St Peter and St Paul, Langham, Rutland

You leave Oakham on the road into Leicestershire, and shortly come to the large, apparently undistinguished village of Langham. The name is one of the most common placenames in England, meaning simply 'long village'. But I remember this Langham for a reason I am sure many other people do. Twenty-odd years ago we used to go this way to visit friends in Derby, and if you wound down the car window at Langham you might just catch a delicious whiff of malted barley being heated, for the village was home to one of the great independent family breweries of England, Ruddles.

The day came when Ruddles was taken over Morlands of Abingdon, who closed the Langham brewery, but who were in their turn taken over by the rapacious Greene King, who closed the Abingdon brewery as well as the Langham one, and switched production of both Ruddles and Morland's Old Speckled Hen to Bury St Edmunds. But of course neither beer was ever the same.

Ruddles was a victim of its own success. In 1996, Ruddles County bitter was voted the best beer in the world no less, and was advertised on national commercial television. It even achieved 'protected geographical status', one of only three English beers to do so. But by then the brewery had only a year of its life left. I remember seeing the brewery buildings closed and derelict soon after, but they are all gone today, to be replaced by typically characterless housing. The name remains in Ruddles Avenue.

Not far off is the church of St Peter and St Paul, which Pevsner records as being large and imposing, which is certainly true, although it is a bit quirky as well, because the huge south transept is no longer balanced by the one on the north side, giving the church the shape of a letter T.

The tall spire is visible for miles, and the church is set in a wide, open churchyard. As Pevsner also observes, the interior is large, airy and spacious, but perhaps a little dull, and this is not unfair. The leaven in the lump is one of the largest expanses of Ninian Comper glass in the country, the vast windows in the east of the chancel (the orders of angels, 1907) and the transept (a selection of favourite Saints, 1912) both being his. Otherwise there is not much to set the pulses racing, but it is all pleasant enough and obviously well-loved, looked after and used.

Outside in the churchyard I noticed the grave of Sir Kenneth Ruddle, a member of the brewing family dynasty. All gone today.

Stealthy, pretty, or characterless as warships ships go?

The traditional Bahnhof Buffet may be disappearing from stations, but all is not lost. At larger stations, SBB's staff restaurants "Chez SBB" are also open to the public. While not as grand as some of their predecessors (and frequently harder to find), they offer a welcome and hearty alternative to the fast food fare increasingly offered by characterless chains.

This image shows the Chez SBB at Zürich Hauptbahnhof. The "Stammtisch" for railway workers is on the left.

Stowupland, Suffolk

Stowupland is a long, fairly characterless village on the outskirts of the town of Stowmarket.

People in Norfolk joke about odd people from Suffolk being NFS, meaning 'Normal for Suffolk'. The same abbreviation is used by people in Suffolk to mean 'Normal for Stowmarket', except in Stowmarket itself, where, of course, it means 'Normal for Stowupland'.

- Cobbold and Garrett, An Alternative Guide to the County of Suffolk

Pennsylvania Turnpike. Built in 1939-1940, one of the only remaining original service plaza buildings, which are being destroyed and replaced with characterless modern buildings. See it while you still can.

Muir of Ord Station on the Far North & Kyle of Lochalsh lines on the 2nd of October 2017

The remains of the sidings hidden away behind fencing

This was the most disappointing station of my visit in 2017 because I remember it from the mid 1980's and it was upsetting to see how it had been literally wiped clean of all of its character and turned into a clinical characterless location

St Peter and St Paul, Langham, Rutland

You leave Oakham on the road into Leicestershire, and shortly come to the large, apparently undistinguished village of Langham. The name is one of the most common placenames in England, meaning simply 'long village'. But I remember this Langham for a reason I am sure many other people do. Twenty-odd years ago we used to go this way to visit friends in Derby, and if you wound down the car window at Langham you might just catch a delicious whiff of malted barley being heated, for the village was home to one of the great independent family breweries of England, Ruddles.

The day came when Ruddles was taken over Morlands of Abingdon, who closed the Langham brewery, but who were in their turn taken over by the rapacious Greene King, who closed the Abingdon brewery as well as the Langham one, and switched production of both Ruddles and Morland's Old Speckled Hen to Bury St Edmunds. But of course neither beer was ever the same.

