Shipley Market Place was bathed in sunshine at the weekend. Its Festival of Britain-style concrete clock tower, built in 1960-61 above the indoor market, was recently denied listed building status. Historic England, the body that oversees listing, said it lacked 'the design quality' and 'use of high-quality materials' of comparable listed examples. It is a bit of a 'Marmite' thing. (You either love it or hate it.)
I was prepared to love the buskers playing as part of Busk BD 2026, a busking festival across the city. I thought they were quite good, though sadly their audience, in Shipley at least, was almost non-existent.
The chap above was, I think, called the Bus Pass Busker, and he was followed by a young lad called Ryan Swift (below).
Also enjoying the sunshine, the many market place pigeons were being fed from a big bag of sunflower seeds by a gentleman rather conspicuous in a high-vis vest. (Not sure what that was about. Maybe he had a bike somewhere). I'm pretty certain feeding them isn't encouraged but at least it was seeds and not dry bread.
He'd run the risk of a hefty fine if he were spotted feeding pigeons here.
ReplyDeleteBuskers playing with official approval must be quite different to their usual way of making music on the streets. A nice way to enhance the city, but a shame that there weren't more people to listen to them. Maybe the wrong time of day?
I kind of agree with Historic Britain about the clock tower. Though part of my problem is that it couldn't be old enough...after all, I lived through the 60s! I enjoy buskers usually, but they are often right in a major pedestrian traffic area, not on a stage-like setting. I meant to welcome you among my friends over on social media FB. Good to see your posts there too!
ReplyDeletePeople love to feed pigeons.
ReplyDeleteYep, I don't see the appeal of that clock tower.
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