The world gets uglier.
This article titled “Goodbye to a beauty, hello to Asda’s eyesore” was written by Deborah Orr, for The Guardian on Thursday 10th March 2011 09.00 UTC Big business and small towns . . . they mix really badly. Standing outside the horrible behemoth of a white cube that is Motherwell’s Asda last week, I stared at the beautiful half-demolished building opposite, wondering why it had come to this. Built as a school in the Victorian era, the building was being knocked down because it was too expensive to maintain, or so said the local gossip. Goodbye honey-coloured stone, and graceful astragal windows; hello, whatever the blank walls of the Asda stores are clad with. I couldn’t help feeling that if just some of the people who made a profit from that huge shop, and the townspeople who use it, had had a presence in the community and a will to save its remaining beauties, then my view and that of citizens for many years to come, could have been different and so much more lovely. Not that the few remaining small shops of Motherwell are not stimulating. I was very taken by a novel item I spotted in one window – a blanket with sleeves! At first I sneered: “Hey! Like a coat! Except totally shapeless and would fasten up the back if it had any fastening!” Then I remembered how miserable it was to sit in the cold watching telly with your coat on, and counted my many blessings.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
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