Ruddles was a victim of its own success. In 1996, Ruddles County bitter was voted the best beer in the world no less, and was advertised on national commercial television. It even achieved 'protected geographical status', one of only three English beers to do so. But by then the brewery had only a year of its life left. I remember seeing the brewery buildings closed and derelict soon after, but they are all gone today, to be replaced by typically characterless housing. The name remains in Ruddles Avenue.

Not far off is the church of St Peter and St Paul, which Pevsner records as being large and imposing, which is certainly true, although it is a bit quirky as well, because the huge south transept is no longer balanced by the one on the north side, giving the church the shape of a letter T.

The tall spire is visible for miles, and the church is set in a wide, open churchyard. As Pevsner also observes, the interior is large, airy and spacious, but perhaps a little dull, and this is not unfair. The leaven in the lump is one of the largest expanses of Ninian Comper glass in the country, the vast windows in the east of the chancel (the orders of angels, 1907) and the transept (a selection of favourite Saints, 1912) both being his. Otherwise there is not much to set the pulses racing, but it is all pleasant enough and obviously well-loved, looked after and used.

Outside in the churchyard I noticed the grave of Sir Kenneth Ruddle, a member of the brewing family dynasty. All gone today.

St Peter and St Paul, Langham, Rutland

You leave Oakham on the road into Leicestershire, and shortly come to the large, apparently undistinguished village of Langham. The name is one of the most common placenames in England, meaning simply 'long village'. But I remember this Langham for a reason I am sure many other people do. Twenty-odd years ago we used to go this way to visit friends in Derby, and if you wound down the car window at Langham you might just catch a delicious whiff of malted barley being heated, for the village was home to one of the great independent family breweries of England, Ruddles.

The day came when Ruddles was taken over Morlands of Abingdon, who closed the Langham brewery, but who were in their turn taken over by the rapacious Greene King, who closed the Abingdon brewery as well as the Langham one, and switched production of both Ruddles and Morland's Old Speckled Hen to Bury St Edmunds. But of course neither beer was ever the same.

Ruddles was a victim of its own success. In 1996, Ruddles County bitter was voted the best beer in the world no less, and was advertised on national commercial television. It even achieved 'protected geographical status', one of only three English beers to do so. But by then the brewery had only a year of its life left. I remember seeing the brewery buildings closed and derelict soon after, but they are all gone today, to be replaced by typically characterless housing. The name remains in Ruddles Avenue.

Not far off is the church of St Peter and St Paul, which Pevsner records as being large and imposing, which is certainly true, although it is a bit quirky as well, because the huge south transept is no longer balanced by the one on the north side, giving the church the shape of a letter T.

The tall spire is visible for miles, and the church is set in a wide, open churchyard. As Pevsner also observes, the interior is large, airy and spacious, but perhaps a little dull, and this is not unfair. The leaven in the lump is one of the largest expanses of Ninian Comper glass in the country, the vast windows in the east of the chancel (the orders of angels, 1907) and the transept (a selection of favourite Saints, 1912) both being his. Otherwise there is not much to set the pulses racing, but it is all pleasant enough and obviously well-loved, looked after and used.

Outside in the churchyard I noticed the grave of Sir Kenneth Ruddle, a member of the brewing family dynasty. All gone today.

There were only 2 stops on the tour of more than an hour and one of these was in Engelberg, Switzerland, where we had time to go up Mount Titlis (not the one in the picture). Sometimes, the tours take a hotel here but we were palmed out to some characterless roadside hotel an hour's drive away reducing our time here to just three hours. Brighton Horizon Coaches Neoplan Tourliner OU65 RFZ takes prime spot, 21st August, 2023.

This unique courthouse was erected in 1938 with WPA funding. It's really old and musty inside; needless to say I loved it. Unfortunately in 2011, this courthouse was demolished. I'm sure that it will be replaced with a charmless, characterless, modern building.

Pittsboro is a very small community located in the bend of a ridge in the center of Calhoun County.

