Leamington

It was a gorgeously sunny day, a day with the light so intense that it was at times difficult to get the balance of light and shade right. What do I remember about Leamington? It was a place where buildings were reused. The swimming pool from the Pump Room has become a library. The aviary in the local park is now a coffee shop. The old police station is now the Polish Centre. But even stranger things are happening. What was the choicest hotel in Leamington is now a Travelodge.

Parade, the major street in the new town, is an interesting battleground. On either side of it are the endless four-storey classical facades that you see in many resorts. Underneath the increasingly out of alignment windows and the exquisite ironwork on the balconies you see a standard English high street struggling to emerge: Boots, W H Smith, and so on. It would emerge even stronger still if the planners didn't insist that all shop signs had to be inconspicuous and should be placed against the cream background of the original facade, but it's clear nonetheless that commerce is winning.

Then there is the other Leamington effect, the people themselves. It's either beer cans or 4x4s.

Or in this case, a car park.

It seems that Leamington has been in decline ever since the middle of the nineteenth century. Leamington College, a big private school, closed in 1902 due to financial difficulties. A wonderful early nineteenth-century facade with original ironwork is now the Pig and Fiddle pub:

But despite all the changes, it's still a lived-in place. There were people sunbathing and children playing in the fountains in the park. All the pubs were busy. Only the librarian seemed to want to keep the people out. When I asked him if I could take a picture inside the library, to show the old swimming pool roof, he checked with his colleagues and then told me it was OK - as long as I didn't show any people. I tried as far as I could to comply with his request, but if you look very hard you can see people in the library. Next time I'll ask them all to leave before I take the photo.