18th March

Well here goes, fingers crossed that I have enough data left to complete this post, or I'll have to finish it tomorrow.

As promised on my blip for today, 18th March, this is a HDR shot of the front of The Pavilion, Torquay. Built in 1911 the Pavilion Theatre opened on 17th August 1912 and has seen many stars tread its boardwalk in both plays and pop music concerts including Lawrence Olivier (The Farmers Wife, July 1926), George Formby (1955), Ken Dodd (1960), Ruby Murray (Cinderella, 1960) and Eric Sykes (1976) this was one of the theatre's last shows.
In 1973 there was a proposal to demolish the building which was with drawn when it was granted Grade 2 Listed status. In later years it became an ice skating rink and in the 1980's was converted to a shopping arcade.
The building is part built on land reclaimed from the sea, on a concrete raft on which a steel framework was erected. That steelwork has become heavily corroded and the Pavilion has been closed awaiting restoration since 2015.
In 2016 plans were submitted to redevelop the Pavilion and surrounding area to build an eleven story hotel and apartment block. Outlining permission was granted in February 2017, but a petition and appeal was organised. Last week the plans were eventually turned down.

As I was heading down through town towards the harbour I stopped at the stairs and escalators halfway down Fleet Street, leading to the upper balcony level of Fleet Walk. The escalator on the right is where the poor little dog got his paw caught last Thursday.