IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Cotlands Road, BOURNEMOUTH, BH1 3BT

Detail round the back of the frontage of Image, showing the public entrance of the Social Security office, whose address was actually 20-28 Cotlands Road, the road round the back. It closed on 30 November 2007 and was re-housed in Tamarisk House, the brand new Image

Around the rear of Image, alongside the Image, is this old fire exit sign (the two buildings are joined from the first floor upwards and this is in the resultant tunnel). The sign refers not to the recently bricked-up part immediately below, but to a door just to the left, which has had a modern green Fire Exit sign, more recognisable today as a Health & Safety sign, attached.

Detail of the side of 20-28 Cotlands Road, the former DSS office (see Image), one of whose windows reflects the bright sunlight.

Bracken House, at 14-16 Christchurch Road, is an odd kind of building, with a rear, taller section which is perpendicular to the frontage and whose address is 20-28 Cotlands Road – the road that runs round the back. It was occupied by the Benefits Agency and associated government departments until they moved to Image in December 2007. The front part of the building is still occupied by some smaller government departments.

The rear staircase of 20-28 Cotlands Road, the DSS office.

The refurbishment of Image is now not far off a yearlong operation. I'm not sure what the crane was needed for – maybe just cleaning the new glazing – but the removal of the scaffolding hasn't proceeded as quickly since Image as it did immediately before. For the whole series of images, see http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=8964305

The latest in a series of images of Image during its major refurbishment of 2007-08. For the whole series, see http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=8964305 Yesterday, the temporary fence around the building site was removed and the first cars parked outside the building since early 2007. The remnants of the former exterior wall can be seen through the ground floor glazing, and there is more work to be done inside. The building used to have a canopy and it is only the ground floor which has increased in size.

Workmen dismantle the scaffolding from the upper floors of Image for further images and commentary. For the whole series of images during the building work, see http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=4757467

This elegant building was originally Telephone House, BT's Bournemouth headquarters. In the mid-1990s it was surplus to BT's requirements and it is now one of the offices of JP Morgan, who have their UK headquarters in Bournemouth (a couple of miles north at Image). JP Morgan have been more inclined to keep the building in an immaculate state than were BT. The symmetry of the façade is compromised only slightly by the introduction a few years ago of a ramp to the left of the door, to facilitate disabled access, such is the sensitivity with which it has been designed.

A bit more scaffolding has been removed as the facelift of Image nears its completion. It was a very wet and windy day yesterday, and no work was done at all, while, at the time of this picture around 9:15a.m., the tarpaulins are still being blown considerably. For the whole series of images, see http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=8964305