In Braintree we parked as close to our old house as possible and strolled up to the town.

The route took us past the War Memorial.

Just over the road is this deco Masonic Centre.

And next door to that is an Art Deco house.

From the above angle you cannot see the curved balcony but looking in by the gate you do.

The old Woolies in the town centre was/is deco in style.

There used to be a Critall window factory in Braintree but that seems to have been demolished and replaced by modern housing.

When we lived there the traffic in the town was horrendous. The queues to get in on a Saturday from the north were enormous. So were the ones in the supermarket; they stretched from the tills all the way to the other ends of the aisles.

The town has long since been bypassed both north/south and east/west and so was relatively tranquil. Mind you we got there about five o’clock.

There is also now a retail park and an outlet centre off the bypass. Considering that, the town centre looked more thriving than you might expect.

Why Braintree?

Well: the good lady and myself used to live there when I worked as a Research Chemist. We thought we’d see how it had changed in thirty years so made it one of the last stops on our recent trip down south.

I well remembered the cinema. The Embassy as was. The building is very deco indeed but is now a Wetherspoons pub called the Picture Palace.

Surprisingly the inside has not been mucked about with much. On either side of where the screen was situated – the screen itself appears still to be present behind the bar area – are some original panels one of which I tried to photograph (see left above) but the light level was very low so the result is grainy. Two photographs of the original interior are in a frame on the wall of the foyer (right, above.) The windows are not original but have been replaced very sympathetically. You can just about make them out here.

We astonished the waiter by saying we had actually seen films in it. (By the way, a true life incident – not to do with the film itself – from watching the first Star Trek movie there made it into my novel A Son Of The Rock in somewhat disguised form. It was too good not to use.)

We hadn’t intended visiting Ely but when we discovered it was only twelve miles from Cambridge we thought we might as well.

Its most striking feature is of course the Cathedral (see left.)

Almost the first house we encountered was in a highly traditional style. We had been forewarned by signs in the car park – and the streets up from it – to “Oliver Cromwell’s House.” This surprised me as I’d always thought Cromwell was a farmer from Huntingdon till the Civil Wars dragged him from hearth and home to military fame – not to mention notoriety – regicide and the Lord Protectorship. Anyway the tacky figures outside put us off entering.

I had expected the town would contain mostly traditional architecture. There was nothing extremely modern but I was pleasantly surprised to find not one, nor two, nor even three, but four buildings showing deco styling.

The first had “Coronation Building” and a crown inscribed on it. I suspect this would have been the 1937 Coronation (George VI) rather than that of 1953.

The second now hosts WH Smith’s – I had to stitch two photos as the street wasn’t wide enough to allow me to frame the whole thing in one shot.

The third looked as if it had once been a Woolworths.

The fourth was on another street (Lynn Road?) just off the main one.

The War Memorial was unostentatious, restrained and dignified, set into a niche in the wall that backs onto the cathedral.

There was also a street market which looked pretty thriving. Whether it’s there everyday or merely Wednesdays I don’t know.

Yes there was Art Deco in Cambridge. And some more modern stuff, like malls.

This is the Marks & Spencer frontage in Market Hill. I had to photo it from the side as I couldn’t otherwise get far back enough due to the market stalls.

Just over the street from it, behind and to the left of the above photo is this lovely curved building.

On St Andrews Street there is this set of deco glass panels above what is now Thomas Cook.

Also on St Andrews Street, though further along, is the pub where I saw the first part of the Spain-Scotland game. Like in Lincoln it’s a former cinema.

It’s not the only former cinema in Cambridge converted by Wetherspoons. We also drove past this one by accident. I had got slightly disoriented. (Lost.)

After Stamford we stopped at Cambridge for two nights.

Despite seeing signs saying Lincoln City FC stadium on the way in to that city I never caught so much as a glimpse of Sincil Bank. The only football ground I did see on the trip was the Abbey Stadium, Cambridge United’s home, as we headed out of Cambridge the first morning along Newmarket Road.

I only took two photos in Newmarket. One was of the War Memorial, which has a lovely setting in a square surrounded by trees.

Newmarket itself could be described as a one horse town. I have never seen anywhere so dedicated to the one activity. Not only are there two racecourses, the National Horseracing Museum and the Jockey Club Estates Limited, but on the road out east there are training areas for horses on either side of the road and bridle paths running at the back of the pavements. There was even one road crossing dedicated to horses. Horses are Newmarket’s raison d’être. It seems to prosper with it, though.

The other photo was of this quite imposing deco style building.

From Grantham we moved on to Stamford, which is apparently where the BBC TV series Cranford was filmed. The town seemed more prosperous tha Grantham had looked.

The approach was olde worlde but the High Street was a bit more modern. I might have expected Deco like this at the western end of the High Street:-

However on Broad street was a fine example of the style:-

It has a lovely rounded facade and original style glazing. Pity about not being able to get a photo with no street furniture in the way. That lamp post!

Central looks like it was once a cinema but now it’s a nightclub. At least it’s getting used.

I noticed it just after photographing the War Memorial, which is on the other side of Broad Street, set into the wall of quite an imposing building.

A couple more photos of Stamford are on my flickr.

From Lincoln we travelled south, first via Grantham to take a look at its most famous son, Isaac Newton. His house was actually a few miles outside the town but we’ll stretch a point. The statue is slap bang in Grantham town centre.

Right beside the statue there was an unusual War Memorial commemorating those who had lost their lives in various wars, campaigns, peace keeping operations or terrorist actions since 1945.

There must be a War Memorial to both World Wars but it wasn’t in the part of the town centre we walked through.

The town looked pretty down at heel. There was one Art Deco building.

Could this have been a Burton’s?

We were in England last week visiting places we’d never been before (and one where we’d had a house.)

Our first main stop was in Lincoln. Quite a lot to see but I happened on a street where there were three – Three! – Art Deco buildings within fifty yards of each other.

This was Claskergate (if I am reading Google Maps correctly.) I saw this one first. It’s on the corner with Butchery Court.

Before I’d even taken the above photo I noticed this directly across the street.

The white rectangle is actually a display screen which didn’t come out well. You can see it better on Google Maps.

Just along the street was this.

I couldn’t get far enough back to get a central view.

This is the former Ritz cinema on High Street.

It’s now a Wetherspoons pub.

You can see the nice diamondoid brickwork and the Deco glazing on the above and below which also shows off the curved portico on the High Street frontage

Quite a contrast with the mediæval Cathedral and Castle higher up the town.

The most prominent feature of Dundee Law is the War Memorial erected there.

The east side commemorates the men of Dundee who died in the First World War.

The west side commemorates the Second World War dead.

The door must allow access to the inside. Apparently the device at the top is a lantern of remembrance which is lit on four occasions through the year:
25th September; in memory of the Battle of Loos,
24 October; United Nations Day,
11 November; Armistice Day
and Remembrance Sunday.

This is the view of the Memorial from just in front of the radio/mobile phone mast which also sits on the summit. You can see the rail bridge across the Tay in the background to the right here.

I walked up Dundee Law (a conical hill that is the city’s highest point) for the first time yesterday.

From it you get fine views over the city and the surrounding countryside – except that yesterday it was misty so the views weren’t so fine.

It is a good vantage point to see the North Tay Works, or the McGregor and Balfour building, which I have featured before.