IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Rugby Road, SALFORD, M6 8FY

Royal Mail celebrated every gold medal won by a British athlete during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by repainting one of their iconic red pillar boxes gold for each gold medal winning Olympian or Paralympian. Sarah Storey won four gold medals, so four postboxes were painted gold in her honour. This one celebrates Sarah’s gold medal winning performance for the road cycling Women's C5 Time Trial event. It is outside the Gilda Brook Post Office on Eccles Old Road. In total, Team GB won 29 Gold Medals for the Olympic Games and 34 Gold Medals for the Paralympic Games; for team medals, a post box was painted gold for all team members (see http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Olympic-Gold-Post-Boxes for list and more examples). This was the first occasion in modern times that Royal Mail had changed the colour of their post boxes from the traditional red which has been the standard colour for UK boxes from 1874, with very few exceptions. The original plan was for the boxes to be returned to their traditional red colour but in November, it was announced that they would remain gold and that a plaque would be fixed to each one (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20183986 BBC News). https://web.archive.org/web/20171231162534/https://www.goldpostboxes.com/ - archived 31st December 2017 (Royal Mail Gold Postbox Finder)

Approaching Salford Royal Hospital on the right (the former Hope Hospital).

The new Hope Building ("Emergency Village" http://menmedia.co.uk/salfordadvertiser/news/s/1414827_salford_royal_hospital_building_for_healthy_future ) scheduled to open in October 2011, at Salford Royal (formerly Hope) Hospital. Work started on the project in May 2009 with the demolition of the building where the Hope Building now stands. For further information, see http://menmedia.co.uk/salfordadvertiser/news/s/1414827_salford_royal_hospital_building_for_healthy_future (Salford Advertiser).

Approaching its junction with Eccles Old Road.

Elmwood Church on Eccles Old Road at Hope, Salford.

This brook is a major geographical feature of the drainage of this square but is hard to locate and photograph. Its course is extensively culverted and where it is not covered it is almost inaccessible, threading its way between the gardens of this heavily built up area. To most people of the area its name is only familiar as the name of a nearby road, Gilda Brook Road. Taken from SJ 783 997.

Looking across Eccles Old Road towards Hope Hospital. High rise buildings provide staff accommodation and administrative facilities.

Under Construction

Traffic on the A576 is queuing for the Stott Lane traffic lights.