All dressed up...

... But no one to come.

Even the road barriers are finally gone after the decades long campaign to reopen this hotel as a five star attraction. The grand old lady deserves some Cinderellas but no carriages are drawing up to the ballroom, pumpkin or otherwise. The windows, which should be filled with twinkling crystal lights by now, remain sadly dark.

I have blipped her before, but not in this light and not in such regal solitude. I could almost hear the clip clop of horses hooves, which is how guests would have arrived when she was in her Spa resort heyday.

At the risk of repeating myself, I’ll add that the back of the hotel (unlike another famous crescent, which has had extensions built) is just as beautiful as the front.

I have spent a ridiculously long day with a tape measure, CDs, paper and pencils. (I’m attempting the design of pretty but compact-as-possible storage shelves for CDs... I know, I KNOW... ‘No one uses CDs any more’. Don’t start me, I still have vinyl too. What can you do Gladys?). I am also (it appears) somewhat metrically challenged when it comes to the difference between mms and cms.

Bring back old money.

And horses.