Castle of Decay

How's this for unintentional timing?

Two years ago to the day fire tore through this building near the train station in Cambridge - today some other kind of decay tore through the front tyre of my bike. Happily there's a cycle repair shop just down the road from my office next to the train station so it was a simple matter of walking the bike down there and then waiting for a bus with this building looming across the way.

The 'castle' above (in fact an old flour mill) is one of the only remaining old buildings near the station where all manner of new offices and (sure to be overly priced) flats are springing up as the area gets redeveloped. It's a shame to see it in such a state as the building, while not supremely pretty, is one of the more impressive, non-university related structures of the city. It was built back in 1898 beside the station because the mill owners were not allowed to construct railway lines to their existing mills in the centre of Cambridge (speaking of the university, guess who was blocking their plans?). The fire in 2010 caused the collapse of the wing on the north side of the building, completely taking out the silo of the mill which had an impressive arched structure over it and made it one of the features of the inner city skyline.

It's not all bad news though, while it may looked decayed and decrepit now, the building is not set for any further demolition, just restoration as part of the CB1 redevelopment, where it will become nineteen of those aforementioned sure-to-be-overpriced flats!