Gloucester Street from Beeches Green, a one street

See the list of my Gloucester street blips in my bio

A quiet-ish day at the nursery today, with very few children in. I invented a new game for a child who is a little over-exuberant at times, and it calmed him right down! We also get to use the school's sensory room on Fridays, which is terrific fun, though our nursery kids tend to rush around it at 90 mph, rather than chilling out.... it is really designed for the school, where all of the children have severe, or profound and multiple, learning difficulties.

After work, I dashed up to town because I'd booked a flu jab at Superdrug. They kept me waiting both before and after the jab, but at least they have a new improved treatment room, in which the pharmacist AND the patient can be accommodated!

So, this is Gloucester street, which I l blipped yesterday from the other end. If the developers had had their way in the 1970s (see my blip of two days ago) this street could well have been destroyed to make way for the monster flyover they were proposing. Instead, they built a ring road and made Gloucester street one-way because it is narrow and winding, and the High Street, above it, is pedestrianised, hilly, and undermined by several springs. I am glad they left it, for it retains its charm, despite its run down nature.

The Painswick Inn building on the left is not a pub: hasn't been for over 20 years. When I first moved here, 20 years ago, there was a cafe and drop in centre on the right hand side, where soup and a roll could be bought for 60 pence, or on the LETS (local econonomy trading scheme) which used vouchers instead of money. I was doing a useless training-for-work scheme at college (useless because I was already in work as a volunteer so wasn't really learning anything new at college, back then) so would pop in afterwards. There was a richly varied crowd of people who were marginalised in some way or another, by poverty or mental health issues, or unemployment. Later in the year, I began running creative writing workshops there, and continued to do so until the ceiling fell down! Our group then transferred to the Golden Fleece Inn (now up for rental ) and met there for 5 years.

The building now houses an accountant's office on the right, and Family Tree Funeral Services on the left, which will arrange all types of alternative funerals for those families who don't want a one-size-fits-all approach. Behind is a building created by students from Ruskin Mill college, which houses the Star Anise cafe, which is hugely popular with Rudolf Steiner-influenced people, parents from the Steiner kindergarten, and letterpress printers, who have an office in the Steiner kindergarten, which used to house the Sunshine bakery.