Hollowed Out. Derelict and damaged heritage road

TWO BAD MICE: the food was made of plaster and was inedible

City of NOTO. Eastern Sicily. Flowered streets

NOTO Sicily. Here is the local authority official order form for the type and quantity of flowers required for the 2017 INFIORATA; carnations and chrysanthemums appear as the options. Note the colours available, including "creamy yellow" and "light rose". Little Underbank would offer photography places on St Petersgate Bridge and along the length of the street with a gigantic circle at White Lion roundabout.

NOTO Sicily. The completed INFIORATA or Street Dressing. The opportunities for economic revival are endless and extensive. Local hotels are filled, town restaurants benefit, postcards, posters and videos sold. And the cultural memory persists for the full year with themed cafes selling flower cakes and  other related merchandise. The branding of these cartouches is essential to the sponsorship of the event.
In the foreground it is easy to see the lead frame with The City of Noto; CITTA DI NOTO clearly labelled.

Once the Flower Dressing of Little Underbank has finished the flowers on St Petersgate Bridge will continue to bloom......



and the Bridge could even be dressed to display hanging baskets or other garlands. Here is a detail from the Stockport Coat of Arms 1868 that assumes the borough has at least at colourful thistle and rose in its imagery.

Traffic solutions for access to heritage town from dual carriageway ring road

Entry into heritage district or "old town" of Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy. The road markings suddenly disappear: no double yellow lines, no driver signage disrupting the view. The driver hears the sound of the cobbled rough stone surface through the response of the vehicle tyres and the transition from speed to caution is complete.
A calmer approach is therefore essential.  Benches indicate the new priority; pedestrian safety and pedestrian dominant. Reggio Emilia leads in child education and child psychology, so safety is identified as the key to the economic success of the town. RE is 95% business rental occupied in the ancient centre.




Entry into heritage district or "old town" of Reggio Emilia, near Modena in Northern Italy. A series of wide concrete "couch" seats are set at different distances from the carriageway. These prevent motorists from predicting their position. No warning painted edges so the risk is entirely with the driver. Automatic speed reduction to prevent damage to bodywork. No possibility of quick stop parking as this would block the (one way) street





Road flanking seats in place of pavements place responsibility for speed and steering on the motorist. Pedestrian sits protected within the pavement footprint. Cars are one directional, but public transport can exit at this junction

This Mercedes bus transport is considered to be adequate in capacity for the volume of commuters and shoppers who make use of this regular service into the centre of the City of Reggio Emilia. Large delivery white van scale. This vehicle is shown passing one of the fixed concrete "couch" benches as it leaves the town. Note the lack of street markings and traffic signage.

A new set of BROW STEPS for STOCKPORT?

 Royal Oak Brow.

Steps from ROYAL OAK YARD up to HIGH BANKSIDE (and possible urban park)

 White Lion Passage

New SOTTOPORTEGO; a single storey pedestrian right of way cut through St Ann’s Hospice Charity Shop. Royal Oak  Yard as a secret town piazza



Little Underbank has been adversely by the evolution of the motorised road transport approach to town planning. It gets mistaken for a road/route in local maps. It is a pedestrian zone and a cul de sac that has been allowed to revert to a rat run and short cut.

Cross routes encourage exploration, photography, tourism and access for pedestrians. The private contractors have closed the passage that once led into Great Underbank from the end of Royal Oak Yard. This is an opportunity to create a public space inside Royal Oak Yard and some brow steps to High Bankside

The proposed passageway inserted through St Ann's Hospice Shop as a route through to the ancient town rocks and the new brow steps to High Bankside (which could become a new town park).

 

The acropolis brows of the old town

Market Place Bank buildings suspended above the deep gorge of Royal Oak Yard.  A grand Italianate palazzo. The rear of the Queen's Head dominates the centre of the view. This faces on to Little Underbank

ROSTRON BROW from DUMVILLES BROW. The views across Little Underbank make quite exceptional townscape.  Here the design of the upper storey is easy to read as an independent structure. The use of the Little Underbank as a linear traffic route prevents the lateral reading of the place which can only be done on foot.

LITTLE UNDERBANK Acrylic on 3 canvases 315 x 125 cm. 2015 with further editing Feb 2017. Painted over a period of 8 months from the ever changing view from Studio 7 MMU Market Place Studios. The Exchange buildings have not been built and some trees not yet felled. Signed DC in the place of existing town wall graffiti.




LITTLE UNDERBANK Acrylic on canvas. Chestergate with rear entrance to Primark. The A6 arch is visible as is the bridge across to Merseyway Car Park from Tatton Street

Palette used as if it was a post-it note with testers; cadmium yellow mid, burnt orange (quinacridone) mars black and cadmium orange. Date 2015

 (detail) steps down to Little Underbank near the Egerton Arms. The brick wall is set on the sandstone face of Royal Oak Yard. This corner is still used as a location to dump waste into R.O.Y.



Little Underbank (detail) with its rendered first floor windows and grey slate tiled roofs. A plane heads for Manchester Airport reflected in a puddle on a flat roof

(detail) St Petersgate Bridge



(detail) view across to Rock Row and Stockport Plaza and part of Edgely through the railway viaduct At lower left part of the old road at the top of High Bankside with its steps.

Flowers In Little underbank

There is a shop window insert photograph on an unlet unit on the South side of the street opposite Rostron Brow. This is the right direction and a very good proposition for the area once it is securely pedestrian priority.
 

The beautiful building on the corner of Royal Oak Yard and Little Underbank seems to be purpose built as florist once the local residential demand is sufficient. With hanging baskets a street of flowers with a reputation across the North West?

 

Every May at NOTO in Sicily there is the festival of the INFIORATA - a highly sponsored street carpet of flower petals. Not dissimilar to the tradition of Well Dressing. Immensely profitable for tourism and media exposure. In a town full of artists this type of festival would be the focus for revival and intense competition. Brands advertise here.