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The harbourside in Hayle has been mostly cleared of port activity and awaits regeneration and gentrification. I suspect eventually some rather characterless blocks of flats will be provided. For now though the site is derelict

St Peter and St Paul, Langham, Rutland

You leave Oakham on the road into Leicestershire, and shortly come to the large, apparently undistinguished village of Langham. The name is one of the most common placenames in England, meaning simply 'long village'. But I remember this Langham for a reason I am sure many other people do. Twenty-odd years ago we used to go this way to visit friends in Derby, and if you wound down the car window at Langham you might just catch a delicious whiff of malted barley being heated, for the village was home to one of the great independent family breweries of England, Ruddles.

The day came when Ruddles was taken over Morlands of Abingdon, who closed the Langham brewery, but who were in their turn taken over by the rapacious Greene King, who closed the Abingdon brewery as well as the Langham one, and switched production of both Ruddles and Morland's Old Speckled Hen to Bury St Edmunds. But of course neither beer was ever the same.

Ruddles was a victim of its own success. In 1996, Ruddles County bitter was voted the best beer in the world no less, and was advertised on national commercial television. It even achieved 'protected geographical status', one of only three English beers to do so. But by then the brewery had only a year of its life left. I remember seeing the brewery buildings closed and derelict soon after, but they are all gone today, to be replaced by typically characterless housing. The name remains in Ruddles Avenue.

Not far off is the church of St Peter and St Paul, which Pevsner records as being large and imposing, which is certainly true, although it is a bit quirky as well, because the huge south transept is no longer balanced by the one on the north side, giving the church the shape of a letter T.

The tall spire is visible for miles, and the church is set in a wide, open churchyard. As Pevsner also observes, the interior is large, airy and spacious, but perhaps a little dull, and this is not unfair. The leaven in the lump is one of the largest expanses of Ninian Comper glass in the country, the vast windows in the east of the chancel (the orders of angels, 1907) and the transept (a selection of favourite Saints, 1912) both being his. Otherwise there is not much to set the pulses racing, but it is all pleasant enough and obviously well-loved, looked after and used.

Outside in the churchyard I noticed the grave of Sir Kenneth Ruddle, a member of the brewing family dynasty. All gone today.

VWS9900 Copyright VW Selburn: Cafe Rouge is reflected in the water feature at the Central Milton Keynes shopping centre. This smaller feature replaced a much larger characterless lake, which had a water fountain at its centre. I find this water feature, and the addition of the cafes a much more satisfactory replacement, making the area feel more alive.

site of 186 East Road, Cambridge

This characterless block was built in the late 1980s. But twenty six years ago, I stood on this spot and took a photograph of the Grapevine Bookshop. When I was a child, the building had housed a pet shop. I remember that they had a monkey in a cage.

I think that originally the building must have been a pub, judging by the mark of what looks like an old Tolly Cobbold sign which you can just make out in Roy Hammans' photograph which he had taken a year previously.

A few months after my 1982 visit, Grapevine moved out,Then, the building was demolished for road-widening, and appears as it is today in the photograph above.

The mythical (to me) Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. Yummy burgers and shakes. In DC, most parks are run by the National Park Service, which prefers to ban all commercial activities in parks, but when it does allow them, the rights go to the most boring, characterless operations you can imagine. Viva New York! New York City, NY.

See shot from April 2006: Shake Shack.

The Athens Heritage House is at the crossroads of historical Ancient Athens. Located on a narrow side street stps from the pedestrian zone that winds its way to the Acropolis in one direction, Monasteraki and Plaka in another direction and to the ancient Keramikos cemetary and Gazi in yet a third direction.

This charming and luxurious 3 bedroom Neo-classical home is the perfect alternative to cramped characterless hotel rooms, and priced less than a 4 or 5 star hotel.

Visit us online at www.greekvacationrentals.com

St Peter and St Paul, Langham, Rutland

You leave Oakham on the road into Leicestershire, and shortly come to the large, apparently undistinguished village of Langham. The name is one of the most common placenames in England, meaning simply 'long village'. But I remember this Langham for a reason I am sure many other people do. Twenty-odd years ago we used to go this way to visit friends in Derby, and if you wound down the car window at Langham you might just catch a delicious whiff of malted barley being heated, for the village was home to one of the great independent family breweries of England, Ruddles.

