The lovely old fire station (1905) is still a dominant building on London Road, despite it being bought and then neglected for the best part of the past 30 years- thanks to the irresponsibilities of the Britannia Hotel group.
In addition to a fire station, the building housed a police station, an ambulance station, bank, a Coroner's Court, and a gas-meter testing station. The fire station operated for 80 years, housing the firemen, their families, and the horse drawn appliances that were replaced by motorised vehicles a few years after its opening.
Mancunian Wave is linking today to other Skywatch Friday posts.
That must have been a busy building with all those people and things happening. I sometimes pass a couple of the newer current fire stations on the journey into Leeds if I drive in and they are soulless sheds.
ReplyDeleteWonderful light in this shot.
ReplyDeleteThe building facade is beautiful, I like a lot those windows and you got an adorable picture with this perfect blue sky!
ReplyDeleteLéia
What a beautiful old building! And what a shame to not care for something like this! I know it costs money to keep buildings up - but I hate to see them just deteriorate! Let's hope someone will take it over and keep it going!
ReplyDeleteThe awful thing is Linda that Britannia Hotels HAVE taken it over- they bought it from the council in 1986 and despite many legal attempts by the council and campaigns by the public, Britannia Hotels have merely let it sit there untouched and ocassionally promise, then break the promise, to do something with it "soon".
DeleteIt would make a fine public space for galleries and culture, it could have made some unique apartments in the 1980s and 1990s warehouse conversion boom in the city (but that market has crashed now). Even retail or a hotel would be better than nowt...
Lovely light Chrissy.
ReplyDeleteMakes for a pretty picture!
ReplyDeleteThere is wonderful artistry at work here. Past craftsmen were amazing!
ReplyDeleteIt would be a wonderful venue for galleries. This is a great photo with the moon rising.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful structure!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely too nice a building to go to waste Chrissy, I wonder if the Britannia Group are saving it for something special..mind you if they are, they're taking their time about it!!
ReplyDeleteNice capture, lovely light, shame about the neglect.
ReplyDeleteGreat building! - and if built in 1905 it's older than every building in my Powell River!
ReplyDeleteThat's what you call a building!
ReplyDeleteMight cost billions to build today however.
Beautiful light at that time of day.
ReplyDeleteWonderful brick work and the light is marvelous!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic photo! I love the angle and blue sky. It is a beautiful old building, and a shame that something isn't being done with it to preserve it's beauty. I hope those in control do something before it's too late. It was amazing to me to see it when we were there, and to see it in your photo. Lovely!
ReplyDeleteWonderful composition as well as light.
ReplyDeleteGreat architecture and light. You made it in to a very nice and interesting image!
ReplyDeleteA very original photo. We have coincided to use the moon as the protagonist of our past Friday´s posts.
ReplyDeleteCool shot...
ReplyDelete