Candle burning at Ayios Charolambos.
Yesterday, I found Ayios Charolambos closed. Today I was lucky, it was open, but closed as I left.
Archive for the ‘buildings’ Category
Candle at Ayios Charolambos
May 12, 2013Ayios Charolambos
May 11, 2013
After freddo cappuccino at patisserie amelie, I walked around to Ayios Charolambos, but sadly I found it not to be open.
The Royal Deer
May 5, 2013
The Royal Deer
The Royal Deer press cutting from Farnham Diary
We are losing 18 pubs a week. They are not dying, they are being killed by greedy pubcos (pub owning companies) that are screwing pub landlords with extortionate rents and drink prices often double the market rate, with the net result the pub goes bust and is then put on the market for redevelopment.
For a pub to be brought back from te dead is a rare event, a cause for celebtration.
One such pub is The Royal Deer in Farnham.
But this will be more than a pub. Marios, who runs The Barn, a highly successfiul arts centre, plans to do the same with The Royal Deer.
Like The Barn, The Royal Deer will be a cultural centre, live music, theatre, films, excellent food, art exhibitions, yoga, art classes.
It is a development The Tumbledown Dick in Farnborough (currently earmaked for destruction for a Drive-hru McDonald’s) will be well advised to follow closely.
The earliest recorded publican or licensee for The Royal Deer is Henry Jouning in 1878.
Pubs screwed by greedy pubcos
May 2, 2013Pubs are closing at the rate of 18 a week. Not because the pub landlords cannot organise a piss up in a brewery, though that certainly is true of some pub landlords, but because they are being screwed by greedy pubcos (pub owning companies) who are charging extortionate rent and above market prices for drinks.
Essentially we have a mediaeval system of serfdom. Many pub landlords are struggling on £15,000 a year, or less. And no, that is not a typo.
The pub landlord goes bust, the pub is sold off for redevelopment.
This does not have to be. There is much that can be done locally.
Is the pub listed as a community asset? Is it listed by English Heritage or locally as a building of local historical importance? Is there a pub protection policy in place?
- Buildings of Local Historical Importance in Aldershot and Farnborough
- Last orders? How councils can protect local pubs from closure
Nationally, there is now such concern at the rate of loss of pubs, and the mediaeval serfdom in which pub landlords operate, that the government has launched a pub consultation exercise. Does your pub landlord know about this, is it being publicised to those who frequent the pub? Pass the word, participate, unless you want to find your pub closed and boarded up next time you pop down for a drink. The closing date for responses is 14 June 2013.
Please also support Fair Deal for Your Local, and ensure your local pub is on board.
Godalming Parish Church
April 8, 2013
Godalming Parish Church
prayer cards writ for Paulo and Annie
candles lit for Paulo and Annie
a beautiful old illustrated Bible
Godalming Parish Church has an Anglo-Saxon font.
It has a memorial to Jack Phillips, but this I could not find.
Jack Phillips was the wireless operator on board the Titanic. He remained at his post and went down with the ship. His body has never been found.
Candles lit, prayer cards writ for Paulo Coelho and Annie.
I came across what I had never seen before, a beautiful old illustrated Bible. Sadly I did not take note of the passage to which it was open.
McDonald’s criticised by MPs for targeting pubs in the search for new sites
March 15, 2013MPs have accused McDonalds of undermining the “Great British pub” by buying up boozers and converting them into fast-food outlets.
The burger giant offers £20,000 for anyone who suggests a suitable site for a new restaurant, and lists pubs among desirable locations on its website.
McDonald’s wants to open 30 new ‘drive-thru’ restaurants every year
Now an MP has tabled a motion condemning McDonalds for contributing to the drastic decline of pubs, with campaigners claiming 18 are closing every week.
Liberal Democrat Greg Mulholland, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, is supported by MPs from the three main parties in his campaign.
Greg Mulholland chairs the all party Parliament’s Save The Pub group
McDonalds told The Huffington Post UK former pubs could be “possible development opportunities.”
Planning consultations always take place, it said, adding that each new burger joint brings jobs to an area.
More than 1,700 people have joined a Facebook campaign to save an historic Hampshire pub from turning into a McDonalds.
There were also protests when a pub in Bromley was converted into a drive-through.
It is now listed as a case study on the McDonald’s website.
The Campaign for Real Ale said it had discussed the issue at a meeting on Wednesday night.
A Camra spokesman said pubs being converted into McDonald’s restaurants was “a worrying site and a massive blow to local communities.”
On its website, McDonald’s says it wants to open 30 new drive-through restaurants every year.
It lists pubs, as well as traditional high streets and shopping centres as possible locations.
Mulholland’s motion says:
“That this House condemns McDonald’s for actively encouraging the use of public houses as sites for development through the development section on its official website which lists pub conversions amongst other desired sites and offers a £20,000 introductory fee to anyone able to locate a suitable site.”
It calls on Parliament to acknowledge the practice “will contribute to the decline of the Great British pub, a cherished British institution which is already being threatened by the predatory purchasing of pubs for development by supermarkets” and claims “companies like McDonald’s and others are intentionally targeting and converting viable, wanted pubs for non-pub use without the community having a say.”
