Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough is a town that is hard to tell whether it is still declining (it has decayed a lot since its industrial heydays), or has turned the corner and is now on the rebound.

Unfortunately, I would say the latter. Despite all the redevelopment work taking place, there is isn't much there. Very few opportunities for local people to work and make lives for themselves. (Though if somebody would like to correct me on this I would love to hear about it.)

The teenagers in the boombox hatchback who swore at me while they drove down the road to Middlesbrough college - where are they going..? My guess would be: nowhere.

The transporter bridge.

Northern Steel - The real northern landscape?

The north of England has had a long and proud industrial heritage. Most of that heritage has been wiped out in the last fifty years.

I would say that this heritage is perhaps the true "northern landscape", and Roseberry Topping and the Dales are just mere window dressing to this true nature of the north.

Pictured here is SSI Steel at the mouth of the river Tees. It was mothballed, but in 2012 the blast furnaces were re-lit.

Taking the photographs here at night I found that the plant vents a huge amount of some kind of sulfurous vapour, and I was pretty much choking. The sights, sounds and smells made it an evening I won't ever forget.

Edit to update: In September 2015 the plant was closed. That makes these photos all the more special to me.