I only feel mild nostalgia when I see what remains of my workplace for the last few years of my working life. The building is rapidly disappearing, making way for a new residential 'village' on the edge of Saltaire. It was formerly the tax office, HMRC's, banking centre. A year or so before I retired, in the devastating floods of Boxing Day 2015, the building suffered catastrophic damage from the river that runs along the rear boundary. For about two years afterwards, staff were forced out, working initially from home and then at a site on the other side of Bradford. It was a strange time. I never did return to this office, though my colleagues did, after I retired. I've often wondered what happened to that banana that I left in my desk drawer!
The diggers have not yet got round to the part where my desk was, but I'm sure the furniture was stripped out long ago. We were always told there was asbestos in the walls so I wonder how they've dealt with that or whether the fibres are simply puthering out in the dust!
[To PUTHER: When a fire is lit, and there's lots of smoke and very little flame, it is puthering, or when there's a dust cloud flying about a room that too is puthering. 'To puther' or 'what a puther' Additional Information East Midlands, Nottingham, a word in use early 20th century if not before.]
I'm revealing my origins in that turn of phrase!
Demolition always looks sad, doesn't it... Hopefully the ground will soon be put to better use, though!
ReplyDeleteOh I didn't realize you'd actually had a desk, with a drawer and banana, in that building! No demolition is a happy time, though it is interesting to see the skeleton of architecture revealed. I do hope the asbestos doesn't puther on the wind!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to watch a building come down but not one that is part of your own history.
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