The Road To Holy Isle (is quite often under water)

Although it is tempting to stay on Holy Island between tides, it's worth not staying to see the Spectacle of the Advancing Waters. And for an event that happens every day it draws quite a crowd. As anyone who has been there will know Holy Island is reached by road, called the Lindisfarne Causeway. This floods twice a day, cutting off the island for about five hours at a time. At each end of the causeway there are prominent signs and details of the tide times but (you will not be surprised to read) on average one car a month gets stuck somewhere on the road. We didn't take any chances and left at the time specified by the tide tables. Where the road reaches the mainland there is a small car park and an expectant crowd.

To begin with nothing much happens. You look hopefully out to sea. From this vantage point you can see the waves hitting the northern side of the island. It's a strange sight. From here they look almost like people, or ghosts, hovering on the horizon. But the promised rush of water is nowhere to be seen. Near to a refuge (to help those who didn't read the signs) there is a raised bit of road and it slowly becomes clear that the water underneath this is, very slowly, getting nearer to the road. But, still no sign of a deluge. In fact, just when you think this is starting to get exciting, an ice cream van turns up.

Clearly they've seen it all before. They park

up on the side of the road and an orderly queue quickly forms.

The water has finally started to creep over the road. Either side of you the muddy creeks are filling up. Children stand on small mounds of earth eating ice creams until their little islands are submerged under the relentless tide.

During all this time traffic still appears from either side. Those coming from the mainland are put off by the crowd and the fact that there is an ice cream van in the middle of the road but those coming from the island are not so easily deterred. Eventually, just when you think no more cars are going to risk the trip, along comes one more. This time it was a plucky Peugeot (containing a family of four). The crowd watches as increasing amounts of spray appears on either side of the car. Will they make it? What would be more fun - them not making it, or them reaching safely? It's difficult to judge the mood of those watching. The car seems to stop briefly by the refuge. Are they stuck?

No, on they come! When they reach us a round of applause breaks out. The driver winds down his window and lets out an audible sigh of relief. The kids in the back look slightly shellshocked. And don't even get an ice cream.

The road is well and truly submerged by now. At the far end of the causeway a motorhome has stopped, deciding, very sensibly that they don't want to appear on the evening news. We move slowly back to the car park. Walking with the water as it slides up to us. Despite the people, the ice cream van, the water, it's all very quiet. People seem very happy with this simple pleasure of waiting for the water. Perhaps we are reassured by the predictability of it? Perhaps it's the mild sense of danger? Or perhaps it's just because we really, really like water?

The "Other" Silver Arcade - a Leicester time capsule

Leicester Civic Society this week announced that it had been "passed" (ooh...mysterious!) some photos of the medieval building discovered behind some dirty windows in the Silver Arcade. I naturally thought they meant the Silver Arcade which has been closed since 2000 and which is supposedly due to re-open in 2012.

In fact they meant the bit on the other side of Cank Street. This bit has always intrigued me. Used mostly by people as a short cut through to the market place it is currently occupied by two cafes and some other shops which seem to have odd opening hours (if they ever open at all). I don't know what the cafes are like (but Crusty's has been there for as long as can remember

(which is a shockingly long time) so it must be doing something right, and the other one has an interesting music policy so is probably worth checking out too.

There is also a jewellers (mentioned in the Mercury article) which I think has closed down, but rather confusingly the 'closing down' sign has been crossed out. It looks like they haven't changed the window display since the 1960s.

Or the sign advertising the shop. There are fonts here which just don't get used to-day (except in an ironic way).

Anyway, talking of things surviving more because they are neglected than for any other reason brings us back to the medieval building. According to an article in Leicester Mercury (from December 2009) this was actually first "discovered" in 2002 when some alterations were made to this part of the Arcade. The building is believed to be 16th century. I wandered down there to have a look and indeed you can still see this building if you press your face against a rather

grubby window just past Crusty's. There's not a lot left and I'm not sure I agree with the Civic Society who want to save it. I think there comes a time when we have admit that some buildings are beyond help. It's not listed, presumably because it's felt that too much of it has already been lost. I would imagine it's under no immediate danger anyway. But what could you do with it even even you saved it?

£250,000 for the Phoenix. Cheap at twice the price.

As far as I can see no-one in any position of power in Leicester takes a blind bit of notice of the whingers and whiners who inhabit the comment pages on Leicester Mercury website. Which is just as well. They are incredibly predictable. They hate the city council (curiously most of them seem to live in the county), they hate modern buildings, they're not at all keen on Muslims, travellers, art, young people, the present time...the list is a long one.

Saturday's Mercury headline - LEICESTER'S PHOENIX SQUARE NEEDS A £250,000 COUNCIL BAIL-OUT - was, naturally, like a red rag to a bull and all the usual suspects weighed in with their expert opinion. This had everything they hated - the council, spending money, a new building, art - oh they must have been so excited!

The fact that £250,000 (a small amount of money) would save 12 jobs and keep the only independent cinema in Leicester going was irrelevant to them. They saw a way to bash the council, bash "minorities" (i.e. people who go there), bash modernity itself. The Mercury encourages this, of course, or they wouldn't have put this minor bit of news on the front page, mischief making for the council is the Mercury's favourite pastime. As anyone who has read the Mr Leicester page (or it's sister publication the Leicester Chronicle) will know, they're not keen on the "new" Leicester, either.

I don't know if the Phoenix has been a success or not. I've never met anyone (who has actually been there rather than commented on it from afar) who didn't think it was pretty good. The cinema facilities are excellent and much more preferable to going to a huge, corporate multiplex. There was excellent (and sold out) performances during the comedy festival. The Mercury article tells us that there is an average attendence of 17%. I have no idea if this is a bad average for cinemas (I saw a film - Superbad - at the Odeon when I was the only person in the audience) and the Mercury, of course, doesn't explain any further.

I don't suppose this will be the end of the story. The winds of change are against those of us who think governments should spend money to improve life and employ people and the only way the phoenix will survive is if more people use it. So check out the diary, and go along. You might like it.

"Crowe's" - still the "CENTRE for SHOPPING", Leicester

"Crowe's" - still the "CENTRE for SHOPPING", Leicester
Originally uploaded by Ned Trifle

Reading letters and comments in the Leicester Mercury - or indeed reading the whole of the Leicester Chronicle - you might think that not only is Leicester covered in hideous modern buildings and concrete but that all traces of the past had been eradicated by the forces of modernity.

In fact much of Leicester's history is still there to be seen, although sometimes you have to lift your eyes from the pavement. Indeed it's the combination of past and present that I enjoy most when wandering about. The juxtaposition of Curve with Victorian buildings nearby (not to mention the contrast between it and the (former) Odeon (now Athena) is just one example. In this photo we see a smaller but just as satisfying one. The building that now stands at the entrance to Highcross (and now contains a Laura Ashley store) was once "Crowe's" -"The People's Drapers". You can see a postcard of it here. Quite an interesting building with an entirely superfluous but nevertheless striking tower on top and some lovely windows. Almost the whole building is still there (despite it not being listed), standing next to another building from Leicester's past - the Eastgates Coffee House.