Urban Archaeology

There's a greyhound racing stadium near us; actually stadium sounds too grand for it so let's call it a greyhound track. It was built in the mid/late 1970s and has a squash/racquets club attached to it. Odd combination of businesses but hey it was the 70s! Since lockdown started both of these businesses have been shut though I think greyhound races restart there soon (as will the frequent animal rights protests too probably). The premises had been quite neglected for 5 months will not in use but recently they got cleaned up a bit. Weeds removed, rubbish cleared etc. As part of it a large bush that was getting unruly got dug up and from behind it this appeared:

Mosaic artwork

Which was obviously from when the complex was built but had been hidden for the whole of the 15 years we've live here. It's really good. I enjoy a bit of public art. There is literally no reason for that to be there other than to liven up and make the place look more interesting which really there should be more of.

A few minutes walk down the road from the greyhound track is this shop. We'd only ever known it as a moody kebab shop which seems to change management every 6 months. It was the sort of kebab place you'd never go to sober as it was generally ropey. It shut during lockdown, presumably as there weren't any drunk people staggering home from any pubs, and it having a new frontage. Which meant this incredibly well preserved sign is out in the open for a while:

Mosaic artwork

Love seeing these little glimpses of older layers in cities and towns.

(Yep for the eagle eyed that's me in the reflection!)