The day came when Ruddles was taken over Morlands of Abingdon, who closed the Langham brewery, but who were in their turn taken over by the rapacious Greene King, who closed the Abingdon brewery as well as the Langham one, and switched production of both Ruddles and Morland's Old Speckled Hen to Bury St Edmunds. But of course neither beer was ever the same.

Ruddles was a victim of its own success. In 1996, Ruddles County bitter was voted the best beer in the world no less, and was advertised on national commercial television. It even achieved 'protected geographical status', one of only three English beers to do so. But by then the brewery had only a year of its life left. I remember seeing the brewery buildings closed and derelict soon after, but they are all gone today, to be replaced by typically characterless housing. The name remains in Ruddles Avenue.

Not far off is the church of St Peter and St Paul, which Pevsner records as being large and imposing, which is certainly true, although it is a bit quirky as well, because the huge south transept is no longer balanced by the one on the north side, giving the church the shape of a letter T.

The tall spire is visible for miles, and the church is set in a wide, open churchyard. As Pevsner also observes, the interior is large, airy and spacious, but perhaps a little dull, and this is not unfair. The leaven in the lump is one of the largest expanses of Ninian Comper glass in the country, the vast windows in the east of the chancel (the orders of angels, 1907) and the transept (a selection of favourite Saints, 1912) both being his. Otherwise there is not much to set the pulses racing, but it is all pleasant enough and obviously well-loved, looked after and used.

Outside in the churchyard I noticed the grave of Sir Kenneth Ruddle, a member of the brewing family dynasty. All gone today.

Waiting for The Duchess of Sutherland to arrive, I amused myself by taking a few shots of Hitachi 800 units flashing past on the Great Western Mainline. As I’ve written before, there ain’t a lot you can write about these units. As far as the traveller is concerned, they’re probably quiet, fast, comfortable, civilised and all the other accolades you can think of. I find them characterless. Maybe they’ll grow on me.! One thing’s for sure, they’ll be racing up and down this stretch of track when I’ve been reallocated to that great shed in the sky!!! For the record, this is IB17 09.15 service from Paddington to Cardiff running bang on time !!

It'd been a long time since we'd been in Pacifica, in fact it was where we stayed on our first trip together. We tried figuring out how long ago that was and quickly realized we didn't want to think about it.

We had really good memories of our stay so we made this a destination. Mrs. M did some searching online and found a lot of expen$ive hotels, nothing anywhere near reasonable.

We went anyway.

We pulled into the oceanfront where we'd stayed before and there were all the pricey hotels, and there was also a sign for the Seabreeze - it's still here? Mrs. M said "let's check it out" and I was all "Yeah, right, it's gonna be the same as all the others".

She has this luck...

The place was still there. It was exactly the same as when we were there <ahem> years ago, it was half the price of the characterless chains, and there was one room left. Total Twilight Zone material but we loved it!

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All Saints, Fornham All Saints, Suffolk

What would have been a simple late 13th Century church was radically altered with the addition of aisles and a transept in the early 16th Century, and then a major 1860s restoration by Arthur Blomfield left it looking crisp, if a llittle characterless inside. The church is a landmark in the busy northern suburbs of Bury St Edmunds.

More: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/fornhamas.html

I love seeing this type of construction, especially in Vancouver, where beautiful old structures are constantly torn down in favour of new, glassy, often characterless towers. This developer (near Burrard & Pender) has opted to gut the building but keep its art deco front intact.

A study of Wilnecote station - modern, and characterless.

Compare the view above to the one in the link below.

The station masters house, brick waiting room and toilet are long gone, in their place are overgrown banks and bus stop style shelters.

www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/mrw439.htm

Tamworth is unique in terms of the number of stations provided in relation to the size of the town.

There are three stations in Tamworth:

1. ex L & NWR (Low Level)

2. ex MR (High Level)

3. ex Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway at Wilnecote.

Anita and I went out for a short stroll through our neighbourhood (cookie cutter houses in the middle of surburban Calgary). It is a very characterless area, but something in my gut told me to bring a camera along. Amazingly, I found this truck parked on the street behind a long row of modern vehicles.

