Blocks of flats on Corbiehall, towards the west side of the town, flanking Matthew Steele Court. Columns with rule of three.

Building at end of street to the right above. Rule of three in central windows:-

Companion building to the first above on other side of Matthew Steele Court:-

Further west along the A 904:-

Detail:-

Central doorway:-

Stitch of whole building:-

The Bridgeness Slab represents a piece of Roman remains. It’s on Harbour Road, Bo’ness leading down into Bo’ness from the A 903. It’s a replica of a Roman distance slab. Bo’ness is not far from the Antonine Wall. The original is kept in the National Museum of Scotland.

Information board:-

The village of Blackness‘s War Memorial lies on a turning on the A 903 down from the main A 904 road into Bo’ness just before the approach to Blackness Castle. Blackness originally served as a port for Linlithgow, when Scottish monarchs used Linlithgow Palace as a main residence.

It’s a square slightly stepped granite pillar on a square base.

Dedication and names. Eight for the Great War, two (below) for World War 2:-

This was the reason we went to Fort William.

My work colleagues had given me a voucher for two tickets on an excursion from Fort William to Mallaig on the Jacobite Steam train run by West Coast Railways. This is the train that features as the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films.

We hadn’t been on a steam train since we took the boys on the one at Bo’ness in the long ago.

That British Railways logo is a cracker.

It’s reminiscent of the one used for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924-25.

See more images of the Wembley Lion here.

When we debarked at Mallaig Station the footplatemen were hard at work shovelling coal on the Jacobite’s coal tender.

The end of the line at Mallaig:-

Just further along South Street from the Woolworths I mentioned in my previous Bo’ness post we came on this stunning building. An Art Deco Cube.

It was designed by Matthew Steele. It has been a bakery but is now disused I think. Great detailing on the columns and the glazing. The flagpoles are good too. This is the view from the North Street side.

Moving back along North Street I spotted the rear of what looked like a deco cinema. The roundedness, flat roof and whiteness all suggest it.

Round the corner again into Hope Street and this is the side view.

That cupola made me unsure. It’s not a deco feature.

But this is the front of the Hippodrome.

The doors have been updated; but well. The glazing is right. The lettering and neon on the Hippodrome name sign are perfect. The Scottish cinemas website says it has been recently refurbished. It is a working cinema. Good on the owners.

It was designed by the same Matthew Steele as above (a native of Bo’ness) but built in 1912 – too early to be true deco – but it certainly prefigures the style.

This is how it looked in the past (picture from the Scottish cinemas website.)

The left hand side has undergone some change since then!

Back to the car and I spotted this past the roundabout.

Another cinema, the Star. Formerly a church and converted into a cinema, when presumably the deco facade was added. Now a storehouse.

Bo’ness. The (Art Deco) centre of Scotland!

I’ve been to Bo’ness (properly Borrowstouness) several times before but it was when the boys were young and we were visiting the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway. I’d never actually been into the town centre before but we were over that way a few weeks ago and took a gander.

It’s chock full of Art Deco buildings! (Well, as chock full as a Scottish town can be.) Today’s post is the minor stuff.

I parked the car in the first car park I came to and this was opposite:-

Amazingly the glazing still looks okay and the green banding in the stonework is a nice touch. Here’s the detailing above the black doorway:-

The far end compared to the first view has a corner but here the windows have been mucked about with. More of the same detailing above both doorways in this shot.

The shop on the ground floor is Corvi’s (Seaview Cafe.) The day we went it had a notice saying it was shut for a holiday. Several weeks’ worth of holiday!

I found this house higher up the town near the Town Hall, which is an imposing building.

This is two houses at least, possibly semis. There’s a door at each end anyway. There may be other doors to the rear, here. There is strong banding in the stonework between the “front” windows. (The true front of the building may well be the other side to this view as that will have great views over the River Forth which you can just glimpse to the left of the house.)

From the next view you can see the windows have been “modernised.” The corner ones may have been rounded once. Could this have been flat-roofed originally?

This next is a building on the east side of town. Almost deco.

Evem more deco from Bo’ness is to come but in passing I noticed a former Woolworths shop whose rear still bore the Woolies sign.

The front says it’s now a Back To Basics Discount Store.