The biggest thing that struck me was just how long Normanby Road is.
It puts the roads in the town centre to shame. It's almost like a hidden high street. I don't think I've ever walked the full length of it in one go. Normally I only walk down the half that goes past Eston Cemetery. It's actually quite a nice road too, with some nice houses, framed perfectly by Eston Hills. Though the South Bank end is somewhat rundown.
There's no reason why this shouldn't be a beautiful place to live.
I took some pictures this time too. Constantly stopping in the street, holding my phone out like a tourist, even though I live barely a mile away. My hoodie covering my damp hair in the rain.
I hate photographing the decline, but these are the things that fascinate me. The things that used to be. Buildings in many ways like gravestones. Marking a former culture.
First though, I saw a nice poppy display on one of the churches. Well done to whoever did this.
A small section of the ever-so-long road..
This grey-blue building caught my eye. At one time library and workmen's institute.
Another faded sign. Erimus, the Middlesbrough motto, meaning 'We Shall Be." This is more 'What Once Was.'
This one was the most depressing, as you can imagine it looking quite beautiful. The little balcony on the top right. The blue doors and white walls beneath the brickwork higher up. The charming and colourful swinging sign.
She's hanging in there. In fact, she looks like the perfect representation of the stoic Brit watching on as everything falls into disrepair. Watching on disapprovingly as the latest headline that "Britain will pay billions in reparations for slavery" comes across the TV screen.
This last image I pulled from Google Street View. It's a large building, near one of the churches, that's fallen into ruin. The exposed roof I'm guessing the product of fire damage. I should've taken a snap myself, as it's the perfect illustration of the disrepair, but it lacked romance. Plus it didn't feel right. It felt like photographing a homeless person.
The thing is though, these are inanimate buildings, they're not humans, so we shouldn't be so sentimental. In previous posts I've talked about our derelict highstreets, and how, thanks to shopping and services being increasingly online, we just don't need the shop space anymore. Normally I'm pretty cavalier in saying we should just be knocking stuff down. It's a bit harder to say that when there's a bit of sentiment attached though.
Yet it is reality. We don't need as much shop space. People don't go to pubs and churches as much. So it is time to get the bulldozers out I'm afraid. People don't want to live near derelict buildings and boarded-up shops. It looks like a dying civilisation. There are too many big old buildings that serve no purpose anymore.
People often instinctively say that some of these buildings should be converted into apartments, and you can see the initial attraction. However, people generally don't want to buy leasehold. Plus, in communal buildings it only takes one drug addict or problem family to turn a beautiful and expensive renovation into another sinkhole that no one wants to live in. Individuals and families need safe homes where they have a degree of insulation from the worst amongst us.
The Princess Alice building pictured above could probably be turned into some cute little homes, but the big behemoths. The huge empty relics of a culture that once was probably have to go. We have to look at our highstreets and town centres and decide what we really, really want to keep and what we don't. Like a hoarder being forced to choose what to throw out. It isn't easy, but we can't have a civilisation that looks like the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome. Only uglier.
Again though, for balance, as I said at the start, there's so much beauty. We're not a million miles away from having somewhere that looks really pleasant to live.
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