Super Richoflex TLR on Velvia 100. Why I haven't shot more with this camera, I have no idea. I LOVE IT.

Entry for the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition

Prompt: www.japan-architect.co.jp/skc9/en/

The Residence

The outer shell of the residence is a blank white cube- identical in all elevations and top view. The cube is devoid of architectural character to emphasize the inability of two-dimensional media to effectively express the quality of the interior space. Floor plans, sections and renderings show nothing but a primitive hollow cube. A slightly smaller glass cube is nested inside the white cube and contains the space where living activities take place. The nesting configuration of the cubes prevent outside light from penetrating the main interior space. Access to the glass cube is by way of a winding ramp along the perimeter of the outer cube. The ramp delivers the resident to an underground level where they can access a stairway to the glass cube. This allows for the cube to maintain a characterless appearance with the omission of a visible door.

In the space between the glass cube and the outer cube, a steel frame provides support to the skins and lighting assembly. The lighting assembly consists of dense high-powered LED lights that are linked to a programmable system. The floor is constructed out of a permeable steel grate and is supported by a steel structure below. Fog hazers are located under the steel grate and are also wired to the programmable system to periodically emit fog in certain areas. The fog is made from an odorless non-toxic solution that has a sea mist like quality.

Technology

Each LED light assembly is installed into lightweight hard foam panels that are supported by the interior steel structure. Each LED is extremely bright to give off enough light to reach the other side of the space. The lights are positioned directly behind the glass panels. Each glass panel is custom shaped to form a collimating lens in front of each light source. The collimating lens captures the light rays emitting from the focal point (LED bulb) and bends them into parallel rays to form a linear light. The resident can remotely extrude a point to form a line, a line to form a plane, and a plane to form a three-dimensional solid.

The dense LED array can be programmed to articulate detailed architectural elements to be assembled in the space (such as columns, beams, walls and ceilings) or it can be programmed to form organic free flowing forms using algorithms and scripts. These forms can also be set to change over time- thus creating a constantly moving configuration. The architecture is re-defined into a new assemblage of energy and data rather than fixed solid materials. The residents can now walk through walls or inhabit the spaces inside the light. This space exists only in the present moment- the moment of the projection.

Or the space can be turned off at the push of a button.

.

.

.

·.··.

.

... ' .

FIGHT THE SOCIAL FASCIST CPIIMJ! .

DEFEAT THE APOlOGISTS OF FEUDAliSM AND RUNNING DOGS OF IMPERIALISM! .

the1r fasc1st.r~le: the SFI and CPM stll~ fm~s-thems~lves worthy of giving discourse on 'the way ahead .

Aft~r sm-:aring their hands with th«: bl~od of peasants and workers over the last three decades of .

they open fired on unarmed refugees in the island of Marichjhapi and killed many, including women and children~ revolutionary movement of Naxalbari a CIA conspiracy. They acted as informers of police and pointsmen of .

for left pohtlcs! But how much of left 1s left m CPM? From 1960s itself, the CPM has termed the .

' .

Congress to help them identify the revolutionary youths to be murdered by the police in the 60s and 70s. In the .

massacres by police in Kashipur and Baranagar in Kolkata, where more than hundred youths were killed in one .

.

night, the local CPM goons identified them to the police. Soon after coming to power in West Bengal in 1977 .

They no longer believe that 'socialism is the future', and have whole heartedly embraced capitalism. .

longer socialism but capitalism. Therefore they have shamelessly laid down their flag as carpets to foreign and .

.

In the following years too, the killing spree of their political opponents continued. Especially in West Bengal the .

comprador capital, be it Tata, Salem, Reliance, Jindal, Wai-Mart, etc. They are building SEZs and inviting massacres continued in Chhota Angaria, Keshpur, Garbeta, Bardhaman and other places. .

The West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on behalf of his party, makes it no secret that their goal is no massive embezzlement of crores of rupees in the Lavlin scam, but is till being shielded by his party. Local goons, .

they are usurping lands of peasants and are abating massive corporate land-grab to implement imperialist .

monopoly capital to take over the small trade in the retail sector. Their leader P. Vijayan has been accused of .

