much to ask, is it?

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#365daysofbiking A lifetime away

March 17th – On Lea Lane, between Newton and Admaston, a nice country house. Rambling, large, with half its garden oddly over the road, it’s a curious building.

What casual passers-by don’t realise in many cases is that this house, up until very, very recently, was actually a pub called The Wicket. In the middle of nowhere, I guess the pub had a hard time surviving, and closed like so many others. And now, you’d never know.

I went in there once. It was nice enough, but quiet as you’d expect. It seems odd now that I sat with a Guinness in what is now a total stranger’s lounge.

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#365daysofbiking A lifetime away

March 16th – In Brownhills High Street, it was largely deserted. Not just due to the lateness of the hour, but because of the awful, endless rain and scouring wind.

I don’t mind Brownhills these days: I used to find the High Street problematic, with its reminders of a more prosperous past and failed dreams of regeneration, but of late, despite the derelict scar of Ravens Court it’s actually perceptibly on the up.

New housing has bought short, local footfall, and local convenience services are doing well, I think. Slowly, very slowly, things seem to be improving.

But here and now, in the grey dusk with rain falling steadily, better days seem a whole lifetime away.

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#365daysofbiking Repurposed

January 11th – On a grim, overcast day little caught my attention but popping out of work mid day I did stop to look at a pub I thought was lost, but has found a new life – and has actually been refurbished quite well and sensitively.

The former Scott Arms in Kings Hill had been derelict for many years, having closed following the decline of nearby large factories. I had thought it would be lost forever, such was it’s decay.

However, it was bought, and permission granted for a takeaway, and over the preceding months the building has been modified and renovated.

I’m not sure if it’s actually ready to open yet, but it looks close. My best wishes to the new owners.

It’ll be handy for a spring roll when I’m working late…

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#365daysofbiking Chains changed:

November 16th – Heading back to Brownhills and home, I stopped to look at the view of Silver Street now the building works are finished here. Around 200 new, modern dwellings on what was 12 year dead wasteland and an abandoned marketplace. The change from desolation to signs of life and habitation is remarkable. Every time I see it, I struggle to take in the massive change here.

Change for the better.

About 6 years ago I speculated that this then desolate, windswept, empty place was haunted by the ghosts of civic failure. They have been exorcised, and gradually, almost imperceptibly, there are signs of life developing in my old town again. The people that live in these houses now will use the local takeaways, pop for a paper, a haircut and use the high street out of convenience. No, it’ll never boom like it did, but this trade fillip has to be welcome. 

Finally, Brownhills is becoming unshackled from the system built housing misadventure of the sixties. All we need to do now is finally rid ourselves of the blight that is Ravens Court…

July 18th – Gradually in the last week, the days have been becoming just a little cooler, and just a little bit more overcast.

I’m not sure if this is a trend, or just a dip inn an otherwise wonderful summer. 

Despite the greyness, the canal at Bentley Bridge still looked superb. I love the summer.

June 14th – Changing places. 

On the left stood Brownhills Market for near enough 25 years. where the low block facing me is was the site of Silver Court Gardens, once the 5th most deprived housing estate in the country.

Not now; a row of new build gables, a block of modern apartments. Silver Street has been transformed. There is life and activity here in what was for several years a barren, windswept wasteland.

I’m glad to see this change, and I welcome the people that will live in these places. New builds, new starts and new people. 

Not all change is bad.

June 5th – This is an urban canal in the Black Country – Between Walsall and Darlaston, at James Bridge.

It runs past the site of what was one of the most polluting factories in Europe: James Bridge Copper Refinery.

The canal is green with water lilies, and dappled with yellow and white blooms from them; flag irises aggravate my hay fever but line the water margins. Two families of Canada geese promenade in the sun.

Not all change is for the worst.

January 15th – One thing did impress, though: The new housing estate on the old market site in Silver Street is coming on apace.

I’m so glad to see this – it’s been so barren, so open here for an awful long time. To see life here at night will be wonderful, and hopefully, the nearby High Street will see more trade.

For once, I’m not pessimistic about the future of my town. We might, just might, break even.