February 1st – I returned to Walsall in the early evening, and had to pop up to the Manor Hospital, so took a line through the Wharf, which looks better now there’s some development around it. Nice to see the Wharf Bar renewed after it’s recent closure, and with the new cinema, restaurants and bars, at last the area seems alive after years of seeming almost somnambulant.

That hotel, though. Can’t abide the architecture. It’s like some soviet secret service interrogation headquarters… and I’m a fan of Brutalism. Ugh.