Pub or House?

[Geordie daughter]

Hi Keitht
That's the way of progress, unfortunately, and so often the old buildings are not appreciated for what they are. So many lovely old buildings have been replaced by graceless modern ones these days.

[Keitht]

I'm afraid the loss of historically significant buildings is something of a bee in my bonnet. Even in these days of supposed enlightenment the bulldozers still seem able to wreak havoc.

[Geordie daughter]

I'm with you on that one. There are at least two lovely 19th century houses local to my area that have been left to rot until recently, and are now being "re-developed" into apartments, with clusters of boxy modern housing squeezed on to the ground surrounding them. Admittedly, original features, where they remain, have been restored, but how much nicer it would have been if they could have been left as private houses with landscaped grounds, rather than divided up.

[Keitht]

It's sickmaking. We are about to lose the last farmhouse in the area. It had beeen used as a police station ever since I've known it but the police have now decided to share the local fire station. At least I was invited in to take a number of photographs before it disappears. The area will, of course, be turned over to flats. Ugh!

[Geordie daughter]

The trouble is that nobody misses these things until they're gone, and then it's too late. All we can do is document them in the hope they won't disappear from memory. There is no beauty or pride of craftsmanship in the making of modern buildings? It's all paint by numbers stuff now, sadly.

[Keitht]

I couldn't agree more.