Remains of the Townhouse (later the Cock in Treacle - yes, really.)

A bit of impromptu urban exploration today; these pictures are from November last year, when I was on my way to an appointment, had a few minutes going spare and decided to explore this disused pub with which I have a bit of personal history. In the early 2010s, when it was still called the Townhouse, my first job after college was here. Not working in the pub itself but doing some community project effort which we ran out of the function room, and did questionnaires with the general public (or, y'know, mocked up a load of answers and dossed about 'round town with my mates, as you do.) It's been empty for a fair few years, and suffice to say it's fallen into disrepair during that time; it's a shame because it was a nice place when it was actively in use.

These steps are where we used to head in; I have distinct memories of them being a fucker to walk up on a wet day. 

This door was torn off in a storm, which enabled me to go in and have a nosey...

Stopping to admire these rickety slates...


 On the way in, this first bit is where we had a desk set up and a projector screen for presentations. The area beyond is where we had a bunch of tables set up for everyone to work at; the group I belonged to had our table set up by the windows on the left there. Also at one point, we had fuck all to do so me and this other chap set up a Game Gear emulator on the laptop and had a faff about on the 8-bit version of Baku Baku for a bit.

 

This pillar here, leading into the archway, where at one point there was an obscene meme stuck to it. No idea who would've done such a thing...

These stairs leading to the topmost floor of the place, now a nasty gauntlet of mould and clinging scraps of underlay from the carpet that used to be there. (I was a bit under the weather on this occasion and traipsing round in this place probably didn't help matters.)


The windows all look across to Sovereign Court, which is also disused at time of writing.

 

A dour little fireplace, not quite as grim as the ones in the Death House from a while back, but still a bit depressing.

Heading back down to the function room, and looking over the landing which leads to the upstairs loo.


 And the stairs leading down to what used to be the pub proper, which was a cosy place in its heyday, and I enjoyed a few questionable lagers in there - didn't shout about it, though. At this point, I turned back and got on my way because A - it was getting on time for my appointment and B - these death-trap stairs, all the darkness and debris (it's not particularly visible here but there was a lot of shite down there), didn't fancy the risk of injury.


 And as a palate cleanser after that bleak look at a decaying building, how about some lovely brooms.

Mmmm. 

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Further rambling

Twa Thousand Corbies

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Going to start this post with an illustration, because of this blog layout, posts lacking images tend to look a bit pants. The art here is by G. Howell-Baker. A while back, I was joking about gathering together as many versions of Twa Corbies as possible, and finally, here we are. This is going to be a continually evolving list, so if you know of a version that needs to be included, or if you've recorded one of your own, then by all means, let me know. You can put a comment here or e-mail me at looksinnocuousnenoughchaps [at] gmail [dot] com. Part two, with versions 50-100 can be found here . Let's begin! 1.  Folly Bridge - My personal favourite, performed completely a capella with some beautiful, eerie harmonies. 2.  Hamish Imlach - A live version, and a very close second favourite. Hamish's distinctive voice works wonders here and we're treated to some elegant sitar as well. 3.  Ayreheart - This one features the lute and a passionate vocal performance, it's qui...
'Ave a gander 'ere

Fridayposting

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It is Friday, continuing the theme of the spooky video games, I'm currently revisiting Still Wakes the Deep and trying to finish up the blog post about that (it's a good job this isn't an audio effort because noone needs to hear yours truly going "Fuckin' 'ell, McLeary!!!" in an incredibly questionable Glaswegian accent whenever the mood so takes me.) Sod's law, I completely forgot to actually get the pictures off of Mariner... it was late at night. For now, it's time to return to the comfy slippers of The Callisto Protocol, not in chronological order and not really with a theme in mind either, just a bit of fun for today. Starting with these artfully arranged Crunchy Creatures, with a bit of an HR Giger kind of vibe. I also appreciate the elegantly flowing mist around here. Hmmm . (This one's off the PS4 version, I redid it on the PS5 but a big cloud of mist was obscuring one of the monsters and we can't have that.) This hexagonal effort...
'Ave a gander 'ere

Some doodles from last night

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I went on a bit of a spree last night, trying out some different brushes in Rebelle 7, trying to work out what approach I might want to take for reviving Facts About the World, and here are some of the resulting doodles. First, a swoonicorn investigating Blarglflorp, the tiniest comet in the cosmos. Ara, done entirely using ink brushes with varying degrees of water. It's been a bit of running joke that their markings are different every time I draw them, and this time is no exception. (They were initially based on a striped dolphin but at this point, it's anyone's guess. Cynosure was a futuristic thing with cyborgs anyway, so what kind of dolphin Ara resembled wasn't exactly a pressing logical concern.) And one from the end of the night, which didn't end up being coloured because I'd been up since 3am again and needed to go to bed.
'Ave a gander 'ere