Refit Required

There aren't many buildings in Cheltenham that have their original advertising boards but this ramshackled relic is one. This former shopfitters, on St Georges Place, must date back to the beginning of the last century and the building is really showing its age. Around the top half of the building you can make out wire mesh and bolts that I presume are there to stop it collapsing onto the street below. And the roof isn't in a very good condition, what with plants growing up there. At first I thought that the red brick wall had a doorway in it, but now I realise its a fireplace in a chimney breast, that must have belonged to a long since demolished neighbouring property. It really is in a sorry state. Not a very good advert for shopfitters.

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Fire!

OK, I admit, its hardly a scene from the film Back Draft but it was a bit of excitement, and I had my camera with me! No, its not one of those shops on fire. It was the bin! I was in a shop on the High Street and this panic stricken man came running in, wanting to know the name of the street so that he could phone the Fire Brigade. As I left the store, expecting to see the towering inferno, I was greeted by the sight of a few wisps of smoke coming out the waste bin. I guess that someone had dropped a cigarette in it. I hung around waiting for the Fire Brigade to arrive, camera in hand. I'm sure people thought I was some kind of arsonist, waiting to see the result of my crime. It wasn't me Gov'! Honest!

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