Category Archives: Urban scene

Jun 08 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Bash Street

Monday 7th June 2021, 9.30am (day 3,574)

Bash Street, 7/6/21

If you have no idea about the place of the comic, The Beano, in the British psyche, then this post will mean little to you. But Dundee (specifically, the publisher D C Thomson) is its home; and it was amusing to discover that Bash Street was around the corner from our hotel. This being the home (in the comic) of the gang of unruly schoolchildren, the Bash Street Kids, as depicted on the street sign.

Anyway, this was the last morning in Dundee and so the last on this little excursion outside England. A productive trip, too. There should be more to be seen of this place.

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Jun 02 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Bookable teaching space

Wednesday 2nd June 2021, 8.25am (day 3,569)

Uni pagoda, 2/6/21

These ‘pagdoas’ have sprung up around campus recently. At least we have more spaces in which we can start getting back to face-to-face. This is one of those shots where I worry that the symmetry is not quite what it could be. But it doesn’t matter too much.

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Jun 02 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Granville Square (London shot #101)

Tuesday 1st June 2021, 9.15am (day 3,568)

Granville Square, 1/6/21

On this, the 101st day that London has appeared on this blog, we had left for home by 10am, but there was still time to discover another of the quiet little corners that make this a pleasant city in so many ways, and partly explain why I come back so often. Granville Square sits not fifty yards off the Kings Cross Road, right in the centre of the city, but you wouldn’t know it on this glorious June morning.

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May 28 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Embrace Sheffield

Thursday 27th May 2021, 7.35pm (day 3,563)

Embrace, Sheffield, 27/5/21

Gosh — sunny and warm weather, and a night out with friends. Embrace both, infeed. But like Manchester, the city of Sheffield is only half-alive, so much is boarded up, shuttered, or simply closed. Huge numbers have been vaccinated and still we are pushed the fiction that everyday life has become ‘unsafe’, that asserting our freedom is selfish. This virus will be around for the rest of our lives. Time to get used to it.

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May 19 2021
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Landscape

The hillside (with non-conformist tree)

Tuesday 18th May 2021, 2.30pm (day 3,554)

Lee Wood hillside, 18/5/21

An improvement in the weather, at least temporarily. The red tree proudly stands out from its neighbours; dare to be different…

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May 14 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Princess Street

Friday 14th May 2021, 8.30am (day 3,550)

Princess Street, 14/5/21

Manchester’s still not exactly busying up on a morning, but its comatose, lockdown self is not unattractive. I like this shot — excepting the litter bin, which never helps. Nor do lampposts.

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May 12 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Desert fortress?

Wednesday 12th May 2021, 1.35pm (day 3,548)

Fortress rodblok, 12/5/21

Out in the harsh desert wastes of the Karakatarmakadam Mountains, the stark grey stonework of the Fortress of Rodblok stands astride the gravel flats, beside the dried-up river valley. Abandoned for centuries, the winter winds are now all that move through its lonely halls. No longer do pilgrims visit to pay homage to the great Red Icon embedded in its highest reaches.

Or, possibly, it’s a plastic object of some sort lying around in that roadbuilders’ yard on the way to Mytholmroyd. See it how you like.

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May 08 2021
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Under the awning

Friday 7th May 2021, 5.05pm (day 3,543)

Pub awning and heater, 7/5/21

Manufacturers of outside awnings and other shelters for pub gardens have probably been one of the few economic sectors to see some positive growth in the last few weeks. The skies were blue this evening, but it’s not going to last.

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May 06 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Human Hair, Half Price

Thursday 6th May 2021, 9.25am (day 3,542)

City Queens Cosmetics, Luton, 6/5/21

My usual policy is not to offer commercial endorsements on this blog, not that anyone’s ever asked. However, I am wide open to making an exception for this business. The magnificent optimism. The “Human Hair, 1/2 Price” sign (and what it implies about Brazilians). The sheer organisation of it. The generous 5% discount for students. People of Luton — indeed all of Bedfordshire — go there now. Don’t do it for me, do it for this guy.

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May 06 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Life in London

Tuesday 4th May 2021, 5.55pm (day 3,540)

Outside McGlynn's, 4/5/21

Back in the long hot days of June 2018 I spent a whole working week in London, most of it here, in McGlynn’s pub on Whidborne Street (see this photo for instance). Finally it is open again, albeit for outside drinking only, so I and the other customers stoically ignore the fact that it is about to rain. Tonight’s real significance was that this was the first night I have spent away from home in 2021. Life, of a sort, returns: but not yet in full.

This is the 99th London shot to feature on here, by the way.

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