However, his claim of a “loophole” to allow pubs to be converted into fast-food outlets without planning consent was disputed by McDonald’s, which said it has to follow full planning procedure.
A spokesman for the company said: “Like many businesses, we look to identify possible development opportunities in a number of locations, some of which include sites of former pubs.
“In order to convert a pub we require a change of use and therefore must apply for planning consent and we always conduct consultation before and during the planning application procedure.
“When we open new restaurants we bring investment to the local area and create around 65 full and part-time jobs.”
– Tom Moseley
Original article by Tom Moseley published in the Huffington Post.
18 pubs a week are closing across the country, not because they are badly run, though no doubt some are, but because greedy zombie pubcos are jacking up rents to pub landlords to unaffordable levels and selling off the pubs for redevelopment.
The Hampshire pub mentioned which has stirred up so much anger locally, is The Tumbledown Dick, a c 1720s coaching inn that existed long before Farnborough.
The anger is not only aimed at the Fat Clown, it is also directed at the local council that has a track record of destroying local heritage, local businesses and getting into bed with developers.
To date the local council has done nothing to safeguard the pub, on the contrary has done everything it can to facilitate its destruction by McDonald’s. This ranges from commissioning a shoddy report from a consultancy that acts for developers and surprise surprise shows the pub to be of little historical or architectural value, to obstructing requests for information, failing to list the building on a local list of buildings and structures of historical value, refusing to adopt a pub protection policy, falsely claiming not required by national planning policy.
In response to questions from a local councillor, lies.
Arte exposición: éxtasis de Nuria Meseguer
March 14, 2013
éxtasis de Nuria Meseguer
I never actually found this art exhibition open. The only reason I was able to view it was because I was at a concert in Castillo de San Felipe.
The way the paintings were hung, gave the impression they were floating in front of the walls.
Castillo de San Felipe, an old colonial fort, is now used as cultural space, art, exhibitions, theatre, music, concerts
Abaco
March 4, 2013
Ábaco Mansión Canaria
Abaco is a grand Canarian Mansion house dating from 18th century which the present owner has carefully restored. It is high above Puerto de la Cruz overlooking the town.
On Friday they have live music in the bar, on alternate weekends, concerts in the salon.
Off the bar, a a billiard table, dating from the period of the house. Sadly I was not able to play it.
During the day, the house is open to the public, but as it is open during concerts and when the bar is open, maybe best to visit then.
Market Rasen
February 12, 2013En route to Portas Pilot Market Rasen in Lincs which has reduced empty shops by 60 per cent and created new foody hub. Who says the high street’s dead. — Mary Portas
Market Rasen, a small Lincolnshire market town, has turned around its fortunes, from a failing town, to reducing shop vacancy rate by 60%, by focussing on what matters, small retailers, community and a sustainable local economy. Such as been the success, that folk now want to come into Market Rasen.
Market Rasen now has a thriving market, an art festival.
Market Rasen has achieved this success and turnaround within just a few months.
Today Mary Portas visited Market Rasen and she was very impressed by what had been achieved in only a few months.
- Mary Portas in Market Rasen
- “Queen of Shops” praises town’s revival
- Retail queen Mary Portas visiting Market Rasen today
Contrast with Aldershot and Farnborough, where the policy is destroy small businesses, drain money out of the local economy. Town centres destroyed by greed and planners in the pocket of developers.
The current plans for Farnborough are more of the same failed policy. Hand the town to developers to trash. A c 1720s coaching inn, The Tumbledown Dick, that existed long before the town, is earmarked for demolition for a Drive-Thru McDonald’s.
In Aldershot, a Victorian Arcade was demolished and replaced by a plastic replica, it in turn to be trashed, destroying small shops to make way for an unwanted Wetherspoons and Poundland. Outside The Arcade, small shops are threatened with demolition. Westgate, an ugly development of a large supermarket and tacky chain fast food outlets, is laying waste to what little is left of the local economy.
The sick joke is that Rushmoor (local council for Aldershot and Farnborough) applied for Portas Pilot status. It would have been a complete waste of money. You do not need Portas Pilot money, you simply listen to local communities, not get into bed with developers and big business.
When you look at what other councils are doing, including working with local communities not against, you realise just how Neanderthal and backwards the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor.
Cambridge has built into its planning policies a sustainable local economy. Islington has built into its planning policies protection of local shops, recognises the need to stop the spread of junk food outlets due to the obesity epidemic.
- Cambridge: Protection of Public Houses
- Islington: Development Management Policies
- Finsbury Local Plan: Topic Paper: Retail and service uses
Brighton has North Laines. A very popular area.
Lincoln has Sincil Street. The Strait, Steep Hill and Bailgate. And yet the City Council is determined to lay waste to Sincil Street.
There is a myth, peddled by Big Business, developers and councils in their pockets, that people prefer High Street clone shops, every town Clone Town, all looking the same. They do not.
