Pentagon Mall Chatham Kent

July 19th, 2011

Here are a few more photographs of the original Pentagon Mall at Chatham in Kent.

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“Sheffield steel” is so ingrained in the language and the city that out of simple curiousity I have spent some time walking around the Kelham Island area following the history of steel-making.  To this end the excellent “Furnace Trail” booklet provides an introduction.

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Author’s note: I wrote this article and included the photographs to go with the post above entitled Sheffield: The Furnace Trail. In the summer of 1989 I was working on a general cargo ship called the Hudsongracht which made several port calls in Sweden of which one was Norrkoping. On a walk around town I came across this weir which took my breath away in both its size and force.  I later visited the museum detailed below.

It has a parallel industrial history to the Northern towns of England and waterworks to match.  I can still remember standing stunned in amazement at the force and grandeur of the water flowing over the weir at Norrkoping and have included a photograph of it below from Google Earth.

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On passing through Glasgow

June 17th, 2011

Travel has long been a pleasure of mine and it had been many years (nearly 19 years in this case) since work had called me North but the opportunity to catch up after almost two decades of change was irresistible.  So much is new, the Foster Armadillo concert hall, BBC Scotland, the new Zaha Hadid Riverside Museum, the Science Museum and several bridges. But better still so much is still there from last time. The Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings, the wealth of good architecture and the friendly people.

Glasgow is a city that grows on me each time I go.  Here are a very few shots of places I passed by, some of which I had time to visit and others not, but there’s always next time for it’s a city that draws you back.

On arriving at Central Station . . . let’s park our bags and . . .

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Garrison Estate Purfleet

September 26th, 2009

UPDATE: Bi-monthly meetings -> Purfleet on Thames Community Forum


Whilst looking for a cheap ex local authority flat to buy in or near London I came across the Garrison Estate at Purfleet and went down to have a look one sunny Saturday.

Click for larger image

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