Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Warehouse Wednesday: Birmingham tie plates

Brummie Canal

Today we are back in Birmingham, exploring the canals. For a change there are some actual warehouses in the photo, but I'm more interested in the building nearest the camera on the left.

It appears to have been re-roofed with modern(ish) metal but the walls are a mass of tie plates.

Not only do we have the relatively traditional S shaped plates, these are joined with lengths of what looks a bit like rail. The whole thing has presumably sagged quite badly over the years and someone decided that wrapping it in metal was cheaper than letting the thing fall down and rebuild.

The condition must be pretty bad judging by the amount of plant life clinging to the walls. The roots digging in to the mortar won't be doing the structural integrity any good either. Maybe this is the Brummie equivalent of the hanging gardens of Babylon?

1 comment:

Colin Murdoch said...

I guess having the footings of your building right in the canal can't do it much good. I wonder where the floor level is relative to the water level? Must be pretty damp inside.

This one would be a good challenge to build on a model scene but I'm sure you are up to the challenge Phil.