How the cult of celebrity has taken over Britain

Was in Derby today for work and visited the Intu Centre and came across a small exhibition of the history of the shopping centre.  In 1975 when the centre was orginally built this man formally opened it:

When it was revamped and enlarged in 2007 this woman opened it:

A last trip round Kingston's Hawker factory

The Hawker factory on Richmond Road in Kingston was the first building I saw when I moved to Kingston in 1990.  Its massive Art Deco facade was a dominant feature of the area and its bulldozing in 1993 remains one of the worst decisions of the planning inspectorate.  But I stumbled across this film recently showing the factory after its closure - which quite strangely only hints at the granduer of the main building just at the end of the video.

John Lennon - an alternative view of the 'secular saint'

I stumbled across this earlier today via Facebook.  And it is well worth sharing...

Kingston's Welsh Hall succumbs to developers

Kingston's Welsh Hall a Victorian 'tin chapel' in the heart of North Kingston is no more.  The building had various uses over the years including serving as my local polling station, but has now been demolished and replaced with housing. 

There had been a campaign to keep it as a community facility and the Kingston Welsh Hall Society was formed to try to take it on. But the society failed and was dissolved in May 2012.

Top picture by Jim Linwood