Mercury Quays

All the detail (definitely recommended)

The weather has been beautiful up here in Yorkshire, but I've been office bound all day and, now early evening, I'm about to head into Leeds for a business meeting. Only chance to get a blip today was on the way into work so here is a shot of our offices at Mercury Quays in Shipley. This is where I spend way too many hours during the week, but it's certainly not a bad place to be based. I should point out immediately that ours is not the near building, but the one right of centre. My office is more or less directly under that chimney with a window (just obscured) giving a view on to the canal. There are a number of mill conversions along the canal here all the way to Salt's Mill - which you can see far right - all done very tastefully and preserving the integrity of the original buildings while providing modern office space within. I imagine this near building will get the treatment too at some point in the future. If done well I'm sure it will be a fantastic space.

There is something about being on the canal here that I really love, but it's hard to put it into words. I think it must be to do with the sense of connection that rivers and canals provide. There is a continuity through place, and through history too, that I suspect connects to something in our subconscious. I guess it's a bit like the feeling you get standing on top of a hill. Your perception reaches out to distant points. What I value most is that if I'm blocked by a problem in any way I can now easily get out of the office to take a walk along the towpath. That bit of space almost invariably helps in throwing up some kind of solution. It was far more difficult to do that when stuck in the middle of Bradford!

Thanks for all the wonderful comments from yesterday. It's really lovely - and somewhat surprising to me - that you guys actually read my ramblings! There are so many people I want to comment back to but it's not possible tonight. If all the business that's up for grabs comes our way we're going to be very busy next year. Some planning is required! And I definitely need to factor blipping into the equation!