New Developments in General
September 17, 2010
Now I know everyone thinks I've been sitting on me arse since June, but that's not happened! Things have been remarkably hectic here at ghost-trains. Here is a rundown of what's been going on:
I ran out of space on "ghost-of" at the end of July, so I bit the bullet and expanded the site domain, so we now have potentially 25 times as much storage space available!! That should keep us raving for a while...
A new "skin" has been purchased for "ghost-of" and I think the new brickwork look fits in beautifully with the whole ethos of the site, whilst suggesting an excellent link to the architectural aspects of our art that we love so much.
We have been on a few more monthly checkups to Hellingly and these are starting to come together gradually now that we have space to add them into the website. The photos for June, July and August's visits have been uploaded into their appropriate folders in "ghost-of". The June page has been fully populated with photos today and the main crux of the commentary has begun. I have to go into it in due course and input the comments for each photograph where appropriate.
We have had another trek in the last month, this time returning to The Cuckoo Trail and covering the Heathfield Tunnel and a short stretch of the track between Hellingly and Horam, particularly around Hellingly Station and the area where the Hellingly Tramway joined the main trackbed. A page for this will be created in due course, the pictures uploaded and the commentary prepared while I can still vaguely remember what we got up to that day...
There have been a few items in the local newspaper about The Astoria Bingo Hall in the Old Steine. This is a beautiful building sporting many art deco features. It is looking increasingly as though this building may be up for the chop soon as there have been hints made of redevelopment. To this end, I have begun the process of attempting to get in contact with the selling ageny Graves Jenkins, in the hope that we might be able to thoroughly photograph the place before anything bad happens to it. This is work in progress and still in the formative stages, but I hope to have some good reesults soon, as at this stage things look quite positive.
I ran out of space on "ghost-of" at the end of July, so I bit the bullet and expanded the site domain, so we now have potentially 25 times as much storage space available!! That should keep us raving for a while...
A new "skin" has been purchased for "ghost-of" and I think the new brickwork look fits in beautifully with the whole ethos of the site, whilst suggesting an excellent link to the architectural aspects of our art that we love so much.
We have been on a few more monthly checkups to Hellingly and these are starting to come together gradually now that we have space to add them into the website. The photos for June, July and August's visits have been uploaded into their appropriate folders in "ghost-of". The June page has been fully populated with photos today and the main crux of the commentary has begun. I have to go into it in due course and input the comments for each photograph where appropriate.
We have had another trek in the last month, this time returning to The Cuckoo Trail and covering the Heathfield Tunnel and a short stretch of the track between Hellingly and Horam, particularly around Hellingly Station and the area where the Hellingly Tramway joined the main trackbed. A page for this will be created in due course, the pictures uploaded and the commentary prepared while I can still vaguely remember what we got up to that day...
There have been a few items in the local newspaper about The Astoria Bingo Hall in the Old Steine. This is a beautiful building sporting many art deco features. It is looking increasingly as though this building may be up for the chop soon as there have been hints made of redevelopment. To this end, I have begun the process of attempting to get in contact with the selling ageny Graves Jenkins, in the hope that we might be able to thoroughly photograph the place before anything bad happens to it. This is work in progress and still in the formative stages, but I hope to have some good reesults soon, as at this stage things look quite positive.
Posted by Lawrence Russell. Posted In : General
Ninja photographer, editor, web designer, programmer and the maniac who started all this off in the first place almost a decade ago!
I just can't let this project slip because I feel so strongly about the complacency of the people of the UK in their need to destroy, remove and replace perfectly serviceable buildings (albeit with a little care and attention to detail). Most of these buildings could be pressed easily into alternative useage and easily modernised rather than replaced, such is the strength and longevity of Victorian Architecture.
Where most of today's structures have a life of just 35 years at the very most, The Victorians considered that their creations were the last word in construction and would be there for a very long time to come.
So, when they disappear or are threatened with removal as so many of the abandoned structures in this project are/were, it is nice to have some sort of record of them, hence the undeniable purpose of my crusade.
