Alloa

A few years back (OK, maybe a fair few years back), peeking over this wall would have saw you looking at acres of woollen mill, a brewery, those church spires and the glassworks in the distance. Nowadays, the woollen mill has shrunk back to the tallish building on the left and is now mostly local council offices. The remains of the old brewery on the right is now a pub imaginatively called 'The Old Brewery' and an Indian restaurant takes up the space where the beer was once stored.

Between those the glassworks factory is still there churning out glass for it's American owners and of the four church spires visible, one's a nightclub, three are still active (the square castellated one on the left doubling up as a Zumba class venue). The view also takes in the location of Alloa's oldest occupied building (1695), an old Art Deco cinema that's now flats, a German grocery store, the stalls set up for the town's Thursday market, a pizza takeaway, the back of a Pound Store (that used to be a Woolworth's) and a Bingo Hall. Just over the wall, and mostly out of view there's a giant Tesco Extra store.

And surrounding everything is a six foot high wall with barbed wire and a single Passport Control entry point for anyone wishing to visit.

Kidding.

Looking at all that today though I was thinking there may be enough material for a photo project to see us through the dark days still to come. Maybe.