BBC 5

Today's Blackheath Blippers Challenge has been chosen by GEMAX Photographics. As Geoff says, it is very much the "local's local".

This tired building, dating from the 1930's is Blackheath's New Ivanhoe Hotel. There had been an "old" Ivanhoe Hotel before that but IT burned down. This building is "new" very much in the sense that "Mr Grace" is "young" (for those who remember the wonderful old television comedy).

Somehow this place just hangs together - a mish mash of tiny patches and crumbling glory. The furniture is dowdy but is damn well built to "take it". The carpet is new ... but LOOKS as if it was here to begin with. Delightful bits and pieces, dating from the day it was opened, still shine through. Little incongruities from all the intervening years assault the eye from every direction. In any style conscious, decently upward mobile community, this joint would have been torn down ages ago.

You know what? I wouldn't change a thing!! I like it just the way it is - every "local" Blackheathen's second home.

GEMAX Photos blip
Trisharooni's Blip
Cymbeline's Blip