20 Slideshows

The Marlborough public house was chosen because it was the name of my gallery at the time. As so often in 20 Sites, the original motif is not always the main focus of attention. In this case, the first six years see in the little courtyard a battleground of mindless municipal creativity as perfectly good paving gets replaced by cobbles to be in turn, replaced by new paving in the following year. In 1976 corrugated iron hides further construction work, revealing, in 1977, a totally reconstructed courtyard with brick shrub holders, one of which gets the large and still not quite faded NF sign of the National Front painted on it. In 1985 the message of the NF sign was reinforced by the Nazi salute given by a passing youth. In 1987 the phone-box falls victim to the great phone-box purge. In 1991 a small section of the wall is breached, in 1992 a huge track disappears.

Meanwhile, The Marlborough itself is restless, as if sporadically entering a competition for façade improvement. Various strategies are tried, though the portrait signboard of the Duke himself becomes a temporary blank before restyling as a parody likeness in 2009 to complement the adventurously modern lettering of the pub's frontage. A dreary green in 2010 adds little lustre to the establishment's appearance, a sad last effort of desperation versus blight, before throwing in the towel in 2012. Another pub goes the way of so many locals, and the developers move in. By 2013 the new block of residential flats has taken shape.