Friday Night Coffee

For the past couple of years there has been an awful lot of building work going on near to where we live.

The former ship building site of Vosper Thorneycroft is now a new housing development. 

Our local library is has recently been located to here and as of a weekend or two ago it a coffee shop has opened.

There are 2 other branches of this coffee shop in the centre of town but it is a locally owned business, not part of a big chain.

After dropping S off at dance G and I decided we would go and see what it was like.

No photos of the inside as 1. I got distracted by seeing someone from work and 2. We decided to sit outside once we had ordered our drinks as it was still warm enough to do so.

It was a lovely way to unwind and something I hope we'll do again on a Friday evening.

After we had finished our drinks we took a wander around the housing development.

We liked the way the buildings had been named after ships which had been built locally.

There is a huge curvy sculpture in the middle of the site which was difficult to get a good photo of, but by following this link you get to see it in all it's glory and there is a description about it's inspiration from the artist too.

We liked the buildings at the top, especially the Tudor House museum

and the various sea going vessels all with their own history attached to Southampton.

The plants in this living wall very looking healthy and provided a splash of vibrant green lushness in an otherwise very man made environment.

It's touches like this I like to see, a ship's propeller incorporated into the fencing. A little nod to the site's former existence.

There is a wonderful sweepingly wide communal space down by the water and I really hope that it gets used to it's full potential. All sorts of community events could be held there.
We saw there are also two restaurants due to open soon, one a pizza and pasta place and the other burgers and beers. Who knows we may try those out too one Friday evening.