I real estate mafias, big businessmen, lumpens, and the petty bourgeoisie fill the ranks of their party now. The .

lands of thousands of locked-out factories are being sold off to real estate mafias by them.·On the other hand, .

fertile land to the Tatas. They robbed people's lands, lives, and livelihood to subsidize Ratan Tata to build his .

car factory. They tried to lure hrm with massive tax exemptions and other subsidies. They raped and krlled Tapasi .

industrialization. .

court that Debu Mallick, a local CPM leader, was behind the incident, CPM blatantly campaigned in his favour and .

In this process, they ruthlessly repressed the peasants of Singur who refused to hand over their .

Malik, a sixteen year old girl who was active in the anti-land grab movement of Singur. Even after CBI stated in .

build an SEZ in Nandigram. When the people resisted such attempts, they orchestrated mass murders, raped slandered against Tapasi, saying she was a 'characterless girl who had committed suicide'. They then invrted the .

notorious Salem group, which was instrumental in the massacre of thousands of communists in Indonesia, to women, looted and burnt houses, and terrorized people for months to facilitate the chemical hub. They have kept ::1 North-East, Kashmir or Gorkhaland. They have done a mockery of the Leninist understand1ng of the private armies and vigilante gangs infamously called Harmad Vahini and Gana Pratirodh Manch to crush people's Their 'leftist' pretensions are also exposed in their positions on the nationality question, be it in the .

I.

I .

Armed Forces Special Power Act {AFSPA) to crush the nationality movement in Tripura. They shamelessly .

II II movements, to rape, to torture, to kill and to spread terror. .

t movements, helping to turn India into a prison-house of nationalities. They implemented the draconian .

nationalrty question and have shamelessly backed the Indian state in its agenda to crush all nationality .

1.

Jl.

c .

.

l,l .

~st' .

shout hyper-nationalist slogans, branding the Gorkhaland movement as a 'conspiracy'. And while they shed .

They no longer even pretend that they are in parliamentary politics to fight for socialism, and like any .

former partners of the BJP-Ied NDA) in what they shamelessly bragged as the 'Pro-People Alternative'. The.

urr .

crocodile-tears for Palestine and Lebanon, their own position on Kashmir proves their political bankruptcy great-.

other parliamentary party, have turned into a degenerate and reactionary force. In the last elections they tied .

.

nation chauvinism. .

knots with the casteist Jayalalitha, the notorious Chandrbabu Naidu, the communal-fascist Navin Patna1k (all ......

Iii.

Ashok Todi. Their gifts to the adivasis have been hunger deaths in Amlashole and sustained oppression 111 Ju~gal .

Mahal. The dalit tillers still do not have rights to land in the 'communist' ruled Bengal or Kerala. They deprrved Sachar Committee Report has exposed the pathetic conditions of Muslims in West Bengal. They murdered .

I I I bef.

.' I stU .

Rizwanoor Rahman, a poor Muslim boy who-had 'dared' to marry the daughter of their 'sponsor' businessman .

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pol.

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!I }II bej .

IThe collusion with the Congress govt. They are taking military aids from the U.S. to crush the genuine movements of the dalits of land and dignity in Chengara, and continued to unleash terror on a struggling people. .

1 / .1 .

At present, they are orchestrating a massive para-military operation in Lalgarh and Jungal mahal in .

the people in Lalgarh and Jungal Mahal against poverty, deprivation and state terror. All this only shows the .

complete betrayal and sell-out of a so called 'left' party that turned against the cause of social change by .

I I "'re .

of the adivasis and poor peasants even after their 30 years of virtual reign in West Bengal is a tell-tale Sign_of .

.

imperialism, feudalism and the big bourgeoisie. The complete failure of CPM in addressing the genurne der:'ands .

I the party's deviation from the very basics of Marxist politics. The likes of CPI (ML) (Liberation), who had allred .

with this social-fascist gang in the last parliament election, are trying their best to be the junior partners of CPM. .

caricaturing Marxism, by becoming a part of the Indian ruling class, and thereby the truste.d agents of .

.

peop .

mean the defeat of communist ideology in the subcontinent. The people of Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh and_ the .

abou.

apexas w. and thus is no longer an alternative for the struggling masses. But the failure of the revisionist CPM does n~t crimt.

