Packing Up

The changes in the seasons brings about changes in Cheltenham. All sorts of things are packing up and finishing.

Tables and chairs are packed up for Autumn.

The Cheltenham Literature Festival packs up for another year.

And the workmen at the Regent Arcade are finally packing up the scaffolding. The transformation will soon be complete!

Tax Evasion

I'm not suggesting for one moment that this shop is involved in tax evasion but the name suggests otherwise! This book shop in Montpellier specialises in, you've guessed it, cook books! They boost a huge range of new and used books, so if you want to make it they'll have the recipe for it!

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Theme Day - Books

Here we are again, another month over. It'll soon be Christmas! Sorry. I've got to say I found this months theme tricky. I didn't want to post a photo of a pile of books, I came close but I wasn't brave enough in the bookshop to ask if they minded if I took photos! In desperation for a post I had a photo of the bookshelf in our flat in reserve! Luckily, at the last minute, I saw this in the window of Waterstones bookshop. Last weekend the clocks went back and now the nights are drawing in rapidly, its already dark by 5pm, and by December it'll be getting dark at half past three. What better reason could you want for more reading?!

There are 177 other City Daily photo Blogs taking part in this Theme Day, click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Check back tomorrow for more from my Changing View series.

Bookworm Heaven

The 59th Cheltenham Literature Festival is taking place in and around town at the moment, with authors, journalists, famous faces and bookworms coming out to play. The event was started in 1949 by a small group of friends and was the worlds first literature festival, it is now one of the worlds biggest celebrations of writing, attracting tens of thousands of visitors. Over the festivals 10 day run there are 350 events featuring debates, interviews, readings, book signings and workshops. This years festival has former BBC journalist Kate Adie and Rebus author Ian Rankin as Guest Directors, responsible for the programme of the weekend events.

I'm not a very book-ish person, I prefer non-fiction books filled with useless facts, so I have never been to anything to do with the festival. Until this weekend. Phoebe and I went to The Centaur, at the Racecourse, to see Doctor Who re-inventor Russel T Davies and John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack in the series. It was a really entertaining evening, they were both interviewed and talked about their respective books, and then answered questions from the audience. Neither of them were giving anything away about the upcoming Doctor Who specials in 2009 but it was still an insightful evening.

Most of the festival takes place at the Town Hall and in these tents behind the building, in Imperial Gardens. This large tent is a temporary Waterstone's bookshop and also the venue for book signings, a great place for celebrity spotting. The festival draws some big names, this year the famous faces include James Bond star Roger Moore, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Hollywood legend Tony Curtis, Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He opened the event last Friday, glad he wasn't busy sorting out the financial crisis! He has got a book to sell, perhaps he needs a few extra quid in these hard times!

Posting A Bookshop

Cheltenham has many old buildings and this one has been on the Promenade for 182 years! This grand building was built in 1826 as a home for a painter named Millet. He must have been good to have had this built! The area where I stood to take the photo used to be a fenced garden for the residence, this was the only garden like this on the Prom, right there by the neighbouring shops! After a while Millet moved out and the building became the Imperial Hotel (that's how big it is!), then in 1856 it changed to the Imperial Club, a venue for 'resident noblemen and gentlemen'. But the building is most well known for being Cheltenham's main Post Office from 1874 until 1987. When the Post Office moved out Hooper's department store moved in. More recently the imposing building has been used as a bookshop, firstly Ottakars and now Waterstone's. Inside there is a large open staircase leading to Costa's coffee shop, and when the weather is fine you can take your Latte out onto the Terrace, above the main entrance, and sit looking at the tree tops and the passing shoppers below. And very nice it is too!

Book Borrowing

Cheltenham Library is an impressive building and I've had several photos of the place for a while now. I've been trying to find out a bit of the buildings history before posting the photos but I seem to have drawn a blank. I'll tell you what I know.

The permanent building, at the junction of Clarence Street and St Georges Place, replaced the temporary Free Library on the High Street. The Free Library opened in October 1884 and three years later the foundation stone of the current library was being laid. The new Library was designed by William Henry Knight and was opened on 24th April 1889. It boasts columns, balustrades, carvings, statues and a tower. The Library is attached to the Art Gallery and Museum, part of which is in the Library building.

Below is a photograph from the opening of the Library in 1889.

The other photos I've taken show more of the buildings detail. I'll post these when I find out more of the Library's history!