Sunday 29 June 2008

Goodbye bus centre, hello square

Where there used to be a round garden with Queen Victoria's statue in the middle, before she was carted off to West Park to be forgotten about to make room for a load of buses, there is now a paved 'concrete desert' of open nothingness. Not a bad effort to be fair, just a bit bland though. Some grass would have been nice, and more places for office workers to sit and enjoy their lunches, possibly the return of Queen Victoria's statue, etc. How about (crazy, I know, but...) some trees, perhaps? Not just two or three?

Still, it'll be handy for events like food fairs and markets, etc.
Let's just hope they don't ruin the open space with an unwanted Art Gallery!


Still looks the same from here... apart from the putrid pink tarmac (who the heck has this repulsive fetish for that revolting colour?)



A reminder of the view along Commercial Buildings from by the tunnel...





.. where a new crossing will shift priority too far to pedestrians and no doubt hold up the traffic.... (there's going to be a hilarious gridlock one of these days around the tunnel.. Grenville St.. Columberie.. Hill St.. Mulcaster St.. it's bound to happen)




... and of course they've extinguished the road along here - can't have that can we (or on-street parking... no.. no... no...)





.. further in.








So here it is. Open space at the Weighbridge.







... which actually feels quite pleasant. Gosh, a tree!







It's a fairly attractive row of buildings, so why hide them behind a hedge?





Left a bit, the Royal Yacht Hotel next to the Museum...







.. closer.







Looks like they've got plans for a crossing here but haven't quite got there yet....








.. to the left from there, they're guiding us towards the Steam Clock...






.. left a bit, towards the tunnel.







The hotel...






.. closer.







A snap to show the paving.







At least there's still some part of Caledonia Place's road left, to go down here into Ordnance Yard...
(another load of bollards too)
Note the museum's arch has been moved forwards again.



Towards Mulcaster Street...







.. back from there....
(shows the concrete desert effect, does it not?)






.. closer.








A new open 'feel' towards Liberation Square








.. and again.







Into the light, towards the harbour.






Yet more massive bumped crossings - and they wonder why so many people drive bump-absorbing 4x4s?! Duh...!

2 comments:

The Moving Finger said...

Open space for the public.
Whatever next.
Let's build an Art Gallery here.

Anonymous said...

Please clarify the precise amounts of sarcasm there!

The Weighbridge has been an open space for generations. A gallery would be horrendous there.

The chapel that burned recently though - that's only a stone's throw from West's Center, ideal place for it, and a wonderful building shell for a gallery.

Trouble is, they've already decided they want it to be close to the museum so that it's convenient for the staff. Stuff the rest of us, eh? They've already extinguished a road (Calendonia Place) simply because they don't like cars, so they've carry on doing exactly as they like.