Most will be quick to dismiss Edinburgh’s Ocean Terminal as a mediocre shopping centre… but within its walls there are still phenomena worth observing. This guided walk examines some of the most prominent of them…
A Stroll Through Ocean Terminal
Blog
Remembering Camelot
During its almost 30 years of operation the Camelot theme park in Lancashire had the slogan “The land of great knights, and amazing days.” Visitors could ride a selection of flat rides and rollercoasters, play games and buy snacks at battlemented stalls, and watch knights both great and not-so-great battle it out in the jousting arena…
Ugly Town
Walsall railway station doesn’t really exist. I was once mesmerised by the dark polished floor in the vast booking hall, and in awe of its wrought-iron canopy. Now whatever’s left has been swallowed inside a shopping centre named Saddlers as commemoration of a vanished industry. The usual shops – Poundland, Claire’s Accessories, a Costa Coffee…
Ghost City
Sometimes as he walked, taking long and meandering digressions down side streets and across squares, through underpasses and over raised walkways that spanned like triumphal arches the segments of silent motorway, the architect liked to think that the very formlessness of his wanderings was a kind of pattern in itself…
Alton Towers Launch Videos
In 2019 we launched Alton Towers, a Residency Book which records the results of a weekend residency at one of the UK’s oldest and weirdest theme parks. For anyone who couldn’t make the launch in Stoke-on-Trent, we’ve put together some video clips of the readings…
Terminal
Half an inch from the south shore, a line is cast from nowhere, black dots, black dashes, almost north, almost parallel to the line of the Humber Bridge, red on green, half an inch to the left. The bridge is cut off by the ordnance grid. The dots and dashes float in a pale blue square…
On Voldemort’s Grave
A Google search for “Voldemort’s grave” will return more than 100,000 results, most of them pointing to Greyfriars Kirkyard – a modest graveyard in the middle of Edinburgh, best known as the final resting place of Greyfriars Bobby…
The Sweaty Heartbeat of the 24-Hour Gym
There are 24-hour gyms open around the clock in most cities and towns in the UK. Here we examine the daily rhythms of these strange, liminal spaces…
In the Vicinity of a Propane Gas Tank
It’s so easy to gaze disparagingly, even mournfully, on the site of an LPG tank in a garden. Easy to consider it misplaced, miscreant, a boil on the face of a view. An objection at a local planning meeting to its placement was met with a wry smile…
Pull of Distance
You leave them dancing and sneak away. Everything has been said that can be said. You’re never going to forget each other. You’ll always be friends…