Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Bridge and toilet update

The town of Huddersfield, it seems, has not been greatly affected by my absence. The most striking thing when I got off the train and made my way down to the University was how little anything has changed since I was last there over a year ago. Even shops that looked to be on their last legs are still trading; empty buildings are still empty (I didn't look too closely for the dead pigeons behind the plate glass doors). There seems to be more scaffolding up - a sign of regeneration; money being spent on refurbishment? There is also one big difference, a new university building going up in what was previously a car park, which was still at the pretty artist's impression stage when I left.

But what, I hear you ask, about the Aspley Wharf toilet? What of the wooden footbridge? How fares Andante's old mooring spot? Well, your wait is at an end, and your patience will be rewarded, because I bring you news of all of these.

The mooring spot is still vacant...
The toilet, which was an anonymous, locked, door when I left, is now slightly more impenetrable (crowbar? jigsaw? I bet it's still in there somewhere). What are they going to do if the pipes spring a leak again? (tee hee serves them right).

The bridge, though, would appear to be a success story. It's certainly better than the one it replaced. It doesn't have sloping treads, or protruding bits of metal. It has inset lights. And although I didn't have a posse of fat children to test it with, it seems to be fairly stable - I note there is no longer a sign limiting its use to four people at any one time.

And as I sat in the lovely autumn sunshine,just to complete the scene, a Shire Cruisers boat came by...

1 comment:

Keith Lodge said...

Nice to see nothing much has changed then since our visit to Huddersfield last summer. But it is good news about the footbridge. Now someone needs to sort the loo's out. One day we will get there again. Who knows the mooring may still be empty.