"Virtual" Bike Shop
Introduction
The photograph on this page of "Virtual" Bike Shop by Robert Ashby as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
"Virtual" Bike Shop
Image: © Robert Ashby Taken: 27 Jan 2014
I've seen a few of these "Virtual" shops of different types in various locations recently. The shop "interior" is actually photographic murals attached to the inside of the window and are quite realistic, even from close up. The idea is to make city and town centre streets look less rundown and derelict by disguising the fact that there are many boarded-up shops which have been forced to close down, victims of the economic downturn and also probably the easier - and free - parking to be had at out of town shopping malls. Ironically this one is located next door to a real cycle shop, McGarvey's in King Street, the last remaining cycle shop in the city centre.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
54.599732
Longitude
-5.934439