Tag: Walsall

December 8th – Lichfield Street in Walsall is an interesting place. Home of the Town Hall, Library and several elegant, large victorian buildings, this tree-lined, wide street often gives the impression of Cheltenham. Interspersed with the large statement buildings is an interesting variety of old and new; bars, takeaways and shops for the service industry. At night, it’s beautifully atmospheric with the lights from the Arbor Lights bar shining out, glistening of the wet tarmac. Note the ghost sign for Dartmouth Stationers, long ago closed and converted to a chemist.

December 6th – In contrast to The Butts, which I featured a few days ago, this part of Scarborough Road in Pleck, south west Walsall, is a classic interwar estate of council houses. Built well in the days when slum clearances were just starting, these were good quality homes, built to last. Few now remain in social ownership, but the wide open street lined with trees belie a social dream that endures. I cycle this road often; it provides a viable, alternative route to the busy Pleck Road that runs parallel. On this cold, winters morning, just like in The Butts, life rumbles on; in defiance of all common sense a proud owner was washing his car, music played and neighbours chatted. All of life is here.

Sadly, I left my camera at work, so this is the only photo for today, sorry.

December 2nd – Coming up from Caldmore (‘Karma’ to locals), passing over Church Hill in Walsall at 6pm, I couldn’t resist a few night shots around the church. The view of Paddock, is one I’ve found fascinating for years, particularly at night. Just about the last large concentration of tower blocks in Walsall, oddly they survived whilst others were demolished. The church and grounds are wonderfully atmospheric at night and offer great views of the marketplace and beyond to the north, and the Ditch area and Ablewell Street to the east. A century ago I’d have been overlooking a heaving, densely packed slum. How times change.

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 30th – Whilst sat waiting at the lights on the junction of Wednesbury Road and Corporation Street in Walsall yesterday, I noticed something I’d not really absorbed before – it’s evident just why this road was called Wednesbury Road. The twin church towers of the hilltop town are clearly visible in the distance. I must have come this way hundred of times but never noticed before. The Black Country is a whole lot more interconnected than we often think.

November 29th – Walsall is an odd place architecturally. I love The Crossing at St. Paul’s – the former church cum shopping centre, and the wee piazza outside it where the Christmas tree sits. I don’t mind the bus station – at night, you can see what the architect was getting at. It’s all beautifully lit up… but the paving, the mixture of slate and pale grey granite composite blocks, arranged into stripes, to me at least is horrid. Further into what’s now known as ‘The Civic Quarter’ – ‘We ay pretentious, we’m not’ – there are the most horrid street lighting columns I have ever seen. I think the street furniture and paving – which clash, eye-jarringly – were purchased and some kind of urban designers fire sale. Walsall, on a civic level, does this sort of thing with alarming regularity. Weird.

November 25th – Sadly, I took some photos this morning that weren’t good enough to use, so today, I just have these I took at Rushall Church on the way home from work. There’s been a church here since 1220; the current one – The Parish Church of St. Michael the Archangel – being built around 1856, with the elegant, thin spire added later in place of an older, square one that was thought to have been centuries old. It’s a gorgeous church, tucked away in the side streets off the Lichfield Road in an almost rural location; at night it’s beautifully lit and brilliantly atmospheric, with the busy, crowded churchyard adding to the atmosphere. At 6pm I was undisturbed and the church and surrounding streets eerily quiet. A hidden gem.

November 24th – Tonight, as I came from Walsall Station (always go home with the wind behind you if possible), I noticed the Christmas lights had been switched on. This is a long way from last year, when council leader Mike ‘Blofeld’ Bird was making a big show that there was no budget for Christmas, before u-turning and passing around the upturned flat cap of councillor Anthony Harris and begging enough from business to pay for a tree. It seems our leader has realised austerity is not a vote winner, as this year there’s a full timetable of events planned. The switch on this year seemed to involve a crowd of happy young kids singing round the tree, which does look rather decent in front of the Crossing at St. Pauls. So much better than the lamp-post based wigwam Amey took the piss out of the town with for a few years…

A late bonus video clip from Thursday, 20th October – This man is an idiot.

Walsall, Leicester Street – Freer Street – Bridge Street junction, about 10 AM.

If you know this cyclist, please tell him from me that he’s an inconsiderate, dangerous cock and that I’m fed up with taking the flak for arseholes like him.

The rules of the road apply to us, too.

October 7th – Sure enough, five minutes later I was pottering through Highgate to Six Ways. I love this bit of Walsall: Victorian foursquare townhouses, tree-lined streets, wedged in between the Birmingham Road and edgier Caldmore. The sun was out and the sun is always kind to these old, old streets. Forgetting the asphalt and cars, I should think they’ve change little in the last hundred years.