Nellie

This stone elephant is one of a pair that stand either side of the doorway of a restaurant that has recently starred on television. Ooo, I know, lets have a little competition! Name the restaurant and the TV program and win a Cheltenham postcard. Exciting! Answer and more revealed on Monday.

Pink Elephants

Its New Years Eve and as we head, inebriated, towards the midnight hour we may well end the year seeing pink elephants! If you want to encourage your New Year party guest to see pink elephants then get a few glasses of Pink Elephant cocktail down their necks! All you need to make the cocktail is vodka, grenadine, galliano and orange juice. I'm not sure of the quantities, just have fun experimenting! The pink elephants in the photo were on a post in a multi-storey car park, it makes a nice change from numbering the levels. Other floors were yellow camel, red parrot, and black & white panda (obviously).

Whatever you are doing to see in 2009 have a great time. Don't forget tomorrow is City Daily Photo Blogs Theme Day - Best Photo Of The Year 2008. If you signed up, join in! Post before you start seeing pink elephants!
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Axiom Mural

This colourful mural is on the wall of the now defunct Axiom Arts Centre, as featured yesterday. The painting is in good condition seeing as its been off limits for the past six years. I poked my camera through the gate to get this photo! I'm not really sure what its all about. Any ideas? I love the green elephant at the far end! Hope it brightens your day.

Elephant Rampage

Last weekend I posted a teaser for today's post. The photos below show five tiled mosaic murals in a small alleyway off of the High Street. The murals tell the story of the day the Circus visited town and the Elephants went on the rampage!

In March 1934 Chapman's Great London Z00-Circus came to Cheltenham. The Circus boasted 28 of the finest acts never before seen in England. They also had lions, tigers, polar bears, comedy black bears, boxing kangaroos and elephants. Could you imagine that being allowed today?! As the advertising parade went through town some of the elephants broke free and headed for the seed merchant and pet shop, Bloodworths. One of the elephants entered the shop and started to have his fill of seed and pet food, another elephant got stuck in the doorway! Little damage was done, some people said it was part of a publicity stunt. Did they do that back then?! Bloodworths Pet Shop is still open in Cheltenham, though elephants are now banned!

The Circus parade begins to work its way through town.

The Ringmaster advertises the Circus.

One of the Elephants breaks free and heads for the goodies.

A keeper struggles to remove one of the Elephants.

The police and locals look on aghast.

And here is a photo taken on the day.

Hope you enjoyed this tale!

On a different note - I have added word verification to my comment box due to all the 'see hear' 'click here' spam comments I am receiving. I don't really like this but I've got no choice. Hope this doesn't stop you commenting.

Elephant Tease

I'm short of photos, so this one is a shot of something to come! It is one of several photographs that I'm holding onto until I get the story and the history right. It is part of a mosaic mural, in an alleyway in town, that tells the story of the day the circus came to Cheltenaham. And the day it all went a bit wrong! I'll post the full story next week.

I know. I'm a tease!

Emerald Elephant

This is one of the two elephants that sit on the roof of the Thai Emerald Restaurant in St Georges Place, Cheltenham. I've only eaten there once and I never even noticed the elephants. I was more excited about the food, as its meant to be really good (and it was!) We had a buffet, it was brought to the table, and there were so many dishes of lovely food. Delicious!

Below is the whole building. It doesn't look very big but the restaurant goes back quite a bit, and the inside is decorated with lots of oriental artifacts and carved wooden furniture. In the photo you can see a hammer above the front door so I guess the building may have been a Court Of Law or an Auction House in the past.

To see more elephants check out Ham's 'London's Elephants' series here - http://londonselephants.blogspot.com/ Its really good. Go on, have a look!