Out And About2

What’s this page all about ...? Click here to find out

Sunday 20th April 2008

It felt more like November than May this morning when I took a short walk around the town centre. The old Bus Station is coming down, thankfully, get rid of that eyesore. Its to make way for the redevelopment of St. John’s Square.

I walked down Church Street, still looking shabby it has to be said. Even though a guy was painting the outside of the cafe near the bottom, on the right. I see there’s a sign on the wall of McKay’s saying, “To Let or possibly For Sale”. I don’t know if that means the shop is closing or if its just the upstairs part?

Does any body know? E-Mail Me. Also at the bottom of Church Street is the place that used to be Reeds, seller of the cheap booze and fags. Being turned into a delicatessen / sandwich shop, yes another one. At least its tidying the place a bit.

I continued my walk to the bottom of Church St. Past The new shopping centre, Byron Place and the work being carried out to transform Sylvia’s pub. Incidentally, I’ve been told that the area of grass opposite Sylvia's, outside the main entrance of Byron Place has been bought and a Wetherspoon’s pub is

to be built there? E-Mail Me if you know anything. I walked across to the top of the docks, overlooking the old beach, “Red Acre Beach” to give it its proper title. The wind was coming in from the sea, the grey sky and sound of the waves made it feel like a November morning.

From there I walked along North Terrace, past the old Londonderry Offices, under the gaze of Charles Stuart, standing on his plinth. Over the road from him it would seem somebody has bought the empty property next to Dempsey's bar. I’ve heard that its to be a restaurant? Again E-Mail Me if you know anything about it please.

Continuing along North Terrace I see the council are putting new wooden seats on the edge of Terrace Green facing the road. Well done the council, lets hope the vandals leave them alone eh? At the junction of North Terrace and Tempest road is the new Bistro. How they managed to get permission to do this I will never know. I don’t care if it is somebody’s business, you have ruined what was a beautiful Late Victorian terrace with gardens to the front. It should be closed and

the owners made to put it back the way it was. An example of where the council got it completely wrong! My sympathy goes to the neighbours, whom I know fought hard to try to prevent this abomination. What do you think? E-Mail Me.

A little further up Tempest Road, on the opposite side are the new flats, standing on the site of the now demolished solicitors offices. This in my opinion, is acceptable modern building. At least it attempts to be interesting and at the same time its functional, relatively cheap to construct and will no doubt sell. Its better than the old drab building that used to be there.

To complete my short round trip this morning, I walked up Tempest Road to the junction with Vane Terrace. There stands the old Co-Op building. Only just mind you. Its about ready to fall down under it own weight I think. This is a building that needs a lot of work. Ideally, a developer would take it on, demolish the back of it, keeping the facade’ and turn it into luxury flats or offices. I see it all the time in bigger places like

Sunderland and Newcastle, so why not here? It would be a crying shame to loose such a part of Seaham heritage which we would if the whole thing is just allowed to rot away.

Top