February 12th – Just a stones throw away in the wonderfully named Crescent Road, this odd… garage? Stable? Workshop? 

In similar red terracotta bricks, this crumbling edifice sits between the back of the Town Hall (itself a work of gorgeous red brick Franco-Gothic Victoriana) and the similarly grand Police Station. I never noticed this before, yet I pass it loads. I looks like a workshop or garage, I’m thinking possibly for a fire engine or similar. Anyone know what the roundel represents or signifies?

Sadly, the structure appears to be failing, and I don’t think those doors have been opened in a goodly while. I hope this is saved; it may be a lowly sibling of the grand architectural statements around, but in its own way a diminutive delight.

May 14th – A hop out to get some essentials saw me caught in a downpour. Mooching around the canal, I noticed that the remainder of the old railway bridge at the canalside on Clayhanger Common was slowly being reclaimed by nature. Nothing more than the steady hydraulic pressure of organic growth is splitting apart the brickwork and reminding us that nature is really in charge, and it’s got all the time in the world.