One of the mysterious and alien codes on the ground of a building site!

WHY ARE BUILDING SITES SO INTERESTING TO LOOK AT?

Have we ever discussed my love of the humble building site?

It runs deep – especially when cranes are involved.  Heavy machinery is always exciting, but when it involves construction – my fascination knows no bounds!

Like with anything one knows nothing about, it is always interesting to ponder what things mean.  Building sites are full of secret items. codes and symbols that I do not understand and therefore want to.  Usually, I imagine in my mind that they represent something far more interesting than reality permits.

Still, perhaps that’s the secret of my fascination.

The fence contains its own mysteries...

Attempt The Mitre (2009)

How many attempts can it take to cut a Mitre joint?

Shit loads.

I am not a practical man in the ways of being handy, but sometimes I give it a go.

Thought doing a Mitre Joint would be easy.

It wasn’t so easy, my feeble brain struggled against the throws of the mighty mathematical angle.

I nearly ran out of wood.

However – perseverance won the day.

I suppose me doing DIY is a metaphor for me in general…

Procrastinate about it for ages, finally make an effort, struggle against not being as good as I hoped, try my best and produce ‘adequate’ results!

New England Quarter Scaffolding, Brighton (2009)

I am a massive fan of Car Boots – both buying and selling, they are an ideal way to start a Sunday!

Brighton’s Sunday Market has been held at the railway station car park for 27 years and is generally considered to be one of the best markets in the area.  It’s been a regular activity of mine since moving to Brighton as was held every week…in almost any weather conditions!

However, in the past year or so, the market has been happening less and less frequently.  This change occurred suspiciously around the same time the massive development of the New England area of Brighton began.  At first, after the new station car park was built, the market continued to flourish.  However, it then began to be cancelled due to engineering works on the railway lines.

Southern Rail claim it is because the market’s traffic causes problems for their replacement rail bus service.  Plausible I guess.

However – I can’t help being suspicious that this all coincides with the majority of the New England development has been complete – with hundreds of new homes, flats and a massive Jury’s Inn hotel – all of which overlook the market.  I cannot imagine the hotel management enjoy their ‘guests’ being disturbed by the 5am set up, let alone the new residents of the area.

A few days ago, I noticed a headline in the local paper stating the market was moving to the Marina car park as of next week.  This is a massive disappointment.  The station location was perfectly central and gave way to a good boot sale rummage followed by a fry up in town!  The Marina site will mean its a drive away and they have to have the site cleared by 12pm.

Anyway, wanting to mark the last week the market would happen at the station, I went along yesterday (12th April 2009) to pay my respects.  Sadly – I came home empty handed…but was pleased to hear many of the traders were keen to try and make the market work at the new location.  Time will tell I guess.

I took a few images of the last remaining building site, which is apparently a load of Eco-homes.  I will confess I am slightly obsessed with building sites and particularly cranes.  I find it hard to pass one without having a good look and taking a few pictures.  Not sure what the appeal is – a child like excitement of heavy machinery and hard hats perhaps!

It also reminded me of a few snap shots I took whilst in Marrakech a couple of years ago – where the building sites were a remarked contrast to the ones I find in the UK.

Building site, Marrakech (2005)

Wooden Scaffolding, Marrakech (2005)

Click the images for a bigger view as the scaffolding is truly amazing!  Rather rickety and bent looking logs are basically holding the building up!  That’s proper building, I wish sites in the UK would adopt this far more exciting method of construction!

The New England Quarter is a disturbing place.  As with much of the new development in Brighton – it lacks any form of character, appeal or continuity with the city.  They seem to have adopted the approach of so many UK towns, where they design buildings in a uniform fashion that results in them looking cheap and tacky.  The whole area feels like you have stepped into another town and could be any suburban location – characterless, featureless and intrusive.

New England Quarter (2009)