This is a rather dark and miserable one, google maps needs to work on their low light road capturing because the Mersey Tunnel looks like a location from The Road in the image below.
So here's the original, a high point in the book I think.
Another nice and easy one to find. This is now known as the Queensway Tunnel (or Birkenhead Tunnel) as a further tunnel (the Kingsway Tunnel) has now also been constructed.
It opened in 1934 and wikipedia has the following to say about it:
"The tunnel entrances, toll booths and ventilation building exteriors were designed by architect Herbert James Rowse, who is frequently but incorrectly credited with the whole civil engineering project. Their decoration is by Edmund Thompson. These are Grade II listed buildings.
More than 1.2 million tons of rock, gravel, and clay were excavated; some of it used to build Otterspool Promenade. Of the 1,700 men who worked on the tunnel during the nine years of its construction, 17 were killed. At the time of its opening it was the longest road tunnel in the world, a title it held for 14 years until the opening of the Vielha Tunnel in Spain in 1948, though it remained the longest underwater tunnel as of 1955.
The tunnel, which cost a total of £8 million, was opened on 18 July 1934 by King George V; the opening ceremony was watched by 200,000 people."
And this is what it looks like now. As you might imagine, not a huge number of changes, though the lighting seems to have got a lot worse.
What a delightful service station, they certainly don't make them like this any more. Whilst some might find the overtly 60's architecture somewhat unlovely, at least they made an effort.
Wikipedia has the following to say:
"The services is notable for an unusual hexagonal concrete tower on the northbound side, named The Pennine Tower, which originally housed an up-market restaurant
and a sun deck. The tower was designed to resemble an Air Traffic
Control Tower and is a prominent local landmark. The tower closed to the
public in 1989 due to current Fire Regulations (there is no means of
providing an alternative exit from the restaurant deck in an emergency),
and is only used for storage and occasional staff training. The original Otis pentagon-shaped elevators which served the tower are still used to service the ground floor and first floor of the building.
The Tower was listed Grade II on 15 October 2012."
Again, a very easy one to find.
This is what it looks like now, not much has changed, a few more signs and the buildings to the left of the tower seem to have been modified or extended.
And here's a view from the motorway. A fairly majestic sight:
I think that it's aged pretty well, I'm sorry that the high class restaurant and sun deck have closed, I hope that the Moto staff enjoy being trained up there.
This is a proper nuclear power station, none of this anonymous rectangular cladding which characterises modern power plants. The spherical reactor looks exactly as a nuclear reactor should look and reminds me of the power plants you had to destroy in Thrust on the BBC Micro computer.
This was easy to find.
It now looks like this:
Slightly sadder, no longer a place where Britain will be propelled forward with the white heat of technology, however it still looks like a proper nuclear power station which is something to be proud of.
I actually bicycled past this whilst I was on my Land's End to John O'Groats ride, a poor photo from the road can be found here.
Here's a link to the complete blog of that ride if anyone's interested.
The second post is Newcastle-under-Lyme, not somewhere which I have visited.
A fine roundabout, the crazy paving adds significant interest and the tree, bent at a rakish angle leads the eye towards St Giles's church on the right. A succcessful bit of town planning.
Newcastle under Lyme is here:
And I think this is the roundabout now (pan to the right a bit).
Though I'm not entirely sure this is the spot, the chimney has gone, though the church does seem to be in the right place, and it's clearly on a roundabout. If it is the right place then things have changed considerably. The inventive and artistic crazy paving has given way to the utilitarian chevrons, the church remains but the planting has changed radically.
The UK edition starts off with several motorways which are rather tricky to locate so the first success is the vowel deficient Amlwch Road in Anglesey.
Which is here:
And I think this is the street view of the road now, the roof angle seems pretty distinctive. The cafe seems to have become a house and the windows have been replaced.
There also seems to be a lot more greenery than when the original picture was taken.
Martin Parr has published two books, both called Boring Postcards, one for the UK and one for the USA. Neither are particularly boring, particularly for my son (aged 18 months) who likes nothing more that to leaf through both editions, cooing at the roundabouts, motels and other fascinating images to be found.
After going through both books several times I decided to see how many of the places still existed. Were they still as boring?
At the moment this is intended to be a desktop exercise, however, if I find myself near a boring location, it would be silly not to go there in person.
Here's a link to the books: Boring postcards UK