JNUAlso 'way ahead' anymore for the betrayers of Marxism in this country, but only for the revolutaonary .

chose. .

heroic movements have substantially proven that. It is the fighting people who will show tha~ there as .

violat.

illegal .

.

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l/~·-., . .

.

No longer called candy cigarettes, having a red tip or in the typical cigarette "slide" box. Popeye's smokes have faded into characterless cylinders of sugar. I wonder how many people were lured into smoking by those sweet sirens of old?

On the photo: me!

Already this spring I planned to go to a concert of Shantel. But unfortunately the concert was cancelled. On the 26th of October he finally came to The Hague with his band Bucovina Club. This is what the BBC wrote about him, when he won the Music Awards: "Where most techno and house was characterless and lacked any organic elements Shantel's managed to mix Gypsy magic with a hi-tech pulse."

See also: www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/a4wm2006/a4wm_shantel.shtml

A typical French hydrant. Many of the older ones like this have been replaced by characterless new replacements.

A gorgeously grimy image you might be saying to yourselves, or perhaps, yes, we're aware that you've got a few fancy iPhone apps, but that doesn't make your photography the best thing since broken baguette you know...

Whatever your point of view, here's what I'm offering you today, and whether you appreciate the aesthetics or not, you can't fail to be interested by the actual place, if you're into Parisian metro history that is.

If you ignore the spanking brand new bright yellow anti-terrorist bin for a while (which does complement the alarm sign nicely though), you'll notice something interesting about this particular platform: the attractive ceramics on the wall.

Now don't get me wrong; I'm not a ceramics freak, but this one is different. Not only is it a welcome change from the usual characterless borders to ads on most platforms, it's not actually bordering an advert at all. It's bordering the name of the station. And that station name is not in the usual enamel but is actually constructed from tiles like the white ones we are so used to. Which is unusual.

What's more, down in the corner of the ceramic border is a prime example of history winking at us, as the French would say. The design is an 'N' and a 'S' entwined and take us back to the days when the metro lines had names, not numbers, and there certainly weren't 14 (or 16) lines to choose between.

Indeed, there was competition between the lines to try and get you to use their line, hence efforts to jolly up the stations with fancy tile work and the like. Of which this fine example.

I won't tell you which station or line it is - it would be far more fun to discover for yourselves, don't you think? You can also look out for colour coded tiles too, and try and see what the difference between brown, blue and green motifs might be. Oh, and what NS means too - I can't tell you everything, now can I? Happy hunting.

(A Paris iPhone street photograph by Sab Will for the 'Paris and I' photo blog @ paris-and-i.parissetmefree.com )

The old MG era brick building at Santalpur. The newer station building is characterless in comparison!

Another one of Manchester's old buildings being demolished, this one being on Back Piccadilly (you can see No.1 Piccadilly Gardens in the distance).

Normally I don't like old buildings being knocked down to be replaced by characterless office blocks, but this one was leaning to one side and was pretty ugly in the first place, so no great loss really.

However, that's not to say I won't be disappointed if they just replace it with a brick box like No.1 Piccadilly Gardens...

Christchurch, Latchingdon, Essex

Locked, no keyholder. Latchingdon is the largest and least attractive place on the western part of the peninsula, an ugly mile or so of kebab shops, off-licences, petrol stations. The church is from the 1860s by JP St Aubyn, but is big and characterless, and apparently of little interest. It is always locked - I had actually tried the door once before on my way to Bradwell last summer. Not really sure why I bothered this time. However, photographing it meant I could count it as a visited church.

The next church was the real goal of my journey. Knowing how horrible Latchingdon was I was a bit uncertain about the setting of the next, but I needn't have worried.

Muir of Ord Station on the Far North & Kyle of Lochalsh lines on the 2nd of October 2017

The overgrown original part of the platform

This was the most disappointing station of my visit in 2017 because I remember it from the mid 1980's and it was upsetting to see how it had been literally wiped clean of all of its character and turned into a clinical characterless location

Martin Jennings' larger-than-life bronze statue of Sir John Betjeman gazes up in awe at the illuminated 1868 canopy of St Pancras International Station, London, England.

