Not romantic ruin

 

A photo for gloomy January.  The abandoned Victorian factories of the Potteries are perfect examples of 'ruin porn', which we've covered already once or twice.  In the Middleport district, abandonment is more evident than usual.
These old buildings have a great resonance of the area's deeply industrial past (for which there is a strange, but understandable, local nostalgic pride) - but what does one do with them?

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Teapot sheds light in Middleport

It looks at first like a magically suspended teapot, shedding rather science-fiction-style rays of luminescence.  In fact, it's an ordinary teapot - umm, acting as a lampshade.  (As it's pierced, that means it would be a poor teapot in actual practice... but I digress...)

We are in the tea-room at the Middleport Pottery Attraction in Stoke on Trent.  The site is half a loving restoration of a Victorian potbank, half a working pottery factory (using traditional skills).
The willow-pattern painting on these walls is a nice reference to one of the commonest designs you might find on nineteenth century ware.

Leaded lights nostalgia

'Leaded lights', such as in this example, always give me a strange nostalgic feel for the past.
Once upon a time, any establishment with any claim to respectability (a hotel-pub, an office or a shop even) had these kind of windows, in order to echo their own sense of importance about themselves.

This photo was taken at the Middleport Pottery, much of which has been preserved, in a strange stopped-time sort of way.

Skips of shards

Burleigh Pottery still occupies a nineteenth century potbank building in the northern end of Stoke-on-Trent, and - thanks to the fact that it shares the old building with the Middleport Pottery Project - one can still go round a lot of it and imagine how it would have been a hundred and fifty years ago.

But the site is still definitely that of a working pottery - as you can see see from the skips of discarded shards round the back...

Once was employment

Pretty grim, isn't it?  Another example of 'ruin pornography' I suppose.

This photo was taken in the Stoke-on-Trent district of Middleport, an industrial area of former potteries which is extremely run-down. 
Strangely enough, a nearby working pottery, Burleigh, makes a virtue of this dire situation - describing itself as authentically Victorian - and so attracting tourists!

Resales markets grow

The current hard times mean that lots of little ‘resales’ markets have sprung up, in which folks can sell off some of their excess goods and make a little cash. Of course the buyers don’t have much cash either, so prices are very low.

‘Porthill Resales’ has its market in an abandoned pottery factory in Longport.