Old crane, Gloucester Docks

When planning the transformation of an old docks into new recreational areas of water and former warehouses that feature flats and offices it must have been difficult to get the balance between old and new. Gloucester Docks made quite good choices in this regard, and retained enough, but not too much of the old. This crane has no practical function today other than to stir the visitor's imagination. My conversion of a colour photograph of the crane and its surroundings into black and white helps further in this regard.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

The bus station

click photo to enlarge
This is the second photograph of Gloucester bus station that I've posted. The first was taken from inside on a bright day and featured the silhouettes of people. I took today's photograph as I wandered about inside and out looking for shots rather than sitting and waiting for our bus. For this photograph I hung about until the people in the glazed waiting areas on the right had filled the buses, leaving a view to the far end of the interesting building.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Shop front automata, Gloucester

Gloucester's Southgate Street features a "Watchmaker, Jeweller and Optician" shop of 1904. It retains the original name and today still sells watches, clocks and jewellery. When it was erected the owners had an ornate clock manufactured by Niehus Brothers of Bristol built into the facade. This features, from the top going downwards, a celestial finial, a bracketed clock, a large bell and 5 automata figures, each with a bell.

The figures represent (left to right) an Irish woman in traditional dress, John Bull of England, Father Time with an hour glass, a Scottish military bagpiper and a Welsh woman in traditional dress. They still move their arms to strike the time. I was prompted to take my photographs because I could see that the clock had been recently painted and was looking, as well as sounding, its best.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Bikes and flats

Long ago when I was a student we rented the upstairs floor of a two-storey late Victorian house. We cycled a lot at the time, and there was no ground floor accommodation for our bikes, so I had to carry them up the stairs to where we parked them on the landing. It wasn't the easiest manouevre but it had to be done, so I did it. As we were walking around the canal and marina in Gloucester recently I looked at these nicely lit flats and spotted a couple of balconies with bikes. They were on the first and third floors, I think, and must have needed regular lifting. But, as I thought about it, I pondered two developments that might make the task easier today - electric lifts and lighter-weight cycles.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Cross country

The UK's transport system is focused on the capital - all roads lead to London, and so do the railway lines. Well, that's not strictly true because obviously the system allows travel across the country. But it is certainly easier and quicker to travel to London than to any of the regions and provinces, and the north-south routes are the obvious choice for speedy travel. Standing on platform 2 at Gloucester railway station recently, looking at an interestingly lit train, I was reminded that cross country routes have their own services and lines, one of which is called CrossCountry. We've never used it - Great Western Railways (GWR) take us to London and our train rolled in shortly after the one in the photo departed.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Leisure Centre shadow

A visit to a nearby city from the market town in which we live presents the opportunity for more "urban" photographic subjects. Gloucester isn't the biggest of cities, but neither are Hereford and Worcester, the other easily accessible centres of higher population. Birmingham, though more distant, is the nearest city that presents the full range of urban subjects. But, on this occasion it was Gloucester and a photograph of a large, anonymous-looking leisure centre with its subdued colours, curves and shadows complemented by a figure in just the right place.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Trading ketch "Bessie Ellen" in dry dock

click image to enlarge

On our recent Gloucester visit we came across the West Country trading ketch, "Bessie Ellen", in the T. Nielsen & Company dry dock undergoing refurbishment. This sailing ship was built in 1904, is 120 feet long, and began life carrying up to 150 tons of clay, peat, aggregates, salt and other bulk cargos around the UK and Ireland. Its working life around Britain carrying goods ended in 1947 when it was bought by a Danish company for work in the Baltic Sea. A diesel engine was installed and this helped keep the ship competitive until the 1970s. Back in the UK "Bessie Ellen" was adapted to offer sailing holidays, day trips and the "tall ship" experience for groups of 12-60 people.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Bus station silhouettes

