Our correspondent in Cirencester, Sally Darhling Hart, rang last night to have a chat about adaptive re-use. Circencester is a heritage town and all the buildings there in the high street have been repurposed into vibrant and interesting shops and other attractions, with lots of people about, and no high rise.
“Daaarhling, what’s the best example you’ve ever seen?” she gushed. (I do love Sal).
To brighten up the day I had just been down to Milltown to look at the former police station at the end of Piper Street. It has been beautifully repurposed as a B & B to a very high standard, with all the heritage features intact, right down to the historic message scratched into the vintage window glass.
But I really liked the courtyard out the back where the prisoners exercised. In the wall is the arched alcove which was the dunny, it had a pipe in the back going to the outside, adaptively re-used as you can see. Spot the adaptively re-used vintage sewing machine base too. Back in the day (1870’s) this was part of the standard police station design and you can see similar examples still around the central west, including the Kelso police station.
Sally thought this was brill!
Thought of the week “creative minds”
by a humble heritage advocate – October 2021
