Reply To: Bricklayers Guild Hall

Apparently a lot of original granite street paving was lifted in the 60s to be replaced with concrete slabs and was dumped as landfill in the bay.

Daithi Hanley, former city architect, was in possession of the Abbey facade and campaigned for many years to have it re-erected somewhere, but nothing ever came of it. Presumably it’s all together in one place still, but I the numbering for re-erection might not have survived.

I don’t know if the corpo or CIE have a depot for old objects anywhere. I worked for an architectural office in London which converted a warehouse which British Rail used as a store for all its old objects – from station clocks to piled high stacks of copies of the 1966 All England Freight Timetable. The building was known as collector’s corner and was a Mecca for trainspotters across the land. Long after we had moved in, parka-clad individuals would wander into reception in bewilderement (‘B-b-but it’s gone!’ ‘Yep it’s been an architect’s for a while now.’ ‘Gentrifying bastards.’)

It was run on quite a profitable basis I understand – back issues of the Freight Timetable fetched quite a hefty price.