Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

The Shiny New 2012 Blog Design

Well, this is sure to ruffle a few feathers but here we go. Welcome to the new 2012 design for our blog. Now before you dive on that comments button and start hammering that keyboard, allow me to explain my thought process.

That mysterious blue door on Mount Sion.

Over the past seven years and many hundreds of posts I have always tried to carefully, although it may not seem it, craft the way that text sits on the screen. Therefore to try and retain this I decided to keep the text width as it was before, at 500 pixels. The photographs are now over 50% larger at 769 pixels wide, don't ask, people love bigger pictures.

"room to plop in some quotes"

This therefore leaves a 261 pixel white space, but fear not this shall not be wasted, for this is perfect for sitting reasonably large portrait images in, after all you don't want a 769 pixel wide portrait image as you'd need to scroll for a week. It also creates heavenly white space to give everything room to breathe. It also leaves room to plop in some quotes so you don't have to read everything and can just glance the quotes to get the gist of what's going on. Although be warned, if you don't read every word I write then I will find out and will be in touch.

I decided to forgo the large amount of information that used to sit over there on the right, I felt this detracted from the words in the actual posts, which are the most important on the page. To further enhance the main text I made the sidebar over there a lighter shade of black, or grey as some people call it. Some of the information that was over there can be found at the very bottom of the screen underneath King Charles the Martyr Church.

Well that’s it, I hope you like it, I hope it will enhance your reading pleasure. Please bear with me whilst some pages might not look quite right as I am tweaking bits as I go along with your feedback and also I have to go and manually resize everything. Right, go on then, let me have both barrels in the comments.

Is This Lost Bear Yours?

It's not often I post lost and found style posts, well this is the first actually, but I was so taken by this bear that I had to take his photo and try and find his home.

It looks like the little fella has been sitting and waiting for several months, he must be losing all hope by now. Let's find his owners. Is this your bear?

The Project Makes Headlines

You'll be pleasantly surprised when you open your edition of the Kent & Sussex Courier this morning to find David and myself staring back at you. They've printed a rather nice double-page spread of our Tunbridge Wells Project.

Copyright of Kent & Sussex Courier. Click to purchase online edition.

Thank you to Jane Bakowski for the friendly chat and the nice article. You can purchase your copy of the Kent & Sussex Courier online to make it even easier.

Cinema Demolition?

I'm not usually one to print press releases but I think you'll agree that this one just has to be read by all so I'm happy to share. The mega grot spot that is the Ritz Cinema is one small step closer to demolition.

The mega grot spot, the Ritz ABC Cinema.

PRESS RELEASE 25 April 2012
PROGRESS CONTINUES AT MOUNT PLEASANT ROAD CINEMA SITE.
Tenders out for demolition work and negotiations advancing well with potential occupiers - The Carlyle Group and Bellhouse Joseph, joint owners of the cinema site on Mount Pleasant Road in Tunbridge Wells, have said they hope to submit a planning application for a mixed-use scheme over the summer.
Work is currently progressing in preparation for the demolition process to begin, and on Monday 23 April 2012 a number of companies were asked to submit formal tenders for the work by mid-May. This follows the submission of an application to demolish the existing buildings in November last year, with approval from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council being received at the end of December 2011.
Edward Bellhouse, of Bellhouse Joseph, said: “Working with us on this important but complex project is a high quality team, including Professor Robert Adam of Adam Architecture. Although there may have been little visible sign of progress, there has in fact been a great deal of work going on behind the scenes since we acquired the site six months ago. This has included regular discussions with the Council, which is as keen as we are to see the site brought back into use.
“We have undertaken a detailed and time-consuming study of the site that has enabled us to understand the critical issues and how to manage constraints such as the rail tunnel underneath while at the same time meeting the needs of potential occupiers. We are now able to move forward with considerable confidence.”
Ben Du Boulay, Director at The Carlyle Group, added: “We believe strongly in the potential of this site, and are in advanced discussions with a number of possible occupiers including a supermarket and a hotel. I have been encouraged by the level of demand, and I am confident that we will be able to attract a strong roster of tenants to the development.
“We are fully committed to getting this project underway as soon as possible and have made good progress in the six months that we have owned the site. We look forward to submitting our full plans over the summer. “Before that happens we will be seeking feedback on our proposals from local residents, statutory bodies and a range of other interested parties.”

Well, there we go, we are getting there, or is this just to keep us quiet for a while? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. More news to follow so stay tuned! A huge thank you to Rachel at Maxim for the heads-up too.

Water Disaster!

I have just received some exclusive news from a mole deep inside the Town Hall that is just too huge to keep to myself.

Those pesky bureaucrats in Brussels, not content with fiddling with our bananas, have drawn up proposals to bring in a new directive aimed especially at the spa towns of Europe.

It seems that to stay within their new outrageous law our Chalybeate water source can only be served to the public if it is sterilised and supplied in bottles. So that means tapping the supply and piping it to a dedicated bottling plant at some considerable cost, but the obvious bad news is that there is no money left in the coffers for this so it could mean closing the Spring for good.

The worst news, if that wasn’t bad enough, is that without a Spring we aren’t a spa town and without a well of water we can no longer use the name Royal Tunbridge Wells. Thus from the date of introduction of the new law on the 1st of April 2013 we will be plain old Royal Tunbridge!

What do you think? Leave me a comment. Although if you are reading this after the 1st of April then you might want to ignore it, tee hee :)