Tag: urban

March 30th – When I have to work in Leicester, I always get off the train if I can at South Wigston. The place I visit is actually closer to Leicester, but the journey from the centre isn’t very nice, to be honest.From South Wigston, on the other hand, it’s a delight. The station – whose desolation I loathe – is tucked away in the backstreets. Hitting the High Street of this suburb, about 200 yards away, it’s a busy, active and buzzing little town. There are some interesting shops, and it hums with activity. I visited a pub here once, a good few years ago now, after my train had been cancelled. It turned out the guy running it was from Brownhills. Odd, really, as at the time The Royal Exchange in Walsall Wood was being run by a couple from South Wigston…

February 22nd – Recently saved from the bulldozer, Brownhills Business Park at night is an interesting combination of discharge light, shadow and angle. Partially consisting of some of the surface buildings of the former Walsall Wood Colliery, this is an interesting little industrial park which always has lots going on, and a wide variety of businesses operate here. Lurking on the corner of this site is a former mineshaft used for dumping millions of gallons of industrial effluent in the 70’s and 80’s, so perhaps it’s for the best that they didn’t get permission to build houses on this site. 

February 22nd – After a thoroughly awful day at work, I disembarked from the train at Walsall to find myself travelling home through a soft, pervasive drizzle. The town was looking particularly down-at-heel in the dusk, although, it has to be said, twilight at 5:45 is a wonderful thing right now. Walsall has never been blessed with architectural complexity, and on days like this, it really, really shows. I love this place with all my heart, but by jove, it’s very hard to on days like this…

February 3rd – On my way home on a perfect, bright winter’s afternoon. Tyseley Station in Birmingham is shabby and down at heel, but I like the fading industrialisation of the suburb, which is still very active and busy. Stood at the end of the platform, I noticed Birmingham’s waste incinerator running at full tilt. Opened nearly two decades ago, it was operated by Birmingham City Council for years, but now seems to be owned by Veolia, who’ve euphemistically branded it an ‘Energy Recovery Facility’. This plant incinerates household and industrial non-recyclable waste, 24 hours a day and generates energy in the process. Not an ideal solution, but better than landfill. 

December 29th – Now do you see what we have to put up with? This weather is awful. Heading into Brownhills, yesterday lunchtime. Waterproofs on, resolute into the rain. Watching for the traffic, which goes a bit silly in these conditions. Come on, weather, give us a break. Leave the rain if you must, but please, please, please drop the wind. Thanks.

The music is ‘Il Pleure’ from The Art of Noise, a lost classic from a sadly overlooked album ‘The Seduction of Claude Debussy’.

December 2nd – The Butts is a very old area of Walsall. Once the centre of the limestone mining industry, the ground beneath is riddled with now filled caverns. Here, streets of dense terraces and closely parked cars make for a great community feel and permanent air of business. I love to cycle through here; the sounds of music, chatter, aromas of cooking and people bustling with their daily routine all clash wonderfully. All this combines with a lovely, old town architecture. A great place.

November 23rd – Conversely, at sunset I was in Telford with six minutes before my train came in. I spotted this sunset skyline and just had to crack out the camera and gorillapod. Telford – as many will be aware – is not a place I’m terribly fond of, but on occasions, it throws up surprising beauty. It was again warm and clear, and the urban lighting and harsh surfaces made for an oddly iridescent scene. Magical.

November 15th – when people from outside visit Lichfield, they expect it to be rather twee and quite rural, as the guide books would have us believe. However, those knowing the city well realise that there are bits that are very, very urban, like here at Stowe, on Eastern Avenue. The flats, urban environment and traffic are worthy of any suburb of Birmingham, and are reminiscent of Erdington. Maybe Brownhills isn’t so far away from it’s posh neighbour, after all…

November 12th – A short ride round Brownhills and over the common followed a day of work and fiddling. I’m certainly getting lots of practice with night photography – hopefully I’ll be cycling in daylight again sometime soon. Brownhills ‘marina’ – a few mooring points in a weed-strewn hardstanding – does look good at night. I hope it gets some love when the Tesco reconstruction show rolls into town – but I’m not optimistic.