Hill Paul building, Stroud

The Hill Paul building in Stroud, Gloucestershire, is a late Victorian (1890s) structure erected to house the business of Hill Paul Clothiers Ltd, who made men's clothing. It was built by the architect Henry A. Cheers and is a prominent building in the town, near the railway station. After the closure of the Hill Paul business in 1979 a number of uses were mooted for the site including a museum and a cinema. When these fell through demolition was proposed.

Fortunately local action prevented that and a deal was made with a developer who added a reasonably sympathetic penthouse level and turned the whole property into apartments - an outcome that kept the landmark building. My photographs show a detail of the windows and a view of the main elevation.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Window sill planters

This house opens on to the public pavement on Barton Street, Tewkesbury. It dates from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century and has a plain, though not unattractive, brick facade laid in Flemish bond. I photographed it for the way the owner had decorated each window with potted box shrubs. It's a device that adds to the interest of the facade, and is all the better for featuring just one type of plant rather than many.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk

Sometimes there is a coming together of time of day, season, weather and position such that you can't help taking what I call a "tourist shot". On a recent visit to Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, a mainly brick fortified house of 1482 and later, such a confluence occurred and I took the above photograph. What you might not initially notice, however, is the aspect that detracts from the image, namely the green/yellow, scum-like blanket weed on the surface of part of the moat caused by eutrophication. The covering isn't entirely of this source; the darker areas are water lily leaves, also present in large numbers. I imagine work is done to control the weed, but the recent very hot, dry weather can't have made that job easier.

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

Faded elelgance, Wisbech

There's an attraction in faded elegance. Perhaps it's glimpsing and still enjoying something of what was in what is.This late Georgian (early 1800s) building in Hill Street, Wisbech, must have been a town house for a well-to-do family. It is tastefully composed, well-proportioned, and uses brick and stone dressing in a minimalist sort of way. In fact, theses features contribute most to the success of the facade. More money and more decoration was, quite appropriately, given to the entrance with its Doric columns and Greek key pattern. Gentle subsidence and desultory maintenance have left it looking somewhat neglected, but its style still manages to shine through.

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