Then and Now Take Two – Liverpool Big Wheel
This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester.
I was in Liverpool recently, and I reflected I have been to Liverpool quite a few times, not as many as Manchester or London, but certainly a fair few times. What I did feel though was that I wasn’t as familiar with Liverpool as I was with parts of Manchester and London. I think part of that reason is I was last in Liverpool in August 2019 staying close to the University of Liverpool. I also went to the ALT Conference in Liverpool two years earlier in September 2017, again this was up by the university campus.
Back in February 2015 we were on holiday in the North-West and we spent a day visiting Liverpool, spending time around the Albert Dock and visiting the Museum of Liverpool. I took this photograph of the big wheel one evening. It was taken with an iPhone 6 Plus.
So when I was in Liverpool for a conference in the Royal Albert Dock area, I went back to the Museum of Liverpool to take this photograph with an iPhone 13, obviously I took this photo during the day and not in the evening.
Deserted Weston-super-Mare
During my government sanctioned one form of exercise per day we cycled down to the seafront in Weston-super-Mare.
The seafront was deserted. I have seen it empty like this in winter, but not in spring with the sun shining.
There were a few people like us doing our exercise, walking, cycling, running. The odd dog walker as well.
All the attractions, cafes, restaurants and bars were closed.
They could be open for takeaway, but after the kerfuffle before the lockdown with huge queues at the Victorian Cafe and the fish and chip places, the owners made the responsible decision to not open any more and stay closed.
The council closed all their seafront car parks in an additional move to dissuade casual visitors. So in the end the place is deserted with only a few people exercising.
Just to note that I am following government advice during this national emergency and these photographs were taken during my government sanctioned one form of exercise per day.