More crocuses

or is that croci?

Willow Tree

 

It's open, it's closed, it's opening again soon. I have featured this pub before last year and noticed at Christmas that the pub had closed down and then later a couple of the windows had been boarding up - it wasn't looking good at all. I'm not quite sure whate happened but apparently the pub is now set to reopen next month, with the 3rd set of tenants in a year.

Waterside property

Whilst walking along the aptly named Water Lane in Winchester I saw these properties backing onto the River Itchen, I wonder whether the owners make use of their waterside location

Signs of spring

Canon Street again

By popular demand (!) a last photo of my recent walk down Canon Street. This is a view of the street looking down towards Winchester College. Apart from the cars, yellow lines and bollards, I don't imagine the view has changed in years.

Blinds

Quite a few houses in Winchester have these wooden slated blinds, which I love! I imagine they are quite expensive as they'd probably have to be made to measure for each window. This house in Canon Street had some lovely ones. I think they suit more traditional houses and probably wouldn't 'go' at all in my house!

CY music

CY Music is an independent music shop in Jewry Street. I have been learning to play the piano for the past year or so, and am still pre-grade 1, so I haven't needed to buy too much sheet music yet!

Buddy's Diner

Talking of 'fries' as I was yesterday here's a place you can get some. A little piece of America right here in Winchester, it's Buddy's Diner. I like this place and have been here for breakfast a few times, but it's also open for lunch and dinner.

It's chip week!

All this week is chip week (that's 'fries' to our American friends!). I must say that Winchester lacks a proper central chip shop (sorry, but I am far too lazy to go all the way to St Cross for my chips!) I like chips, with lots of salt and vinegar, but I hardly ever have them to be honest. When stopped by some tourists in town and asked where the nearest chip shop was the only place I could think of was this place in Jewry Street...

Twenty Seven and a Half

Window box

More from Canon Street, this time a window box on one of the houses there.

Guildhall

The Guildhall underwent a £3.2m refurb last year and Winchester City Council is now looking to try to boost business at the Guildhall and maybe re-coup some of the money by marketing it for more conferences and functions.

Work in progress

The Square and the area around it have been closed off due to work in progress. I did think they were fully pedestrianising the area, but I don't think that's happening yet

They are laying new paving like that in the High Street, and it looks like this

House on Canon Street

Another house in Canon Street, in the typical flint and brick that you see a lot of in Winchester and the surrounding areas. This house has an interesting plaque on the wall which says "Erected as a thank offering to almighty God in the year of peace AD 1856" I presume this refers to the end of the Crimean war.

Fabrics

C&H in the High Street is where I have bought material for all my curtains in our house, it has an excellent choice and really helpful staff. When I wandered around gormlessly, looking through the 1000s of different fabrics not quite knowing what I wanted, a member of staff asked if they could help.."I'm looking for something modern or possibly traditional, striking but not too loud, turquoise or purple or pink, or maybe a different colour all together" and within about 2 minutes they'd found something that was just what I was looking for! Good value too, if you know someone who can make curtains (thanks Mum!)

Peugeot

I hadn't noticed that this garage had closed down, though I drive past it on my way home from work most days!

Apparently car sales are falling across Britain compared with 2010 and this has hit this car dealership which has gone into administration.

Old & new

 

I spotted these modern looking flats off of St Swithun Street, sitting next to the Green Man pub. The top floor has some has some very nice coloured glass.

Our cinema

 

This is our cinema in Southgate Street. It's a small cinema with 2 screens, housed in a restored 19th century chapel.

The Green Man

Someone might be able to correct me, but I think this is the most expensive pub that I have been to in Winchester, but then I don't get out that much, maybe they are all expensive these days! It has a pleasant interior and is just opposite from the cinema.

The pub is on the corner of Southgate & St Swithun Street, the current building dating from 1881 replaced a previous older inn built in the early 1800s. Excavations opposite the pub in 1971 showed that the Roman South Gate to the city, the replacement of which was demolished in 1771.

Old Wykehamist Bakery

And they wanted to knock it down! More from Canon Street, this building is from the 17th Century, I can't find too much infomation on this building, but presume that it must have been Winchester College's bakery.

Cornflowers

I had seen a sign in the High Street that said 'Save Cornflowers' and passing by the shop I saw it empty and closed looking. Cornflowers is the Winchester College gift shop which sold not only College related gifts, but many other things.

Click here to see it back last summer. The sign on the window says:

The shop has been in College Street for 15 years however the college decided to close it as it was no longer profitable. There has been a campaign to keep the shop going and one comment, which I agree with, was that the shop is a way that people can relate to the college. The college is looking at alternative uses for the site, including using it as a traditional English tea room. I will drop by later in the month to see what has happened.

Canon Street

 

I was asked by a comment on the blog whether I would be taking any photos of Canon Street, so I popped by last weekend. It's a pretty little street running between Southgate Street and  

Kingsgate Street. I once looked at a house to buy in this street, needed total refurbishment and had absolutely nowhere to park 2 cars, so it was a 'no'.

In the 1950s the entire destruction of this street was considered as part of changes that were believed to be required, such as slum clearances, road widening, and the creation of open spaces. Winchester Council took photographs of those properties earmarked for demolition, including Canon Street. The City of Winchester Trust was formed in an effort to limit the destruction of these old buildings and Canon Street was one of the streets that were saved, but most others on the list were demolished.

Snow!

 
OK so anyone living in or near Winchester knows that although we might have had some snow on Saturday evening it did not look anything like this! This photo was taken in December 2010 the last time we had a fair amount. Saturday night a thin layer had settled, but by the morning it had gone. Here is today's photo of the very same spot, the bike is still there and you can see a tiny little line of snow.

Past Times

And another shop gone. Past Times in the High Street was always popular with tourists and had quite a few cute things on sale, but now it is no more in Winchester, and that was even with Australian relatives of our buying up half the contents of the shop just after Christmas!

Jamie Oliver is coming

Where once there was a lowly Pizza Hut there will now be Union Jacks, a Jamie Oliver restaurant. Pizza Hut always seemed busy, I don't know whether they moved out to make way for Jamie or were closing anyway? The new restaurant is supposed to open in the summer. I will be back to check it out hopefully!