A walk in the past

I'd earmarked today to get on with some of the voluntary work I've been doing for ArtUK.  I dropped the car off for is annual service and walked back into the city centre, having mapped out a few spots to visit with the camera on my way back home - a walk of 2-3 miles, but a largely uphill one.
I've been taking photos of sculptures sited outdoors, in Sheffield, for a national online public art database. I've enjoyed being a small part of this, it's given me a sense of purpose about photography, as well as taking me to some corners of the city I don't know well. (Even after having lived here since 1975).
The light wasn't particularly good today; it's been overcast, even slightly damp - a big change after yesterday's hot sunshine. But for sculpture, a diffuse light is good. Drizzle perhaps not so good :-)  Anyway, it was OK.
It ended up being a strange walk, though; partly thoughtful, partly sad.  Several of the pieces I'd planned to photograph dated back to the more optimistic days when Sheffield was a flourishing steel city,  before the deindustrialisation that started in the 1980s. Some were in parts of town that have been though cycles of recession, regeneration and more recession.  With the recent impact of Covid, even the more vibrant parts of the city are looking ragged in places.
Here's one piece that I really like: a frieze made of terracotta panels, showing some of that steel city history.  It was put in place in 1985 - and by then, the big decline in manufacturing was already under way. Was this piece commissioned in a spirit of nostalgia? It was placed on a wall at one end of a pedestrian precinct, in between two public toilets.  (Image of this salubrious location in extras). At one time, this was an area of outdoor market stalls and small shops - busy, lively. Now the toilets have been disused for many years, leaves and litter blow around, the local markets aren't doing so well... the mural is intact, but barely seen. I'm relieved it hasn't been lost or vandalised. But I long for better times.