I always regret the fact that I dropped history as a subject when I was 14.  We could choose, for GCSE, between 2 languages, or geography and history.  In retrospect, a history GCSE would probably be of more use to me now than a Russian GCSE, much as I enjoyed it.

The reason for dropping history, was that we started our historical study ages 11 by looking at ancient Chinese dynasties.  This was largely done from a textbook (I am not a textbook learner at all), with the waffling input of a teacher who was practically a piece of decaying history himself, wandering around the classroom twiddling his thumbs upon his large belly as he spoke….And spoke…..And spoke.

Frankly, I was bored witless.  So I made my choices at the beginning of year 9 and then, unfortunately, started to really enjoy the subject, as we got on to British history, with a much better set of teachers.  Ah well.

Anyway, I still find some history to be a bit like chewing dry muesli, but one thing that does fascinate me is the history of buildings.  There is a website that I find really intriguing, called 28 days later.  This is a team of people who break into derelict/disused buildings that have been sitting empty for a while.  They take photographs of what it now looks like.  This is probably not entirely legal, but somehow brilliant.

I was looking up the history of the Axiom the other day, a building that really fascinates me and one which saddens me greatly because it is no longer with us.  28 days later ran an article on it here, showing what the building now looks like inside.  I love it!

The Axiom has a fascinating history, it was once W. Ride & Co Grain Merchants Cheltenham.

There used to be space down the side for 8 horses!

On the side of The Axiom today, you can still see the old sign – I love this kind of thing.

Anyhow, the Axiom was turned into a very cool arts venue.  The upstairs (the grain store I believe) was a large gallery to display the work of up and coming artists, including school children.  Downstairs there was a cafe and there was also a gig venue.  The hippies and vegetarians of the 90′s loved it, but so did many other people.

The building was eventually closed, due to fraudulent activity, never to be opened again.  This to me, is an absolute tragedy.  More tragic still, is that the building has been bought by a London developer who is quite happy to let it sit and decay.  Apparently (although I have no idea why), the council have no power to tell this developer that they must do something with it, in order to improve the appearance of the town.  Great.

There is definitely something missing in the town without this:

A perfect venue for (albeit incredibly 90′s!) arts.  Now, Martin Horwood has said that a new arts venue is high on his agenda.  Unfortunately he is not listening to the people.  His primary idea for a site is the Quadrangle!!  For those of you who don’t know, this is the single ugliest building in Cheltenham.  For years they have been trying to pull it down because it is such an eyesore.  Why, oh why, would it be fit for an arts venue, when art is all about image?  I don’t mean ‘image’ in a negative way, but the very definition of art suggests something that is beautiful or interesting to look at.

Now Martin, if you are reading this, you might see the Axiom as a shabby old building, but here’s the thing.  If you pulled the Quadrangle down and built a brand new, state of the art, custom arts building in its place, the location would be perfect because Montpellier is beautiful (and no, not a series of rectangle boxes with fluorescent strip lighting and cheap carpet).  If this cannot be done, then an old, red brick industrial building in a good location that is quirky in a good way (not a bad way) is perfect.  If it has some original features and a really good story attached, then even better.

There is a project that runs called Meantime.  It is really good in that it covers the workshop and project space side of things, but it is not well-known sadly.  I still feel that we need something a little more….  Anyway, that was my historical building for today.