In 1967, when London seemed Hell-bent on modernising itself with concrete and characterlessness at the expense of its historic past - especially if that past was Victorian - this station was just 10 days away from demolition. A high profile campaign, spearheaded by the Poet Laureate Sir John (who wrote at the time of St Pancras' 'great arc of Barlow's train shed gaping to devour incoming engines, and the sudden burst of exuberant Gothic'), managed to save it, and turn the tide against London's wholesale destruction of its Victoriana. One hundred foot high, and with 18,000 panes of glass in it, the roof is now the centrepiece of the restored structure - already being referred to as the most magnificent railway station in the world - with the statue of Betjeman far beneath it a worthy tribute to a great and eccentric Englishman, without whom St Pancras in this form simply wouldn't exist...

I've been photographing this station, my favourite place in London, for over two and a half years now, and still, almost every visit brings new ways to picture it.

Taken in London, England, late night on July 1, 2010.

Kisoro is a characterless town located in a wonderful setting under the peaks of the Virunga mountain range and home to the mountain gorillas - hence the attraction of tourists to the town

Muir of Ord Station on the Far North & Kyle of Lochalsh lines on the 2nd of October 2017

The remains of the sidings hidden away behind fencing

This was the most disappointing station of my visit in 2017 because I remember it from the mid 1980's and it was upsetting to see how it had been literally wiped clean of all of its character and turned into a clinical characterless location

A view from the pulpit of the parish church of St Michael, Brough. Parts of the church date from the 12th century. Many of my ancestors and relatives were baptised, married and buried in this church. I have transcriptions of several memorials to my family in the church, but sadly "modernisation" has resulted in most memorials being ripped out leaving rather characterless plain white walls.

This waiting shelter was to be found on the Chester/Ellesmere Port platform at Birkenhead Central...until that was Merseyrail replaced it with a characterless modern structure. So, Merseyrail, what the fuck have you DONE with it...?

The town centre is much quieter now it has been pedestrianised.

Note the Loughborough Echo building opposite. They have long since moved out of this office to a drab characterless modern office on the edge of the town.

Founded by Joseph Deakin in 1891, the Echo has only had four editors in its history.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loughborough_Echo

This is a beautiful, simply designed and thoroughly charming place. The house was built by the family's great-grandfather. He built it room by room; saving up money over time and building more onto it when he could afford to. The family have now sold up because properties like this are difficult to maintain; because of major deterioration problems due to age and neglect and also because of the poor economic climate. The family have moved into a modern apartment out of town. The person who bought the property is going to tear it down and build an apartment block in its place. I see a lot of this kind of activity in Beirut. If only their were grants for people to help them keep their properties and prevent Beirut from becoming another faceless, characterless concrete jungle. Ho-hum.

Muir of Ord Station on the Far North & Kyle of Lochalsh lines on the 2nd of October 2017

The remains of the sidings hidden away behind fencing

This was the most disappointing station of my visit in 2017 because I remember it from the mid 1980's and it was upsetting to see how it had been literally wiped clean of all of its character and turned into a clinical characterless location

Shop fronts along the new development, same old, same old, and characterless with it. No.5 was hand demolished, note the gap between No.3 and the new building and the fact that the terrace is still boarded up.

A look through recent Google Streetview images shows that No.5 has been rebuilt, as today the building butts up against the grey brick section. The shop front is now a hairdresser's and the flats above have recently been offered for occupation.

Above is just a simple photo of a billboard. Somehow I liked it. Maybe I have been Living in the characterless suburban life for too long. Maybe the spontaneous and vibrancy of city life is something I am craving for.

characterless new bus stops replacing the quaint old black ones

Bob's rating = 3/10

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A pub that appears to have turned itself into a characterless pastiche of a 1970's seaside café (that just happens to have a bar in it). The only good thing about it is that the seats are fairly comfortable. On the downside - locals seem to get served first regardless of how many are in front of them, it's a Palmers house (as are most Lyme Regis pubs), the food looked OK but is very expensive as, indeed, are the bar prices. Everywhere else would need to be shut before I visit again.

Check out my new website The History of Yeovil’s Pubs - the town with over 100 pubs!