Saturday 18 December 2010

Thursday 9 December 2010

Liberty Wharf - just before completion

Pictures taken a few weeks before the shopping arcade opened (a year or three late!), thanks to an Open Day.


The location, the old "island site" by the harbour, as seen from the old Albert Pier.






Before work started, it was all a bit of a mess...







.. which had previously been an abattoir.







The development plan (quite large - can be zoomed in)..

... shows a long arcade roughly parallel to the Esplanade (and old railway line) with two spurs off in a harbour direction, making a back-to-front F shape.



I have tastefully added a yellow blob above the gates where the two internal passages emerge - although these are not open to the public but are merely emergency exits.





The main entrance is in Liberation Square (opposite the Pomme D'Or) in the middle of the old Tourism building...






.. looking back...







.. just outside.






Venturing inside, the first area is a covered space behind...






(looking back)







.. the pasty shop.






Maybe this close-up plan will help? :)







The shop coloured pink in the plan above (a block that used to house the public conveniences)...






(looking down the side of that shop block)







( ... heading towards the Steam Clock White Elephant area)






A quick look inside that shop...






Cows - how apt for a prior slaughterhouse area!







If you had entered this place from the gateway between the old Tourism Building and the old toilets, this is the view towards...





(looking right) ... the covered (half covered!) area behind the main entrance.








The other side of that shop, is a small yard behind what is now a youth club....






.. again the distant view is in a Steam Clock direction.

This area will be part of a nightclub with terrace above the shop in the old toilet block...





.. the nightclub under construction.






Let's look down the main long passageway then, with the nightclub-to-be on the left, having left the covered area with what is now a Costa Coffee on the right ...





.. looking back.







The first spur off to the left - leads only to new toilets.






The second spur contains small retail units on the left, and to the right...







.. this area is part of M&S, with furniture in here now.





This was shortly to become the entrance area to M&S, at the western end of the arcade. Outside here is what used to be the main road heading west - now populated by a large office block, the dangling swimmer artwork, and the new Tourism Tower around to the right.





Vacant units on the harbour side...





















.. and one on the Esplanade side. It was practically dark in here, so a 1.5 second exposure, hand-held, steadied against the door, is naturally a little blurry!






.. nice beams up in the ceiling here.





A little bit too much of a reminder of what used to go on in this building complex.

I still feel a bit uneasy partaking of a leisure experience in an old slaughterhouse! It doesn't seem to pay much respect to the suffering of all those animals despatched here. Where was their Liberty?

Friday 29 October 2010

DB9 Superyacht

A couple of weeks ago a superyacht called DB9 passed by and stopped in St.Helier Harbour. It is a 52m / 170ft PJ170 initially called the PJ-501
(see this webpage).





















































































Another vessel was there at the same time...









.. the tall ship "Christian Radich" (English language website)














Monday 18 October 2010

Misc

I'll start with the picture postcard shots today.
Here's Anne Port looking colourful.








.. having come around the coast from here...







.. Archirondel's old Round Tower...









.. closer.






Building work by Gorey's Castle Common...






.. and a view over the Royal Bay...






.. the harbour, closer.







.. and pier.






There's a house up in the top right that looks like it is falling over! ...






.. those crazy architects, LOL!






I took a walk to investigate...







.. looks fairly normal close up.






Meanwhile back at Gorey, an initiative to provide a cycle path on a wide main road where I really can't see there was a problem or a need for it...




.. but it provided work for someone, I suppose, in these difficult times.







I shall wait to see when I first see someone cycling here on this short stretch!






.. closer.






At the bottom of the coastal end of Plat Douet Road, an old commercial premises...





.. being felled to make way for... have a guess...
.. more new flats!






Top of Welly Hill - looks far more open than it used to, must have had the tree killers in...





.. now you can see the ironmongery on top of the 1894 Maison St. Louis weather observatory.






I noticed a new sign the other day...








.. at a higher tide.

There's one by Port Control too.






.. farther, instead of "closer" for a change :)







The Branchage filmfest Spiegeltent was here again this year. (3 words in a row that upset the spelling checker!)







A view down Kensington Place with a hazy Noirmont in the distance.





New Digital Telly aerials going up at Fremont Point, gives us a chance to see how big that white thing is...









.. here's a bloke with a head for heights, for an idea of scale!









Nearby at Wolf's Caves, the old pub (later to become a Worship Centre) is being ripped apart, like several abandoned vehicles in the car park.