In The Occupied Territory

By FinHall

Nobody Loves You WHen you are Down And Out

This wonderful gable end of a building sits on East North Street, which, like yesterday's blip, is nearby the Castlegate.
It used to be called The Lodging House, or more colloquially, The Lodger, or the Doss Hoose.
It was a residence for people who were down on their luck, either by choice or circumstance.
I had never been in it, thankfully, but I always got the impression that inside was typical of such places, just like one has seen on the television or in the movies. Big, barrack type rooms with basic beds residing therein.
The institution closed down in the eighties or early nineties, and is now situated, still in the city center, but down nearer the harbour in Virginia Street.
Meanwhile this building was added to and converted into apartments, and are rented out by some of the local,or otherwise, housing associations.
Notice on the building, between the blocks of local granite which was used in it's construction, there are three smaller pieces of stone.If a building or any other thing, like a wall for instance, has these on them, or even just 3 lines scored into the mortar, then this indicates that it was built by a master builder, or a company hat was used by a master builder and a member of the trades guild, and was typically used as a signature in the late 19th century.
And is unique to the area.
Also, i reckon, because the distinctive marks are only visible on the floors above the ground level, that the bottom part had the other 3 floors added onto and were not part of the original structure.

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