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Tick Tock It's Herne Bay Clock When we think of the seaside towns dotted along our beautiful coastline images of grand hotels fronting a sandy beach, flashy amusement arcades with a multitude of vibrant lights beaming into the night, piers packed with tourists taking a short stroll over the waves and the distinctive smell of fish and chips filling the air come to mind but what many will miss is the usually charming, decorative and often centrally, located clock tower informing us that there are many hours of fun to come, that it's time for a rest or indeed that the hour has arrived when we should think of heading home. These handy timekeepers can be found in a long list of our seaside destinations including Margate, Morecambe, Skegness and Weymouth, many erected to commemorate Queen Victoria's jubilee, the Kent town of Herne Bay however has the granddaddy of them all and it is this clock tower that this post is all about. It's Time For Some Perfect Skies In Herne Bay Bu...

St John's Church What A Classic St John's Church in Wolverhampton is a Grade II Listed church built between 1758-1766. Due to the Industrial Revolution around 1760, Wolverhampton's population had started to grow rapidly and with an increasing Church Of England congregation in the area a new place of worship was required to ease the pressure on St Peter's Church which had become the focal point of the parish, this as well as the already expanding following of other religions across the town ( Wolverhampton became a city in 2000) and the local countryside meant that the Church Of England needed a new place of prayer to attract this widening, religious audience and so a chapel was constructed, it is this chapel that became St John's Church, such was the population growth that St John's was unable to sustain the congregation and a further two churches were built, St Paul's and St George's, St. Paul's was unfortunately demolished in 1960 to make way for a...

Leeds Town Hall is an excellent example of Victorian Architecture and the civic pride that ensured their public buildings were as grand and as decorative as they could afford. Similar to how a company's internet or website today is their public image, the architecture of towns and cities displayed not only to it's population but to the rest of the country that their town was something to be proud of. In 1850 Leeds Council decided that with their town's growing population (Leeds became a city in 1893) and success in the area that they needed and deserved a new town hall, this combined with the desire to compete with the nearby town of Bradford which was also experiencing growth meant Leeds required something grand, something lavish, something that would indicate to the rest of the country just how important the town had become. Leeds Town Hall A Pillar Of The Community In 1852 a competition was held to design this new symbol of Leeds civic pride, the winner a Mr Cuthbert Bro...