Yesterday we met up with David and Jeannie for breakfast at Quilligan's in town and I took the camera down with me to get some shots of a group of buildings that are due for demolition any time.
Whilst we walked towards them I noticed that the front of Abingdon Street Market, mentioned a few entries ago, has now been revealed and what a nice job they have made of it. There was a local Radio Wave van parked outside and vaguely through the window of the market I could see the cheery form of Hayley Kay the DJ who with her partner Ged Mills wakes me up every morning.
I thought I'd nip in to tell her to stop waking me up every morning - sometimes I'm just not ready, you know... She seemed a bit busy so I grabbed a photo and swapped a grin and left her to it.
This was what I'd really wanted to photograph - it wasn't the best day for taking photos yesterday (and is even worse today) but it does look like the work to knock this row down is fairly imminent! If we get a sunny day I'll go and have another look.
This is Talbot Road opposite the railway station. The row has seen better days admittedly and is being demolished to pave the way for part of the town centre refurbishment. A large Sainsburys store is to be built in this area also utilising the space vacated by the indoor bowls arena which was demolished a while ago.
The row has been altered a couple of times in its history. Looking at the few surviving arched windows it must have looked quite spectacular when new. A lot of the brickwork has been covered by stucco towards the right and the car showroom looks like an addition as the flat roof certainly doesn't look "in keeping"!
A shame I didn't go down to take the photo a few months ago whilst shops were still open and before the barricades went around it. But better to take it now than not have a reminder of it at all!
