From the streets of Durham

[shewhomust]

I want to post about our visit to London - and I want to do it before I forget all the things I want to say - once I have sorted and uploaded some photos. In the meantime, a quickie while the Christmas cake is in the oven: a few things that struck me over the past few days chasing round Durham trying to catch up with myself.

The thing that made me happiest:

The heron is back, standing in the river across from where we park the car to go swimming. We used to see it there pretty much every week, but it disappeared when the building work started on the ice rink site immediately above. No, I don't think this is just seasonal...

What does this say about Durham?

The Ann Summers shop which appeared earlier this year has closed, and been replaced by a Holland and Barret health food shop (another; there's already one in the Gates).

It's a game of two halves:

Thinking about the previous question, I was struck by how neatly Durham divides, on either side of the Market Place. Go down Silver Street to the North Road and it's all charity shops, mobile phones and empty shops; Elvet Bridge has the Oxfam boutique, jewellers and dress shops - and a new Rohan shop. Smart Apple retailers Stormfront go against this pattern (and every time I pass, the shop is almost, if not entirely, empty).

Most incongruous sighting:

Entertaining the shoppers at the Farmers' Market this morning, a Dutch street organ which belongs to local funeral director Stuart Wright. Among its repertoire were Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside and French CanCan.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I love Durham.

As you know, I have ancestry in the northeast.

Off up tarn myself today as I still use the hair salon I used when we lived there.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I have been to Durham once when I went for a DJ weekend in Newcastle mid 2009. Love the city!

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

The Ann Summers shop which appeared earlier this year has closed, and been replaced by a Holland and Barret health food shop (another; there's already one in the Gates).

Oh, where is the second H&B? (i.e., what was there before the Ann Summers?)

Funny, I can't see an Ann Summers in Durham. I guess no one else could either.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

It's a very beautiful city, but very odd in some ways. The longer I live here, the more peculiar it seems (but perhaps it works that way everywhere?).

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

It's crazy how hard it is to remember what was there before - but Google Street View to the rescue! We think it was a Barratt's shoe shop.

But can you see a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in Durham? It has outlasted Ann Summers, which really wasn't here very long!

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Barratt's shoe shop? Was that on North Road, past the Iceland? That's the only shoe shop I remember besides the Scorpio and the one in the Indoor Market. J doesn't remember anything else either. Perhaps it came and went after we left?

And a Krispy Kreme???? NO WAY. (I told J and he said NO WAY in exactly the same manner). Where exactly? It's on North Road too, we'll wager. Would seem fitting.

...and I can totally see a Krispy Kreme in Durham. With all the pasties and horrible fried stuff that the students eat, a Krispy Kreme would be a perfect stop after a pub-crawl. Ah, globalization.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Nope, both of these are in Silver Street. Holland & Barret formerly Barratt's shoe shop is just uphill from the Post Office, opposite M & S, and KK is further down, below and same side as M & S. It may be a former mobile phone shop, most of that block seemed to be mobile phones at one time.