We regularly walk from home for business and pleasure. It's good to leave the car in the garage, stretch our legs, enjoy the sights to be seen, and feel we are reducing, in a small way, our contribution to climate change. We also, periodically and for the same reasons, use the train or the bus. Our bus journey usually takes us to and from Gloucester and necessitates the use of what I call a bus station, but what is labelled the Transport Hub. It's across the road from the railway station so I suppose it has greater claim to the title of Hub than many similarly named places. But to my mind it is, and will remain, the bus station, a place where bright yellow double-deckers and passenger silhouettes can be found.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Rainbow houses, Gloucester

"Rainbow houses" was the way the local paper in 2020 described the transformation of some aged Gloucester houses by brightly coloured paint. It's not unusual to see terraces where each house is painted a different colour but usually those colours are taken from the tasteful and traditional selection that established paint manufacturers offer. I'm not aware that the screaming colours of these houses are widely sold: they must have been specially mixed.

I quite like what has been done here in small doses in a few locations. But if it were to be more widespread I'm sure it would soon lose its charm.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

The Outdoor Inn, Gloucester

The Covid19 pandemic has forced change on many businesses and at first glance I thought The Outdoor Inn in Gloucester was just such a reaction. However, reading its website I discovered that the pub started life in 2018 in a horse box(!) and has since expanded to a shipping container conversion and four "pods"(!!) Only the discreet name gave away the nature of the business since the only indication on one of the other elevations was the giant letters "OI". Presumably music is a selling point of the pub too judging by the robot DJ graffito.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Graffiti rat

There will be many who think that a graffiti painting of a rat on an outstretched hand can do nothing but drag down the location in which it features. However, I would argue that it all depends on the location. This rat is in a Gloucester alley that would be flattered by the description, "grubby". In short it is a grimy, litter and weed strewn short cut around a group of industrial buildings that were built down to  a price. To call it neglected is to imply that at one time someone cared about the place: there is not a scrap of evidence that this is the case. Consequently, this rat (and the other graffiti to be found there) actually act to elevate this forgotten corner.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Llanthony Secunda Priory, Gloucester

Llanthony Secunda Priory was established in Gloucester in 1136 as a safer offshoot of Llanthony Priory in the Black Mountains of Monmouthshire, a location that was subject to attack during border wars and skirmishes. Nothing remains of Gloucester's priory church or cloisters. Parts of the walls, barns, gatehouse and other domestic buildings can be seen and have recently been subject to restoration and interpretation. The photograph shows a long medieval range of stone and timber-framed construction. Adjoining it is a farmhouse, rebuilt in c.1855-60 by P.C. Hardwick, that gives scant acknowledgement to its venerable neighbour.The whole setting is now an open parkland area near Gloucester Quays and Docks, in which the size of the buildings is somewhat lost. My wife obliged by adding some scale to the scene.

Wild boar, Forest of Dean

If I was a photographer who specialised in wildlife this photograph would end up on the discard pile. But, I don't specialise, and usually take photographs of wildlife on a walk where the goal is exercise and photographing absolutely anything that takes my fancy. Consequently I was quite thrilled to be able to photograph this female wild boar with three youngsters, the first time I have seen the animals since we moved to the area. If the shot has any virtue it is that it replicates how people typically see wild boars - at a distance and among trees where they are momentarily glimpsed rather than clearly seen.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Peppers graffiti

Over the years I've come to mind graffiti rather less than I did. I still don't like it sprayed clandestinely on someone else's property. Or directly onto bricks or any other permanent surface. But, a nice piece on a painted wall, or a grotty corrugated steel fence, or on a surface provided for just that purpose, well, I find that inoffensive. And I certainly don't mind the owner of a property hiring someone to paint a graffiti style advertisement on their gated entrance to the back of their premises, as is the case at Peppers Cafe in Gloucester.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

The Kyneburgh Tower, Gloucester

The Kyneburgh Tower in Kimbrose Square, Gloucester, is a tall (16.2 metres) piece of street sculpture. It is the work of Tom Price and dates from 2011. The piece features 60 horizontal hoop-like elements made of steel and can be viewed from afar and from inside. It isn't to my taste but I did find the view from underneath, looking upwards quite interesting. I was reminded of contour lines on a map. As is the way in England the locals have given it their own name, disregarding the reference to the Saxon princess who is the patron saint of the city: they call it the "kebab".

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100