THE DECLINE OF A RED K6 TELEPHONE KIOSK IN BELFAST BETWEEN MAY 2015 AND MARCH 2922
This phone kiosk, on North Street in Belfast, is an example of a 1936 K6 ‘Jubilee Box’ and it is listed.
When I first photographed the phone kiosk in May 2015 it was in good condition and appeared to be well maintained and there was a new Belfast Bikes docking station.
In March 2022 the kiosk was in very poor condition and the Belfast Bikes docking station had been relocated.
Unfortunately, back in May 2015 it was obvious that the bike hire scheme and network was very badly managed.
The Belfast Bikes station became operational at the location on the 15th April 2015 but it was removed sometime between my visit in 2018 and my visit in 2019. Late in 2017 it was announced that a few Belfast Bikes docking stations in the city centre were to be re-located to “areas of higher demand”. The following were listed for removal: East Bridge Street/Stewart Street, Winetavern Street, Dunbar Link, Writers’ Square and North Street.
Belfast City Council claimed that the stations to be closed were in “close proximity” to alternative stops, and “therefore would not create gaps in the network.
In April 2117, the council confirmed that more than a third of Belfast Bikes had been stolen or vandalised since the project was rolled out more than two years earlier and they admitted that vandalism of the bikes was costing almost £1,800 a month. Local media had included photographs showing several bikes which had been dumped in the River Lagan and it was claimed that a bike was sawn in half.
Lower North Street which has been described as “the street that time passed by”. It was external to the security barriers during the bombing campaign and as such it was avoided by shopkeepers and customers alike. It has never recovered especially following destruction and neglect of the North Street Arcade by fire.
ST PATRICK’S COLLEGE CAMPUS – NO STUDENTS TO BE SEEN
Maynooth University consists of two connected campuses: an older southern campus, with 19th-century buildings, shared with St Patrick’s College, and, across a public road, a modern northern campus.
Maynooth University was formally established as an autonomous university as recently as 1997, yet traces its origins to the foundation of the Royal College of St. Patrick in 1795, making it, simultaneously, Ireland’s youngest university and one of its oldest educational institutions.
Maynooth has an international reputation for research in humanities; social and spatial sciences; mathematics, communication and computation; and human health.
In the 1990s the EU kindly organised and paid for me to undertake a post-grad in “UNIX – Core Kernel” and I was a bit surprised that I had to travel all the way to St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth every day for the duration of the course. At the time I did not understand the distinction between Maynooth University and St. Patrick’s College and am still a bit confused.
I was the only person from Ireland on the course and I met some very interesting people from Europe, Africa and Asia and the professor in charge was from China. The tutors were from Ireland and Britain. So, it was a bit sad to see the campus devoid of students because of Covid-19.
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