Tag: interesting architecture

February 10th – A little way down the High Street, the pleasant church of St. John, another part of Walsall Wood that looks good lit up in the dark. I’ve always liked the elegant lines of the tower and church, before the hideous modern extension was added. This was a simple, understated design that has been utterly bastardised by the cruel abuse of the architects, who completely failed to understand the beauty of this church, as they did so many in the diocese sullied by their handiwork.

February 9th – Noticed in Darlaston today, as I passed, so excuse the quick, rough photos. How fabulous is this? A normal terrace house porch, but tiled, with gorgeous deep-glaze tiles, which look original, and minton tiles on the floor.

A gorgeous flash of brightness on a very dull day. Can’t think why I’ve not noticed it before. Although not present in any of the other houses, I’d say this was original and the only one that remains in the row.

February 5th – In the backstreets of industrial Darlaston, part of the former Guest, Keene and Nettlefolds works: Salisbury House. Half derelict now, decaying ungracefully, a red terracotta brick edifice in mock victorian gothic complete with bay windows and cornices. The saddest part is that it’s almost impossible to get a good photographic angle on it.

This is a remarkable building – rather ugly, but beautifully executed; it has a proud heritage and it’s sad to see it carried to dust like this.

I think the internal light fittings are probably collectors items, and that lost football must have been frustrating for the poor kids that kicked it up there…

January 28th – And this is the thing with Darlaston – it takes your breath away. It was around 5:20pm, not yet properly dark, and the view through Victoria Park over the mystic bridge was just superb.

I’m a Brownhills lad, through and through – but I do love this place too. It has heart, and soul, and surprising corners when you get to know it. Just like Brownhills.

These are my places, and here my heart will always lie.

Thankfully, the camera got its act together for this one…

January 22nd – I returned from Walsall early evening, in a better frame of mind. It was cold, for sure, but it wasn’t a bad night overall. Station Street and it’s taxi rank always looks good at night, with surprisingly good architecture if one looks closely. 

The Square outside the crossing at St Paul’s is also good in the dark, the lights of the bank and The Imperial Pub look welcoming and warm.

January 17th – Passing through Walsall on an errand in the afternoon, I looked at something that’s ever-present, yet I seldom pay attention to; the Town Hall bell tower. Rumours say it was supposed to be a clock tower, but was never designed as such and is home to a carillon of bels, which sound rather splendid.

Faded, faintly gothic and well built, like much of Walsall, it’ll scrub up just fine one day. It’s also home to a pair of peregrines, who loaf their days out in all the local high spots dropping pigeon remnants on the townspeople below.

Excellent birds.

January 16th – Scooting between Snow Hill and New Street to change trains on the way home, this snatched photo. On the left, the ‘new’ New Street, ugly as sin, dysfunctional, with a cheap, tinfoil gimcrack cladding that shows every careless dent and poor alignment in fitting. 

In the centre, Birmingham’s postwar Brutalist architecture, and on the right, something altogether older.

In the middle, people, lights and a city hiding and surviving beneath the rule.

I love this place with all my heart. Even the ugly bits.

January 14th – I had to pop to a store in Crown Wharf on the way home, Walsall’s retail park on the fringes of the town centre. I hate the place with a passion – built on a very inhuman scale, it’s horrid to walk or cycle around, and appears to be solely designed without any aesthetic merit purely to extract cash from consumers whilst doing as little as possible in the way of accommodating design.

At night it’s even more grim than in the day. A place utterly without redeeming features.

January 3rd – Ah, that prickly, uncomfortable time between New Year and starting work again. Once you get back to the grind, Christmas seems a long way off and life gets back to normal quickly, but in the interregnum between festivity and workaday occupation, things feel otherworldly and disconnected. I hate it.

The nights are opening out though, which is good; the weather hasn’t been great, particularly that morning, and I can’t seem to get anything done, which is a pain, but everything must pass.

I spun into town for a few items and some fresh air, and swung past St James, the parish church of Brownhills. I’ve always found it stark and austere, and the extension added in the early 90s (in the foreground) is, to me, hideous. But the church is the heart of Brownhills, or at least Ogley Hay, even if most of the surrounding community seemed to be Methodist.

The sky was a deep, azure blue and the moon was nearing full. It was quiet. Not a bad night to be out, but my heart was elsewhere.

I’ll feel better when I’m back at work.