The Old and the New

I've been working at the University of Leeds a lot recently and a little while ago I showed you some of the concrete hideousness where the School of English was situated when I was a student there in the cool and trendy Seventies.

They have gradually filled in any gaps on the campus with buildings, and all the buildings are very different from each other, depending upon when they were built.

Here's an old church - - now a club called Halo.

And here's the Baines Wing - - nicely modernised inside but old on the outside. In a good way - I like this building. It's not the best photograph of it - I was trying to avoid being seen by the students I've been working with, as they only know me as the character I've been playing.

Here's the building that contains the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre.

I was in that building a lot when I was a student, as it contained the Workshop Theatre. I wander through it often because it's like a time capsule - it is identical in almost every detail to how it was when I was a student - - all parquet floors and white steps.

All these buildings are very near to each other and on the left of the photo above you can just see the newest one - - which looks more Miami than Leeds. (So does the sky, as a matter of fact).

All these buildings don't exactly go with each other in any kind of aesthetically pleasing way - - but they are interesting. And at least they're not just concrete boxes.